This is what I could souse out from some old
kiwi newspapers and articles on the subject in old copies of the
Sydney Gazette. I am sure that the majority of the information I read was one sided as the history was more likely done by the
Englishmen who sailed the ship and took revenge on the
Maoris.
The Boyd Massacre occurred in 1809 when Maoris killed all but four of the people aboard the English ship Boyd, at Whangaroa, New Zealand. After bringing convicts from London to Sydney, the ship called at New Zealand to load timber. Among the several Maoris in the crew was a young chief, Tppahee, who had been flogged for disobedience during the voyage. In an act of revenge, the local Maoris attacked, killed and ate a shore party from the ship. They then boarded the ship and massacred the rest of the crew. The only survivors were a young apprentice and a woman with two children. Although the apprentice and the woman died, the two children were eventually found by whalers and taken to Australia.
As a reprisal for the massacre, the whalers then attacked the Maoris at Whangaroa and killed more than sixty of them.