Scarce first Dutch edition of this important account of Samuel Marsden's first voyage from New South Wales to New Zealand in his brig the Active, with a crew of 35 men, including some Maori chiefs. Marsden led New Zealand's first Christian religious service in the Bay of Islands, attended by 400 Maori; he installed three lay missionaries on the islands. Nicholas describes in detail the meetings with Maori chiefs, discussing the Maori ways of living, commenting on their religion and beliefs, for example their beliefs about the creation of the world; their costumes, customs, villages, houses, food, tattoos and more.

Scarce first Dutch edition of this important account of Samuel Marsden's first voyage from New South Wales to New Zealand in his brig the Active, with a crew of 35 men, including some Maori chiefs. Marsden led New Zealand's first Christian religious service in the Bay of Islands, attended by 400 Maori; he installed three lay missionaries on the islands. Nicholas describes in detail the meetings with Maori chiefs, discussing the Maori ways of living, commenting on their religion and beliefs, for example their beliefs about the creation of the world; their costumes, customs, villages, houses, food, tattoos and more.

Marsden's voyage was one of the earliest attempts to introduce European civilization and, as its ultimate consequence, settlement beyond continental New South Wales. The New South Wales Society for Affording Protection to the Natives of the South Sea Islands and Promoting their Civilisation was the sonorous title given to the venture. Its chronicler, Nicholas, was a free settler who had arrived in Sydney in 1813 and quickly struck up a friendship with Marsden. The missionary Kendall was also on the voyage. In the end, those early attempts to conquer the New Zealand frontier and the warlike Mâori had limited success and for decades Europeans remained visitors rather than settlers.

The original English account by Nicholas (Narrative of a voyage to New Zealand, 1817) was the earliest account of Marsden's first mission. Two years later this Dutch version and a German translation appeared, signalling an interest in protestant Europe in New Zealand itself and the spread of Christianity there. As with the English edition, the appendix contains a general history of New Zealand, and Collins' account of the two New Zealanders, Hoodoo and Toogee, taken to Norfolk Island in 1793; there is also an account of the Boyd massacre, and a memoir of Duaterra, the New Zealand chief who became Marsden's helper.