A very rare & Historically significant carved powder horn the fine engraving to the horn reads: This is the horn of an Australian ox. the first ever slaughtered on the islands of New Zealand . It was presented by the Revd. S. Marsden to Shongy and Rivers, two native chiefs on their return from England, who ordered it to be killed and given to their favourite companions/1820 Arouse jolly Bacchus the horn to embrace. Twill cheer up the spirits to follow the chase. It will brace up the nerve the game to pursue. and cause the bold huntsman to sound the halloo!. Length 53 cm. Provenance: Purchased by a sailor in exchange for muskets. the sailor visited England where he rented rooms owned by the vendor's great, great grandmother. He failed to pay for his lodgings but left a trunk behind with the powder horn inside it. the great, great grandmother went to the police who instructed her to wait for six weeks for the sailor to claim the belongings. She was told if he did not claim them she had legal title over the belongings as compensation. the horn has subsequently been handed down successive generations to the current English owner. Shongy refers to Chief Hongi Hika and Rivers refers to Chief Waikato. Cattle were introduced to New Zealand for New South Walesby Revered Marsden at the end of 1814 when he established the New Zealand Mission of Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands. Marsden continued to send cattle to New Zealand periodically in the hope of encouraging both the mission station and local Maori at Rangihoua to build-up a herd for milk and meat. the mission settlement at Rangihoua was not the only European settlement in the Bay of Islands at this time, a village of sorts had also established at Kororareka (now called Russell) but this was a much more informal trading post between Maori and visiting ships. in terms of the British administration, New Zealand (as was much of the Pacific), was regarded as part of New South Wales, but there was no resident administration in New Zealand until 1833. Hongi Hika was an extremely important and powerful chief from the area of the Bay of Islands and was in frequent contact with Marsden, without Hongi's protection the missionary work could not have gone ahead and Hongi visited Marsden in Parramatta on several occasions, living with Marsden for much of 1814. Waikato was a young and well known chief from Rangihoua. in 1820 Hongi and Waikato visited England with the missionary, Thomas Kendall, and worked on the development of the first grammar of the Maori language at Cambridge with Professor Samuel Lee. During the visit to England, Hongi and Waikato visited King George and were given many gifts including a suit of armour. Hongi, although friends with Marsden, had no hesitation in trading muskets in order to expand and consolidate his power in New Zealand . He apparently traded almost all the gifts he had received from King George for a large number of muskets in Sydney in June/ July 1821 and this resulted in violent warfare in New Zealand in September 1821.