1835: Moriori Comet of Carnage

Today in New Zealand history, 19 November, 1835, Moriori culture reached the highest point it ever would achieve. Everything was downhill from here. At the same moment, Halley’s Comet also reached its closest point to our sun (perihelion) and so shone its brightest.
Captain George Vancouver discovered the Moriori’s home in 1791, calling it the Chatham Islands. To the peace-loving inhabitants it was Rekohu, Misty Sun. Perhaps it was a prophesy? What is Halley’s Comet but ice and dust and mist from the sun? The Morioris fell over themselves to be non-confrontational and people-pleasing toward these British, as if they’d left their testosterone behind when they migrated. Perhaps in another case of Island Gigantism, the Moriori Culture had grown gigantic in passivity and supplication. That was fine for them but to a new predator arriving, the Maori, they were ready for the taking.
http://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/1835-moriori-comet-of-carnage/

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