How this resolve was carried out makes one of the pleasantest pages of New Zealand history.

The first step was his rescue of Ruatara.

In 1809 a roaming Maori sailor had worked his passage to London, in the hope of seeing the great city and--greatest sight of all--King George III.

The sailor was Ruatara, a Bay of Islands chief.
Adventurous and inquiring as he was intelligent and good-natured, Ruatara spent nearly nine years of his life away from his native land.
At London his captain refused to pay him his wages or to help him to see King George, and solitary, defrauded, and disappointed, the young wanderer fell sick nigh unto death.

All the captain would do for him was to transfer him to the _Ann_, a convict ship bound for Sydney.
Fortunately Marsden was among her passengers.