On Tuesday, Joshua Newborn, a young man about 25 years of age, whose swarthy visage was tatooed like a native of New Zealand, was placed at the bar before Mr. Bingham, upon a charge of being drunk and assaulting the police. Mr. Bingham asked if he understood English? Sergeant Lambert said the prisoner was a Londoner, born near St. Luke’s Church; but it appeared from his own account of himself, that he had been made prisoner by the New Zealanders, and had passed several years amongst them, after having consented to be tatooed like one of themselves. The prisoner’s narrative was to the following effect:— About 11 years back, he was a boy on board a whaler called the Marquis of Lansdowne, but during an outward voyage was seized with typhus fever, and put with others on board a schooner, to be conveyed to port. He and his companions, however, fell into the hands of the savages, by whom they were all, in a short time, destroyed and (we understood him) eaten, except himself; but he having been reserved till the last, his life was spared, upon his consenting to be marked and to live with them. He accordingly underwent the painful process of tatooing, preparatory to which, however, they administered to him some narcotic, to render him less sensible the pain of the operation. He was with them nearly ten years altogether, and frequently engaged with them in their battles with hostile tribes, after which contests the prisoners were commonly killed and eaten by the native captors. He had no wife amongst them, but had married since his return to England, and has lately been exhibited as a New Zealand chief at places of public amusement. A police-constable of the N division stated, that while on duty at a late hour on Monday night, be heard an extraordinary kind of yelling in Hoxton square, and proceeding to the spot, found the prisoner dancing about, and disturbing the neighbours with his wild and terrific cries. The prisoner, who was drunk, instead of desisting, and going away as desired, set the witness and other constables at defiance, and after a violent resistance was lodged in the station-house. Sergeant Lambert said, that he was exceedingly violent at the station-house, and vowed vengeance against the constable who took him there, threatening to feast upon his heart, and “lick his chops with his blood;” and during the greater part of the night he appeared to be dancing his war-dance in the cell, and screeching at the top of his voice. The prisoner, whom the New Zealanders had named “Moika Makoura, he stated to be “The tatooed spirit,” now expressed his sorrow for his disorderly conduct. He very seldom drank spirits, but when he did, he said it made him quite wild; and a friend whom he met on Monday had made him drink some. Mr. Bingham told him he must be aware that such conduct could not be permitted; and if he got drunk and committed himself even in New Zealand, he would have to bear the consequence of his misconduct. He must pay five shillings for getting drunk. The prisoner, who had no money, was locked up until the close of the business, and then discharged.
The Illustrated London News, London England, Week Ending May 21, 1842