Rescue
When news of the massacre reached European settlements, Captain Alexander Berry undertook a rescue mission aboard The City of Edinburgh. Berry rescued the four survivors, Ann Morley, her baby, Thomas Davis (or Davison) and Betsy Broughton.
The City of Edinburgh crew found piles of human bones on the shoreline, with many evincing cannibalism.
Captain Berry captured two Māori chiefs responsible for the massacre, at first holding them for ransom for the return of survivors. Subsequently, after the survivors were returned Berry threatened them that they would be taken to Europe in order to answer for their crimes unless they released the Boyd's papers. After the papers were given to him, he released the chiefs. He made it a condition of their release that they would be "degraded from their rank, and received among the number of his slaves", although he never expected this condition to be complied with. They expressed gratitude for the mercy. Berry's gesture avoided further bloodshed — an inevitability had the chiefs been executed.
The four people rescued were taken on board Berry's ship bound for the Cape of Good Hope. However, the ship encountered storms and was damaged, and after repairs arrived in Lima, Peru. Mrs. Morely died while in Lima. The boy, called Davis or Davidson, went from Lima to England aboard the Archduke Charles, and later worked for Berry in New South Wales. He drowned while exploring the entrance to the Shoalhaven River with Berry in 1822. The child of Mrs. Morely and Betsy Broughton were taken onwards by Berry to Rio de Janeiro, from where they returned to Sydney in May 1812 aboard the Atalanta. Betsy Broughton married Charles Throsby, nephew of the explorer Charles Throsby, and died in 1891.
Read more about this topic: Boyd Massacre
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