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Dieffenbach would have been favourable to Company views. While Travels in New Zealand was
widely known in English-speaking circles at the time, 35 his work went relatively unnoticed by the
general public in Germany as it was never translated in full. The German publisher Johann
Friedrich Freiherr von Cotta, however, whom Dieffenbach befriended on his first trip to London,
did foresee a German version in April 1842 before it was published in English, albeit without
illustrations, the Maori grammar and dictionary sections or scientific nomenclature for flora and
fauna, while several chapters had to also be shortened and combined with other accounts of his
travels, but it never eventuated. 36 Nevertheless, these discussions did produce a series of
relatively short translated segments from his work on the Maori which appeared in Cotta’s
popular periodical Das Ausland. 37 Notably, Dieffenbach also read the opening paper at the first
meeting of the London Ethnological Society on 31 January 1843, 38 before giving a presentation
on the Maori, their customs and lifestyle at the Geographical Society of Berlin on 10 June. 39 After
the authorities allowed him to return to his home town of Giessen, he rose to the position of
“Ausserordentlicher Professor” of Geology and Geophysics at his old university in 1850,
followed by director of the geological collection two years later, but his career was cut short when
he died from typhus on 1 October 1855.
In the preface of Travels in New Zealand Dieffenbach states the purpose of his work is to give
“unvarnished descriptions” (I:iii) of New Zealand and its Maori population, in stark contrast to
is altered to “but circumstances rendered this impossible” (Johannes Andersen, The Lure of New Zealand Book
Collecting. Auckland: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1936, 43f.). Furthermore, nearly 150 pages of handwritten notes,
which were copied by John White, on ‘whakapapa’ (genealogy) beginning in Maori mythology were also removed
from the second volume of Dieffenbach’s work (MS-Papers-0075-B37E, ATL).
35 See “New Zealand Travels. By Ernest Dieffenbach, M.D., late Naturalist to the New Zealand Company. Murray,
Albemarle-street”, in: The Times (London) 6 April (1844): 5f.
36 Bell, Rebel and Humanist, 97f.
37 “Ueber die neuseeländische Sprache. (Aus Ernst Dieffenbachs Werk über Neuseeland)”, in: Ausland 15:93 3 April
(1843): 369; “Die Bewohner Polynesiens”, in: Ausland 15:118 28 April (1843): 469f.; “Skizzen aus Neuseeland.
(Nach Dieffenbachs Werk): Die Eingebornen”, in: Ausland 15:137 17 May (1843): 545f.; “Skizzen aus Neuseeland.
(Nach Dieffenbachs Werk): Die Krankheiten der Eingebornen”, in: Ausland 15:144 24 May (1843): 573f.; “Skizzen
aus Neuseeland. (Nach Dieffenbachs Werk): Die Kinder – Das Tättowiren”, in: Ausland 15:150 30 May (1843):
597f.; “Skizzen aus Neuseeland. (Nach Dieffenbachs Werk): Die Ehe”, in: Ausland 15:165 14 June (1843): 657f.;
“Skizzen aus Neuseeland. (Nach Dieffenbachs Werk): Die Nahrung der Eingebornen”, in: Ausland 15:171 20 June
(1843): 681f.; “Skizzen aus Neuseeland. (Nach Dieffenbachs Werk): Ursprung der Einwohner”, in: Ausland 15:180
29 June (1843): 717f.; “Rangclassen unter den Neuseeländern. (Aus Dieffenbachs: Reisen in Neuseeland)”, in:
Ausland 15:256 13 Sept (1843): 1023; “Das Tapu in Neuseeland. (Aus Dieffenbachs: Reisen in Neuseeland)”, in:
Ausland 15:257 14 Sept (1843): 1027f.
38 Ernest Dieffenbach, On the Study of Ethnology. London, 1843.
39 Monatsberichte über die Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin N.F.1 (1844): 85.
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