<P> The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were the crew of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who arrived in his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen . Tasman anchored at the northern end of the South Island in Golden Bay (he named it Murderers' Bay) in December 1642 and sailed northward to Tonga following an attack by local Māori . Tasman sketched sections of the two main islands' west coasts . Tasman called them Staten Landt, after the States General of the Netherlands, and that name appeared on his first maps of the country . In 1645 Dutch cartographers changed the name to Nova Zeelandia in Latin, from Nieuw Zeeland, after the Dutch province of Zeeland . It was subsequently anglicised as New Zealand by British naval captain James Cook of HM Bark Endeavour who visited the islands more than 100 years after Tasman during 1769--1770 . Cook returned to New Zealand on both of his subsequent voyages . </P> <P> Various claims have been made that New Zealand was reached by other non-Polynesian voyagers before Tasman, but these are not widely accepted . Peter Trickett, for example, argues in Beyond Capricorn that the Portuguese explorer Cristóvão de Mendonça reached New Zealand in the 1520s, and the Tamil bell discovered by missionary William Colenso has given rise to a number of theories, but historians generally believe the bell' is not in itself proof of early Tamil contact with New Zealand' . </P> <P> From the 1790s, the waters around New Zealand were visited by British, French and American whaling, sealing and trading ships . Their crews traded European goods, including guns and metal tools, for Māori food, water, wood, flax and sex . Māori were reputed to be enthusiastic and canny traders, even though the levels of technology, institutions and property rights differed greatly from the standards in European societies . Although there were some conflicts, such as the killing of French explorer Marc - Joseph Marion du Fresne in 1772 and the destruction of the Boyd in 1809, most contact between Māori and European was peaceful . </P> <P> European (Pākehā) settlement increased through the early decades of the 19th century, with numerous trading stations established, especially in the North Island . Christianity was introduced to New Zealand in 1814 by Samuel Marsden, who travelled to the Bay of Islands where he founded a mission station on behalf of the Church of England's Church Missionary Society . By 1840 over 20 stations had been established . From missionaries, the Māori learnt not just about Christianity but also about European farming practices and trades, and how to read and write . Beginning in 1820, linguist Samuel Lee worked with Māori chief Hongi Hika to transcribe the Māori language into written form . </P>

When did the british came to new zealand