Behold the Moon describes the European history of the Dunedin district (New Zealand) before the arrival of the Scottish settlers in 1848.It details a forgotten war between Maori and Pakeha sparked by a Maori chief's theft of a red shirt and a sealer's excessive revenge. It describes William Tucker's residence at Whareakeake and his fostering of an export trade in hei-tiki, the rise and decline of sealing and flax trading before permanent European occupation was started in 1831 by the Weller brothers, whalers and New Zealand-wide traders.

Behold the Moon describes the European history of the Dunedin district (New Zealand) before the arrival of the Scottish settlers in 1848.It details a forgotten war between Maori and Pakeha sparked by a Maori chief's theft of a red shirt and a sealer's excessive revenge. It describes William Tucker's residence at Whareakeake and his fostering of an export trade in hei-tiki, the rise and decline of sealing and flax trading before permanent European occupation was started in 1831 by the Weller brothers, whalers and New Zealand-wide traders. There is an impression that the Scots who came in 1848 entered an empty territory and bought this excellent real estate from a few tattooed tribesman who inexplicably wished to give up their ancestral land. By contrast the Creed manuscript by a missionary reports fatal encounters from a spiraling feud between Maori and Pakeha in what is now the Dunedin district.

Peter Entwisle has lived for many years in Dunedin, New Zealand where he is an historian, art historian and curator.