Two items brought back from the South Pacific by famed missionary John Williams have sold for almost £9,000.

The items, collected by John Williams who was battered to death and eaten by cannibals, went under the hammer at Duke’s auction house in Dorchester on Thursday.

Sold by Williams descendants, the Ula throwing club - similar to the type of weapon used to kill him - and a Maori canoe bailer fetched £8,800.

The throwing stick was estimated to fetch between £500 and £1,000 at auction but sold for £1,200.

Predicted to sell for between £800 and £1,500, the canoe bailer far outstripped its estimated price, going for an incredible £7,600.

Williams and his wife Mary travelled on their first missionary expedition to the South Pacific in 1817.

They visited Tahiti and other island chains including the Cook Islands to spread the gospel and were the first missionary family to visit Samoa.

However, in 1839, while visiting Erromango, Vanuatu, he and fellow missionary James Harris were killed and eaten by cannibals.

In 2009 the descendants of Williams went to the islands where locals apologised on behalf of their ancestors who ate the missionaries.