CHAPTER VI

THE SMOKING FLAX

The conquest of the southern districts being now completed, and the

winter months approaching, the whole of the northern fleet took its

departure for Cloudy Bay, where, according to the records of the

whalers who were there at the time, scenes of the wildest excitement

prevailed for many days, and the unhappy condition of the captives was

observed with much compassion by persons who were powerless to

intervene. From Cloudy Bay the main body of the conquerors passed over

to Kapiti, and there the scenes of unbridled ferocity were resumed,

until sufficient slaves had been killed and eaten to fittingly honour

the returning warriors. These rejoicings at an end, Te Rauparaha set

himself to seriously administer the affairs of his own people, which

were always in danger of violent disturbance, due to the mutual

jealousies of the tribes when not preoccupied by the excitement of

war. This work of domestic management almost wholly absorbed his

attention during the next few years; and it was fortunate for the

Kaiapoi captives that he had so much on hand, as the pressure of

circumstances and the stress of inter-tribal complications more than

once compelled him to treat them with greater consideration than might

otherwise have been their lot. While these events were proceeding in

the North Island, the Maoris in the south were slowly reorganising

their forces. The majority of the fugitives from Kaiapoi and Onawe had

travelled southward until they reached Taiaroa's settlement at Otago,

where, under his guidance, they began to formulate their plans for

avenging their many humiliations. Amongst these fugitives was

Tu-te-hounuku, the son of the treacherously captured Tamaiharanui, who,

recognising that his own people were not equal to the task of

accomplishing vengeance, sought the aid of the great Otago warrior,

and chief of Ruapuke, Tu-Hawaiki. This chief had received from the

whalers the startling appellation of "Bloody Jack,"[127] not so much

because of his sanguinary disposition as from the lurid nature of his

language. He was a warrior of the progressive type, who at once saw

the advantage of intimate intercourse with the white man; and to this

end he made common cause with all the whalers stationed along the

coast. He assisted them in their quarrels, and they in return supplied

him with the implements of war necessary to overcome his tribal

enemies. In this way he managed to acquire the mastery over a large

area of country, and to amass a considerable amount of wealth. He

owned a small vessel, which was commanded by one of his whaler

friends, in which he frequently made trips to Sydney. There he formed

an acquaintance with Governor Gipps, who presented him with a number

of old military uniforms; and on his return to New Zealand he enrolled

a squad of his own tribe, clothed them in the soldiers' garb, drilled

them, and on state occasions paraded them as his personal bodyguard,

"all the same the _Kawana_."[128] To this enterprising barbarian the

prospect of a brush with Rauparaha--or with any one else for that

matter--was a most agreeable one, and so the alliance with

Tu-te-hounuku was entered upon after the most trifling negotiation.

Although Taiaroa appears to have taken some part in organising the

expedition, he did not accompany it. The leadership was therefore

entrusted to Tu-Hawaiki, who came and secreted himself in the vicinity

of Cape Campbell, being thus favourably situated for an attack upon

the Ngati-Toa, who now had entire control of the northern portion of

the Middle Island, where a section of their people were continuously

settled. Moreover, it had become one of their practices to visit Lake

Grasmere for the purpose of snaring the paradise duck, which then, as

now, made this sheet of water one of their favourite breeding grounds;

and it was while upon one of these bird-catching expeditions that Te

Rauparaha nearly lost his life. Being intent upon the manipulation of

his snares, he was unconscious of the approach from behind the Cape of

Tu-Hawaiki and his horde, until, with a savage yell, they pounced upon

the unwary Ngati-Toa. For the latter the situation was indeed

critical, and all its difficulties were taken in by Rauparaha at a

glance. He saw that in point of numbers the odds were terribly against

him, and that to stand his ground and fight it out with such a

formidable foe could only result in certain death. On the other hand,

the chances of escape had been almost completely cut off; for when the

party landed at the lake, the canoes, with one exception, were drawn

up on the beach, and were now high and dry. The delay in launching

these meant the difference between life and death, so closely were

they pressed. But fortunately for him, one still remained in the water

some distance from the shore; and on observing this solitary gleam of

hope, Te Rauparaha swiftly made up his mind that discretion was the

better part of valour. He raced for the sea, and, plunging into the

surf, swam to the canoe with rapid and powerful strokes, followed by

at least forty of his own people. At the canoe a general scramble

ensued, in which only the fittest survived, the remainder being left

struggling in the water to escape as best they could, or be despatched

by their enemies as opportunity offered.

In the meantime, those of the Ngati-Toa who had not been able to

plunge into the sea were unceremoniously killed on the spot, and those

of the attacking party who were not actively engaged in this

sanguinary work at once launched the canoes lying on the Boulder Bank,

which divides the lake from the sea, and set off in hot pursuit of the

retreating Rauparaha. As might be expected, the chase was a desperate

one, each party straining every nerve to defeat the object of the

other. Rauparaha, standing in the stern of his canoe, by word and

gesture urged the men at the paddles to renewed exertions; not that

they required much exhortation, for they knew that their lives

depended entirely upon themselves. But, notwithstanding their utmost

endeavours, it soon became painfully evident that their pursuers were

gaining upon them, owing to the overloaded condition of the canoe.

Rauparaha then determined upon a course which can scarcely recommend

him to our admiration, although Nature's first law, self-preservation,

might be urged in extenuation of his crime. Without further ceremony

he ordered half the people in the canoe, many of whom were women and

children, to jump overboard, and those who demurred were forcibly

compelled to obey.[129] Thus relieved of some of its burden, the canoe

gradually forged ahead, and the diversion of the pursuers' attention

to the jettisoned passengers, who were struggling in the water,

enabled Rauparaha to make good his escape to Cloudy Bay. The Ngai-Tahu

people are especially proud of this encounter, which they regard as a

brilliant victory, and have called it _Rua Moa iti_, or "The battle of

the little Moa's feather."

It could not, of course, be supposed that a man of action, such as Te

Rauparaha was, would long remain idle while so black a stain upon his

reputation as a warrior remained unavenged. He therefore lost no time

in sending his messengers to a branch of the Ngati-Awa tribe, who then

resided at the Wairau, soliciting their aid in a mission of

retaliation. The request was readily granted, and, with this

reinforcement, a war party of considerable strength set sail in their

canoes for the _karaka_ groves which grew luxuriantly at

O-Rua-Moa Bay, immediately to the south of Cape Campbell, where it was

fully expected that the enemy would be resting. In these anticipations

they were disappointed. The prey had flown; and if the purpose of the

expedition was not to fail utterly, there was nothing for it but to

push on until the object of their search was found. They were soon

rewarded, for close to the shore, at the mouth of the Flaxbourne

River, Tu-Hawaiki and his braves were encamped, and here the gage of

battle was thrown down. That the encounter was a desperate one may be

judged by the fact that both sides claimed the victory, and they seem

to have withdrawn from the combat mutually agreeing that they had each

had enough. According to the Ngai-Tahu account, Te Rauparaha's

stratagem of sending one hundred and forty men of Ngati-Awa down the

steep face of a cliff to cut off Tu-Hawaiki's retreat was successfully

circumvented, the flanking party being caught in their own trap and

every one of them destroyed. The Ngati-Toa are equally positive that

the palm of victory rested with them; but in that event the advantage

gained was not sufficiently great to justify them in following it up,

for Tu-Hawaiki was allowed to depart next morning unmolested to

Kaikoura. On the journey down an incident occurred which betrayed the

savage side of this man's nature, and showed how much he deserved, in

another sense, the title of the old whalers, when they styled him

"Bloody Jack." During the voyage the canoe commanded by Tu-te-hounuku

was capsized in a southerly gale, and the young chief was drowned,

although every other man was saved. The selfishness of the men in

seeking their own safety and letting their leader perish so enraged

the fiery Tu-Hawaiki, that as soon as he heard of the accident he

ordered the canoes ashore, and with his own hand slew every one of the

surviving crew.[130]

Immediately after this skirmish Te Rauparaha returned to the North

Island, where there was urgent need of his presence. With the coming

of the Ngati-Awa, Ngati-Ruanui, and other Taranaki tribes, the domestic

disagreements, of which he stood in daily dread, began to ferment, and

were already breaking out into open rupture. The Ngati-Awa had cast

envious eyes upon a piece of country under tillage by Ngati-Raukawa,

in the vicinity of Otaki, and were openly boasting of their intention

to make it their own. Their cause was espoused by their Taranaki

relatives, and even a section of Te Rauparaha's own people threw in

their lot with them against their old allies, the Ngati-Raukawa. This

defection, which was especially distressing to Te Rauparaha, arose from

some act of favouritism--real or fancied--displayed towards Te

Whatanui, the great Ngati-Raukawa chief, for whom Te Rauparaha ever

felt and showed the highest regard. These strained relations, however,

did not break out into actual civil strife until the Ngati-Raukawa

people discovered the Ngati-Ruanui malcontents looting their

potato-pits at Waikawa. Up to this point the Ngati-Raukawa had borne

the pin-pricks of the Taranaki braggarts with some degree of patience;

but this act of plunder satisfied them that, unless they were prepared

to defend their property, they would soon have no property to defend.

They therefore stood no longer upon ceremony, but straightway attacked

the Ngati-Ruanui settlement, and thus let slip the dogs of civil

war.[131] In the conflict which ensued Tauake, a Ngati-Ruanui chief,

was killed, an incident which only served to fan the flame of

internecine strife, and hostilities of a more or less virulent nature

involved all the settlements along the coast from Waikanae to

Manawatu. Both sides were equally well armed, for guns and ammunition

were now plentiful, the traders having learned the Maori's weakness,

and being prepared to pander to it for the sake of cheap cargoes of

flax and potatoes. The consequence was that in each skirmish numbers

of the belligerents were killed, and Te Rauparaha saw with increasing

dismay the havoc wrought amongst his fighting men, and the useless

waste of tribal strength which must ensue from these insane

proceedings. Only too clearly he realised that, watched as he was by

enemies both on the north and to the east, this state of division

might at any moment be seized on as an opportunity for attack. His own

efforts to reconcile the disputants were unavailing; and when he saw

the spirit of insurrection growing and spreading beyond his power of

control, he determined upon making an appeal for outside aid. He

accordingly dispatched a mission to Taupo, requesting Te Heuheu to

bring down a large force wherewith to crush out the seeds of

rebellion, by inflicting a telling defeat upon the most turbulent

insurgents. Te Heuheu's reply to this appeal was of a practical kind.

Within a few months he marched out from Taupo with an effective

fighting force of eight hundred men, officered by some of the most

famous of his own and the Maungatautari chiefs of that time. Almost

immediately upon their arrival on the coast, they, in conjunction with

Ngati-Raukawa, proceeded to attack the Ngati-Awa at a pa close to the

Otaki River, and for several months the conflict was maintained with

fluctuating success. Notwithstanding the numbers brought against them,

the Ngati-Awa and Ngati-Ruanui proved themselves stubborn fighters,

maintaining their ground with heroic desperation.

In several of the battles the slaughter was exceedingly heavy, amongst

the slain being counted many important chiefs attached to both sides;

but still the issue hung in doubt, and so it remained until the great

battle of Pakakutu had been fought. On this occasion a supreme effort

was made by Te Heuheu, and the struggle culminated in the decisive

defeat of Ngati-Awa. Their _pa_ was taken, and their chief

Takerangi was slain. With his death was removed one of the principal

factors in the quarrel, and the way was paved for a settlement

honourable in its terms to all the parties. A conference of

considerable importance was immediately held at Kapiti, at which the

disquieting issues were discussed, and in the debates upon these

contentious points both Te Heuheu and Te Whatanui raised their voices

with force and eloquence in the cause of peace. As a result of these

negotiations, the differences which had so nearly wrecked Te Rauparaha's

consolidating work of fourteen years were amicably settled.[132] The

general result was that Ngati-Raukawa were reinstated in their

possessions at Ohau and Horowhenua and as far north as Rangitikei,

while Ngati-Awa retired southward of Waikanae, and extended their

settlements as far in that direction as Wellington, where they

replaced Pomare, and where, under Te Puni and Wharepouri, they were

found by Colonel Wakefield and his fellow-pioneers of the New Zealand

Company when they came to the spot in 1839.

But, though the civil war had thus ended in a manner satisfactory to

himself and to his friends, Te Rauparaha was stung to the quick by the

knowledge that his authority had been so completely set at defiance by

Ngati-Awa. And this feeling of irritation was further intensified by

the fact that some of his own tribe had shown him so little regard as

to aid and abet them in their rebellion. Their disloyal conduct so

preyed upon his mind that, as the result of much serious reflection,

he determined to absolve himself from all further responsibility on

their behalf, by abandoning the business of conquest and returning

with Te Heuheu to Maungatautari, where he proposed to live for the

remainder of his days the quiet and restful life, to which waning

years look forward as their heritage. To this end he collected a

number of his most trusty followers, and, shaking the dust of Kapiti

from his feet, had travelled as far as Ohau in the execution of his

petulant decision, when he was overtaken by representatives of all the

tribes, who begged him to return and once more become a father to

them. In these entreaties the suppliants were joined by Te Heuheu,

whose advocacy broke down the chief's resolution. He at length agreed,

amidst general rejoicing, to retrace his steps, and none rejoiced more

sincerely than the repentant Ngati-Awa.

Between the date of the battle of Pakakutu and the arrival of the ship

_Tory_, Te Rauparaha does not appear to have been engaged in any

conflict of great importance in the North Island, the years being

spent in visiting the various settlements which had been established

under his guiding genius. These journeys frequently led him across

Cook Strait to the Middle Island, where, at Cloudy Bay, there was now

a considerable colony of his own and the Ngati-Awa people, who were

actively cultivating the friendship of the whalers.[133] These visits

also more than once led him into sharp conflict with his old enemies,

the Ngai-Tahu, who were ever vigilantly watching for the favourable

moment to repay their defeat at Kaiapoi. Once they met him on the

fringe of Port Underwood, at a spot still called Fighting Bay, where

they claim to have defeated him with considerable slaughter. From this

engagement, in which his small force was neatly ambushed, the great

chief only escaped by diving into the sea and hiding amongst the

floating kelp, until he was picked up by one of his canoes, and,

availing himself of a heavy mist which suddenly enveloped the scene of

strife, fled, leaving his allies, the Ngati-Awa, to continue the

unequal struggle. After the fight, the bones of the slain were left to

bleach on the beach, where they were repeatedly seen by the first

settlers at the port.[134]

This success did not induce the Ngai-Tahu to pursue the retreating

enemy across the Strait; but, elated in spirit, they returned to the

south for the purpose of fitting out an expedition on a much more

extensive scale, with which they hoped to inflict a crushing blow on

their hated enemy. These operations were superintended by Taiaroa, who

in a few months had gathered together a flotilla of canoes and boats

sufficient to transport some four hundred men. These he commanded in

person, and with them proceeded by slow stages to the neighbourhood of

Cloudy Bay. Hearing that Te Rauparaha was at Queen Charlotte Sound,

the southern warriors steered their fleet for Tory Channel,[135] but

failed to encounter the enemy until they had reached Waitohi, near the

head of the Sound. Here they met, and immediately attacked a large

party of Te Rauparaha's followers, who were under the personal

direction of their chief. The ground upon which the battle took place

was broken and wooded, and it was difficult to bring the whole of the

respective forces advantageously into action at once; and therefore

the combat resolved itself into a series of skirmishes, rather than a

pitched and decisive battle. At the end of the first day Te Rauparaha

shifted his position, a fact which has encouraged the Ngai-Tahu people

to claim the credit of a victory. But Ngati-Toa did not retire from

the field altogether; and for several days hostilities continued to be

carried on in a succession of duels between the champions of the

opposing tribes, in which the battle honours were fairly evenly

divided between them. In these contests Te Rauparaha is said to have

warned his men against risking defeat by coming too confidently into

close quarters with the enemy. Numerous incidents during the siege of

Kaiapoi had served to impress him with Ngai-Tahu's prowess in this

class of warfare, and any recklessness on the part of his warriors

might therefore easily lose him a valuable life. Thus, when a

Ngati-Toa and a Ngai-Tahu were struggling upon the hill-side in full

view of both forces, and victory ultimately rested with the southern

warrior, Te Rauparaha exclaimed to those about him, "_I kiia atu ano_"

(I told you it would be so). But though an occasional success of this

kind attended the southern arms, nothing of a decisive nature was

accomplished by Taiaroa on this raid. Scarcity of provisions shortly

afterwards compelled him to withdraw to the south; and before he had

time or inclination to devise fresh reprisals, events of an external

nature had so operated upon the Maori mind as to make any further

conflict between the Ngati-Toa and Ngai-Tahu tribes undesirable if not

impossible.

It is now fitting to remember that, while these events had been

proceeding along the eastern coast of the Middle Island, the process

of subduing the southern tribes had not been neglected on its western

shore. Out of the extreme confidence which pervaded the Ngati-Toa mind

upon the return of Te Pehi from England, a wider field of conquest was

sought than appeared to be provided by the plains of Canterbury. In

obedience to these aspirations, an important division of their forces

was sent across the Strait for the purpose of forcibly establishing

themselves in the bays of the Nelson coast. _Hapus_ of the Ngati-Toa

and Ngati-Awa united in this expedition, which was attended with

unqualified success. They immediately moved to attack the Ngati-Apa

settlements in Blind and Massacre Bays, from out of which they drove

the inhabitants with ruthless severity, and immediately assumed

possession of the soil. Those who had fought under Te Koihua and Te

Puoho, the Ngati-Awa leaders, built _pas_ and remained in permanent

occupation of the conquered country;[136] but Niho, a son of Te Pehi,

and Takerei took their Ngati-Tama, and perhaps a few of their

Ngati-Rarua, warriors across the wild and almost trackless mountains

which intervene between Blind Bay and the west coast. From the Buller

district they worked their way southward, killing and taking prisoners

almost the entire population as they went, until they reached the

Hokitika River, where resistance ceased and the need for further

aggression disappeared.

Niho and Takerei settled at Mawhera, on the banks of the Grey River,

the centre of that romantic region, the greenstone country, which for

centuries had been the Eldorado of Maori dreams.[137] At various other

points, both to the northward and southward of Mawhera, the

northerners established themselves in permanent _pas_, to the

total exclusion of the weaker tribes, who had formerly controlled the

barter of the precious nephrite. From these points of colonisation the

restless spirit of the invaders was ever carrying them further

southward and eastward in search of excitement and adventure. No

systematic occupation of the land appears to have been attempted

southward of Hokitika; but stray bands of marauders were frequently

setting off on predatory expeditions into the pathless mountain-waste

of western Otago, which then sheltered the shadowy remnant of the

Ngati-Mamoe race. Further and further these adventurers penetrated

into the deep glens, rugged passes, and dark forests, until they knew

the geographical secrets of the interior almost as intimately as did

its former conquerors.[138]

In the absence of written records, many of these militant journeys

have necessarily been effaced from memory, and no tradition has been

left to commemorate those whose valiant spirit led them into the wilds

of a hostile country, from which only a lion-hearted courage could

bring them safely back. Of one such venture, however, undertaken about

the year 1836, for the purpose of attacking Tu-Hawaiki on his island

fortress at Ruapuke, the story has been preserved; and, because of its

ambitious conception and dramatic ending, it is worthy of being

narrated here as it has been told in the tribal traditions. The chief

concerned in leading the adventure was Te Puoho, who came originally

from the country south of the Mokau River, in Taranaki, to assist Te

Rauparaha in his policy of conquest. He was at this time the head

chief of the Ngati-Tama tribe, who were closely allied to Ngati-Awa,

and whom the fortune of war had now settled round the great bays on

the Nelson coast. Hearing that the inhabitants away to the south were

"a soft people," Te Puoho conceived the idea of raiding their country,

and, in addition to matching himself against Tu-Hawaiki, securing a

large number of slaves,[139] whom he intended to use as beasts of

burden. To this end he first completed a strong stockade, in which he

intended to herd his captives, and then he set off with a fighting

force of some seventy men, and a small number of women, to pierce his

way through the dense forest and dangerous passes of the overland

route. Arrived at the Grey River, where Niho and his people were

settled, he expected to be largely reinforced from amongst his former

friends; but, to his consternation, he found that his old comrade,

Niho, was distinctly hostile, and most of his people coldly

indifferent. A number of his own followers, finding that the purpose

of the expedition was not approved by Niho, declined to proceed

further in the enterprise and returned to Cook Strait. But at length

Te Puoho, nothing daunted, succeeded in persuading a section of the

Ngati-Wairangi to reverse their decision not to accompany him, and

then with about a hundred followers he commenced his march southward.

His first route took him over the sinuous tracks which hugged the

coast line until they reached Jackson's Head, a distance of many

hundred miles from the point of departure. Few particulars of this

stage of the journey have been preserved: but it is known that they

returned northward as far as the Haast River,[140] where they

deflected their course to the eastward, and proceeded inland by way of

the Haast Pass. At Lake Hawea they met a Ngai-Tahu eeling party, from

whom they ascertained that the chief with his two wives had gone to

Lake Wanaka. On the pretence of guiding two of Te Puoho's men thither,

the chief's son, Te Raki, succeeded in getting them deeply entangled

in the bush; and then, abandoning them to their own resources, he

slipped away to his father's camp and advised him of what had

occurred. Arming themselves, they went in search of the two men, who

were now wandering aimlessly about, and, finding them floundering in

the forest, they soon succeeded in killing them. When it dawned upon

him that he had been duped, Te Puoho exacted _utu_ from amongst the

other members of the eeling party, and pushed on further into the

interior. They navigated the upper waters of the Molyneaux on

_mokihis_, and made their way down the valley of the Mataura through

the country of Wakatipu. In view of his previous achievements in that

direction, no one would have been surprised had Te Rauparaha or his

people attempted an invasion of these far southern districts by sea;

but no one ever dreamed of a blow being struck at them by an inland

route. Consequently, when this war party marched down the valley of

the Mataura, the inhabitants were wholly off their guard, and fell an

easy prey to the invaders. An eeling party was captured at Whakaea,

and their store of food proved exceedingly welcome to the hungry

wanderers, whose only provender up to this time had been wild cabbage,

the root of the _ti_ palm, and a few _wekas_. These wanderings had now

occupied the northern men nearly two years, during which many of them

had died of cold and hunger. But, though a "dwindled and enfeebled

band," they were still strong enough to secure another party of

Ngai-Tahu, whom they found camped in the midst of a clump of _korokiu_

trees, which then grew upon the Waimea Plain. Te Puoho believed that

he had secured the whole of the party, but in this he was mistaken.

Some few escaped, and, hastening off to the Tuturau _pa_, warned the

people there of the approaching danger, the fugitives making their way

to the Awarua whaling station. Te Puoho and his party immediately

proceeded to occupy the abandoned _pa_, in the hope that a prolonged

rest would recruit their exhausted powers; and, innocent of the fact

that retributive justice was at hand, they settled down to leisurely

enjoy the recuperative process.

From Awarua news of the raid was dispatched to the island of Ruapuke,

where Tu-Hawaiki and his men were. Memory of the event is still well

preserved on the island, as the last occasion on which oblation was

offered to the god of battle. In accordance with ancient Maori custom,

this ceremony took place in an immense cavern, which opens to the sea

beach beneath the island fortress. It may still be seen, a dark abyss;

and, although geological periods must have elapsed since it was

instinct with the life of mighty waters, the echo-swish still sounds

and resounds, as if acting and reacting the story of its birth. Shut

up amidst these ghostly sights and sounds, the tribal _tohunga_ spent

the night in severe exorcisms. Outside in the open was heard the clash

of arms, plaintive wails and lamentations of the _tangi_ for the dead.

At dawn of day the prescribed spells to weaken the enemy were cast and

the invocation to the spear was spoken. The followers of Tu-Hawaiki

then sailed for the mainland and effected a landing at what is now

known as Fortrose. Concealing themselves during the day, they marched

under cover of night, reaching Tuturau early on the morning of the

third day. Being unapprehensive of danger, the inmates of the _pa_

were in their turn caught napping, and the recapture was effected as

smartly as had been the original capture. As the attacking force crept

cautiously within gunshot, Te Puoho was observed sleeping on the

verandah of one of the houses. A slight noise fell upon his quick ear

and startled him. He sprang to his feet; instantly the report of a gun

rang out, and he fell a lifeless heap upon his bed. Some thirty in all

were killed. The rest, with one exception,[141] were taken prisoners,

and confined on Ruapuke Island, whence they were afterwards smuggled

away by a pakeha-maori boatman named McDonald, who, under an

arrangement with the Ngati-Toa tribe, landed them safely back at

Kapiti.

The Haast River raid, as the exploit of Te Puoho is known in Maori

history, becomes interesting not only because it was on this occasion

that the followers of Te Rauparaha reached the most southerly limit of

their aggressions upon Ngai-Tahu, but because it affords another

evidence, if such were needed, of the extremes to which the Maori was

ever ready to go in order to get even with an enemy. Primarily, the

raid was designed as a stroke of retaliation upon Tu-Hawaiki, whom

they hoped to surprise by pouncing upon him from a new and unexpected

quarter. To effect this, a long and dangerous journey had to be

braved; they had to penetrate into a region in which Nature seemed to

have determined to impose in the path of human progress her most

forbidding barriers. Not only had this band of half-clad savages to

cross what the late Sir Julius Von Haast has described as "one of the

most rugged pieces of New Zealand ground which, during my long

wanderings, I have ever passed," but they had to contend with

snowfields lying deep in the Southern Alps, the swollen torrent, the

pathless forest, and the foodless plains. Not even the roar of the

avalanche as it swept down the mountain-side, the impassible precipice

as it loomed dark across their path, nor the severity of the climate,

with its oscillations from arctic cold to tropical heat, was

sufficient to chill their ardour for revenge. So for two years they

wandered amidst some of the grandest and gloomiest surroundings, at

times suffering bitterly from cold and hunger. In the stress of these

privations the weaker ones died; but the survivors were sustained by

the enthusiasm of their leader, who directed their course ever to the

southward, where they hoped some day to meet and vanquish their hated

rival. Of the fate which overtook them, history has told; and, though

future generations may be reluctant to endorse the purpose of their

mission, they will not refuse to credit them with a certain spirit of

heroism in daring and enduring what they did to accomplish their end.

The peace which had been dramatically concluded at Kapiti by Te Heuheu

breaking the _taiaha_ across his knee, and which closed what is

known as the Hao-whenua war, was sacredly observed by all the tribes

for some years; and this respite from anxiety afforded Te Rauparaha

freedom of opportunity to pursue his grudge against the Rangitane and

Muaupoko peoples. The humiliated remnant of the Muaupoko tribe had by

this time sought and obtained the protection of Te Whatanui, who had

promised them, in his now historic words, quoted many years afterwards

by Major Kemp, that so long as they remained his dutiful subjects he

would shield them from the wrath of Te Rauparaha: "I will be the

rata-tree that will shelter all of you. All that you will see will be

the stars that are shining in the sky above us; all that will descend

upon you will be the raindrops that fall from heaven." Although

slavery was the price they had to pay for the privilege of breathing

their native air, it at least secured them the right to live, though

it did not secure them absolute immunity from attack. More than once

Te Whatanui had to protest against the inhumanity of Ngati-Toa towards

those whom he had elected to save from utter destruction; and these

distressing persecutions did not cease until the Ngati-Raukawa chief

told Te Rauparaha, in unmistakable language, emphasised by

unmistakable gestures, that, before another hair of a Muaupoko head

was touched, he and his followers would first have to pass over his

(Te Whatanui's) dead body. Unwilling to create a breach of friendship

with so powerful an ally as Te Whatanui, Te Rauparaha ceased openly to

assail the helpless Muaupoko, though still continuing to harass them

in secret. He plotted with Te Puoho to trap the Rangitane, and with Wi

Tako to ensnare the Muaupoko: the scheme being to invite them to a

great feast at Waikanae, to partake of some new food[142] which the

_pakeha_ had brought to Kapiti. So far as the Rangitane were

concerned, the invitation was prefaced by an exchange of civilities in

the shape of presents between Mahuri and Te Puoho; and when it was

thought that their confidence had been secured, the vanity of the

Rangitane was still further flattered by an invitation to the feast. A

considerable number of them at once set out for Waikanae; but, when

they arrived at Horowhenua, Te Whatanui used his utmost endeavours to

dissuade Mahuri, their chief, from proceeding further. Knowing Te

Rauparaha as he did, he felt convinced that he could not so soon

forget his hatred for those who had sought to take his life at

Papaitonga: and, while he would have had no compunction about killing

in open war every man and woman of the tribes he was protecting, his

generous soul revolted against the treachery and slaughter which he

feared lay concealed beneath the present invitation. His counsel was

therefore against going to Waikanae; but the impetuous young Mahuri

saw no reason for alarm, and, heedless of the advice of Te Whatanui,

he led his people to their destruction.

On their arrival, the hospitality of Te Puoho was of the most

bountiful nature. The visitors were shown to their houses, and no

effort was spared to allay any suspicion of treachery. But one night,

as they sat around their fires, the appointed signal was given, and

the guests were set upon by a force superior in numbers by two to one,

and, to use the words of a native[143] who knew the story well, "they

were killed like pigs," only one man escaping from the massacre. This

was Te Aweawe, whose life was spared at the instigation of Tungia, in

return for a similar act of humanity which the Rangitane chief had

been able to perform for him some time before. In justice to Te

Rauparaha, it should be stated that this massacre was not entirely

prompted by his old grudge against the Rangitane people, but partly

arose out of a new cause of grievance against them, which serves to

illustrate the complexity of Maori morality and the smallness of the

pretence upon which they deemed a sacrifice of life both justifiable

and necessary. The offence of which the Rangitane people had been

adjudged guilty enough to deserve so terrible a punishment was the

fact that they were somewhat distantly related to the Ngati-Kahungunu

tribe, resident in the Wairarapa. These people had some time

previously killed a number of Ngati-Toa natives, whom they believed to

be plotting their destruction; for, while they were discussing their

plans in one of the _whares_, a Ngati-Kahungunu, who was sleeping with

at least one ear open, overheard their conversation, and at once gave

the alarm, with the result that the tables were turned on the scheming

Ngati-Toa. Their deaths, however, had to be avenged; and it is easy to

understand how gladly Te Rauparaha would avail himself of this new

excuse for wiping out old scores.

The morning after the massacre, Tungia took Te Aweawe outside the

Waikanae _pa_, and, placing a weapon in his hand, said, "Go! come

back again and kill these people." The released chief at once made his

way back as best he could to the Manawatu, where he found most of the

settlements deserted by the terror-stricken inhabitants, in

consequence of the appalling news which had just reached them of the

death of their friends. He, however, succeeded in collecting about

thirty warriors, and with these he travelled down the coast, receiving

additions by the way from a few stragglers belonging to his own and

the Muaupoko tribes. When they reached Waikanae, they found the

Ngati-Toa and Ngati-Awa peoples busily engaged in gathering flax to

trade away for guns and powder and little suspecting an attack. They

had beguiled themselves into the false belief that the shattered

Rangitane would not be able to collect in so short a time a force

sufficiently strong to harm them. When, therefore, Te Aweawe, at the

head of his brave little band, burst in upon them, dealing death at

every blow, they, in their turn, were at all the disadvantage of being

taken completely by surprise. Upwards of sixty of the followers of Te

Rauparaha were killed, amongst them a chieftainess named

Muri-whakaroto, who fell into the hands of the enraged Te Aweawe, and

was despatched without the slightest compunction. Matea, the Rangitane

chief second in command, was more chivalrous to Tainai Rangi, for he

spared her and brought her back, a prisoner certainly, but still

alive. Such of the flax-gathering party as were not slain made good

their escape down the coast; and the avengers of Mahuri, fearing that

they might soon return with a large and active war party, beat a hasty

retreat, well satisfied with the result of their mission of

revenge--the last great act of slaughter perpetrated by the resident

people as a protest against the conquest of their country.

Any policy of retaliation which Te Rauparaha and the chiefs who were

co-operating with him may have contemplated, as a step towards

restoring the equilibrium of tribal honour, had to be indefinitely

delayed, owing to the rapidity with which events developed in another

direction; and that delay robbed them of future opportunity. The death

of Waitohi, Te Rauparaha's sister, and mother of Rangihaeata, had just

occurred at Mana, where she had been living with her son. The demise

of so high-born a woman necessarily demanded a _tangi_ on an

unusually elaborate and extensive scale, and the whole of the tribes

who had been associated with Te Rauparaha in his scheme of conquest

assembled on the island to attend the obsequies of the honoured dead.

Levies of provisions were made upon all the tributary tribes on both

sides of the Straits, and for several weeks the peculiar rites of a

Maori funeral were continued without intermission.

It is said that, for no other purpose than to appear opulent in the

eyes of his guests, Te Rauparaha ordered the killing and cooking of

one of the poor slaves who had come from the Pelorus with his people's

tribute to the feast. Be this as it may--and it is by no means

improbable under the circumstances--the strange admixture of funeral

and festival, which marks the Maori _tangi_, was observed at Mana

in all its completeness and elaboration. But the death of Waitohi

brought in its train something more than a great _tangi_; for

indirectly it was the cause of the renewal of hostilities between

Ngati-Awa and Ngati-Raukawa, culminating in the engagement known in

Maori history as Kuititanga, which was fought on October 16, 1839. It

is not clear why or in what way the old sore between these comrades in

arms was re-opened, but the weight of testimony inclines towards the

assumption that Te Rauparaha's irrepressible passion for intrigue was

the moving impulse in urging Ngati-Raukawa to take the step they did.

Whether he had grown jealous of Ngati-Awa's increasing numbers and

power, or whether, having achieved all he could hope to accomplish, he

wished to shake himself free from any further obligation to them,

cannot of course be asserted with any confidence. Ngati-Raukawa were

nothing loath to join in any conspiracy against Ngati-Awa. Living, as

they did, north of Kapiti, they began to find themselves somewhat out

of touch with the whalers; and probably it was the rapid extension of

trade, enabling Ngati-Awa to procure guns as readily as Rauparaha

himself, that induced him to instigate Ngati-Raukawa to break the

truce which had existed since the battle of Pakakutu. No breach of the

peace actually occurred at Mana, but bickerings and threats foretold

the coming storm; and when Ngati-Awa returned to their _pas_ on

the mainland, it was with the full consciousness that the attack would

not be long delayed. The Ngati-Raukawa mourners remained at Mana for

some time after Ngati-Awa had left, and it would have caused the

latter no surprise had Ngati-Raukawa made an attack upon them--as

indeed they invited it--as they passed Waikanae on their way to Otaki.

This Ngati-Raukawa did not do, but went on with every semblance of

peace, even ignoring the shots of defiance which were fired by

Ngati-Awa as they passed. Towards evening, however, they altered their

tactics, and, doubling back, surrounded the Kuititanga _pa_ during the

night, in preparation for the attack at daybreak. A reconnoitring

party was sent out to investigate the state of the defences, one of

whom was indiscreet enough to enter a house, and, rousing a boy by his

intrusion, attempted to cover his blunder by asking him for a light

for his pipe. The boy sharply recognised his visitor as a

Ngati-Raukawa; and knowing that no friendly native would be prowling

about at that unseemly hour, sprang for his gun, and fired point-blank

at the intruder. The echo of the shot rang through the clear morning

air, and was the signal for a general movement on both sides. The

women and children made a hurried flight to the neighbouring

settlements, from which Ngati-Awa reinforcements swarmed up to the

assistance of their beleaguered tribesmen; and by daylight the full

strength of both forces--variously estimated at between eight hundred

and a thousand men--was actively engaged. The _pa_, which bore the

brunt of the first assault, stood close to the seashore on a narrow

tongue of sand, between the Waikanae and Waimea Rivers.[144] At the

inception of the attack it was defended by a slender company of thirty

men, who offered so stubborn a defence that the assailants were held

in check until assistance arrived. A strong company of Ngati-Awa

crossed the Waikanae, and, catching Ngati-Raukawa between two fires at

this point, caused them to deploy and so open an avenue, by which the

supports reached the _pa_. Trenches were now hurriedly dug in the

loose soil, which, together with the protection offered by the

stockade, afforded them a friendly shelter from the fire of the enemy.

In this respect they were more fortunate than the aggressors, who,

fighting in the open, suffered a greater number of casualties,

including several of their principal chiefs.

Te Rauparaha took no part in the battle; but that he anticipated its

occurrence is proved by the fact that he landed from his canoe shortly

after it commenced. And when, at the close of an hour's desperate

fighting, Ngati-Raukawa, who had his silent sympathy, if not his

active help, began to waver under their heavy losses, he thought it

prudent to get beyond the danger zone, and, plunging into the surf,

swam towards his canoe. Ngati-Awa, who knew that he was inside the

enemy's lines, saw the movement, and made a spirited effort to

frustrate it, in the hope of capturing the man to whose subtle

intrigues they attributed all their misfortunes. An equally vigorous

rally on the part of Ngati-Raukawa intercepted their rush, and saved

the chief, though at heavy cost to themselves. With Te Rauparaha safe

amongst the whalers, who were watching the conflict from their boats,

Ngati-Raukawa began rapidly to fall back; and, after maintaining a

slackened fire, retired from the field altogether, taking their

wounded with them, but leaving to Ngati-Awa the victor's privilege of

burying the dead. Sixty of the Ngati-Raukawa had fallen, but only

sixteen of the defenders. There were, however, many wounded in both

camps. These were attended to by the medical men on board the

_Tory_, which arrived at Kapiti on the day that the battle was

fought; and, as Dr. Dieffenbach has left a graphic account of what he

saw, no better authority can be here quoted:--

"All the people of the village were assembled; and, though grief was

expressed in every face, they received us with the greatest kindness

and attention, and we were obliged to shake hands with everybody.

They regarded us as friends and allies, for we had brought with us

from Te-Awaiti some of their relations; and when they saw the medical

men of our party giving assistance to the wounded, their confidence

and gratitude were unbounded. Some of the women gave themselves up to

violent expressions of grief, cutting their faces, arms, and legs

with broken mussel-shells, and inflicting deep gashes, from which the

blood flowed profusely. We had brought with us E Patu, the son of a

chief in East Bay, whose uncle had been killed in the battle. We

found the widow standing on the roof of a hut, deploring in a low

strain the loss of her husband. When E Patu approached she threw

herself upon the ground, and, lying at his feet, related to him, in a

funeral song, how great had been their happiness, how flourishing

were their plantations, until the Ngati-Raukawa had destroyed their

peace and bereft her of her husband. During this time E Patu stood

before her, convulsively throwing his arms backwards and forwards,

and joining in her lamentations. An old woman, bent down under the

burden of many years, had her arms and face frightfully cut; she was

painted with red _kokowai_, with a wreath of leaves round her

head, and gesticulated and sang in a similar manner. In this place

there were no wounded; they had been carried to the principal and

most fortified _pa_, which lies a little to the northward. This

latter village was very large; it stood on a sand-hill, and was well

fenced in, and the houses were neatly constructed. Everything was

kept clean and in good order, and in this respect it surpassed many

villages in Europe. The population seemed to be numerous, and I

estimated it, together with that of the first-mentioned village, and

a third, about a mile higher up, to amount, on the whole, to seven

hundred souls. Several native missionaries, some of them liberated

Ngati-Awa slaves, live here; and the natives had built a large house,

neatly lined with a firm and tall reed, for their church and

meeting-house. At the time of our visit they were expecting the

arrival of a missionary of the Church of England from the Bay of

Islands, who purposed living amongst them. The medical aid which they

had given to their wounded was confined to binding the broken limbs

with splints made of the bark of a pine, or of the strongest part of

the flax-leaves, and carefully protecting the wounds from external

injury by means of hoops. Some of these bandages had been very well

applied. I went to the beach on the following day to attend my

wounded patients and to visit the scene of battle. This was at the

third village, and many traces of the strife were visible: trenches

were dug in the sand of the beach, the fences of the village had been

thrown down, and the houses were devastated. The Ngati-Awa buried

their own dead; and the improved state of this tribe was shown by the

fact that, instead of feasting on the dead bodies of their enemies,

they buried them, depositing them in one common grave, together with

their muskets, powder, mats, &c., a generosity and good feeling as

unusual as it was honourable to their character. The grave of their

enemies they enclosed, and made it _tapu_ (sacred)."

While this internecine strife raged up and down the coast, its

disturbing influence had almost completely suspended the systematic

settlement of the land by Europeans. There were many in Australia who,

but for the peril of life and uncertainty of title, would long before

this have swarmed over to New Zealand and occupied its shores. Only

the most wanton and the more adventurous had come, and of these latter

a few had been invited by the chiefs to remain, land being given to

them on which to reside and establish themselves as traders. In

isolated instances attempts had been made, chiefly by some subterfuge,

to acquire from the natives large tracts of country for a nominal

consideration; but these examples of dishonesty almost invariably

brought their own punishment. One of the most unscrupulous of such

perfidious transactions was that of Captain Blenkinsopp. He had sailed

these seas in command of the whaler _Caroline_, and had made more

than one trip to Cloudy Bay. There he became infatuated with a Maori

woman of the Ngati-Toa tribe. His alliance with her gave him influence

with Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, who, about the year 1834, entered

into a bargain with him, the spirit of which was that for the right to

procure wood and water for his ship while at Cloudy Bay, the captain

was to present the tribe with a ship's cannon,[145] which he had then

with him at Kapiti. The conditions of this bargain were reduced to

writing by Blenkinsopp, but not the bargain Te Rauparaha had counted

upon. For wood and water, Ocean Bay and the magnificent Wairau Plain

were substituted in the deed; and Rauparaha, with that reckless

disregard for the value of his signature which he exhibited at all

times when fire-arms were concerned, had signed it with the lines of

his _moko_.

The Wairau Plain is the floor of the valley through which the Wairau

River runs. Terminating on the shores of Cloudy Bay, it recedes in

ever-increasing elevation and diminishing breadth back for many miles,

until it vanishes in the gorge at the foot of the Spencer Range.

Covering an area of 65,000 acres, it comprises some of the richest

agricultural and pastoral land in the Middle Island, and was at this

time treasured by Rauparaha as one of his principal food-producing

centres. Eager as he was to procure weapons with which to slaughter

his enemies, he was equally sensible of the value of this valley; and

it is scarcely reasonable to suppose that he would have parted with so

rich an estate for a single piece of rusty artillery, subject to the

additional disadvantage of the difficulty involved in its transport.

Knowing that he was, for such purposes, ignorant of the English

language, Blenkinsopp, with a touch of irony, presented Te Rauparaha

with a copy of the deed, and told him to show it to any captain of a

man-o'-war who might visit Kapiti. Te Rauparaha did not wait for a

naval officer, but gave the document to a whaler protege of his, named

Hawes, then living at his island fortress. Hawes explained to

Rauparaha that by the deed he had parted with all his land at the

Wairau: whereupon the chief, in a fit of anger, tore up the paper,

threw the fragments into the fire, and declared that, so far as he was

concerned, the contract was at an end. Not so with Blenkinsopp. He

sailed to Sydney, and there proceeded to raise a substantial sum of

money upon the security of his deed from a solicitor named Unwin, then

practising in that city. For reasons which need not be discussed here,

Mr. Unwin eventually claimed the valley as his own; and his attempt to

occupy the district, its disastrous failure, culminating in the

massacre at the Wairau Bar, in 1840, of his manager and all his men,

are now matters of history, affording another instance of how the just

sometimes suffer for the unjust. Nor were the deception of Mr. Unwin

and the death of Mr. Wilton and his fellow employees the full measure

of the toll exacted as the result of Blenkinsopp's perfidy. When

Colonel Wakefield met at Hokianga the native woman who had formerly

been Captain Blenkinsopp's wife, and was now his widow, she showed him

a document which purported to be the original deed to which her late

husband had secured Te Rauparaha's signature. As a matter of fact, the

document was no more than a copy which had been left amongst the

captain's papers, but, believing it to be genuine, Wakefield purchased

it for £300;[146] and it was largely on this spurious foundation that

his brother, Captain Wakefield, subsequently, and with such fatal

results, sought to build up the New Zealand Company's claim to the

Wairau. This transaction, in which Captain Blenkinsopp was so

scandalously concerned, was but typical of many another, by which the

credulity of the natives was cunningly exploited. Their influence had,

however, been so far comparatively harmless, and the measure of injury

they had inflicted had told more heavily upon the unscrupulous

speculators than upon the natives.

But now Te Rauparaha, and those tribes with whom he was associated,

were about to be brought into contact, and to some extent into

conflict, with a more persistent earth-hunger, and more powerful

land-buyers, than any which had yet operated upon the coasts of New

Zealand. The spirit of colonisation was abroad in England, and the

restless genius of Edward Gibbon Wakefield[147] was busy coining

schemes whereby the spirit of the hour might be embodied in action.

Canada and South Australia had each attracted his attention; and now

his eyes were turned to New Zealand as a field suitable for the

planting of his quasi-philanthropic projects. His writings upon the

subject of colonisation had drawn within the circle of his influence a

galaxy of men, whose liberal education, lofty ideals, and generous

impulses had earned for them the title of "philosophic radicals," and

with these men, who stood for the most advanced development of English

political aspiration, as its sponsors, the New Zealand Company was

founded in 1839. With the story of this Company's early political

troubles we are not concerned, for they bear only slightly on

subsequent events in New Zealand. But the central fact with which we

are concerned is that the Company was established for the purpose of

acquiring land from the natives and transporting emigrants from

England to settle thereon. To this end, the expeditionary ship

_Tory_ was hurriedly despatched from the Thames, and arrived

safely in New Zealand waters, bringing with her Colonel Wakefield,

brother of the founder of the Company, with a staff of officers

charged with the duty of conducting the negotiations for the purchase

of land and arranging other preliminaries--which appeared to be

regarded in the light of mere formalities--incidental to the

introduction of a great colonising scheme. In furtherance of her

mission, the _Tory_ paid a brief visit to Queen Charlotte Sound

and Port Nicholson, and reached Kapiti on October 16, 1839, the day on

which Ngati-Raukawa had been routed by Ngati-Awa at the fight of

Kuititanga.

The first tidings of this engagement was brought to the officers of

the _Tory_ by a canoe-crew of natives who had just left the scene

of strife; and although the sea was high, a boat's company had been

organised, and was on the point of starting for the battlefield, when

a message came from Te Rauparaha, who had returned to Evans' Island,

that he wished them to pay him the honour of a visit. Accordingly, the

course of the boat was deflected to the island, and there the chiefs

of the two races met for the first time. Te Rauparaha was sitting upon

the ground beside his wife, a woman who has been described as being of

the "Meg Merrilies" type. He was deeply smeared with red ochre, and

evidently in an uneasy frame of mind. His manner was restless, his

glance furtive, and he was obviously depressed at the result of the

battle. As Colonel Wakefield and his party approached, Te Rauparaha

rose and hastened to exchange with them the missionary greeting,

shaking them by the hand. With equal alacrity he sought to convince

them that he had been in no way concerned in promoting the fight. In

these protestations it cannot be said that he was in the least

successful, for the Englishmen had already been prejudiced against him

by the tales of his duplicity told them by both whalers and Ngati-Awas

at Cloudy Bay; whilst his wandering, distrustful glances, as he spoke,

were not calculated to inspire confidence. Though, on the whole, his

conduct was unsatisfactory, the interview was occasionally illumined

by flashes of his imperious nature, the inborn power to lead and

command momentarily asserting itself, only to be again clouded by a

mean cringing, which seemed to bespeak a craven spirit.

Being assured that there were no hostile natives harbouring on board

the _Tory_, Te Rauparaha left Evans' Island for Kapiti, promising

to visit the ship on the following morning. Next day he was received

by Colonel Wakefield with a salute of guns, which filled him with

alarm, until it had been made clear that the demonstration was

intended as a great compliment to him and those chiefs who were with

him. The preliminaries of the reception being over, the question of

the land purchase was introduced to the chiefs; but Colonel Wakefield

discovered them to be distinctly hostile to his proposals, an

opposition which he attributed to the influence of Mr. Wynen, the

agent for a Sydney land syndicate, whose headquarters were then at

Cloudy Bay. The energies of this gentleman had been insidiously

applied to prejudice the native mind against the Company's scheme of

colonisation; and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the

Colonel was ultimately able to dissipate these prejudices, and to

obtain their consent "to look over their land, and if he found it

good, to take it." A gale which raged through the Strait prevented all

communication with the shore and suspended the negotiations until the

21st, when Colonel Wakefield made a definite proposal to purchase all

the Ngati-Toa possessions, together with their rights and claims on

both sides of the Strait. After he had exhibited to their wondering

eyes a great portion of the goods--the finery and the trumpery--which

he intended to dignify by the term "payment," his proposals were

doubtingly accepted, Te Hiko pressing for more soap and clothing, and

Te Rauparaha clamouring for more arms. Te Rauparaha dictated to Mr.

Jerningham Wakefield the names of the localities involved in the sale;

and the binding nature of the bargain was impressed upon the natives

as clearly as the linguistic limitations of Dicky Barrett, the

interpreter, would permit.

These preliminaries settled, the following day was appointed for the

distribution of the goods; but the ceremony was intercepted by the

indisposition of Te Hiko, whom Colonel Wakefield regarded as an

indispensable party to the transaction, and he refused to proceed

without him. This refusal greatly aggravated Te Rauparaha, whose hands

were itching to grasp the guns, which had been thrown like leaven

amongst the heap of worthless stuff; and he railed bitterly against

the deference paid to one whom he designated "a boy," destitute alike

of any interest in, or knowledge of, land. "Give us the goods," said

he, "with more powder and arms. Of what use are blankets, soap, tools,

and iron pots, when we are going to war? What does it matter whether

we die cold or warm, clean or dirty, hungry or full? Give us

two-barrelled guns, plenty of muskets, lead, powder, cartridges and

cartouche boxes." This militant appeal was coldly ignored by Colonel

Wakefield, who steadfastly declined to consider the question of

distribution until Hiko's return, which did not occur until two days

later. On the 23rd, however, the chiefs again assembled, and the

merchandise, which the Company offered as payment for the land, was

ostentatiously displayed on the deck of the _Tory_. The

consummation of the transaction was, however, still to be delayed.

While Te Hiko was busy trying on one of the coats which he had

selected from the pile of clothing, Te Rauparaha, Tungia, and several

of the warlike chiefs made an unseemly rush to secure some of the

fowling-pieces, which were lying on the companion hatch ready for

distribution. This exhibition of selfishness so exasperated Te Hiko

that he at once threw down the garment, and, calling to Rangihiroa to

accompany him, went down over the ship's side and made for the shore

in a fit of ill-humour, out of which he could not be cajoled until

next day.

Colonel Wakefield immediately suspended the proceedings, whereupon Te

Rauparaha again became deeply offended at the consideration shown for

one whom he regarded as so much his inferior; but, in spite of

importunities and threats which sorely tried his patience, the Colonel

refused to recede from his former attitude, and declined to take one

step towards the sale in Hiko's absence. As Wakefield was adamant

against all their menaces and blandishments, nothing remained but to

return on shore for the purpose of placating Te Hiko, which they

shortly succeeded in doing. Next day, unsolicited by Colonel

Wakefield, both Te Hiko and Te Rauparaha came off to the ship, and,

after entertaining themselves for some time with the novelties of the

_pakeha_, they asked that the deed of sale might be read over to

them, the map being at the same time consulted. After questions had

been asked and answered, and all doubts on either side apparently

cleared away, the fateful document was signed, Te Rauparaha making a

mark peculiarly his own, and Te Hiko subscribing the sign of the

cross. Each then left the vessel, possessed of a gun, promising that

the rest of the chiefs would come on board and sign on the next day.

This ceremony was duly performed, but only eleven signatures were

obtained, Te Rauparaha and two minor chiefs signing as proxy for the

natives on the opposite side of the Strait. A share of the gifts was

reserved for Te Rangihaeata, who was at Mana, and had taken no part in

the negotiations. On Thursday, 24th October, Colonel Wakefield was

able to report to his Directors in London that he had acquired by his

purchases at Port Nicholson and Kapiti, at a cost of a few guns, some

powder, lead, and miscellaneous goods, "possessions for the Company

extending from the 38th to the 43rd degree of latitude on the western

coast, and from the 41st to the 43rd on the eastern." But Colonel

Wakefield still had some reservations as to the completeness and

validity of his purchases; for he added to his report this qualifying

sentence: "To complete the rights of the Company to all the land

unsold to foreigners in the above extensive district, it remains for

me to secure the cession of their rights in it from the Ngati-Awa,

and, in a proportionately small degree, from the Ngati-Raukawa and

Whanganui peoples."

Three days later he had an interview with the Ngati-Awa people at

Waikanae, and they, being excited by the spirit of war and fearful of

another attack by Ngati-Raukawa, were easily tempted by the sight of

guns and the prospect of powder. Several of the elder chiefs addressed

the assemblage, and urged their followers to acquiesce in the

Colonel's proposals, conditionally upon their receiving arms and

ammunition. To this stipulation Wakefield felt no reluctance in

agreeing, and, for the purpose of giving it effect, a conference was

arranged to take place on board the _Tory_. On the appointed day

(8th November) the natives were astir bright and early; soon after

daylight they "began to come on board, and by 12 o'clock more than two

hundred had assembled on the deck, including all the principal chiefs

of the Sounds." To these unsophisticated dealers in real estate was

produced the deed, phrased in stilted terms, which purported to convey

to the Colonel, as agent for the Company, and in trust for the

Company, a vast area of country, over much of which the signatories

had absolutely no authority whatever.

"Know all men that we the undersigned chiefs of the Ngati-Awa tribes,

residing in Queen Charlotte's Sound, on both sides of Cook Strait, in

New Zealand, have this day sold and parted with, in consideration of

having received, as full and just payment for the same, ten

single-barrelled guns, three double-barrelled guns, sixty muskets,

forty kegs of powder, two kegs of lead slabs, two dozen pairs of

scissors, two dozen combs, two pounds of beads, one thousand flints,

the land bounded on the south by the parallel of the 43rd degree of

South latitude, and on the west, north and east by the sea (with all

islands), and also comprising all those lands, islands, tenements,

&c., situate on the northern shore of Cook Straits, which are bounded

on the north-east by a direct line drawn from the southern head of the

river or harbour of Mokau, situate on the west coast in latitude of

about 38 degrees South, to Tikukahore, situate on the east coast in

the latitude of about 41 degrees South, and on the east, south and

west by the sea, excepting always the island of Kapiti, and the small

islands adjacent thereto, and the island of Mana, but including

Tehukahore, Wairarapa, Port Nicholson, Otaki, Manawatu, Rangitikei,

Whanganui, Waitotara, Patea, Ngati-Ruanui, Taranaki, Moturoa, and the

several sugar-loaf islands and the river or harbour of Mokau."

The goods which were specified in the deed as the price of the land

were carefully arranged on deck; but during the process of distribution

a violent altercation took place, which was only quelled by a threat

from the Colonel to send the wares below and proceed to sea, if peace

was not immediately restored. Advantage was taken of the "momentary

calm" thus secured to obtain the coveted signatures, and consenting

chiefs to the number of about thirty appended their marks to the

document. Scarcely had the distribution of the beads and bullets

recommenced than another mêlée, even more violent, took place. "In a

moment," says the Colonel in his report to the Company, "the most

tumultuous scene we had ever witnessed took place, in which many blows

were exchanged: never did a ship witness such a scene of violence

without bloodshed." A similar, "if not more unfriendly," riot occurred

on shore amongst those natives who had first conveyed their goods to

land before they commenced their peculiar method of division; but it

mattered nothing to the Company's representative how the natives

abused their goods or each other so long as they had put their marks

to his deed. Equally was it a matter of indifference to the Maoris how

many deeds they signed, so long as they became possessed of arms and

ammunition. It was sufficient for the one that he had outwitted his

rivals, and appeared to be doing well for his employers, and for the

other that they had satisfied the most pressing need of the moment.

Neither looked beyond the immediate present, or took a single thought

for the long years of mistrust and misunderstanding that were to

follow upon their hasty and ill-considered transactions. Confident

that he had made "a full and just payment" for the land described in

the deed, Colonel Wakefield on 9th November went on shore and took

possession of the estate, in the name of the Company; and, in order to

distinguish their possessions, "which so greatly predominate in this

extensive territory," from those of other buyers, he designated them

North and South Durham, according to the respective islands in which

they were situated. Having completed his purchases at Kapiti to his

own satisfaction, Colonel Wakefield, on 18th November, sailed northward,

intending to call in at Whanganui for the purpose of perfecting his

purchases there, as he regarded that district as one of some

importance. But before he left he had received a glimmering that his

proceedings had not been perfectly understood, and the first shadow of

doubt must have crossed his mind when Te Rauparaha calmly informed him

that he (Te Rauparaha) wanted more guns, and, in order to get them,

intended to make further sales, embracing territory which the Colonel

believed he had already bought. Language of the most reproachful

character was used towards the chief, and his speedy repudiation of a

solemn bargain was characterised in unmeasured terms; but Te Rauparaha

steadfastly maintained that, so far as he was concerned, the sale in

the Middle Island had not included more than D'Urville Island and

Blind Bay at Nelson. Subsequent investigations proved that Te

Rauparaha was right and the Colonel was wrong; but it is doubtful

whether, when he left for Whanganui, the latter had realised the full

extent of his error, and therefore he parted from the chief with

bitterness in his heart and an angry word upon his lips.

While these events were in progress in New Zealand, the operations of

the Company and its contemporary land-speculators had not passed

unnoticed in England. The British authorities were beginning to regard

those islands with an anxious eye, but they displayed a painful

indecision in adopting measures to meet the political emergency which

they were commencing to realise was inevitable. As a tentative step,

Mr. Busby was sent from New South Wales in the capacity of British

Resident; but his usefulness was shorn down to the point of nullity by

the purely nominal nature of the powers with which he was endowed.

Negative as the results of this experiment had been, it nevertheless

encouraged the British authorities to take a still bolder step in the

appointment of Captain Hobson, R.N., as the accredited British Consul,

who was authorised to negotiate with the chiefs, and, if possible, to

acquire the country by cession, preparatory to annexing it as a

dependency of New South Wales. Even Hobson's position was extremely

anomalous until the now famous Treaty of Waitangi had been formulated

and successfully promulgated amongst the tribes. The ratification of

this document by the chiefs was a severe blow to the New Zealand

Company, while it is doubtful whether the Maoris had more than a

nebulous idea of its real meaning. It, however, gave the British

Government the colour of right to institute the principles of

established authority in those islands, where it had become their

imperative duty to control the colonisation which their indifference

had not been able to thwart. With the policy of the Treaty of Waitangi

we are not now concerned, beyond recording the fact that, in order to

give effect to that policy, it became necessary to procure the

signatures of all the principal chiefs, as acknowledging their assent

to the solemn obligations involved in the covenant. To this end

Archdeacon Williams came southward, and in due course reached Kapiti,

where, on May 14, 1840, he succeeded, but by what means we are not

told, in inducing Te Rauparaha to sign the treaty. Similarly, Major

Bunbury, an officer of the 80th Regiment, had been despatched by

Captain Hobson in H.M.S. _Herald_, charged with the mission of

securing the assent of the chiefs in the Middle Island to the

proposals of the Government. After having visited all the southern

_pas_ of importance, and proclaimed the sovereignty of the Queen

both at Stewart Island and Cloudy Bay, he arrived at Kapiti on June

19th, and to him we are indebted for the following account of what

there occurred:--

"When we arrived off the island of Kapiti several canoes were leaving

the island, and on my preparing to go ashore, fortunately the first

canoe we met had on board the chief Rauparaha, whom I was anxious to

see. He returned on board with me in the ship's boat, his own canoe,

one of the most splendid I have yet seen, following. He told me the

Rev. Mr. Williams had been there, and had obtained his signature to

the treaty, and on inquiring for the chiefs Rangihaeata and Te Hiko,

I was informed that we should meet them both, probably at the island

of Mana, and, as this lay on our route to Port Nicholson, thither we

proceeded, the chief Rauparaha remaining on board the _Herald_,

his canoes following. On our arrival, the _Herald_ having

anchored, I went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Williams and Rauparaha.

We learnt that Hiko, son of the late chief Te Pehi, had gone out on a

distant expedition. The other chief, Rangihaeata, after some time

returned with us on board, accompanied by Rauparaha, when both signed

the treaty."

What arguments or other inducements were held out to the chiefs to

lead them to append their marks to the document is not clear.

Rauparaha subsequently boasted that he had received a blanket for his

signature, but whether this gift, or bribe, was tendered by the

missionary or the Major is equally a matter of doubt. It would,

however, be safe to assume that the blanket was a more potent factor

in securing the allegiance of the chief to the policy of the treaty

than any arguments that could have been pressed upon him. It is

certainly asking much of the intelligence of Te Rauparaha to assert

that he was seized with the full significance of the step he had

taken, seeing that the terms and intentions of the treaty were

afterwards so diversely interpreted by cultured Englishmen.[148] Major

Bunbury, when being sent out on his southern mission, was instructed

by Captain Hobson to assemble the chiefs, to explain the provisions of

the treaty to them, and further, to give them "a solemn pledge that

the most perfect good faith would be kept by Her Majesty's Government,

that their property, their rights and privileges should be most fully

preserved." In direct conflict with this official view, which was an

accurate reflex of the instructions given to Captain Hobson himself by

the Marquis of Normanby, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies,

Lord Howick persuaded a Committee of the House of Commons to condemn

the treaty as "a part of a series of injudicious proceedings," and

with a light-hearted ignorance of Maori reverence for landed

rights,[149] to assert that the acknowledgment of Maori property in

wild lands subsequent to the Queen's assumption of sovereignty was

"not essential to the construction of the treaty, and was an error

which had been productive of serious consequences."

Whether or not Te Rauparaha and his fellow-signatories were able to

analyse the language of the treaty with the precision of an English

statesman, they had certainly never placed upon it such a loose

interpretation as this. And when tidings of the Committee's deliberations

reached the colony, the alleged "serious consequences" which had

followed upon the observance and administration of the treaty as laid

down by Captain Hobson were safety itself compared with the

catastrophe which might have followed from this rash attempt to

repudiate, in the interests of the New Zealand Company, the essential

principle of the treaty--that the "full, exclusive, and undisturbed

possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other

possessions" was guaranteed to the natives by the Queen. Fortunately,

at this time there was at the head of Britain's Colonial Department a

Minister who held national honour to be dearer than personal gain.

Lord Stanley, to his credit, refused to comply with the recommendations

of the Committee to confiscate the native land "without reference to

the validity or otherwise of its supposed purchase from the natives,"

and at the end of the famous three days' debate induced the House of

Commons to adopt his view of the nation's obligations to the Maoris.

The Crown having now assumed sovereignty over New Zealand, it became

necessary to administer its affairs impartially in the interests of

both Maori and _pakeha_ population; and, in this connection, one

of its first and most pressing duties was to make an honest effort to

unravel the complex web of land claims, in which both races had become

unhappily entangled. The Government of Lord John Russell accordingly

appointed as a commissioner to adjudicate upon claims of all classes

of buyers Mr. Spain, an English lawyer, who, it is said, had been a

prominent electioneering agent on the side of the Liberals. Mr. Spain

arrived in New Zealand on December 8, 1841, and immediately took steps

to establish his court. He has been described as a man of solid

intelligence, but burdened with a good deal of legal pedantry; slow in

thinking and in his apprehension of ways of dealing with new

emergencies; steady and plodding in his methods, thoroughly honest in

his intentions, and utterly inflexible to threats, though, perhaps,

not unsusceptible to flattery. Considering the magnitude of their

alleged purchases, the claims of the New Zealand Company naturally

took precedence over all others in the business of the court; and,

having regard to the temperament of the Commissioner, an inauspicious

start was made by the representatives of the Company metaphorically

shaking their fists in his face. In some degree their annoyance may

have been pardonable, for they, believing themselves to be the

pioneers of a great colonising scheme, had flattered themselves that

not only the merit of their cause, but the fact that they had made

their purchases prior to the proclamation of the Queen's sovereignty,

would have placed them outside the exacting conditions of the Treaty

of Waitangi.

The coming of Mr. Spain, and his insistence upon an exhaustive

examination of their titles, was a heavy blow to them, which they at

first thought to ward off by affecting an attitude of amused

indifference. They laughed at the treaty, with its engagement to

respect Maori rights in land, and its elevation of the Maori to a

civil status equal to themselves. But amidst this simulated merriment

they exhibited an ill-concealed chagrin that the little self-governing

community, which they had hoped to set up on the shores of Cook

Strait, had been so unceremoniously superseded by the sovereignty of

the Queen, and they resented with fear and anxiety the appointment of

a commissioner, who might deem it his duty to ask awkward questions

regarding their titles. Their policy was, therefore, one of delay and

evasion, which was inaugurated by their raising technical objections

to the constitution of the court, its jurisdiction, and its forms of

procedure, but, most of all, to Mr. Spain's determination to call

native evidence. That was surely an unnecessary elevation of the

savage, and a corresponding degradation of the white man. In fact,

they openly asserted that to put the testimony of the one against the

other was a gratuitous insult to the dignity of the British subject.

But this was not the full measure of Spain's offending in the eyes of

the Company's champions. He was audacious enough to ask Colonel

Wakefield to submit proof that those natives who had signed the

Company's deed had the right to sell the land which they thus

purported to convey to the Company; and some of them made themselves

conspicuously offensive in the manner in which they ridiculed this

demand as preposterous and ridiculous.

The proceedings of the court at Wellington[150] do not materially

concern our purpose, for Te Rauparaha took no part in the sale of Port

Nicholson, nor need we burden the narrative with the interminable

finesse which took place before the court was able seriously to attack

the work which lay before it in other districts. When this condition

was at length reached, Spain soon saw that he was faced with a most

serious problem. That the Company's purchases were in most instances

bad he had little hesitation in declaring. But there was no blinking

the fact that hundreds of settlers had risked their all on the

assurances of the Company that they could give them a title, and it

would have been cruel indeed to visit the sins of the Company upon the

unfortunate colonists. Spain, therefore, halted between justice to the

Maoris and equity to the settlers, satisfying the requirements of his

office by issuing interim reports, hoping that in the meantime some

workable compromise might be evolved. This was ultimately found in an

arrangement whereby Mr. Clarke and Colonel Wakefield were to agree

upon what additional compensation was to be paid for the land

purchased, and, failing their arriving at an understanding, Mr. Spain

was to be the final arbitrator. At the outset of these negotiations,

Mr. Clarke stipulated that the natives were not to be evicted from

their _pas_ or their cultivations, nor were their burial-places

to be disturbed; but to these reasonable reservations Colonel

Wakefield could not at first be induced to frankly agree, while his

unwillingness, or his inability, to comply with the ultimate awards

tended to accentuate rather than to soothe public irritation.

Meanwhile, Rangihaeata had been busy entering his practical protest

against what he believed to be a violation of his rights at Porirua.

He, in conjunction with Te Rauparaha and Te Hiko,[151] stoutly

contended that Porirua, like the Wairau, had never been sold; and

when, in the early part of 1841, the Company's surveyors went there to

survey, Rangihaeata blocked up the forest track, levelled the

surveyors' tents to the ground, and, at the end of each day, undid all

the work which they had performed. This interference with the survey

was obviated by an assurance being given to the chief, that, even if

the land were surveyed, the Company's title must still be investigated

by Mr. Spain before the settlers would be permitted to enter upon it.

But, in defiance of this assurance, Colonel Wakefield, in April, 1842,

issued leases to four settlers--Joseph Hurley, Thomas Parry, Benjamin

Lowndes and Josiah Torr--who at once proceeded to erect houses and

occupy their holdings. Two of the houses were nearly finished when the

intelligence was brought to the chief. Rangihaeata immediately gave

the settlers notice of his intention to pull their houses down; and

this threat, so chivalrously declared, was duly executed next day,

without any unnecessary violence, by the chief and a band of fifty

men. The indignation which followed this assertion of native authority

found expression in a public meeting at Wellington, at which the

arrest of Rangihaeata was violently demanded, and those present

declared their readiness to assist the Sheriff in effecting his

capture. With the mandate of this meeting Mr. Murphy, the magistrate,

refused to comply,[152] and when, in the following June, the huts were

again demolished, he wrote to the Governor declaring his determination

not to interfere "to prevent any natives keeping land which they state

they have not sold, until Mr. Spain decides upon the claims." This

determination to regard the Porirua land claims as _sub judice_

met with the entire concurrence of Captain Hobson, but was as bitterly

assailed by Colonel Wakefield, who committed the indiscretion, almost

criminal under the circumstances, of declaring, when speaking at

Wellington, that he had not treated with the natives for a settlement

of their claims, but preferred to employ the inconvenience created by

these claims as grounds of complaint against the Government, and as

arguments in aid of his efforts to secure the removal of the Governor.

With such a feeling of declared insincerity pervading Colonel

Wakefield's conduct, it is small wonder that the differences between

the natives and the Company were slow of settlement, or that the

efforts of Spain and Clarke to that end were unduly protracted.

Equally true is it that thereby the cares and worries of the Governor

were unnecessarily aggravated, while both brown and white populations

were exasperated almost to the point of desperation by the vexatious

delays. The irritated state of the public temper thus engendered not

only made acts of violence possible, but even encouraged them, and

these only added fuel to the threatened conflagration. A native woman

was found by her friends murdered at Wellington, and suspicion fell

upon a European. Only a few months later a settler was discovered

lying upon the Petone road with his skull fractured, and questioning

eyes were at once turned in the direction of the Maoris. The

burial-grounds of the natives were being repeatedly desecrated by

_pakeha_ looters in search of greenstone ornaments, and in the

prosecution of this shameful traffic, deep offence was given by the

secret exhumation of the body of Te Rauparaha's brother, Nohorua, at

Cloudy Bay. For this act of violence to the honoured dead the natives

would at one time have taken swift vengeance; but, acting under the

restraining counsel of Mr. Clarke, they consented to refer their

complaint to the Government for settlement, a forbearance which the

Protector, in his letter to Captain Hobson, assured the Governor

greatly surprised him.[153] The weight of these and other accumulating

troubles began to tell heavily upon the frail physique of Captain

Hobson, and borne down by the stress of his increasing responsibilities,

he died at Auckland in September, 1842. Before his successor, Captain

Fitzroy, arrived in the Colony, the tragedy for which the country was

being rapidly prepared had been enacted, and the faithlessness of the

New Zealand Company had been written in letters of blood on the floor

of the Wairau Valley.

[127] "Amongst these, there was a great chief named Tu-Hawaiki in

Maori, 'Bloody Jack' by the Englishmen, because in his English, which

he learned mostly from the rough whalers and traders, he often used

the low word 'bloody'" (_Memoirs of the Rev. J.F.H. Wohlers_). Tu

Hawaiki was both the patron and the pupil of the whalers, and was

referred to by them as an evidence of what they had done in civilising

the aborigines. "He was undoubtedly the most intelligent native in the

country in 1840, and his reputation for honesty was such that

Europeans trusted him with large quantities of goods" (_Thomson_).

[128] "Just like the Governor."

[129] Travers doubts the occurrence of this incident, holding that had

Te Rauparaha been guilty of such conduct towards his own people, he

could never have retained the respect of his fellow-chiefs. Wakefield,

on the other hand, insists upon it, and it is also referred to in a

Ngati-Toa account of Te Rauparaha's life found in White's _Ancient

History of the Maori_.

[130] A modified version of this incident states that all the crew

were drowned except an old woman, who escaped by clinging to the

overturned canoe. Tu-Hawaiki and his friends waited about the shore

for some days until the bodies were cast up, and then the old woman

was killed, her death being part of the religious rites performed at

the funeral ceremonies. But there are discrepancies in the tradition,

upon which it is now impossible to arbitrate.

[131] This war is known in Maori history as the Hao-whenua war.

[132] Te Heuheu's peace was made at Kapiti. He took a _taiaha_

and broke it across his knee. Some people then gave him a long-handled

tomahawk, and Hoani Tuhata gave a sword, and peace was made (_Native

Land Court Record_).

[133] I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Robert McNab, for the following

note, culled from an American whaling captain's log, which probably

refers to this period, the incident described having occurred at

Cloudy Bay on Saturday, April 30, 1836:--

"At 4 had visit from Roabolla (Rauparaha), the head chief of this Bay

(just returned from a marauding expedition), accompanied with the

customary demand of lay of tobacco, muskets, and cask of powder, which

I peremptorily denied. This they returned with a threat that I should

not whale here, to which I replied I was perfectly willing to go to

sea, for I would not submit to any imposition, although I would

present them with the same the English ships and parties did, but no

more, and if they would not take that they should have nothing. They

finally consented to receive a dozen pipes, 10 lbs. tobacco, and a

piece of low-priced calico of about 30 yards, priced 17s. 4d., and a

tin pot, then dismissed them with a blessing. He afterwards came and

demanded supper, which I, of course, declined furnishing him, and bade

him goodbye. There is no other way to deal with these people only to

be positive with them, and let them know you do not fear them, as if

any timidity is shown, they demand everything they see, nor would the

ship hold enough for them, and the bad conduct of masters has

encouraged them to be very importunate. I am willing to allow a lone

ship here, not well armed, might be obliged to comply with their

requisition, but no excuse can be offered for any one to do so now, as

there are seven ships here all partially armed, and yet he showed me

three muskets given him by the captains of ships the other side, to

their shame be it spoken, for if they only reflected they would know

'tis for the interest of these natives to keep on good terms with us,

as they know if ships are hindered coming here, adieu to their darling

tobacco, muskets, and pipes. I have adopted this line of conduct from

my own conviction, and the advice of the English masters now here who

know them well."

[134] This fight is known in Ngai-Tahu tradition as _Oroua-moa-nui_.

The Rev. Canon Stack says that Paora Taki, afterwards a well-known

Maori Assessor at Rapaki, who was fighting under Tu-Hawaiki,

recognised Rauparaha, and might have killed him as he brushed past him

on his way to the water, if he had only possessed a better weapon than

a sharpened stake with which to assault him.

[135] Dieffenbach says: "Ten or twelve years ago (1827-29) the

southern headland of Tory Channel was the scene of a sanguinary

contest between the original natives of the channel and the tribes of

the Ngati-Awa. Rauparaha, at the head of the latter people, earned

inglorious laurels by shutting up his opponents on a narrow tongue of

land and then exterminating them."

[136] "Te Koihua settled near Pakawau, in Massacre Bay, where I

frequently saw the old man prior to his death. Strange to say, his

love for greenstone was so great that even after he and his wife had

reached a very advanced age, they travelled down the west coast in

1858, then a very arduous task, and brought back a large rough slab of

that substance, which they proceeded diligently to reduce to the form

of a _mere_" (_Travers_).

[137] "Every tribe throughout Maoridom prized greenstone above

everything else, and strove to acquire it. The locality in which it

was found was known by report to all, and the popular imagination

pictured untold wealth to be awaiting the adventurous explorer of that

region" (_Stack_).

[138] When Mr. Edward Shortland was travelling in the Middle Island in

1843-44, an account of which he has left us in his _Southern Districts

of New Zealand_, he had for guide and assistant a native named

Huruhuru, who employed the leisure of his evenings in giving Mr.

Shortland information about the interior of the country, with which he

was well acquainted. He drew a map of the four great lakes in central

Otago, described the country through which the path across the island

passed, and was able to name the principal streams, and even to point

out the various stopping-places at the end of each day's journey.

[139] In confirmation of at least one purpose of the expedition--that

of securing slaves--it is interesting to note that, with the exception

of two children who were killed and eaten at Lake Wanaka, none of the

prisoners were sacrificed, although the temptation to do so must have

been difficult to resist, as the party often suffered severely from

hunger.

[140] "For three miles we followed this stream, flowing in a

north-north-east direction, through a comparatively open valley, with

occasional patches of grass on its sides, and arrived then at its

junction with a large stream of glacial origin, and of the size of the

Makarora, which came from the eastern central chain, and to which,

according to the direction of His Honour the Superintendent, I gave my

name. This river forms, before it reaches the valley, a magnificent

waterfall, several hundred feet in height" (_Haast's "Geology of

Canterbury and Westland"_).

[141] The exception above referred to was Nga-whakawa, Te Puoho's

brother-in-law, who escaped in the dim light of the early morning. Mr.

Percy Smith, writing in the _Polynesian Journal_, says: "His was

a most unenviable position. A distance of nearly five hundred miles in

a straight line separated him from his own people, the intermediate

country being occupied by tribes bitterly hostile to his, who would

welcome with joy the opportunity of sacrificing him. But notwithstanding

the exceeding difficulties which lay in his path, this brave fellow

decided to try to rejoin his relatives at Massacre Bay, at the extreme

north end of the South Island. How long his arduous journey took I

know not, but it must have been months. He dare not keep near the east

coast, which was inhabited by his enemies, but had to follow the base

of the mountains inland, seeking his sustenance in roots of the fern,

which is very scarce, and of the _taramea_, occasionally snaring

a _weka_ or other bird. So he made his toilsome way by mountain

and valley, swimming the snow-cold rivers, ever on the alert for signs

of wandering parties of his enemies, only lighting fires after dark by

the arduous process of _hika-ahi_, or rubbing two sticks together,

enduring cold, fatigue, and hunger, until, after making one of the

most extraordinary journeys on record, he at last reached the home of

his people at Parapara, Massacre Bay. Here he was the first to bring

the news of the disaster which had befallen Te Puoho and his

companions. The daughter of this man, born after his return, named Ema

Nga-whakawa, was still living at Manawatu a few years since."

[142] This food was composed of pumpkins, probably the first grown on

the coast.

[143] The late Rangitane chief at Awapuni, Kerei te Panau.

[144] Kuititanga means the wedge-shaped piece of land which is

formed by the junction of two rivers.

[145] This celebrated cannon is now at the town of Blenheim. Its

history has been stated as follows, by the late John Guard, of Port

Underwood. In 1833, his father, the original "Jack Guard" of the

_Harriet_, brought this gun from Sydney and traded it away to

Nohorua, a brother of Rauparaha, for the right to establish a whaling

station at Kakapo Bay. This bargain was greatly facilitated by a

demonstration which Guard gave by loading the gun and firing it off,

for its power vastly pleased the natives, who christened it

_Pu-huri-whenua_, "the gun that causes the earth to tremble." In

1834, Captain Blenkinsopp came upon the scene, and is said to have

carried the gun away from Kakapo Bay "without leave or licence," and

bartered it to Rauparaha for the Wairau Plain and Ocean Bay.

Subsequently, it was brought back to Port Underwood by Rauparaha, and

again given to Guard's father. After his death, it was taken

possession of by the province of Marlborough as an historic relic,

during the superintendency of Mr. Eyes.

[146] "Previous to sailing, Colonel Wakefield purchased from a lady,

representing herself to be the widow of Captain Blenkinsopp, some

deeds professing to be the original conveyances of the plains of the

Wairau by Rauparaha, Rangihaeata, and others to that gentleman, in

consideration of a ship's gun. They were signed with elaborate

drawings of the _moko_ or tattoo on the chiefs' faces" (_Wakefield_).

[147] According to Lord Lytton, Edward Gibbon Wakefield was "the man

in these latter days beyond comparison of the most genius and widest

influence in the great science of colonisation, both as a thinker, a

writer, and a worker, whose name is like a spell to all interested in

that subject."

[148] Mr. Somes, one of the champions of the New Zealand Company in

London, thus expressed the views of the Directorate upon the treaty:

"We did not believe that even the Royal power of making treaties could

establish in the eye of our courts such a fiction as a native law of

real property in New Zealand. We have always had very serious doubts

whether the Treaty of Waitangi, made with naked savages by a Consul

invested with no plenipotentiary powers, could be treated by lawyers

as anything but a praiseworthy device for amusing and pacifying

savages for the moment." To this Lord Stanley replied through his

secretary that he was "not prepared, as Her Majesty's Secretary of

State, to join with the Company in setting aside the Treaty of

Waitangi after having obtained the advantage guaranteed by it, even

though it might be made with 'naked savages,' or though it might be

treated by lawyers as a praiseworthy device for amusing and pacifying

savages for the moment. Lord Stanley entertains a different view of

the respect due to obligations contracted by the Crown of England, and

his final answer to the demands of the Company must be that, as long

as he has the honour of serving the Crown, he will not admit that any

person, or any Government, acting in the name of Her Majesty, can

contract a legal, moral, or honorary obligation to despoil others of

their lawful and equitable rights."

[149] "Long before the arrival of the white man in New Zealand there

was a proverb amongst the Maoris--'_He wahine he whenua, e ngaro ai

te tangata_,' which may be rendered in English 'For land or wife man

stakes his life'" (_Clarke_).

[150] When the court opened at Wellington on 16th May, one of the

first witnesses called was Dicky Barrett, who had acted as interpreter

to Colonel Wakefield when making his purchases, and Mr. George Clarke,

who appeared as the representative of the natives, has left us the

following sketch of Dicky's appearance in the box: "Barrett was a

shore whaler who had married a native woman; he was a decent fellow

enough among men of his class, but he was very ignorant, and I soon

made him show, in the course of his evidence, that he did not even

understand the English meaning of the deeds he professed to interpret.

He admitted, too, that instead of telling the natives, as the deed set

forth, that one-tenth of the surveyed lots should be reserved for

their use, he had simply put it that one lot of the alienated land

should be kept for the Maoris and one for the _pakehas_, and so on

through the whole--that is, one half the land should be kept for their

use. He admitted, further, that he had taken no account of many

natives who were unwilling to sell. It soon became clear that Barrett's

qualification to interpret was that he spoke whaler Maori, a jargon

that bears much the same relation to the real language as the pigeon

English of the Chinese does to our mother tongue."

[151] "Te Hiko, whose signature Colonel Wakefield had boasted of

obtaining in 1839, being examined before the Governor, the Chief

Justice, Colonel Wakefield, the Rev. O. Hadfield, and others, denied

that he had signed any deed of sale of Porirua. E. J. Wakefield

asserted the contrary. The ignorant Barrett ... admitted that Hiko's

signature was 'not obtained willingly,' and Clarke, the Protector,

skilled in the language, declared that the document signed was

calculated to mislead the natives. Hiko was constant in his denial of

Wakefield's statements, and Hobson's mind was 'left with the

impression that he had not sold' the land" (_Rusden_).

[152] Subsequently, a similar application was made to Chief Justice

Martin, when he arrived in Wellington in October, 1842, but he also

declined to issue a warrant for the arrest of Rangihaeata, partly

because the application was _ex parte_, and argument was

requisite before judgment could be given on so grave a matter, and

partly on technical grounds connected with the Police Magistrates

Ordinance.

[153] Mr. Spain, writing to Captain Hobson in 1842, remarked that the

natives at Wellington had, upon many occasions, shown the greatest

forbearance when deprived of their cultivations, and he very much

doubted whether their white brethren would have followed their example

if placed in similar circumstances.