30 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



and stuck in the roots of the mangroves, though it seems 

 strange that a botanist of Banks's eminence should have 

 fallen into error about its source. 



Oysters were very plentiful at the time of Cook's visit, so 

 much so that they got them by the boatload from the Purangi, 

 and it was named " Oyster River" for that reason ; but from 

 some cause or other the oysters have almost completely 

 disappeared. This seems the more strange as there is no 

 large population at Mercury Bay to destroy them. Some of 

 the settlers to whom I spoke on the matter attributed it to 

 the sawdust thrown in the water from the kauri mills ; but if 

 that is so it could only apply to the Whitianga, as there are 

 no mills on the Purangi. 



In 1897 I rowed through the archway in Te Putaoparetau- 

 hinu, the small island on the north side of Mercury Bay, 

 which is described by Cook ; but at that time I did not know 

 its history, and when last in the district had no opportunity 

 to go over and take any photographs. There are, however, 

 good pictures of it in both Hawkesworth and in Parkinson's 

 Journal, though in the latter it is located in Queen Charlotte 

 Sound. I expect this error has arisen owing to the confused 

 state of the papers which Parkinson's editor had to work 

 upon. 



The large fort to the west of the island archway, which 

 was also visited, is called Wharekaho. Cook gives a long 

 description of this place, going into details of measurements 

 of the ditches, palisading, fighting-stages, &c, and states, 

 " The people seemed to be prepared against a siege, having 

 laid up in store an immense quantity of fern-roots and a good 

 many dried fish ; but we did not see that they had any fresh 

 water nearer than a brook which runs close under the foot of 

 the hill, from which, I suppose, they can at times get water, 

 tho' besieged, and keep it m gourds until they use it."* 



These precautions did not avail the defenders, or perhaps 

 they got more careless later on, as the following narrative, for 

 which I am indebted to Captain Gilbert Mair, will show : 

 " The numerous people spoken of by Captain Cook as in- 

 habiting Mercury Bay district at the time of his visit were 

 Ngatihei, the descendants of Hei, one of the chiefs who came 

 in the ' Arawa ' canoe. About the end of the eighteenth 

 century, or commencement of the nineteenth, the most pro- 

 minent warrior in these parts was Tuterangianini, who had 

 led successful forays right down to Hawke's Bay. Being at 

 enmity with Ngaiterangi, the Tauranga natives, one of their 

 priests resorted to sorcery to bring about his death. He 

 performed a ceremony called ' ahitapoa ' (fire to make boils) 



* Wharton's edition, p. 154. 



