158 Transactions. 



number of ploughs, harrows, &c, to help him in his work of 

 civilisation. 



On reaching Sydney — at that time the distributing port for 

 the colonies — he managed to exchange his stock of agricultural 

 implements for a number of muskets, which, with others that his 

 people had already acquired from the whalers in the Bay of 

 Islands, brought his armoury up to three hundred pieces, with a 

 proportionate amount of ammunition. Landing in New Zea- 

 land, he found his own people at war with the Natives of Hau- 

 raki, or Thames district, and here for the first time he tried the 

 effect of his new weapons, when, after burning all the villages 

 and killing hundreds on the field of battle, he brought two thou- 

 sand prisoners home to the Bay of Islands. 



This was in 1821, and for the next ten years Hongi kept 

 the whole country in fire and bloodshed, making an expedition 

 every year. If a tribe helped the people with whom he happened 

 to be engaged that tribe would be the next to receive his attention. 

 When preparing for a campaign he would hoist his flag — a red 

 blanket — over his pa, and send messengers to the various sub- 

 tribes in the neighbourhood ; and should any of these have the 

 hardihood to refuse to supply a contingent, they had to reckon 

 with him on his return. In this way he successive!}' raided 

 the Thames, the Waikato, the Auckland district, Rotorua, 

 Poverty Bay, Kaipara, &c, finishing with Whangaroa, where he 

 received a shot through the lungs, which eventually caused his 

 death. It is estimated that at least one-fourth of the total 

 number of Maoris in New Zealand perished in these wars, and 

 probably another fourth were swept away in the raids of Waharoa, 

 Te Wherowhero, and Rauparaha, the latter of whom penetrated 

 as far as Kaiapohia (Kaiapoi), in the middle of the South Island. 

 When we reflect that the warriors engaged were the very flower 

 of the Maori people, we can understand that the loss to the race 

 was quite beyond numerical computation. 



The Price of the Guns. 



Once the deadly effect of the new weapon had been realised, 

 the possession of a sufficient number of muskets became absolutely 

 necessary lor the existence of a tribe, and the whole country 

 from the northern peninsula to Cook Strait — became engaged in 

 a frantic struggle to obtain the wherewithal to purchase a supply. 

 Dressed flax (PhorutiuiH lenar) was the only article of sufficient 

 value to offer in exchange. A ton of this material fetched £120 

 in the Sydney market, and a ton was the price of a gun worth 

 perhaps half that number of shillings. In order to waste no- 

 time, and to be near their work, the Maoris deserted the high 

 and airy situations of the pas, and lived in makeshift wharcs oil 



