Williams. —T/zc Slorn of John Hutlicrjord. '459 



natives have no tradition whatever of any such event as the 

 capture of the " Agnes " and the murder of the greater portion 

 of the crew having ever taken place anywhere in this part of 

 New Zealand. The arrival of a ship for the purpose of 

 trading, and the acquisition of firearms, to say nothing of the 

 capture of the ship and the slaughter of the crew, were events 

 which would he much talked about in those days, and would 

 not readily be forgotten. Besides, what we know of the 

 people botii before and since this alleged occurrence makes it 

 extremely improbable that anything of the kind should ever 

 have happened. It is true that the people whom Cook en- 

 countered at Poverty Bay were hostile ; but when they found, 

 from his treatment of the three youths whom he captured, 

 that he had no desire to injure them, they were disposed to be 

 ver}' friendly, one of the first to come peaceably on board 

 the ship as they were leaving the bay being recognized as one 

 of the very men who vrere so exceedingly troublesome two 

 days befoi-e. At Anaura, too, and at Tolaga Bay, a few miles 

 distant from Tokomaru, the people could not possibly have 

 been more kindly disposed, though they were well aw tire of 

 wliat had occurred only a few days before at Poverty Bay. 

 And only three years after 1826, the date which Eutherford 

 gives for his escape, we find that tliere was a brisk trade 

 carried on all along this coast, the natives being everywhere 

 engaged in the production of flax, which they bartered princi- 

 pally for firearms and ammunition. The articles required for 

 this trade were supplied by Sydney merchants to their agents, 

 who lived among the natives, and were always treated by them 

 with the greatest possible consideration and kindness. The 

 natives tell of three white men, whom the}^ knew by the 

 namco uf Eiki, Punga, and Tapore, who lived for some time 

 among them before the days of the flax trade ; but these men 

 came and went of their own accord, and the circumstances of 

 their sojourn in the district do not in the least correspond 

 with those in which Eutherford places himself. 



It is to be noticed that Eutlierford mentions no names of 

 places in the neighbourhood of Tokamardo. He purports to 

 give the names of several chiefs, but none of these can be 

 identified with any of the names of chiefs now living, or of 

 those of the generation which has recently passed away. 



Another remarkable circumstance is that he does not make 

 the slightest allusion to the ravages which were made in the 

 district by the Ngapuhi Tribe, from the Bay of Islands, under 

 the notorious chief Hongi. After Hongi's return from England 

 in 1821, two expeditions were made by this tribe into these 

 parts — the first, under Hongi himself, in 1823, and the second, 

 under Pomare, two years later. The former was most disas- 

 trous to the people of Waiapu and the neighbouring parts. 



