100 APPENDIX. 



fruit, containing several springs, and having within its precincts the principal 

 temple of their tutelar deity. The walls are of solid stone-work, twelve feet in 

 height. On the top of the walls, which were even and well paved, and in some 

 places ten or twelve feet thick, the warriors kept watch and slept. Their houses 

 were built within, and it was considered sufficiently large to contain the whole 

 population. There w^ere four principal openings in the wall, at regular distances 

 from each other, that at the west being called the king's road. They were designed 

 for ingress and egress, and during a siege, were built up with loose stones, when 

 it was considered k pari haabuea, an impregnable fortress." — (^Ellis' Polynesian 

 Researches, Vol. I., pp. 313, 314.) 



The New Zealanders were not deficient in defensive skill. Cook describes one 

 of their strongholds or Heppahs at length. His account, from the light which it 

 affords as to the probable manner in which the embankments of the western works 

 were surmounted, is subjoined entire : 



" Near this place is a high point or peninsula projecting into the river, and upon 

 it are the remains of a fort, which they call Eppah or Heppah. The best engi- 

 neers could not have chosen a situation better adapted to enable a small number 

 to defend themselves against a greater. The steepness of the cliffs renders it 

 wholly inaccessible from the water, which encloses it on three sides ; and, to the 

 land, it is fortified by a ditch, and a bank raised on the inside. From the top of 

 the bank to the bottom of the ditch is twenty-two feet ; the ditch on the outside 

 is fourteen feet deep, and broad in proportion. The whole seemed to be executed 

 with great judgment, and there had been a row of pahsadoes, both on the top of 

 the bank and along the brink of the ditch on the outside : those on the outside 

 had been driven very deep in the ground, and were inclined towards the ditch so 

 as to project over it ; but of these, the thickest only were left, and upon them 

 were evident marks of fire, so that the place had probably been taken and destroyed 

 by an enemy. If occasion should make it necessary for a ship to winter or stay 

 here, tents might be built in this place, which is sufficiently spacious, and might 

 easily be made impregnable to the whole country." — {Cook's Second Voyage.) 



The following additional particulars respecting the construction and defence of 

 the Heppah, by a later writer, and a long resident of New Zealand, may serve to 

 explain some of the features of the aboriginal structures of our own country, as 

 also the probable manner in which they were defended. 



" The fortifications of the natives are called Pa {fort), or £"' Pa (the fort). 

 The spots chosen for these defences equally evince sound judgment and habitual 

 fear. The position accounted as best adapted for the purpose, is the summit of a 

 high hill, overlooking the surrounding country, or a mountainous pass, having at 

 its foot a river or running stream. Insular retreats, distant a few miles from the 

 main, are also in especial repute. The first procedure is to escarp the hill, so as 

 to render the ascent difficult and dangerous to a foe. Remains of such works are 

 to be found on every remarkable elevation throughout the country. The further 

 defences consist of two, sometimes of three stout stockades of irregularly sized 

 posts and poles, varying from eight to thirty feet high from the ground, into which 

 they are thrust from three to seven feet. The large posts are placed about a 



