50 Transactions. 
respects, supplanted by an inferior chief, unless the hereditary power of the 
former happens to be accompanied by intellect and bravery ; and such an 
occurrence took place in regard to the natural hereditary ariki of the 
Ngatiraukawa at the death of Hape. Te Rauparaha himself, though by virtue 
of common descent, and by marriage ties, entitled to be treated as a chief of 
Ngatiraukawa, was not considered to be of high rank, on the grounds that, in 
the first piace, he was the offspring of a junior branch of the ariki family of 
Tainui ; and, in the next place, that the influence primarily due to his birth 
had been weakened by the intermarriage of his progenitors with minor chiefs 
and with women of other tribes. But when Hape, on his death bed, the 
whole tribe being assembled, asked “if his successor could tread in his steps 
and lead his people on to victory, and so keep up the honour of his tribe,” not 
one of his sons, to whom, in succession, the question was put, gave any reply. 
After a long period of silence, Te Rauparaha, who was amongst the minor 
chiefs and people, sitting at a distance from the dying man and from the chiefs 
of high rank by whom he was surrounded, got up and said, “I am able to 
tread in your steps, and even do that which you could not do.” Hape soon 
after expired, and as Te Rauparaha had been the only speaker in answer 
to his question, the whole tribe acknowledged him as their leader, a position 
which he occupied to his dying day. But even in this position his authority 
was limited, for though in his powers of mind, and as a leader of a war party, 
he was admittedly unsurpassed, either by Te Waharoa or by the great 
Ngapuhi chief, E Hongi, and therefore fully entitled to occupy a commanding 
position in the tribe, the mana which he acquired on the occasion in question 
extended only to the exercise of a species of protecting power and counsel 
whenever these were required, whilst the general direction of the affairs of the 
tribe still remained vested in their own hereditary chiefs. The influence he 
had obtained, however, materially aided him in ultimately inducing a large 
number of the tribe to join him in the conquest and settlement of the territory 
of the Ngatiapa, Rangitane, and Muaupoko, as will be shown in the sequel. 
It may seem strange that a people occupying the fertile slopes of the 
Maungatautari and the beautiful tract of country stretching along the Waikato 
to Rangiaowhia and Otawhao, could have been induced to abandon such a 
country in order to join in the conquest and settlement of a distant, and not 
more fertile, territory; but it must be remembered that, at the time in ` 
question, the whole Maori people were engrossed by one absorbing desire— 
that of acquiring fire-arms—and the inland position of the N gatiraukawa, and 
their known wealth in much that the natives then considered valuable, 
invited attack, whilst the former circumstance prevented them acquiring to 
any extent the much coveted European weapons. It is true, that through their 
relatives at Rotorua they succeeded, from time to time, in obtaining some 
