W. T. L. Travers.—The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 53 
an instance of his generalship, when, having forced a small party of his 
enemies into a narrow place, whence there was no egress, he was enabled, 
successively. to shoot twenty-two of them, without their having the power of 
making the slightest resistance. Now, such facts as these were well known to 
Te Rauparaha, and satisfied him that the utmost valour, backed even by very 
superior numbers, must be of no avail against a weapon of so deadly a 
character as the musket, when wielded by so daring and bloodthirsty a people 
as the New Zealanders. He, therefore, never wavered in his design, and 
from the time when Tamaki Waka Nene pointed out the ship sailing in Cook 
Strait, until his actual departure from Kawhia at the head of his people, his 
mind and his energies were constantly engaged in devising the means of 
carrying it to a successful issue. It was not, however, until upwards of two 
years after the return of the war party, mentioned in the last chapter, that 
the necessary arrangements for the migration were completed, and during this 
interval he frequently visited the Ngatiraukawa, at Maungatautari, for the 
purpose of urging them to join him, whilst he also held constant intercourse 
with the chiefs of Ngatitama and Ngatiawa, in regard to the assistance his 
people would require from them, whilst passing through their territory. I 
must caution my readers from inferring from the relationship and general 
friendliness which existed between the Ngatitoa and the N gatiawa, that 
either of these tribes would have felt much delicacy or compunstion in 
destroying the other. At the period in question, more, perhaps, than during 
any other in the history of the race, moral considerations had but little 
weight in determining the conduct either of the individual or of the tribe. 
The ruthless wars which were then being prosecuted all over the North 
were rousing, to the highest pitch, the savage instincts of the race, and even 
the nearest relatives did not hesitate in destroying and devouring each other. 
- Of this utter abandonment of all moral restraint many frightful instances 
might be quoted, but the fact is too well known to those who are acquainted 
with the history of the New Zealanders during the thirty years preceding the 
colonization of the Islands by the Europeans to require demonstration here. 
But however essential to the success of the enterprise were the friendship 
and co-operation of Ngatiawa, it was no less necessary that Te Rauparaha 
should be enabled to effect his object without danger of molestation’ from his 
“old enemies, the Waikatos, who would naturally be disposed to take 
advantage of any favourable circumstance, in connection with the event in 
question, in order to wreak their vengeance upon a foe from whom they had 
received many disastrous blows.. In the last chapter, I mentioned that the 
Ngatimaniapoto, then occupying the country extending along the coast to the 
northward of Kawhia, were connected by common descent, as well as by 
intermarriages, with the Ngatitoa; and I may now add that, although 
