W. T. L. Travers.— The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 73 
exclusively on the West Coast of the Middle Island, and it appears that the 
Ngaitahu of Kaikoura and Amuri especially, had long been in the habit of 
sending war parties across the island, for the purpose of killing and plundering 
the inhabitants of the district in which it was obtained. These expeditions 
sometimes passed through the Tarndale country to the Upper Waiauua, and 
from thence through the Kopiokaitangata, or Cannibal Gorge, at the head 
of the Marina River, into the valley of the Grey, from whence they ran down 
the coast to the main settlements from the mouth of that river to J ackson 
Bay, and at other times passed from the Conway and other points on the 
East Coast through the Hanmer Plains to the valley of the Ahaura, a 
tributary of the Grey, and so to the same localities. The line of route by the 
Cannibal Gorge runs partly through a tract of country which I now occupy 
as a cattle-run, and my men have frequently found stone axes, pawa shells, 
remains of eel-baskets, and other articles, left on the line of march ; similar 
articles being also found on the line through the Hanmer Plains. The scenery 
of the upper country on the line by the Cannibal Gorge is very grand and 
beautiful, the valley of the Ada, the head waters of which rise within half a 
mile of those of the Marina, running through an immense cleft in the Spencer 
Mountains, the summits of Mount Una and the Fairy Queen, capped with 
perpetual snow, rising abruptly on each side of the stream, to a height little 
under 6,000 feet, whilst the valley itself is rarely more than a quarter of a 
mile in breadth. The Cannibal Gorge is extremely rugged, and the full of 
the river tremendous, its waters, when swollen by rain and melting snow, 
pouring down the gorge for miles in a perfect cataract of foam, and with a 
roar, which, echoed from the rocky glens on each side, rivals that of N iagara. 
During their journeys to the coast through these rugged scenes the war 
parties lived entirely on eels, wekas, and kakapos, which, at that time, were 
numerous in the ranges; whilst on their return, after a successful raid, 
human flesh was often carried by the slaves they had taken, and the latter 
were, not unfrequently, killed in order to afford a banquet to their captors. 
During these expeditions large quantities of green-stone, both in rough blocks 
and in well-fashioned weapons—an art especially known to the West Coast 
natives—were often obtained, if the approach of the invaders was not 
discovered in time to permit the inhabitants to conceal themselves and their 
treasures, and it was the accumulated wealth of many years which Rauparaha 
expected to acquire in case he should prove victorious in his projected attack 
upon Rerewhaka and his people. 
CHAPTER VI. 
Ir was not until the morning of the fourth day after leaving D’Urville 
Tsland that the war party reached the Kaikoura Peninsula, and as they had 
K 
