- W. T. L. Travers.— The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 79 
he managed to strangle his daughter, and to push her body through one of 
the after ports, in order to save her from the indignities to which she would 
be subjected by her ruthless captors, but he himself was taken alive to 
Kapiti, where he was delivered over to the widows of Te Pehi, who subjected 
him to frightful tortures, until at length he was put out of his misery by a red- 
hot ramrod being passed through his neck. 
The following is the account given to me by Tamihana Te Rauparaha of 
the mode in which the unfortunate chief was delivered over to his death :— 
“« When the vessel arrived at Kapiti it was proclaimed that Tamaiharanui was 
on board, and the people were delighted. Ngaitahu had thought there was 
only the flowing sea (i.¢., that there was no one going to attack them), but 
they were deceived, and Tamaiharanui was taken. There were not many 
people left in charge of Kapiti when the ship returned ; they were at 
Waikanae and Otaki scraping flax as cargo for the vessel. Te Pehi’s widows 
were at Waitohu, near Otaki, scraping flax. Tamaiharanui was then taken 
to Otaki in Rauparaha’s canoe to be shown to those widows, as it was to be 
left to them to determine whether he was to be killed or allowed to live. 
When they arrived at Otaki he asked Rauparaha to spare him, but Rauparaha 
replied, ‘If the party killed, that is, Te Pehi, belonged to me, I would save 
you, but as the dead belonged to Ngatitoa I cannot save you.’ He was then 
taken to Waitohu, to be seen by the widows, and by Tiaia, the chief wife of 
Pehi, and was then delivered over to them. They hung him on a tree and 
killed him with great torture, and he died when a red-hot ramrod was put 
through his neck by Tiaia. Rauparaha did not witness his death.” 
It is impossible to conceive that women could descend so low in the 
scale of humanity as to commit such atrocities without any sentiment of 
compassion or of remorse, but those who are familiar with the history of the 
times of which I write, may recall many frightful instances of barbarity of 
the same kind. Amongst these, one of the most cruel which has come under 
my notice is the following, related by Mr. Wilson in his “ Three chapters in 
the Life of Te Wakaroa” :—“ We may here mention a tragedy—all are 
tragedies in this chapter of horrors. Mr. Knight was accustomed, every 
morning about sunrise, to attend a school at Ohinemutu Pa, but as there 
were no scholars on the morning of the 12th May, he went to the place 
where he was told they would be found. There he perceived a great number 
of people sitting in two assemblages on the grouhd—one entirely of men, the 
other of women and the chief Pango. The former company he joined, and 
conversed with them, as well as he was able, on the sin of cannibalism, but 
Korokai and all laughed at the idea of burying their enemies. Their conver- 
sation ceased, however, on Knight hearing the word patua (kill) repeated 
several times ; and looking round toward the women, he was horrified to see 
