88. Transactions. 
They had been taken but not killed.” But it is clear, nevertheless, that 
although Rauparaha refrained from directly molesting them, he was not 
unwilling to join in any indirect attempt to exterminate them, for we find 
that on one occasion Wi Tako, in conjunction with some of the Ngatitoa 
chiefs, having been instigated by Te Rauparaha to do so, invited the whole 
Muaupoko people to a great feast to be held at Ohariu—upon some one of the 
numerous pretexts which the Maoris knew so well how to use for engaging in 
festivities, it having been arranged beforehand that these guests should all be 
murdered and eaten. The bait took, notwithstanding the advice of Whatanui, 
who, distrusting the reasons assigned for the festival, cautioned the Muaupoko 
not to attend, predicting some disaster to them. Notwithstanding this 
caution, upwards of 150 attended the festival, all of whom were slaughtered, 
and their bodies duly consigned to the ovens; but this was the last great 
act of slaughter of the kind which took place. 
Shortly after the close of the civil war to which I have lately alluded, a 
section of the Ngatiawa tribe, known as the Ngatimutunga, which had taken 
up their quarters in Port Nicholson, chartered the English brig “ Rodney” to 
carry them down to the Chatham Islands, which had been reported to them 
by a member of their hapu, who had visited the islands in a whaling ship, as 
being thickly peopled with an unwarlike and plump-looking race, who would 
fall an easy prey to such experienced warriors as his own people. This 
occurred about the year 1836, and within less than two years after the 
expedition reached the islands the aboriginal inhabitants were reduced from 
1,500 to less than 200 people, the greater number having been devoured by 
their conquerors. In one of the cases in the Wellington Museum may be seen 
a bone spear, which formerly belonged to Mokungatata, one of the leading 
chiefs of the Ngatimutunga, who was known to have lived for a considerable 
time almost exclusively on the flesh of young children, as many as six of them 
being sometimes cooked in order to feast himself and his friends. 
Harking back to the division of Te Rauparaha’s forces, just before he left 
D’Urville Island for the purpose of attacking the Kaikoura Pa, that portion 
which remained under the leadership of Niho, Takerei, Te Koihua and Te 
Puoho, proceeded to attack the settlements of the Rangitane and Ngatiapa in 
Blind and Massacre Bays, which they entirely destroyed. Te Koihua settled 
near Pakawau, in Massacre Bay, where I frequently saw the old man, prior to 
his death, which happened but a few years ago. Strange to say, his love for 
green-stone was so great that even after he and his wife had both reached a 
very advanced age they travelled down the West Coast in 1858, then a very 
arduous task, and brought back a large rough slab of that substance, which 
they proceeded diligently to reduce to the form of a mere. Niho and Takerei, 
leaving Te Koihua in Massacre Bay at the time of their original incursion, 
