W. T. L. Travers. — The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 41 



even to Taranaki ; and tliey also came in their canoes as far South as Ahui-iri 

 or Hawke's Bay, remorselessly destroying everywhere as they went. The tribes 

 further N^orth were also fighting against each other — the E-arawa destroying 

 the Aopuri, who were very numerous about the North Cape. Te Wherowhero, 

 at the head of his people, was slaughtering, for many years, on the West 

 Coast, from Taranaki to Wanganui ; Te Waharoa, and other chiefs, in the 

 interior and overland to Hawke's Bay ; the Rotorua tribes in the Bay of 

 Plenty ; and Te Bauparaha exterminating in the neighbourhood of Cook 

 Straits and along the East Coast of the Middle Island. From 1822 to 1837 

 was truly a fearful period in New Zealand. Blood flowed like water, and 

 there can be no doubt that the numbers killed during this period of twenty 

 years, including those who perished in consequence of the wars, far exceeded 

 60,000 persons." 



The preliminary sketch contained in the foregoing chapters, though brief, 

 will, I hope, convey to my readers a sufficiently clear idea of the manners 

 and customs, and character of the New Zealanders, and of the condition of 

 the tribes previously to the systematic colonization of the Islands, and will, 

 be found to aid them materially in understanding the events which will 

 be detailed in the following pages. It shows, moreover, the frightful results 

 brought about by placing the deadly weapons of European warfare, in the 

 hands of a savage and warlike race, whilst still uncontrolled by those milder 

 influences, to which, notwithstanding their ferocity, the New Zealanders have 

 shown themselves so singularly open and amenable. 



Chapter III. 

 At the time of the birth of Te Bauparaha, and, indeed, for many genera- 

 tions before that event, the Ngatitoa tribe occupied the country lying between 

 Kawhia and Mokau on the western side of the North Island, and extending 

 backward, from the coast line, to the seaward slopes of the beautiful Pirongia 

 mountain, and of the chain of hills to the southward, which bounds the 

 valleys of the Waipa and the Mangarama. This tribe, in fact, claims to have 

 held the country in question ever since its settlement by their ancestor, 

 Hoturoa, a leading chief amongst those who are said to have come from 

 Hawaiki in the " Tainui " canoe. It will be remembered that this canoe was 

 dragged across the portage at Otahuhu after the disputes between Tama 

 Te Kapu and Manaia about the dead whale, its chiefs and their followers 

 settling in and around Kawhia, and their descendants gradually spreading to 

 the eastward as far as Maungatautari. The Maoris, in various parts of the 

 Islands, believe that several of the canoes in which their ancestors came from 

 Hawaiki have been transformed into stone, and a remarkable block of lime- 

 stone, close to the sea-shore, on the north side of the harbour of Kawhia, is 



p 



