W. T. L. Travers. — The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 49 



taua^ and discovered the N'gatikahunguiiu, in great force, at a pa called 

 Tawhare Nikau. Undaunted, however, by the strength of the fortress, they 

 attacked and carried it with great slaugliter. Large numbers of the unfor- 

 tunate inhabitants escaped to the hills, where they suffered greatly, whilst the 

 invaders, after following the fugitives as far as Kawakawa and Porangahau, 

 killing many, fell back upon Tawhare Nikau, in order to gorge themselves 

 upon the bodies of the slain. The party then returned to Wellington and 

 proceeded to Omere, where they saw an European vessel lying off Raukawa, 

 in Cook Strait. Tamati Waka Nene, immediately on perceiving the ship, 

 shouted out to Te Rauparaha, " Oh, Raha, do you see that people sailing on 

 the sea 1 They are a very good people, and if you conquer this land and hold 

 intercourse with them you will obtain guns and powder, and become very 

 great." Te Rauparaha apparently wanted but this extra incentive to induce 

 him to take permanent possession of the country between Wellington and 

 Patea, and at once determined to remove thither with his tribe, as soon as he 

 could make such arrangements as would secure him in the possession of his 

 intended conquest. The taua returned along the coast line as they had first 

 come, killing or making prisoners of such of the inhabitants as they could 

 find as far as Patea. It was during the return of this war party that 

 Rangihaieta took prisoner a woman named Pikinga, the sister of Arapata 

 Hiria, a Ngatiapa chief of high rank, and whom he afterwards made his slave 

 Avife, a circumstance much and absurdly insisted upon in favour of the 

 Ngatiapa title during the investigations of the Native Lands Court into the 

 Manawatu case. Laden with spoil, and accompanied by numerous slaves, the 

 successful warriors reached Kawhia, where Tamati Waka Nene and Patuone, 

 with their party, left Te Rauparaha in order to return to their own country 

 at Hokianga. 



As I have before mentioned, Te Rauparaha had, during the progress of this 

 raid upon the South, conceived the idea of leaving the ancient possessions of 

 his tribe at Kawhia for the purpose of settling at Kapiti and upon the 

 country on the main land in its vicinity ; and accordingly, after the period of 

 festivity and rest usually indulged in by a returned taua, he began to take the 

 necessary steps, not only to induce his own people to accept his resolution, 

 but to enlist the sympathies and assistance of his relatives at Maungatautari 

 and elsewhere. During a visit which he paid for this purpose to the 

 Ngatiraukawa, he found their great chief Hape Tuarangi in , a dying state, 

 and the circumstances which then occurred contributed greatly to the ultimate 

 success of his designs. It appears that, notwithstanding the respect in which 

 the offspring of the Maori aristocracy are usually held by their own people, 

 and the influence they generally exercise in matters affecting the tribe, it is 

 not unusual for the natural ariki of a tribe, or chief of a hap a, to be, in some 



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