W. T. L. Travers. — The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 53 



an instance of his generalship, when, having forced a small party of his 

 enemies into a narrow place, whence there was no egress, he was enabled, 

 successively, to shoot twenty-two of them, without their having the power of 

 making the slightest resistance. Now, such facts as these were well known to 

 Te Rauparaha, and satisfied him that the utmost valour, backed even by very 

 superior numbers, must be of no avail against a w^eapon of so deadly a 

 character as the musket, when wielded by so daiing and bloodthirsty a people 

 as the New Zealanders. He, therefore, never wavered in his design, and 

 from the time when Tamaki Waka Nene pointed out the ship sailing in Cook 

 Strait, until his actual departure from Kawhia at the head of his people, his 

 mind and his energies were constantly engaged in devising the means of 

 carrying it to a successful issue. It w^as not, however, nntil upwards of two 

 years after the return of the war party, mentioned in the last chapter, that 

 the necessary arrangements for the migration were completed, and during this 

 interval he frequently visited the Ngatiraukawa, at Maungatautari, for the 

 purpose of urging them to join him, whilst he also held constant intercourse 

 with the chiefs of Ngatitama and Ngatiawa, in regard to the assistance his 

 people would require from them, whilst passing through their territory. I 

 must caution my readers from inferring from the relationship and general 

 friendliness which existed between the Ngatitoa and the Ngatiawa, that 

 either of these tribes would have felt much delicacy or compunction in 

 destroying the other. At the period in question, more, perhaps, than during 

 any other in the history of the race, moral considerations had but little 

 weight in determining the conduct either of the individual or of the tribe. 

 The ruthless wars which were then being prosecuted all over the North 

 were rousing, to the highest pitch, the savage instincts of the race, and even 

 the nearest relatives did not hesitate in destroying and devouring each other. 

 Of this utter abandonment of all moral restraint many frightful instances 

 might be quoted, but the fact is too well known to those who are acquainted 

 with the history of the New Zealanders during the thirty years preceding the 

 colonization of the Islands by the Europeans to require demonstration here. 



But however essential to the success of the enterprise were the friendship 

 and co-operation of Ngatiawa, it was no less necessary that Te Rauparaha 

 should be enabled to effect his object without danger of molestation from his 

 old enemies, the "VYaikatos, who would naturally be disposed to take 

 advantage of any favourable circumstance, in connection with the event in 

 question, in order to wreak their vengeance upon a foe from whom they had 

 received many disastrous blows. In the last chapter, I mentioned that the 

 Ngatimaniapoto, then occupying the country extending along the coast to the 

 northward of Kawhia, were connected by common descent, as w^ell as by 

 intermarriages, with the Ngatitoa ; and I may now add that, although 



