74 Transactions. 



arrived before daylight they anchored a short distance from the shore, in order 

 that they might be enabled at dawn to reconnoitre the position of the enemy 

 before landing. It would appear that the Ngaitahus at that time expected a 

 visit from a southern chief of their own tribe, with a considerable following, 

 and that on the morning in question, seeing the canoes of Rauparaha's party 

 at anchor, and not having noticed the direction from which they had come, 

 they mistook them for those of their friends, and large numbers of the people 

 of the pa ran down to the shore, shouting the cry of welcome to the supposed 

 visitors, who, at once seeing the advantage which the mistake would afford 

 them in their intended attack, made for the shore with all possible speed, and 

 having reached it jumped out of the canoes and immediately commenced the 

 attack. The unfortunate people, being quite unarmed, and taken by surprise, 

 endeavoured to escape by retreating towards the pa, which, in the general 

 confusion, was taken without difficulty, some 1,400 of the people, including 

 women and children, being killed or taken prisoners, amongst the latter of 

 whom was the chief Rerewhaka, whose threat Rauparaha was then avenging. 

 After remaining for some time to feast upon the bodies of the slain, and to 

 plunder the pa of its treasures, the victorious ISTgatitoa returned with their 

 prisoners to Kapiti, where the greater number of the latter, including 

 Rerewhaka himself, were put to death and eaten, the chief having been 

 sacrificed with great cruelty on account of the threat which had been the 

 prime cause of the attack. In consequence of this circumstance Rauparaha 

 named the battle the '^niho manga, or battle of the shark's tooth." At the 

 time of this event another section of the Ngaitahu tribe occupied an extensive 

 pa called Kaiapoi, about fourteen miles north of Christchurch, with the 

 inhabitants of which Rauparaha made up his mind to pick a quarrel at the 

 first convenient opportunity, but he felt that the force he had under his 

 command at Kaikoura was too small for the purpose of any attack upon it, 

 particularly after the enemy had received notice of the fall of the latter place, 

 and had had time to make preparations for defence. In the following year, 

 before he had had an opportunity of devising any particular scheme for 

 the purpose of bringing about a quarrel between himself and the Kaiapoi 

 people, he was induced again to attack the remnant of the Ngaitahu at 

 Kaikoura, in consequence of an insult put upon Rangihaeata by a Ngatika- 

 hungunu chief named Kekerengu, who, dreading the consequences, had fled 

 across the strait and taken refuge with them. Rauparaha collected a 

 considerable force of Ngatitoa and their allies, under his own leadership, with 

 Te Pehi, Pohaitara, Rangihaeata, and other principal chiefs under him, and 

 started for the Wairau, from whence he made his way along the coast to 

 Kaikoura. On his arrival there he found that the pa had been evacuated on 

 their approach, the inhabitants flying down the Amuri. They were overtaken 



