W. T. L. Teavers. — The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 79 



he managed to strangle his daughter, and to push her body through one of 

 the after ports, in order to save her from the indignities to which she would 

 be subjected by her i-uthless captors, but he himself was taken alive to 

 Kapiti, where he was delivered over to the widows of Te Pehi, who subjected 

 him to frightful tortures, until at length he was put out of his misery by a red- 

 hot ramrod being passed through his neck. , 



The following is the account given to me by Tamihana Te Eauparaha of 

 the mode in which the unfortunate chief was delivered over to his death : — 

 " "When the vessel arrived at Kapiti it was proclaimed that Tamaiharanui was 

 on board, and the people were delighted. Ngaitahu had thought there was 

 only the flowing sea (^.e., that there was no one going to attack them), but 

 they were deceived, and Tamaiharanui was taken. There were not many 

 people left in charge of Kapiti when the ship returned ; they were at 

 Waikanae and Otaki scraping flax as cargo for the vessel. Te Pehi's widows 

 were at Waitohu, near Otaki, scraping flax. Tamaiharanui was then taken 

 to Otaki in Rauparaha's canoe to be shown to those widows, as it was to be 

 left to them to determine whether he was to be killed or allowed to live. 

 When they arrived at Otaki he asked Rauparaha to spare him, but Rauparaha 

 replied, ' If the party killed, that is, Te Pehi, belonged to me, I would save 

 you, but as the dead belonged to Ngatitoa I cannot save you.' He was then 

 taken to Waitohu, to be seen by the widows, and by Tiaia, the chief wife of 

 Pehi, and was then delivered over to them. They hung him on a tree and 

 killed him with great torture, and he died when a red-hot ramrod was put 

 through his neck by Tiaia. Rauparaha did not witness his death." 



It is impossible to conceive that women could descend so low in the 

 scale of humanity as to commit such atrocities without any sentiment of 

 compassion or of remorse, but those who are familiar with the history of the 

 times of which I write, may recall many frightful instances of barbarity of 

 the same kind. Amongst these, one of the most cruel which has come under 

 my notice is the following, related by Mr. Wilson in his "Three chapters in 

 the Life of Te Wakaroa": — "We may here mention a tragedy — all are 

 tragedies in this chapter of horrors. Mr. Knight was accustomed, every 

 morning about sunrise, to attend a school at Ohinemutu Pa, but as there 

 were no scholars on the morning of the 12 th May, he went to the place 

 where he was told they would be found. There he perceived a great number 

 of people sitting in two assemblages on the ground — one entirely of men, the 

 other of women and the chief Pango. The former company he joined, and 

 conversed with them, as well as he was able, on the sin of cannibalism, but 

 Korokai and all laughed at the idea of burying their enemies. Their conver- 

 sation ceased, however, on Knight hearing the word patua (kill) repeated 

 several times ; and looking round toward the women, he was horrified to see 



