W. T. L. Travers. — The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 83 



tlie lagoon yielded large supplies of eels, so that the defenders ran little risk of 

 being obliged to surrender on account of famine, whilst the besiegers, on the 

 other hand, were compelled to depend on foraging parties for supplies, and 

 frequently ran short of provisions. Indeed, the difficulty of feeding his men 

 was the chief cause which led to the adoption of a plan of attack which, so far 

 as I am aware, was then adopted for the first time in Maori warfare. A 

 council of war having been held, it was determined to sap up to the two out- 

 works, and as soon as the head of the sap had been carried up to them, to pile 

 up in front of them immense quantities of dried brushwood, which were to be 

 set on fire when the wind blew in the direction of the pa, and to rush it so 

 soon as the palisading had been burned down. This plan was carried out, 

 and the two lines of sap exist to this day, and are as well carried out as if 

 done by the most experienced European engineers. At first Rauparaha 

 suffered considerable loss, for the enemy, foreseeing that the pa must be taken 

 if this plan of operation was successfully carried out, made the most strenuous 

 efforts to prevent it, but having been defeated in every encounter, and 

 Raupiiraha having taken precautions to prevent future loss, they allowed the 

 saps, to be pushed close up to the outworks. So soon as the besiegers, 

 however, had piled the brushwood in position it was fired by the people of the 

 pa, the wind at the time blowing from the north-west ; but a sudden change 

 occurring, both the outworks, as well as the general line of defences, were 

 soon enveloped in a mass of flame and smoke, from which the defenders were 

 compelled to retreat. When the palisading had thus been destroyed, the 

 Ngatitoa rushed through the burning ruins, and a general massacre ensued. 

 Many endeavoured to escape by swimming across the lagoon, and some few 

 succeeded in doing so, whilst others were interrupted by bodies of Ngatitoa 

 detached for that purpose. The slaughter was tremendous, whilst numbers of 

 prisoners also fell into the hands of the victors. Some conception may be 

 formed of the numbers slain and eaten, when I mention that some time after 

 the settlement of Canterbury the Rev. Mr. Raven, Incumbent of Woodend 

 near the site of the pa in question, collected many cartloads of their bones, and 

 buried them in a mound on the side of the main road from the present town 

 of Kaiapoi to the north. Ghastly relics of these feasts still strew the same 

 ground, from which I myself have gathered many. 



Having thus captured the main stronghold of the Ngaitahu, Rauparaha 

 sent detached parties of his warriors to scour the plains as far south as the 

 Rakaia, as well as to ravage the villages on the peninsula, by whom 

 hundreds of the unfortunate people were slaughtered; after which he made 

 his way back to the shores of Cook Strait, and from thence to Kapiti, laden 

 with spoil, and accompanied by large numbers of captives, some of whom 

 were kept in slavery, whilst others were used in the ordinary manner in the 

 festivities by which his triumph was celebrated. 



