SHOETLAjiTD. — SJcetcJi of the Maori Races. 331 



people on tlie subject of colonization and the acquirement of territory. 

 They very quickly left a settlement a little to tlie westward of their first 

 landing place, where their descendants, a tribe called Ngatitai, still dwell. 

 Thence they sailed to Tauranga, entered that harbour, and, navigating its 

 waters, left another settlement at Katikati ; a rock named Te punga o 

 Tainui, the anchor of Tainui, is pointed out, and an extensive shoal, Te 

 ranga a Taikehu, was named after Taikehu, one of the chiefs on board the 

 ca;noe. It is affirmed that Taikehu, having dropped a greenstone hatchet 

 overboard, according to custom had recourse to a charm, which was so 

 potent that the land rose and the water dried up, so that he picked up the 

 lost hatchet without difiiculty ; that the shoal now exists is the evidence of 

 the fact, and who may doubt it ? Leaving Katikati, the next place Tainui 

 touched at was Mercury Bay ; thence it sailed on towards Waitemata, and 

 some of them settled near there, at Tamaki ; their descendants are also 

 called Ngatitai, who have the title Manawapowatu (stony heart) , to dis- 

 tinguish them from their kindred JSTgatitai, who were left on the shore of the 

 Bay of Plenty, and v/ho were called in distinction Manawaiti (little heart) . 

 Arriving at the head of the arm of the sea called Tamaki — the spot is still 

 called Te apunga o Tainui, the landing place of Tainui — the canoe was dragged 

 across to the waters of Manukau, and passing out through the entrance 

 of that harbour, thence sailed along the coast to the southward, till it 

 arrived off the Eiver Waikato. On seeing that river flowing into the sea, the 

 priest exclaimed " Waikato, "Waikato kau." This jest of his gave the name 

 to that river. As they coasted along the beach now called Te akau, he 

 exclaimed, "Ko te akau kau" — it's nothing but beach; and when they 

 arrived off Kawhia, he called it " Kawhia kau." At that place they landed, 

 and the canoe was finally dragged ashore. Kawhia has ever since remained 

 in possession of the descendants of its crew, who form a tribe called after it 

 Tainui. This as well as all the tribes, more than twenty-five in number, 

 which together are comprehended under the general name of Waikato, have 

 sprung from a Tainui source. 



Of the voyage of the canoe Te Arawa, and of the history of its crew and 

 their descendants, there exists the most circumstantial narrative I have 

 met with ; it preserves so many circumstances looking like truth. It is, 

 however, too lengthy to give here. I may mention that from it we ascertain 

 the season of the year when these voyagers reached New Zealand ; the rata 

 tree was then in flower, for one of them, named Taininihi, threw away his 

 kura, which was a head-dress made of red feathers, described by Cook as worn 

 by the South Sea Islanders, thinking to get a new and better one from the 

 rata flowers. This kura drifted ashore, and was afterwards picked up by a 

 person named Mahina, who refused to restore it when asked. Hence the 



