ORIGINAL CANOES. 
289 
places and families by calling tbe headlands after them ; two 
old chiefs still living at Mawe, a village on its banks, declare 
that when they were boys, watching with their tribe, by the 
side of the lake, for fear of their enemies, in bravado they 
ran np the hill Putaia, a very sacred spot which has several 
remarkable fissures in it, down one of them they threw 
some stones, afraid of what they had done, they ran away, 
when a tremendous rumbling took place, and the earth shook 
under them until they were so frightened that their teeth 
chattered ; after some time, they saw an island suddenly rise 
up in the middle of the lake, which extended nearly across 
it • it remained the whole of that day, and then gradually 
subsided, leaving a shoal in its place, which is still to be 
seen, the deepest water being near the shores.* 
Original Canoes. 
The following is a list of the Canoes which are said to 
have brought the first settlers to the island : — 
1. Mataorua . — The chief was Kupe ; it came to Wanganui 
a te ra, Port Nicholson. Kupe went back to Ilawaiki. The 
Nga te rua nui came in it. 
2. Aotea. — Turi was its chief ; it brought the karaJca, 
which was first planted at Aotea, the kakaua, kumara, and 
joara tawitij yam ; this name is now given to an edible 
fern, the former being lost ; the pukeko, kakariki, and all 
plundering birds, with the kiore, rat, came in it, also the 
Nga-ti-rua-nui, Nga rauru, Wanganui, and Ngatimaru. This 
canoe is likewise called Aotea roa. 
* This tradition is probably founded on fact. That the site of the present 
lake was a wood, is evident from the number of trees which are still standing 
in the water. When Captains Ross and Crozier came to Waimate, they cast 
the seine into the lake at some distance from the shore, but it was so entangled 
amongst the stumps at the bottom as to be almost tom to pieces, bringing up 
large branches of trees with it ; the greatest depth of the lake was found to be 
five fathoms, from it flows a river over a ledge of rock, to the west, and falls 
into the Hokianga, this ledge is doubtless a stream of lava, which, crossing 
the lowest part of the plain, stopped its drainage, and thus formed the present 
lake, which, with very little expense, might be restored to what it must once 
have been — one of the most fertile plains in that part of the island. 
U 
