Chap. II. TRIBES OF COOK'S STRAIT— RIGHTS TO LAND. 37 
second them with all his ability. He was thoroughly 
acquainted with the feelings and customs ol the na- 
tives, as well as their language ; and his constant 
intercourse with them had produced in him a worthy 
admiration of the good points in their character. He 
knew them too well, however, to give them unlimited 
praise ; but was delighted at the prospect of a regular 
English colony, which might cherish and benefit 
them, while it should prevent the disastrous effects 
often arising from the intercourse between the most 
ill-disposed among them, and some of their White 
guests who, outlaws from civilized society, had de- 
generated into something more brutal than the savage. 
We also learnt from him in how unsettled a state 
was the proprietorship of land about Cook's Strait. 
-The country had been conquered about fourteen years 
before by the Kawia tribe. They had almost exter- 
minated the Muopoko, Rangitane, and Ngatiapa, who 
were the original occupiers. And even the spots now 
occupied were in dispute between the conquerors and 
the Ngatiawa, who followed nine years afterwards in 
their track. The very superior number of the Nga- 
tiawa seemed to constitute their only right to supplant 
the conquerors. We learned that a war in consequence 
of some such dispute had been only recently concluded 
in the north end of Queen Charlotte's Sound, and 
that the forts on Long Island were the remains of this 
war. It seems that Rauperaha had crossed the strait 
a year or two previously in canoes, and had established, 
VI et armis, his claim to that island and Motuara, 
which the Ngatiawa had disputed at the cost of eight 
men. The Ngahitau, too, who had originally occu- 
pied Cloudy Bay, had frequently followed their chief 
Tuaivaiki, or " Bloody Jack," in expeditions to recover 
their settlements ; and it was not many years since 
