Chap. V. SAUPERAHA'S INFLUENCE AND TREACHERY. 121 
Rev. Mr. Marsden, the venerable founder of the Church 
mission in New Zealand, vraited upon the Government 
of New South Wales, in order to obtain for Captain 
Stewart the penalty which he deserved, he escaped with 
impunity. The affair was hushed up ; evidence which 
might have been obtained was put out of the way, and 
he was tried and acquitted.* 
Since Te Pehis death, Ravperaha had become the 
sole Ariki or ruler of Cook's Strait ; easily weighing 
down the balance of Hiko's higher descent by his 
own superior talents of deceit and knowledge of their 
little world. 
When the Ngat'>aiua migrated from Taranaki in 
about 1834 or 1835, he foresaw a probable obstacle to 
his authority, and moved every indirect means to arrest 
their progress and to destroy them as they came. He 
induced some of his old allies at Taupo to join with 
the J4^anganui tribes in a powerful opposition to their 
advance ; and when this manoeuvre was defeated by 
Hiko, who led a large party to the rescue of his 
mother's relations, Rauperaha hounded the Ngatirau- 
kawa on to their track. 
Since their successful establishment, he had vainly 
endeavoured to injure them by treacherous alliance or 
open enmity, and had acquired among them a reputa- 
tion for duplicity and cruelty almost unexampled in the 
traditions of even Maori history. 
Innumerable accounts have been related to me of 
Rauperaha^ unbounded treachery. No sacrifice of 
honour or feeling seems to have been too great for 
him, if conducive to his own aggrandizement or se- 
* See Evidence of the Eev. W. Yate before the House of Com- 
mons' Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements), 1836; and 
that of J. B. Montefiore before the House of Lords' Committee on 
New Zealand, 1838. 
