122 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. V. 
curity. He has been known to throw one of his own 
men overboard in order to lighten his canoe when 
pursued by the enemy ; and he had slaughtered one of 
his own slaves at the late feast at jMana, to appear 
opulent in the eyes of his assembled guests. This was 
one of the poor, submissive, hard-working tributaries 
whom we had seen at the Pelorus. 
' In his intercourse with the White whalers and 
traders and the shipping in the Strait, he had uni- 
versally distinguished himself by the same qualities. 
By dint of cringing and fawning upon those who 
showed power and inclination to resist his constant 
extortions, and the most determined insolence and 
bullying towards those whom he knew to be at his 
mercy, he succeeded in obtaining a large revenue 
from the White population whether transient or per- 
manent, which he invariably applied to the extension 
of his power among the natives. 
He was always accompanied in these marauding 
excursions, which he frequently extended over to 
Cloudy Bay and Queen Charlotte's Sound, by Rangi- 
haeuta, who had become his inseparable companion 
since his rise in authority. Their respective stations 
were pithily described by one of the whalers, who told 
us that " the RobuUer,'' as he mispronounced his name, 
" cast the bullets, and the Rangihaeata shot them." 
Rauperaha was the mind and his mate the body on 
these black-mail-gathering rounds. They had both 
acquired a violent taste for grog ; and this, with fire- 
arms and powder, were the principal articles de- 
manded. 
The whaling-station on Evans's Island we found to 
be more complete, and under more thorough discipline 
and efficient mangement, than those in Port Under- 
wood or at Te-awa-iti. The boats put off" after a 
