1921.] Beattie.—Mystery of Fiordland : Vanished Maori Tribe. 87 
occupied by Maoris, other Maoris furnishing additional evidence of the 
existence of these wild men.” 
■ < Maori Accounts. 
So much for the evidence of white men as to the fact that Maori 
refugees were living on the West Coast from Preservation Inlet to north of 
Milford Sound in the eighteenth century and during the first seven decades 
of the past century. The evidence vouches for the fact, but it brings us no 
nearer a solution of the problem. For albthe Europeans knew to the contrary, 
the Maoris reported in the Fiords might have been visitors from Hokitika 
and Arahura to the north, or Colac Bay and Ruapuke to the south. It 
is when we touch the Maori side of the case that it begins to assume a 
problematical aspect. The mystery of the final disappearance of those wild 
natives has as much interest for the pakeha as for the Maori, but the 
problem of the identity of those people affects the Maori solely, and its 
solution can only be attempted on Maori evidence. 
Nearly all the old Maoris whom the writer interviewed in southern 
New Zealand had something to say about the wild natives, and their 
information is herewith presented. j 
One old man narrated : 4 ‘Long ago [1842] a sealing-party of Howell’s 
went into Bligh Sound, where they saw smoke coming from a cave. They 
chased the cave-dwellers for a good distance. Snow lay on the ground 
and the tracks were easy to follow, but the pursuers could not catch the 
wild natives. Te Au, who was a Kati-Mamoe himself, followed them 
farthest, but in the end he gave up the chase. The sealing-party were 
Captain Gilroy (mate of the schooner), Henare Paremata, Te Au, Pakipaki, 
and others, and the}^ brought away a 'patu-'paraoa (whalebone mere) and 
kokahu (mats) as relics of the people of the cave. Those people were 
supposed to be Hawea 5 people, and Bligh Sound has since then borne the 
Maori name of Te Ana-hawea (the cave of the Hawea Tribe). Some years 
before this took place the white sealers told the Maoris that a native woman 
was living on the west side of Taumoana (Resolution Island), and a party 
went there to catch her. They spread out in the search, and the two or 
three men who caught her asked her name and then killed her. There 
were no chiefs present at this killing, and when they came up and found 
she was dead they were very angry; as they considered she might have been 
able to give good information. She might have been able to tell about 
the ancient people of Te Waipounamu (South Island). Her name was 
Taki-te-kura and it is thought she was a Kati-Mamoe woman. Some 
time about then a sealing-party under 4 Long Harry’ [Henry Boardman] 
entered Dusky Sound and went by Acheron Passage into Wet Jacket Arm, 
where they came suddenly on about forty natives cooking weka (woodhens) 
by the kohiku method. The Maoris appeared quite friendly and did not seem 
afraid, so the sealers went back a little way to a landing-place and tied the 
boat. When they got to the camp not a native was to be seen ; they 
and their belongings had completely disappeared, leaving the fires burning. 
The sealers were afraid to go far into the bush, so gave up the search and 
rowed away. 4 Long Harry ’ lived for years after this at Orautahi (Smoky 
Cave, on Stewart Island), and it was from his own lips I heard the story. 
I think those wild natives would all die out long ago.” 
An old man at the Bluff told me that he had been in all the sounds 
several times since 1864, and at no place did he ever see any evidence of 
wild natives. But there still lives at Colac Bay a survivor of the famous party 
who saw the last recorded traces of the refugees. This was in about 1873 
or 1874, and the party was round at the head of Milford Sound. Their 
