348 
TAPOUKA. 
gentlemen of the big guns, to say if you have had enough. 
We have. Let there be peace then.” 
Thus ended the first, and we trust the last, war in the north 
of the Island, between the European and native races. How¬ 
ever much it may be lamented, we cannot but regard it as one 
of those events which, in the course of Providence, has been 
overruled for the establishment of a permanent good under¬ 
standing between the two races. At first, the aborigines w r ere 
despised, afterwards feared, and at last respected. 
The natives were surprised when they found they were 
at liberty to occupy their former lands, which by their own 
customs had been forfeited; to this moderation of the Go¬ 
vernor, is mainly to be attributed the good understanding 
which has since prevailed. 
This war, when contrasted with their former savage ones, 
prior to their embracing Christianity, is remarkable for the 
entire absence of unnecessary acts of cruelty, and even for 
many instances of a kindly feeling towards their foes, which 
showed most clearly how great a change the mild precepts of 
the Gospel have effected in the native mind. 
The Governor afterwards met Heke, who presented him 
with his green stone mere, which is now preserved in the 
British Museum; and shortly afterwards he began to decline 
in health, and died. He was only about forty years of age. 
His body laid in state, decorated in the native style, for some 
time previous to its interment, and was visited by most’of the 
natives of that part of the Island. 
Kawiti, the other Chief, died about 1853, having previously 
embraced Christianity, and been baptized. 
Tapouka, a great Chief of the Middle Island. The whalers 
gave him the soubriquet of Old Wig. He was celebrated for 
his great cunning, as well as courage. Formerly the Dusky 
Bay tribe was very numerous, it is now all but extinct. This 
wily Chief adopted the following curious expedient to surprise 
and destroy a more numerous tribe than his own. He dressed 
up some of his men in seal skins, and sent them into the 
vicinity of the enemy, carefully planting his men in ambush 
