1856 - Shortland, Edward. Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders - CHAPTER XIII

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MILITARY AFFAIRS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ancient weapons of the New Zealanders were all designed for hand-to-hand fighting. Of these, their favourite ones were the patu-pounamu, which was borne in the right hand, secured to the wrist by a string and loop, and used in the same manner as a tomahawk; the taiaha, a kind of two-handed sword made of the hardest wood of the country; and the tewhatewha, a wooden battle-axe, having a sharp-pointed handle to enable it also to answer the purpose of a spear. Another kind of two-handed sword was made out of the rib-bone of the whale: this is said to have been a very formidable weapon; for owing to the natural curvature of the bone, it had one side concave and the other convex, which peculiar form caused a blow with it to be difficult to ward off. In addition to the above, we may mention two spears--the timata, described in the foregoing chapter; and the tao, a long heavy spear, designed for thrusting between the palisades when attacking a Pa. Bows and arrows were

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never used in war, nor any other sort of missile except stones. In fight, their bodies were generally naked. Some, however, bound a mat, of a strong and coarse texture, securely round the belly and loins, having first dipped it in water, that the thread by contracting might become firmer and better able to resist the thrust of a spear.

Since their intercourse with Europeans, they have discarded these arms for the musket, or double-barrelled gun, and the steel tomahawk, fitting the latter with a short handle for one hand, or with a long handle for both hands, made of hard wood and pointed at the extremity. This is the favourite weapon of their valiant and dashing fellows, who wield it with great effect, the sharp-pointed handle giving it the double power of thrusting as well as cutting.

On the first occasion of meeting our troops at Okaihau, they tried their strength with them in the open field, and charged boldly up to the bayonets of a company of the 58th regiment with these long-handled tomahawks. They were no match, however, for a disciplined body of men, and having then got the worst of it, ever after stuck to their palisades and intrenchments, and to their forests, which jokingly, but with great truth, they styled their best allies.

The Pa, or fortifications of the New Zealanders, evince considerable skill in the selection of advan-

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tageous sites, and in the artificial defences designed to resist the forces by which they were liable to be assailed. One of the most common sites was the crown of a hill, or the summit of a cliff by the sea shore. In the latter case, the cliff effectually secured one side of the Pa, and on the other three sides a broad and deep trench was dug, so as to enclose a space of a square or oblong shape. The rampart thus formed was defended by one or more rows of palisades. Each side was a straight line or a curve, as the nature of the ground rendered most convenient; but flanking projections were formerly never constructed, nor could they have been of any service when the only missiles were stones thrown by the hand. As soon, however, as firearms came into use, the military genius of the people showed itself in the improvements they made on their old plan of fortifications, as will be seen hereafter.

A knowledge of the sort of warfare formerly practised in this country, and of the modes of treating the conquered, is of peculiar interest, inasmuch as many of the prevailing customs illustrate the superstitions of its inhabitants--wars being always carried on under the supposed patronage of guardian spirits, and in conformity with fixed laws. The fact that a sense of religious obligation influenced them at such times, lessens in a measure our natural horror at the enormous barbarity of

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many of their acts, which otherwise we should look on as having been suggested solely by the sanguinary and ruthless disposition of the native character. A great part of what follows relating to this subject is translated from narratives actually penned by some of themselves, and may therefore be relied on as authentic. Tarapipipi, the author of several of the succeeding paragraphs, has been already spoken of as a young chief of great intelligence, and a son of a celebrated warrior.

TARAPIPIPI'S NARRATIVE.

"Suppose a person is killed by one of another tribe--an armed party, called the taua-toto, sets off immediately. If, while this troop is on the march, their priest dreams at night, and sees some dead bodies on the ground, the instant he awakes he thus addresses them--'Listen, 0 warriors, to the dream I have dreamed this night. As I was sound asleep, I beheld a dead body stretched on the ground. It will not be long ere we kill some one.' Then is the war party glad. Great is their joy at hearing the dream; and if it prove to be true, they go forward against the enemy and assault their Pa. If they take the Pa, they kill every one found in it, whether men, or women and children, except such as are reserved to be slaves.

"Of the slain, some are cooked and eat. The

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first man killed is made sacred to the Atua, in order to propitiate him. He is called the Mata-ati, and is thus disposed of. His heart is immediately cut out and stuck on the top of a post. His ear and some of the hair of his head are preserved to be used at the ceremony called Whangaihau 1 (Feed-wind). The ear 2 is for the female Ariki of the tribe to eat in the ceremony called Ruahine, 3 by which the war party are made noa. The heart is for the male Ariki to eat at the ceremony called Tautane. The second person slain, called the Ma-ta-tohunga, 4 is also sacred, the priest alone being permitted to eat of his flesh.

"When the war party return to their own settlement, they perform the ceremony of Whangaihau; after which they are noa, and are at liberty to go about their ordinary business. As for the remains of the flesh which the war party had been eating, it is thrown away in the bush; for it must not be eat by women. Such food is sacred. The males alone may taste it. If any of it were eat by a woman, some misfortune would happen to the tribe.

"Another custom of war is this. Suppose the

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taua or war party is a large body of men--when they reach the enemy's country, they take up a position for a camp and build themselves huts: they then set to work to collect food, and carry it to the encampment: and lastly, having laid up abundance of food, they go out to fight with the men of the place. If the men of the place come out of their Pa to meet them, they will retreat a little, in order to draw the former to a distance from the Pa; and if they succeed in this endeavour, they will still retreat further, till the enemy are drawn out in pursuit to a considerable distance. During the retreat the bravest men occupy the rear, while the old men and chiefs lead the van. At length the latter shout out, 'Whakahokia' (turn them back). In a moment all obey the word of command, and turn on their pursuers.

"'Kei ahau te mata-ati' (to me belongs the mata-ati) shouts a valiant, as he makes a dash to strike down the first man of the enemy.

"'Kei ahau te tatao' (to me belongs the tatao), shouts another valiant, leaping among the thickest of the foe.

"With this the men of the place break and fly. But as soon as they reach their old men, they are kicked back and compelled to renew the fight. And by-and-by, they in their turn force the attacking party to fly. But when the latter reach their old men and chiefs, they are also kicked back;

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and the combat is continued with greater vigour than ever. At last the men of the place give way: and this time their chiefs cannot force them back; for they are completely routed, and their bravest men lie dead on the field of battle. Then the victors, following closely in pursuit, rush into the Pa with the vanquished, and so become masters of it. The attacking party is brave, if it first gain the battle in the field, and afterwards take the Pa.

"When the taua or war party is small, their mode of proceeding is different. Not a word is breathed to the many, lest it should be repeated to some relation of the enemy residing among them, who might send a messenger to give intelligence of the design; whereas they desire to go secretly, and not to be discovered. This taua is named a Konihi, or Whakatoke. Its mode of acting is so evil that it is greatly dreaded by every one; for it lies in ambush to slay in the evening, at the going down of the sun, or at midnight, or at the dusk of the morning, or when men first arise at day-break. If the people of any country hear a rumour of such a taua being abroad, so abiding is their fear of it, that they dare not sleep; they will not go to a distance from their Pa; they will not visit their cultivations, nor even go out by night.

"Another custom of war is the following:--The taua sets off secretly, and rests without the enemy's Pa during the night. Just before day-break, the

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assault is made. By the time the men of the Pa are awake, the war party are among them. They will not then make much resistance. The tomahawk alone does the business. This sort of taua is called a tuki-ata (strike in the morning). As for the slain, even if there should chance to be a kinsman among them, no distinction is made; all are thrown alike into the oven, and are eat as soon as ever they are cooked. But while their flesh is being devoured a charm is repeated."

In this narration nothing is said of the mode of besieging strong fortifications, which could not be taken by artifice or a coup de main. In such cases, if the attacking party were much more numerous than the besieged, they sometimes erected a fence of palisades, so as to encircle the Pa, and prevent all ingress or egress, till at length they starved out its inhabitants. This plan was called karapoti. Another plan was to collect a large quantity of dry fern and brushwood, and heap it up against one side of the Pa--then, waiting for a strong wind blowing in a proper direction, to set the heap on fire, and burn down the defences.

The use of fire-arms soon compelled the New Zealanders to give up many of their ancient war customs. Instead of fighting hand-to-hand as before, they have learned to seek the shelter of trees or rocks; and where the cover is of a nature only to conceal the body, but not to protect it from a

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bullet, as each man fires he immediately changes his position, creeping to some other bush. By this artifice, if the enemy direct their fire at the points whence they see the smoke issue, having already removed out of the line of fire, he is able to reload his piece in comparative safety. The older men, who had acquired a reputation for their strength and skill in the use of their native weapon, are frequently heard to regret that the musket has made them less brave than of yore. The fact is, their skill at their old weapon now avails them but little, and they have consequently lost the self-confidence springing from a feeling of superiority.

The following narrative of the war carried on by the celebrated chief Te Rauparaha, against the tribe inhabiting the Middle Island, gives a graphic account of a New Zealander's campaign. It was written by his son, who accompanied his father, being then a lad.

At the time referred to fire-arms, though a new weapon, were possessed by both parties; and their military genius is remarkably evidenced by the fact, that we see them at that early period adopting, in their fortifications and in their modes of attack, similar plans to those in use among European nations-- and that, too, without any suspicion that they borrowed their ideas from the latter.

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TE RAUPARAHA'S WARS IN THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

"The cause of our war on the other Island was a curse by Rerewaka, the chief of Kaikoura (The Lookers-on). That chief boasted he would cut open Te Rauparaha's belly with the tooth of a fish. The fame of Te Rauparaha's valour had reached Kaikoura; hence it was that Rerewaka made use of the curse Niho-manga (Barcoota-tooth).

"When that curse was reported to Te Rauparaha, he set sail in his canoes with a war-party to fight at Kaikoura. So Rerewaka was killed, and a great number of his men perished with him, while they who were spared were made slaves.

"After the fighting was over, one of our chiefs, named Te Pehi, insisted on going on to Kaiapohia 5 to get a patu-pounamu from the men of that place; and a party of about one hundred in number set off on that expedition, leaving the main body at Kaikoura. These went the whole way by land, and reached Kaiapohia on the fourth day.

"On arriving at Kaiapohia, Te Pehi and his friends were invited to go up to the Pa to receive some presents of pounamu stone. But Te Rauparaha feared treachery, and cautioned Te Pehi not to go within the Pa, lest he should be killed. His advice was to barter muskets for pounamu outside

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the defences. Nevertheless, Te Pehi would not be persuaded; for he had a friend there named Tamaiharanui, whom he had known formerly at Port Jackson; so he and his friends went inside the Pa, and slept there one night. But as soon as the morning dawned, they were set upon, and twenty of them, all men of rank, were murdered on the spot. The rest escaped, by leaping over the fence, and so, getting out of the Pa, fled to the main body.

"How now were the men of the Pa to be got at? If they had dared to come out, there had been a way to obtain a payment by battle. But they would not show themselves; and therefore the war party returned to their main body left at Kaikoura: and then all went back together to Kaputi.

"When we reached Kaputi, it became a matter of discussion, 'What shall be the payment for Te Pehi and the rest?' The resolution come to was to pay treachery by treachery--murder by murder: and after having so determined, we remained quiet for one year.

"About the end of that time, a ship made its appearance, and Te Rauparaha said to the chief of the ship, 'Will you not consent to carry me and my men to Wangaroa to strike a blow there? Your payment shall be flax--flax enough to load your ship.' This proposal pleased the chief of the ship: so taking on board one hundred and forty fighting men, he set sail from Kaputi, and in three

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days cast anchor at Wangaroa. Then was Tamaiharanui, the chief of Ngaitahu, insnared by the following stratagem: -- A message was sent, as though from the chief of the ship, inviting him to come for some casks of gunpowder; and Tamaiharanui, believing the message to be true, came immediately, bringing his wife and daughter with him. But he had no sooner stepped on board than he was caught and secured in irons. Immediately afterwards, the hundred and forty went on shore to attack the tribe of Wangaroa: and having destroyed all their settlements at that place, and killed or driven to the mountains the inhabitants, they returned to the ship with their prisoners, and set sail.

"While the ship was at sea, Tamaiharanui and his wife strangled their daughter--for the wife and daughter were left unbound--and no one knew anything about it till the girl was quite dead. As for the chief and his wife, they were brought to Otaki, and there delivered up to the wife of Te Pehi, whose name was Tiaia. From Otaki, they were both led to Waitohu to be put to death. Six women, all persons of rank, killed Tamaiharanui and his wife: having first pierced a hole in their necks they drank their blood, in order to obtain complete satisfaction. 6 This was done because Tamaiharanui was a murderer.

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"After the death of Tamaiharanui, we remained more than a year at Kaputi; and then went again to make war in the same country as before. It was in the eighth month our canoes were launched, about the season that the fruit of the karaka is red; and by the time we reached Kaiapohia the potatoes were grown to their full size.

"Kaiapohia was a Pa of strength, encompassed on three sides by a swamp; and the side not defended by the swamp was fenced by posts. On that side were three flanking projections pierced with openings for muskets. There were also twice five hundred men within the Pa. When these men looked at the excellence of their stronghold, and at the abundance of the provisions to support their strength heaped up on their store-houses, their hearts were full of boasting. So they shouted out to the war party, in their own dialect, 'E ta ma, hara mai ra, kia komotia o koutou ihu ki roto i Tarutu' (Come here, sirs, and we'll bury your noses in Tarutu). Tarutu was the name of the lake.

"During three months the Pa was besieged in vain. So our elders met in council to lay down a plan by which it might be taken quickly.

"Our chiefs take much thought about places which are difficult to storm. It is only the most clever who will devise the right method to take the strongest places. Of this sort was the supe-

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riority of the valour of Te Rauparaha. He was both brave and skilful in devising stratagems of war.

"Well then, the old men assembled in council. Some chiefs advised to make a kahupapa, or shield large enough for twenty men, who were to shove it before them towards the Pa. Straightway that work was begun; but when finished, it was found to be bad, and was therefore abandoned. Next it was proposed to dig zigzag trenches in the ground to reach as far as the Pa. To this every one consented as the proper method; and the digging commenced without delay. Three trenches were excavated--one was the work of Ngatitoa--one of Ngatiawa--and one of Ngatiraukawa. The work of digging the trenches was thus divided in order to distinguish the valour of each tribe.

"When the trenches reached nearly to the loopholes, the digging was put a stop to, and all the men went to cut brushwood and fern to set fire to the Pa. They worked hard making bundles of manuka, and threw them constantly as close as possible to the loop-holes, till a great heap was raised up.

"In the meantime the men of the Pa thought to set fire to the manuka, to burn it quickly without doing any injury to the fence. So on the first fine day, when there was not a breath of wind, they said to each other--'Now let us set fire to the heap; for this is a fine day, and the manuka which our

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enemies have laboured to heap up will soon be consumed.'

"On the contrary, our thoughts were intent on the first great wind that should blow straight towards the extremity of the Pa, in order then to set fire to the brushwood, that the flame of the fire might be carried towards the fence, and burn it down.

"So, early in the morning, soon after sunrise, while we, the war-party, were eating our first meal, the men of the Pa set the heap on fire by shoving out embers through the loop-holes whence they fired at us, and the manuka began to blaze.

"But when the fire was perceived, our chiefs cried out to assault the Pa instantly. So the whole six hundred stood up; no one thought about death, but merely pressing his nose to the nose of his wife or child, straightway rushed resolutely to death; for the manuka was burning, and we feared it would be consumed in vain outside the Pa. Then each man loaded himself with bundles of manuka: if he saw a gun pointed towards him he still went straight forwards, till he got close up to the loopholes. There were two men to every loop-hole, so that if one of them happened to be killed the other might stop it up. In this way all the loop-holes were stopped up, and the brushwood being hurled quite close to the fence, the fence also caught fire. Then the hearts of the warriors were glad, and they shouted out the ngeri to prevent the groans of the

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wounded being heard, that nothing might interrupt the combat. So the whole six hundred sung their ngeri together:--

"The sound of this ngeri inspired us with fresh courage. But when Ngaitahu, that is, the men of the Pa, heard it, and at the same time saw the fire burning their fence, they were seized with panic. So their Pa was taken by storm, and the greater part of them were either killed or made slaves.

"Some while after these events we, Ngati-toa, set out alone from Kaputi with the intention of catching paradise-ducks at Te Karaka (Cape Cambell). And while we were resting at Wairau waiting for a calm, that we might sail the more pleasantly to Te Karaka, our priest had a dream at night. In his dream he heard a voice singing to him these words:--

'Kei Wairau ia; kei Waiharakeke ka tumau atu.'
'At Wairau he is now; at Waiharakeke he will remain.'

"The men of the night, that is to say, spirits, sung this song.

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"Then the priest started up from his sleep, and repeated the words he had heard; and, believing it to be a bad omen, he warned us not to think of going on to Te Karaka, lest we should be killed by Ngaitahu.

"But Te Rauparaha showed contempt for the priest, and would not listen to his advice. So we set sail, part of us in a boat, and the rest in four canoes, the whole number of the crews being forty men. We who were in the boat having reached the shore first landed immediately; but, as we observed the marks of feet on the beach, and some fresh leaves of wild cabbage lying about, we advanced cautiously, Te Rauparaha in front, my elder brother next, and after him ten others. We had not gone far in this manner before we got sight of the men of the enemy's war-party lying in ambush, who, the moment they found they were discovered, made a rush at us. Then Te Rauparaha picked up a large stone to hurl at the foremost of the band. The man hesitated; and if there had only been a few more of us we would have turned back to fight with them, although they numbered more than one hundred; but being only ten we fled towards our boat. The boat was gained--in a moment it floated on the sea--we leaped on board: but in the hurry the oars were left behind, for they had been placed under the keel of the boat to assist in launching it.

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"So Ngaitahu coming up quickly, seized hold of the boat by the bow, and began to haul it on shore.

"Then, seeing no other way of escape, we leaped into the sea, and swam towards one of the canoes which had just arrived, and was waiting a little way off. We all got safely on board; but the canoe, being too heavily laden with the addition of our weight, was in danger of sinking; we therefore threw some slaves overboard to lighten it, and prepared to meet the enemy.

"In the meantime, Ngaitahu made use of the oars, and pulled after us in pursuit. They did not come very near us, however, for when they observed that we designed to retake the boat, if possible, by boarding, they returned to the shore.

"As for the priest who had the dream, he fell into the hands of Ngaitahu, being struck down on shore. Therefore we all acknowledged that his dream was true. The name of the priest was Te Raho."

The sequel of the narrative relates how they were pursued by the war-party of Ngaitahu as far as Cloudy Bay, where they made a stand, and sent a canoe at night across the Straits for assistance. After reinforcements arrived, an indecisive skirmish took place; but the Southern tribes, unwilling to risk a general engagement, took advantage of a favourable wind, launched all their canoes and boats by night, and sailed away to their own country.

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Owing to the rapid spread of Christianity, the war was never renewed by either party; and a few years later, the two sons of Te Rauparaha went on a mission of peace, preaching the gospel to the very tribes who had suffered so much from their father and his warriors.

The importance of the aborigines, as antagonists in arms, was very generally undervalued by the colonists, till experience forced them to acknowledge it. To this may be attributed the untoward result of our first collision with them at Wairau; for had Captain Wakefield known the sort of men he was about to deal with, an officer of his experience would never have thought of leading against them a body of undisciplined men, for the most part labourers with families dependent on them, who, having no personal interest in the dispute, engaged in the service unwillingly, and fled on the first appearance of real danger.

This unfortunate affair ruined the prestige for valour and prowess we before enjoyed, which, in the absence of real power, had availed so much in our dealings with the natives. Our superiority in arms had, up to that time, been acquiesced in by them as a thing of course; for they could not fail to remark our superiority in all points which had come under their observation, and they naturally inferred, that if our carpenters and other workmen used their tools with such wonderful skill, we should

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exhibit the same excellence in the use of our warlike implements.

The news of the unexpected success of their countrymen spread rapidly through the islands, and gave birth to ideas fraught with danger to the colonists. About eight months after, as I was travelling in a part of New Zealand remote from the settled districts, I rested for a night at a village on the banks of the lake Rotorua, belonging to a chief named Hikairo, who had lately returned from the Bay of Islands. From him I was surprised to learn that the people with whom he had been staying meditated evil against the government. He said, that on one occasion when he was in the house of Kawiti, the chief who afterwards became so famous, the question of their ability to fight soldiers was talked over, and that Kawiti declared himself anxious to try his strength with them. The information obtained through this indirect channel was, I believe, one of the first intimations of the growing disaffection which reached the government authorities.

It happened, unfortunately, that about this period great commercial difficulties oppressed all our Australian colonies; and the natives of New Zealand were thus deprived of many lucrative ways of employing their time, which had before contributed as much as anything to occupy and tranquilize their restless spirits. As soon as they were deprived of

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their peaceful occupations, they became the more ready to undertake anything new.

Heke, who was the mover of the outbreak which soon followed, took advantage of the general feeling of discontent prevailing through his tribe. To make for himself a name--always the grand object of ambition to a New Zealander--was no doubt partly his aim: at the same time, we must fairly give him credit for a certain amount of patriotic desire to become the champion of the liberties of his countrymen; for he did all in his power to convince his followers that they had just grounds of quarrel with the government, and his reasons for cutting down the flag-staff at Kororarika were enforced by a very remarkable statement, then published for the first time, on the authority of his being the son-in-law of the celebrated chief Hongi.

This statement was no less than a reported conversation between Hongi and King George, during which the King of England, he said, told Hongi, in reply to his enquiries, that he need never be afraid that the English had any design of taking possession of New Zealand, unless they set up his flag there. "Now," said Heke, "first came the Missionaries with their flag: 7 that was of no conse-

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quence. Then came Mr. Busby with his flag: 8 that I was of no consequence. Lastly came the Governor I with the Queen of England's flag. King George spoke the truth: the meaning of this flag is a taking possession of the soil."

Having matured his plans, Heke came suddenly, cut down the obnoxious flag-staff without opposition, and then went home again. Afterwards, when Governor Fitzroy set up a new one, Heke appealed to this act as a further argument in support of his cause. "See," said he, "the flag-staff does mean a taking possession, or why else should they persist in re-erecting it?" This remark referred to a common practice in New Zealand; namely, that of setting up a post on a spot of land which any one desires to claim as his own. When two tribes contest the right to any place, one of them will set up their post: their antagonists will soon after come and cut it down: but, probably, either party will take care not to meet the other on the disputed ground till the post has been cut down and re-erected several times: when, if neither party will yield, the dispute at last ends in a fight.

Every precaution thought necessary for the protection of the new flag-staff was adopted. The

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staff, a stout kauri spar, was sheathed with sheet iron to the height of seven or eight feet above the ground, and it was also enclosed within a fortification, consisting of palisades and a blockhouse. Twenty men guarded this post. In another stoccade, at the northern end of the township, thirty soldiers were stationed, with an additional force of about sixty volunteers from the male population; and in the bay of Kororariki was H.M.S. Hazard. Thus protected, the colonists thought themselves a match for any force Heke and Kawiti could bring against them. They were, however, deceived-- principally from their ignorance of native tactics.

One morning before day-break the little garrison of the blockhouse by the flag-staff--a very castle dangerous--were aroused by the sound of musketry on the south side of Kororarika, the point most remote from themselves; and as from their station they could see nothing of what was going on, their officer, a very young ensign, left the blockhouse with all his men except four, and went towards the hill overlooking the town. Of the four who remained behind two were in bed, and the door was left open. The firing heard proceeded from an attack made by Kawiti's division--for he and Heke had divided their forces--while the latter and his division lay concealed in some brush wood within one hundred yards of the flag-staff. The result may be anticipated. A few minutes after the soldiers

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had left their post, Heke had possession of it: the flag-staff was quickly cut down, and his men then gaining possession of the hill immediately overlooking the stoccade in the town, rendered that post also untenable.

It is a constant practice of the New Zealanders to divide their forces, when composed of more than one tribe of consequence, each chief leading his own men against that portion of the enemy's Pa where those with whom he has a particular feud reside. The loss of the blockhouse, and the consequent loss of Kororariki, was caused by an error in judgment of a very young officer, through ignorance of this principle of the tactics of the enemy.

In the meantime, however, Captain Robertson, of the Hazard, with a gallant little band of sailors and marines, met Kawiti's men on the other side of the town, and, though much inferior in number, drove them back with slaughter. This circumstance alone retrieved a portion of the disgrace of the loss of Kororarika; for the New Zealanders have a great admiration for gallantry even in an enemy. This was remarkably shown by the zest with which tales of the prowess of the captain of the Hazard were always listened to in distant parts of the country.

With the first news of the fate of Kororarika, I received instructions to go from my station at Maketu overland to Port Nicholson. I and my

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native attendants were the first to carry into the interior particulars of the transactions in the north, supposed to be authentic; and our arrival at every village was consequently as welcome as "to-day's Times" in a provincial town in England. One of my natives, who had got up a very interesting, though somewhat exaggerated version of the facts, was always constituted spokesman, and wherever we halted, while provisions were preparing for us, a crowd of eager faces was sure to gather round. The part of the narrative which seemed most attractive was that which spoke of the deeds of the captain of the man-of-war. He was made to kill five men with his own hand; the last of whom, a chief, named Pumuka, was represented as being run through the body by Captain Robertson's sword at the instant he was discharging his gun; so that they both fell together. This climax was not only well received, but a repetition of the story was frequently called for. At Taupo, one of the audience was so much enchanted with the tale, that he exclaimed, involuntarily, "Ka ahua-reka au ki te toa o Te Pakeha (Well! I am charmed at the bravery of the foreigner).

During this journey, I rested for a night at Taupo, at the house of Te Heuheu, one of the great chiefs of New Zealand. He, of course, wished to know why I was going to Cook's Straits, believing that it was to obtain assistance from the white popula-

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tion there to avenge our loss in the north--a proceeding which he did not approve. "It is better," he said, "to let the white people of the Bay of Islands fight out their quarrel with Nga-Puhi, and then the rest of New Zealand will not be troubled by the war." In the course of the evening, he alluded to a circumstance I had never before heard; which, however, showed plainly enough how much we had lost in the estimation of the natives by the defeat at Wairau. It appeared that some one had applied the expression "mate ngaro" (injury forgotten) to that affair, because we had obtained no satisfaction for it. This expression is with the New Zealanders a term of reproach, as they consider it a disgrace to put up with a loss in battle, believing that no one would do so if he were not afraid; and, therefore, for a chief to apply the term "mate ngaro" to another chief is an insult. Te Heuheu desired me to inform the Governor that it was not true, as had been reported, that he was the author of the obnoxious epithet; but I could not help fancying that, had he been quite innocent, he would not have been so anxious not to be held responsible for it.

Every unprejudiced person acquainted with the facts of the case will, no doubt, condemn the aggressive conduct of the Europeans at Wairau; and however he may be shocked at the indiscriminate slaughter of their prisoners by the New Zealanders

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on that occasion---an act so contrary to the practice of civilized nations--he will bear in mind that it was sanctioned by their own customs, and that it was done red-hand, during the first flush of victory.

The line of conduct adopted by the Governor of New Zealand was therefore no other than justice required: but unfortunately he had not the power to act otherwise had he desired; and his weakness being visible to the natives, they shrewdly placed his forbearance to that account. So certain is it that justice obtained from the weak is never duly honoured.