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Tales of Banks Peninsula

Onawe Massacre. — Another Version

Onawe Massacre.
Another Version.

We take the following account of this tragedy from the Auckland Herald, After describing the cause of the quarrel, which is precisely the same as that given in article No. 2 of this, work, entitled "European Massacre," the account; of the massacre in Akaroa Harbour, the narrative goes on to say: —

"Matters could not be expected to end here. A blood debt had been created, and an atonement had to be obtained. The Ngatitoa at Kapiti brooded over a means for revenge which was to be signal and complete. Some few months after the death of Te Pahi a vessel came from Sydney, bringing some Natives to their homes, amongst whom was a brother of Te Rauparaha. In Foveaux Straits the Natives learned the details of the sad calamity which had page 140befallen the tribe in the loss of one of their most famous men, and the captain of the vessel, seeing their sorrow, proposed 'that, if they would engage to load his vessel on their arrival at Kapiti with flax and pigs, he would convey them to Hakaroa (where Te Mai Hara Nui lived) to avenge the death of their relatives. The Natives willingly conseented to the proposal, and it was arranged that, after the vessel had been to the Auckland Islands to land a party of sealers, the design should be carried out.' But on the arrangements becoming known to some passengers who were on board they cempelled the captain to abandon his intention 'and the vessel subsequently sailed for Wellington without any attempt being made to carry out the project.' But the idea put into the heads of the Natives found lodgment there, and if one captain would not do what was wanted, why another would. In this case, as in many others 'the means to do ill deeds made ill deeds done' There was a conspicuous absence of morality in the coasting trade of New Zealand, when preserved heads were a common article of traffic, and so it came to pass that a man named Stewart, captain of the brig Elizabeth was at hand to carry. out the nefarions plan of kidnapping Te Mai Hara Nui by charter

"What follows has been told by many, but each has a different story to narrate, although there appears little doubt but what the truth can be gathered by careful analysis. 'Takou' is a corruption of ' Otakou,' the form in which 'Otago' was formerly spelt. Akaroa seventy years ago was pronounced and sometimes written Hakaroa. Mr Montefiore writes of 'Banks Island,' instead of 'Banks Peninsula,' but fixes the tragedy there, which is far better than to have it located so indefinitely as in 'Takou.' The Rev. Mr. Yate, who gave evidence before the House of Commons, asserted that the kidnapping was done at Kapiti; but the early missionaries knew little of the Middle Island, and less perhaps than the sealers and whalers did of the mission mode of writing the Maori language Mr. Montefiore had told the English Committee that twenty two years had elapsed between thepage 141death of Te Pahi and the capture of Te Mai Hara Nui, and that 300 men instead of some 50 were concealed in the hold of the brig. From a semi-official report drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Marsden for the information of the Governor of New South Wales the main outlines of the truth can be gleaned. Of the many varying versions put before the public, that given by Mr. Marsden seems most worthy of credence, when its wild offshoots are pruned and the spelling modernized: —

"'Parramatta, 18th April, 1831. May it please your Excellency.—The following is a statement given by Ahu, the youngest brother of the chief Te Mai Hara Nui of the murders committed at Takou (Akaroa) by the Natives of Kapiti, and the Europeans belonging to the brig Elizabeth and Ware, the chief of the Bay of Islands:

"'Kapiti is a native settlement situated on the west side of New Zealand, not far from Mt. Egmont, at or near Cook Straits. The name of the chief is Rauparaha. At this settlement there is a good harbour for ships. Takou is another native settlement, situated on the Middle Island and south side of the straits. The name of the chief of Takou was Te Mai Hara Nui. Some years ago a chief belonging to Kapiti, named Te Pahi Kupe, went on board the ship Uranui that was on the coast, and would not leave her; he was so anxious to see England, On his way to Europe he visited South America, and was both at Lima and Janeiro in a Liverpool vessel, which landed him at Liverpool, where he met very many friends. He visited all the provincial towns in England, and also the City of London. He returned to New South Wales in the same ship as our present postmaster (Mr Raymond) came out in, and gave me an account of his travels. He brought with him considerable property After some time he returned to Kapiti to his friends He was not long at Kapiti before he crossed the straits and landed on the Middle Island, and visited Takou On his third visit to Takou he was killed by some Natives there, in consequence of some difference there between the chiefs of Kapiti and the people of Takou. After his death, his brother came to Parra-page 142matta, and informed me that Te Pahi bad been killed at Takou. Not long after four chiefs came to Parramatta from Kapiti. I introduced them to your Excellency at Parramatta. They were invited into the drawing-room. Mrs Darling and the children came in to see them. They sat down upon the carpet, and Mrs. Darling directed the servant to bring in a sweet cake, which was given to them. The head chief Rauparaha was one of them, Since Te Pahi, their friend and relation, was killed, the Natives of Kapiti have been anxious to obtain satisfaction for his death, according to the cuatom of their country. When the Elizabeth arrived at Kapiti, the chief Rauparaha had got a quantity of flax for sale. He offered it to Captain Stewart if he would take him to Takou, and apprehend Te Mai Hara Nui, and deliver him up at Kapiti. To this Captain Stewart agreed, or Mr. Cowell, who appeared to have been an active agent in the horrible proceedings. When the above arrangaments were settled the captain of the Elizabeth sailed from Kapiti, taking with him two chiefs and about 50 men as a protection. On their arrival at Takou the vessel wag anchored, and the captain went on shore in his boat. The first person be met was a very old man sitting on the ground smoking his pipe. This old man was the father of Te Mai Hara Nui (Te Wakatitiro) The captain went up to him and spoke to him in a most kindly manner and stroked his head, saying at the same time, 'Poor old man! poor old man!' He then enquired of the old man where the head chief was. He replied that he was in the flax ground with the women who were dressing flax, The captain desired him to send a boy to call him, which be did. The captain had brought ten muskets and two casks of powder with him, which were carried up to the chief's house, to put him off his guard, as the Natives state. When the chief arrived the captain received him in the most friendly manner, and invited him to go on board and promised him some muskets and powder. When the chief learned that the vessel came from Kapiti, he hesitated much, and wanted to know what the captain wanted with him on board. He told him he had page 143plenty of muskets and powder, and that he wanted to give him pome and be already had sent ten to his house. At length the captain by his promises and attention prevailed with him to go into the boat. He took with him his youngest brother Ahu (who is now with me, and whom your Excellency saw with me in Sydney), and two of his daughters, young girls. Two canoes attended him on board laden with flax. When the boat came alongside the chief had two meres (which are hand weapons of war always used by New Zealanders; they are generally made of stone, sometimes of hard wood). The captain took one of the meres from him, and Mr. Cowell the other. When they came on deck the captain desired him to go foreward to the forecastle. The captain then took hold of the chief's hand in a friendly manner, and conducted him and his two daughters to the cabin, showed him the muskets, how they were arranged round the sides of the cabin. When all was prepared for securing the chief the cabin door was locked, and the chief was laid hold on, and his hands were tied fast. At the same time a hook with a cord to it was stuck through the skin of his throat under the side of the jaw, and the line fastened to some part of the cabin. In this state of torture he was kept for some days until the vessel arrived at Kapiti. One of his children clung fast to her father and cried aloud. The sailors dragged her from her father, and threw her from him. Her head struck against some hard substance, which killed her on the spot. Ahu, who had been ordered to go to the forecastle, came as far as the capstan, and peered through into ths cabin, and saw his brother in the state above mentioned. The captain told him he would not kill him, but he should be his slave, and he would take him to England with him. After the chief was secured the boat was sent on shore, and brought off the ten muskets and two casks of powder. The chief's wife and two of the chief's sisters came with her in the boat, not-knowing what had happened to Te Mai Hara Nui. The men that came off in the two canoes with the chief were all killed, and the women with them. They had 100 baskets page 144of flax with them, which were received on board the vessel, Several more canoes same off also with flax, and the people were all killed by the Natives of Kapiti, who had been concealed on board for the purpose, and the sailors who were on deck fired upon them with their muskets. After these Natives had bean cat off two white men were observed to leave the shore in a canoe with two Natives. The boat with sailors and the canoes belonging to the Natives who had been murdered were manned with people of Kapiti, who were ordered on shore to kill all the inhabitants they could find. They were directed to keep out of the way of the two white men who were coming to the vessel. When they arrived they went on deck, as they had brought some bags to exchange for tea, sugar, etc. When they saw the situation of the chief, they cried much. The captain wanted the Natives who were on board to kill them, and told them that, if they did not, they would go to Port Jackson, and tell the Governor, and he would send and kill them. But the Natives said they would not kill the white men; they did not like to kill them. These men had been with the chief of Takou some time; they each had a wife and one had two children. The name of one was Charley, and the other Jem. They were brought to Sydney in the Elizabeth, but returned the first opportunity. The evidence of these Europeans, if it could be got, would be very material. Ahu reports that the parties who went on shore murdered many of the Natives; the poor old man wag killed; none escaped but those who went into the wood. Mr. Cowell told Ware that he had shot persons. The bodies of those who' were killed on shore were dressed, and taken on board to eat. When they had got all the flax on board the vessel sailed for Kapiti with the chief, his wife and two sisters. When they arrived they were killed and their bodies dressed on shore and sent on board in baskets, (Signed) John Marsden,'

"A Mr. Montefiore, who was in New Zealand in 1830, gave evidence on the matter before a committee of the House of Commons, and, having had personal intercourse with Captain Stewart and Te Mai Hara Nui is a credible page 145witness as to what he saw and may have heard from the ironed chief who slept in the next room to him on board the brig Elizabeth for several nights, but the statements he repeats of what Captain Stewart told him must be received with great caution. Mr. Montefiore, it may be said, returned to 'Sydney, from whence he came in the brig in which the tragedy was mainly enacted. From him we learn the Elizabeth was regularly armed, carrying eight guns besides two swivels on her taff rail, and well found in every description of small arms The witness came to New Zealand in a vessel chartered for the purpose of making a tour of the islands of New Zealand, and to visit every place be possibly could for the purpose of becoming acquainted with their character as well as the habits and disposition of the Natives,' as he had the idea of 'forming extensive mercantile establishments' here. But, after visiting one or two places, be 'met the Elizabeth at Kapiti, and, having heard the details of the massacre, be was deterred from proceeding further in consequence of expecting that the whites would be murdered.' The brig, he says, 'which I had chartered then went round the island, but I would not go myself, and was obliged to take refuge in this very ship, where this great chief (Te Mai Hara Nui) was in irons.' With this explanation we may hear what Mr Montefiore has to say. He writes: 'He, the chief, is kept; by the captain, as a hostage until the charter party is finally arranged Te Hiko and Rauparaha had dispatched about 2000 slaves to make flax; and in six weeks from the date of the arrival she is to be filled as per agreement;. (Fifty tons of flax, valued at £1200, was the price promised to be paid for the charter.) I expostulated with the captain on big conduct, he said he saw the folly of it, but, having gone so far, he must keep him. I begged him to take him (the chief) up to Sydney, I told him I was quite certain be would not get his flax He set sail, but gave up the chief (Te Mai Hara Nui) into the hands of his enemies. I went on shore and saw the whole process, of his intended sacrifice. I did not see the man killed, but I know he was page 146killed during the night; and the following morning the widow of the great chief, Te Pahi, who had been killed, had his entrails as a necklace about her neck, and his heart was cut into several pieces to be sent to different tribes, allies of Rauparaha '

"The story which is told that a hook was fastened under the chin of the captured man, and that he was kept in that state for two or three days on board the brig, Mr. Montefiore contradicts most emphatically, saying the story is bad enough without aggravation. "I saw the chief he was as fine a man as ever I saw in ray life. Had there been any appearance of the hook alluded to it could not have escaped my notica. He was cruelly confined enough, for his legs were in a state of mortification from the irons the captain had put on them.'

"Taylor said that when Te Mai Hara Nui had been captured, 'Te Hiko, the son of Te Pahi, entered the cabin and stared fixedly at Te Mai Hara Nui for nearly half an hour without saying a word; he then approached and drew back the upper lip of the captive chief, and said, 'Those are the teeth which ate my father.' After the warfare on shore had ceased, and the pa had been taken, five hundred baskets of human fiesh, Taylor adds 'were taken on board, which the captain professed to believe was only pork, and some say that much of it was cooked in the ship's coppers.' Shortland says the daughter of Te Mai Hara Nui, called Roimata (the tears), jumped overboard when near the Heads at her father's command to escape the fate of a slave, and was drowned, Rauparaha died in his bed, as we may say, having the Church of England service read over his corpse. Cowell has not long since been dead (of whom Governor Gore Brown wrote while sti l living, 'The man's account; of his own share in that dreadful affair makes his conduct appear in a more atrocious light than has yet been reported ')., while the captain of the 'bloody Elizabeth,' as she was called in Sydney, was washed overboard when going round Cape Horn The manner of his death seems almost beyond the region of doubt, as Mr. Montefiore reported the fact to the Com-page 147mitteeof the House of Commons in 1838, and Dr. Thompson had the matter confirmed by personal enquiry when writing the 'Story of New Zealand.' These facts may be remembered when writers in the Lyttelton. Times indulge in Various surmises as to the manner of Stewart's, death. Nor is the hypothesis of a Southern writer worthy of much attention that whan Stewart could not get his 'cargo of flax' at Kapiti, that he 'loaded up with spars.' The Elizabeth, moreover, arrived in Sydney on January 14, 1831, with thirty tons'of flax on board. Mr. Rusden writes of three brothers of Te Mai Hara Nui being among the slain, but the "genealogical tables which are at hand in the North bear no evidence that we have seen of their relationship, Rusden traced the causes at some length why Stewart was not punished, but all the witnesses were sent out of the country.

"To those who maintain that our coming to New Zealand was an unmixed evil to the Maori race the above details may afford food for reflection.

"P.S.—Through the kindness of Judge Fenton in lending the writer his notes taken at the hearing of the Rangitikei Manawatu case, it appears from the evidence then given that Te Pahi on his arrival in New South Wales heralded his return by sending a vessel to Kapiti, coming home himself in a brig called the Queen Charlotte. After his arrival we are told that he took up his guns to Pikitara, a place some distance up the Rangitikei River, returning thence to Kapiti, where he is represented as staying for some considerable time—two years the witness said—before he went oh the Ngaitahu. campaign, which entailed his death."