APPENDIX. The Death of Te Ha-mai-waho.

Captain Mair supplies the following, allusion to which was made page 240 hereof:—“Te Hamai-waho was killed at Ohiwa in 1828 for there it was that the fierce battle between Ngati-Awa (Ngati-hoko-pu) and the Whakatohea took place at One-kawa, where this chief fell. This was the year my father as master of the mission schooner “Herald,” together with the Revs. Messrs. Davis, Hamlin and Williams, sailed to the Bay of Plenty”—the first English vessel to communicate with the natives since Captain Cook, says the “Missionary Record.” “Calling in at Tauranga, they found Koraurau of Ngai-Te-Rangi living with his people in the densely populated pa at Te Papa” (present site of Tauranga town). “That very night Koraurau’s wife bore him a son who is still living and named Hohepa Hikutaia, or Te Mea. My father gave the woman some blankets and page 482 American twill shirts, and in return was presented with a greenstone mere called “Raukaraka” now in the Auckland Museum. Three days after they sailed towards Opotiki, Te Papa was taken by Te Rohu, son of Te Rangianini, of Ngati-Tama-te-ra of the Thames, and Koraurau and most of his people slain. His wife plunged into the harbour with her new born son on her back, but was pierced through by a musket ball, yet she managed to reach the opposite shore near Whare-roa, where she died.

“On the ‘Herald’ reaching Ohiwa, the tide being unfavourable for entering the harbour, my father took the dingy and landed on the beach at One-kawa Bluff, and was horrified to find a large number of freshly slain dead lying on the beach. It seems that Ngati-Awa after slaying some 60 or 70 of their opponents were so overcome with grief at the loss of their famous young chief, that they fled with the body to Whakatane, leaving the defeated Whakatohea fleeing in the opposite direction towards Opotiki. The attack on the Whakatohea was led by a very small number of Ngati-Awa under Te Ha-mai-waho who was overcome and slain ere his father Apa-nui and the main body could arrive on the scene. On learning the death of his favourite son, he made a long detour lest the sight of his dead son’s body should unnerve him, and uttered his poroporoaki, or farewell, saying, “Haere e tama E! Hai kona ra. E te iwi arahina ahau ki te page 483 ururua o te Whare-kura! Farewell, O Son! Go hence! O Tribe! Lead me to where the warriors of the foe are thickest.” His terrible onslaught on the Whakatohea caused such a panic that his son was terribly avenged.”

This voyage took place in 1828, for Nga-rara, of Whakatane, was shot in 1829 in attempting to cut off the “Herald” when at that place.