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Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century:

From Mr. Kendall’s Journal, 1815

page 86

From Mr. Kendall’s Journal, 1815.

On March, 31st, 1815, Kendall notes the return from the Thames (it is necessary to observe that all places south of Cape Rodney were included in the name Thames in early days) of a canoe, the crew of which had killed and eaten three men, and brought back a woman and five girls prisoners. The heads were exhibited in the usual manner.

On April the 19th they were visited by Taparee (Te Pari), Tamoungha (Te Maunga), and Kullokullo (Karokaro?) with fourteen canoes manned by between 300 and 400 men, who came from Whangaroa. It was Te Pari who saved the women at the taking of the “Boyd” in 1809. One of these canoes was 87 feet long, and manned by 67 men. This visit of the Whangaroa people to the Bay had been rendered possible through Marsden’s efforts. When he arrived on the coast on December 14th, 1814, he found Tara, Te Puhi and other chiefs of Whangaroa together with a large number of men assembled near Takou, opposite the Cavalles Islands. They had been at war with the tribes of the Bay for some years, and this war arose through the death of Te Pahi by the whalers, who, mistaken by the similarity between his name and that of Te Puhi of Whangaroa, who was one of the principal actors in the taking of the “Boyd” attacked Te Pahi’s island pa, killed him and a number of his innocent people, in the belief that they were punishing Te Puhi for his share in the “Boyd” page 87 affair. The tribes of the Bay, to avenge these deaths, acted in true Maori fashion, and attacked the Whangaroa people, and the war lasted until Marsden’s visit, when he got the chiefs of the rival parties together and made peace between them.

On the 8th May, Mr. Kendall notes that Hongi-Hika and Kaingaroa visited him at Rangihoua, and on the 17th of the same month the “Active” returned from Port Jackson, bringing back Tupe and Te Morenga. They were visited by a canoe from the Thames on the 19th, which contained several of Te Haupa’s people.

On the 13th June, the brig “Trial,” Captain Howell, and the schooner “Brothers,” Captain Burnett, arrived from New South Wales on a trading expedition, and on the 11th July the “Active” sailed for Port Jackson, taking as pasengers Te Koki (of Paihia), Whetoi (or Pomare), and others. Kaingaroa, Hongi’s brother, died a few days previously, on which occasion Hongi-Hika attempted three times to hang himself through grief. Had he been allowed to do so, the Maoris of the south part of the island would have been spared some terrible losses. In August, Mr. Kendall visited Hauraki, Wairua, Tahoa, and Rewa, all noted chiefs living up the Kerikeri River.

On the 31st August, the “Trial” and “Brothers” returned from Mercury Bay, where both vessels had been attacked at a place they named Trial Bay on the 20th, by a large number page 88 of Maoris, and five Europeans besides, it is said, about a hundred Maoris were killed.*

September 28th.—The “Active” again arrived from Port Jackson, leaving again on the 8th November.

October 4th—The “Trial” sailed for Tahiti, and the “Brothers” for Port Jackson.

* I have an idea that Rutherford, whose adventures in New Zealand were published in 1830, escaped from one of these vessels when the attack was made. It was either at Mercury or Kennedy’s Bay this attack took place.