Chapter XXII. Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata.

A Waterfall at Papa Roa, on the Wanganui.

Te Rauparaha, the Chief of the Nga ti raukawa, was born at Maungatautari, about 1770. His father, in one of the constant wars which formerly raged, was killed and eaten; he was then a child. His savage conqueror said, that if his infant son fell into his hands, he would make a fine relish for his ran paraha, which is a thick-leafed convolvolus, growing on the sand hills near the sea, and formerly used as food. Rauparaha, or convolvolus leaf, therefore, henceforth became his name.

When he grew up to manhood, he manifested such a troublesome and restless disposition, as to render himself an object of fear and dislike to his neighbours, and even to his page 324 own relatives. This feeling was increased by his collecting around him a band of the most worthless characters, whose constant excesses became at last so intolerable, that his neighbours arose, and forcibly expelled him from their tribe.

The first exploit attributed to Te Rauparaha, was his cutting off a Nga Puhi Chief, Waero, and 140 of his followers, on Motu Tawa, a small island in Roto Kakahi. Leaving his friends there, he made his way overland to Taupo and Rotoaira. The people of Motuapuhi sought to kill him, but one of the Chiefs became his friend, and hid him in a food-store, until he could make his escape. He reached the Wanganui, and thence returned to Kawhia, where he gained the aid of Tuwhare and his tribe, who thenceforth assumed the command until his death, when Rauparaha succeeded him. They attacked the Taranaki natives, and took their stronghold, Tapuanikau. At Tihoi they erected a pa, and remained there some time. On reaching the Wanganui, they encamped at the heads for nearly a month, making moki, or canoes of the raupo leaf, at Kokohuia. They then quickly crossed the river, and attacked the natives at Purua. The pa was taken, and about forty men killed.

Tuwhare and his party proceeded along the coast as far as Wairarapa, where they killed the Chief, Rore.

In returning, Tuwhare noticed the wreck of a vessel, which made him think that Cook's Straits would eventually become a place of great resort for the Europeans. He therefore advised Te Rauparaha that they should go back to Kawhia, and raise as large a force as possible, and then take permanent possession of the Straits. Hitherto they had merely destroyed the pas, for the sake of plunder. Rauparaha entered into the views of Tuwhare; they therefore went to Kawhia, and having there raised a large force, again returned. On reaching Putiki pa, at Wanganui, they were received very hospitably by a few women, its only inhabitants, their husbands being absent; food was cooked for them. Afterwards they arose and slew their entertainers, and then pursued their journey south. The natives hearing of their coming, took care to remove themselves and their property inland. The party took page 325 up their abode at Ohau, and there they murdered some of the Horowhenua natives. This was the commencement of the war; from his post at Horowhenua, Te Rauparaha made repeated raids against Manawatu. The Horowhenua natives being ignorant of his former murders, brought him presents of food, but he slew the bearers of them. When their tribe, the Moa Upoko, heard of his treachery, they raised a war party of 300 men, and surprised Rauparaha, killing 100 of his followers, and compelling him to flee to Waikanae. The Horowhenua made common cause with the Nga ti apa, who came and fought at Waimea, where they slew Huna, the Chief; Te Pehi and the Ngatitoa were conquered, and they lost 100 men. The daughter also of Pehi was killed and cooked; her body was carried in a taha (a bark basket) to Wanganui, and there eaten. Rauparaha's own gun fell into their hands, being taken by (Paora) Turanga pito.

This success excited the hopes of Rauparaha's enemies. A force of 3000 men went against him, collected from all the places on the coast. They reached Waimea, the scene of their former success. Turoa gave the hatchet to Turanga pito, to go and murder Te Rauparaha. This great force, however, was conquered by the Ngatitoa and Ngatiawa. The battle was fought on the island of Kapiti. Rangi mairehau, the Chief of Turakina, went to Rangihaeata, being a relative of his by marriage, expecting to be spared; but that Chief cast him on the fire, and roasted him alive. With this exception, he used his victory with moderation, and made peace with the tribes who had fought against them.

Pehi felt deeply the loss of his child, and determined on taking signal revenge; but to do it effectually, it was necessary to have a larger supply of guns and ammunition; for although it was by their guns they had hitherto prevailed—the tribes they fought with not having any—yet even their supply was insufficient; he therefore resolved to imitate Hungi, and go to England. Shortly after the battle, a vessel came to Cook's Straits. Pehi immediately went on board, and sailed in it.

From this time, Rauparaha and his restless companions appear to have been constantly at war. After a series of page 326 engagements, he entirely destroyed the Moa Upoko tribe, and took possession of their district. A war expedition was undertaken against Wanganui; but finding the natives prepared, they did not attack them, but returned and fought with the Nga ti apa, at Rangitikei. Encouraged by their success there, they returned to Wanganui, and fought with the natives, when one of the Nga te rau kawa Chiefs was killed, which made Rauparaha very indignant.

The visits of vessels now became very frequent, and they gave power and importance to Te Rauparaha, who managed to monopolize the entire trade with them, and to become the sole channel by which others obtained their supplies of European goods. Various tribes sent him presents of food. Te Heuheu, the great Chief of Taupo, collected a large quantity of provisions, and brought them to him. Many tribes, of their own accord, grew food for his use; he, in return, sent them presents of rum, tobacco, powder, and guns. He continually increased in influence—all but Nga ti rua nui and Taranaki, courted his alliance. Still Rauparaha continued his wars. He sent two expeditions against Wanganui, one under Watanui, which fought at Rangipo, and there Nga ti ruaka fell. Rauparaha nextat tacked Putiki, and killed many of its inhabitants (some of their bones laid whitening on its plains when I first went there, which I collected and buried). To revenge this reverse, Wanganui raised a war party, and attacked Pakakutu. A meteor fell into the pa whilst they were fighting, which was considered such a favorable omen for the besiegers, that the defenders were disheartened, and the place was taken. Rauparaha was hemmed in on every side, and narrowly escaped being captured.

About this time, Pehi returned from England, having obtained from the thoughtless kindness of those who there saw him, a large collection of guns and ammunition.

Kekeriuga, a noble-looking Chief, who was celebrated for his very fine moko, had gone to reside at Arapawa, where he was murdered by the Ngaitahu. Being a great favorite of Rangihaeata, although he had fled on account of his not having conducted himself with propriety towards that Chief's wives, page 327 Rangihaeata sought satisfaction for his death; he fought with the Ngaitahu, and killed a great number of them.

Pehi went to see Tamai hamai nui at the Waharsupo, where Hakitara, a Ngapuhi Chief, with a number of his tribe, was staying. This Chief remembering the death of Wairo at Rotokakahi, persuaded Tamai hara nui to let them murder Pehi, as a payment for it; he consented. Pehi and forty of his companions, all great Chiefs, were murdered, although they were the friends of Tamai hara nui, and then his guests. Rauparaha himself had a very narrow escape. He was pursued, and finding his canoe was near being overtaken, when he had rounded a point he jumped into the sea, and dived a considerable distance; then coming up beneath a mass of floating sea weed, he remained a long time with only his mouth above the water, until his baffled pursuers gave up their search. He safely reached Kapiti, with a full determination of having an ample revenge for these treacherous murders, and circumstances too soon gave him the longed-for opportunity.

During the night, Tamai hara nui strangled his daughter, a very beautiful girl, that she might not be a slave; and Stewart, horrified at this unnatural crime, without perceiving his own greater one, ordered the Chief to be tied up and flogged, which act offended even his savage captors, who said he was still a Chief, and not to be treated as a slave.

The following day, Rauparaha landed his men, and after a brave resistance, the pa was taken, and a great number were slaughtered. They returned to the vessel, laden with five hundred baskets of human flesh, which the Captain professed to believe was only pork; some say, that human flesh was cooked in the ship's coppers, and it is not improbable it was so, as the vessel was completely in the hands of the natives; this, however, was denied; at any rate, the vessel must have been a regular shambles of human flesh, and very offensive from such a quantity being on board, for they were four days in reaching Kapiti. On landing, the Chief Tamai hara nui was given up to Te Aia, the widow of Pehi, who took him, with his wife and sister, to her own house, giving up half to their use. They talked so friendly to one another, and she behaved so kindly to him, that a stranger would have taken them for man and wife rather than a doomed captive with his implacable enemy. She used even to clothe him in her finest garments, and deck his head with choice feathers; this continued for about two weeks, until either she had assembled her friends, or thought her victim sufficiently fat for killing. She then suddenly caused him to be seized and bound, with his arms stretched to a tree, and whilst in this position, she took a spear, a long narrow rod of iron, with which she stabbed him in the jugular artery, and drank his warm blood as it gushed forth, placing her mouth to the orifice; he was afterwards cooked and eaten.

Stewart received twenty-five tons of flax for this infamous service, the price of blood, and might have had more, but he would not stay for it. A captain of some vessel, then also at Kapiti, who is said to have been but little better, sailed before him, and carried the news to Sydney, so that on his arrival there, he was shunned, and styled by all—the Captain of the bloody Elizabeth; he was even taken up and tried; from want of evidence, however, or from some flaw in the indictment, he escaped. But though human vengeance did not reach him, Divine justice did. Nothing was ever heard of him afterwards. The vessel was supposed to have foundered on the way to Valparaiso, and all on board perished.

Tute ou nuku, the son of Tama hara nui, too weak to contend with Te Rauparaha alone, went to the great Chief of the Ngaitahu, commonly called Bloody Jack, and solicited his aid to punish the murderers of his parents. The Chief thought so good a pretext for war was not to be neglected by one to whose feelings it was so congenial; a large force was, therefore, speedily raised, and a suitable opportunity soon occurred, when Rauparaha was busily engaged snaring the putangi tangi (Paradise ducks) at Kaparatehau Lake, with a party of his tribe, having all their canoes drawn up high on the beach, except one. The enemy came upon them so suddenly, that it was with the greatest difficulty Rauparaha and about forty men, women, and children escaped to the canoe, and pushed off, all the rest were slain; but being encumbered with so many, they made little way. Rauparaha, therefore, compelled about half the number to jump overboard, and those who refused were thrown into the sea by force. The canoe, thus lightened, made way, and though hotly pursued, they escaped, and reached Kapiti. But this restless Chief must have his revenge. He, therefore, lost no time in raising a force. He visited the Nga ti awa, and solicited their aid, which was given; they immediately embarked, and sailed for the Karaka, adjoining to which is a bay called Orau moa, completely shut in by the promontory Karaka at one extremity, and by another at the other, with lofty cliffs between. Here Bloody Jack, with the Ngaitahu, were encamped. One page 330 hundred and forty of the Ngatiawa let themselves down the cliff, but were all cut off. In the morning Bloody Jack went on his way, and Te Rauparaha did not think proper to follow him; he returned to Cloudy Bay. When Bloody Jack and his party embarked, the canoe of Tute ou nuku was capsized, and he was drowned; all the men in it however were saved. When the Chief saw them, he was so indignant that they could save themselves, and yet suffer their young Chief to be drowned, that he killed them all.

Puoho, the Chief of Nga-ti-tama, and Priest to Rauparaha, conducted a small war party of forty, and went by the West Coast, instead of the Kaikoura, to war with the people living on that side. His road was by Waka-tu (Nelson). He reached a small place, which he took, killing some and putting to flight others. The news of this attack was carried to Taiaroa, the head Chief of the place; he and Bloody Jack lost no time in going there with a party of about a hundred. Their wish was not to kill Puoho, for whom they had a regard, but merely to take him prisoner, and spare his men. Puoho and his party slept in two houses, but he himself was outside in the verandah. Taiaroa told his men to try and capture him alive; Puoho, however, would not yield, he fought bravely all night with the enemy. At last one of the party got on a house, and shot him. Hitherto they had not used their guns, wishing to save them. When this was done, Taiaroa pulled off his cap and threw it on the roof of the house to make it tapu, and said, here let the fight cease, and made peace. He had the head of Puoho cut off as a mokai, a sign of regard, and caused his body to be buried; but when they left, the people of the place who had fled dug it up and ate it.

In the morning, Taiaroa and Bloody Jack returned, taking Wakapiri, the son of Puoho, with them as a slave; he treated him, however, as his son, and afterwards dismissed him with a handsome present of two green-stone mere, and a piece of land, as an atonement for his father's death. This was the end of the war, and from that period another power began to be felt, which soon made a remarkable change in that part of the country.

A Missionary had been located at Kapiti, brought by Rauparaha's own son, and he sent that young Chief to preach the Gospel to Taiaroa, and peace and tranquillity ensued. This great change was thus effected.

Some of the young Chiefs had begun to be disgusted with war; amongst these were Tamihana Katu and Matene te Whi-whi o te Rangi, the former being the son of Te Rauparaha, the latter the nephew, the two most influential young Chiefs of their respective tribes. They determined to terminate these continual wars. Having heard of the preaching of the Gospel in the north, and that it was putting an end to fighting there, they resolved to go themselves to the Bay of Islands, and obtain a Missionary for their end of the island—a very bold and hazardous undertaking; for the Ngapuhi were their sworn enemies; on account of their Chief, Te Wairo, whose death had not been forgotten; the recollection of it caused the death of Pehi, and many of their Chiefs at Waharaupo. Still, they determined to go, and much honor is due to them for doing so, for even their own parents were opposed to the step. Embarked in a whaling vessel, they safely reached the Bay of Islands. This was in 1839. Their arrival was most opportune, and evidently timed by Providence, for when their request was refused from the inability of sparing one from the little Missionary band, or the unwillingness of any to proceed to so savage a part, the two young Chiefs declared, they would not return without one, and their constancy was rewarded; for whilst they thus persisted in staying, a fresh Missionary arrived, who had been detained in New South Wales by Mr. Marsden to occupy a vacant post there. Now, said they, the Lord has sent another laborer and his family, one must be spared for us. The Rev. Mr. Hadfield, who then assisted in conducting the Missionary school at the Waimate, volunteered to go. Satisfied with this promise, they returned home, and were speedily followed by their new teacher, accompanied by the Rev. H. Williams, the senior minister, in the Missionary schooner Columbine. As there were two great tribes living within twelve miles of each other, the Missionary wisely had a house erected in each pa, where page 332 he alternately resided, and with much patience and perseverance, love and zeal, he persisted, firmly supported by the young Chiefs, who lent all their influence to further his labors, so that soon the hymn was heard instead of the haka; and the hand grasped the Gospel of Peace, instead of the deadly gun.

In 1840, The Tory arrived, bearing the first settlers sent out by the recently-formed New Zealand Company. Men of family and fortune came in this ship, captivated by the glowing accounts of New Zealand, published by the Company, which said, all was now peace, and cannibalism only lived in remembrance. Had the passengers in that vessel, however, known, they might have seen a column of smoke curling up above the trees of Porirua, where they were then cooking a cannibal repast. Some time previously to the arrival of The Tory, a Captain Cherry was murdered by a Porirua native. When the people saw that vessel, they mistook it for a man-of-war, and fancied it came to demand satisfaction for the murder; they, therefore, determined to take payment themselves beforehand, to show the English they had nothing to do with the crime. It appears that poor Captain Cherry's feet had been held down by a slave, whilst his master killed him. Maori justice fell on the former—he was killed and eaten, whilst his guilty master escaped.

The New Zealand Company made land purchases in various parts of the straits at Taranaki, Wanganui, Port Nicholson, and Nelson; but, unfortunately, not being acquainted with the sub-divisions of property or the language, they fancied they were purchasing far more than the natives either intended to sell or possessed the power of parting with. The vague and unsatisfactory way in which these purchases were made, were productive of serious evils, constant disputes arose, the claims were disallowed, and the settlement of the land delayed. It is not necessary now to resuscitate the remembrance of them.

Hitherto Rauparaha had lived on terms of amity with the Europeans. He derived his strength in a great measure from that intercourse, and therefore it was his interest still to maintain it. He now came into collision with the settlers. The page 333 subject is a painful one, and fain would I pass by it unnoticed; but this cannot be done. The views taken on the subject vary. The fight at Wairau has been differently described. The following account is chiefly from the lips of a native who had no sentiments in common with those concerned; and as he received it from one who was in that encounter, it may be regarded as an impartial narrative; and also explains some points which were before inexplicable.

It commences with stating, that an angry feeling was excited in the breast of Rangihaeata, on account of the result of a trial. A native woman was supposed to have been murdered by some European, and there appears much reason to think the supposition was correct; still, there was not sufficient evidence to convict him: he therefore escaped. This woman was a connexion of Rangihaeata, and he viewed the acquittal of the accused as a sign of the judge's partiality towards a countryman, and could not forget it. Shortly afterwards it was told him that the Europeans were surveying the Wairau Valley. He exclaimed with indignation, this is the second time they have wounded me; they murdered my relative, and now they are taking my land; they are seeking a quarrel with me. The Company professed to have bought the Wairau, but the natives disallowed the purchase. He therefore went and told Te Rauparaha his uncle, and said, Let us go and send the surveyors back to Nelson, to the place which they have really bought; but Wairau I shall not part with. They therefore crossed over the Straits, and commanded the surveyors to leave, as the land was not sold. The Europeans said it was. Who then, answered Rangihaeata, could sell my land? They said it had been sold by other natives. He denied having had anything to do with the sale. They replied, It did not signify whether he had or not; the land was theirs. This greatly exasperated the chief. He ordered his men to take all the things belonging to the surveyors out of the temporary building they had erected, and to be careful and leave nothing belonging to them in the house, and then commanded them to set it on fire. The Europeans threatened Rangihaeata, and told him he would be hung.

The Chief then visited one of his cultivations on the Wairau; and the Europeans returned to Nelson, and made the Company's agents acquainted with all that had taken place. A warrant was at once issued by the police magistrate for the apprehension of Te Rangihaeata and Te Rauparaha. The magistrate himself, Captain Wakefield, the Company's agent, a Captain England, and several other chief settlers, with some constables, about thirty altogether, went to execute the warrant. When they reached the Wairau, they found the natives encamped on the opposite side of the river; they called for a canoe to cross in, and one was immediately furnished them. On reaching the spot where the natives were sitting, the magistrate demanded of the chiefs their reason for burning the surveyors' hut? They replied, they had no business on land which did not belong to them, and which had not been sold. The magistrate was extremely angry, and said, you have done very wrong to burn the house. Rangihaeata replied, there was nothing English in it; the toetoe, or flags of which it was built, and the poles were all taken from my own land; there was not a single stick of it English, everything beloning to the surveyors he had caused to be carefully removed outside the house, because he well knew how fond the Europeans were of law; and so truly you have come to try me for my toetoe. If, indeed, you had bought the land, that would have been quite right, but this is a foolish affair altogether. This greatly incensed the magistrate, who cried to Te Rangihaeata, and said, the Europeans would soon hang him. The chiefs did not understand the threat, until a woman who could speak English explained it to them. Rangihaeata replied, Very well, hang me on my own land. My relative was killed by you English, and therefore you may as well kill me also upon my land. You told me no European could go on land not belonging to him, yet I now see the European is false—he takes land not belonging to him. I am to be hung, but you are not. The magistrate, more incensed, cried to his followers fire, a gun went off, and shot a woman of Rangihaeata. Then Rawiripuaha exclaimed, now the law for us is clear. Tamai hengia ran to the place where their guns were laid, and Rangihaeata went away from page 335 fear; but Te Rauparaha turned and said, “Ka awe te mamae,” (a chief's exclamation before battle—alas! the pain). Te Oro ran with his hatchet, and threw it at one of the Europeans, who fell into the river. The Europeans tumbled one over the other into the canoe in trying to cross; those who succeeded in getting over first, escaped; the last fell into the natives' hands. Captain Wakefield and all the gentlemen were taken. They were not killed, but when Rangihaeata returned, he bid them kill all, as a payment for their relative the woman; for he said that he had been told in all the European battles, they never injured women; therefore, let them die as a payment—all were killed. They then embarked in their canoe, and crossed over to Otaki.

This melancholy event caused deep gloom to rest on the little settlement of Nelson, and for a time retarded its progress. On the arrival of Governor Fitzroy, at Waikanae, he summoned Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata to meet him. He heard their statement, and having previously been acquainted with that of the settlers, he reproved them for their cruelty in putting their prisoners to death, after they had surrendered; but told them that as the proceeding of the settlers, and especially of the police magistrate, was altogether unjustifiable and illegal, he should not demand satisfaction for it; but he solemnly warned them to beware for the future. It is a pity the Governor was not acquainted with native customs; otherwise he would have claimed the district as having been paid for with blood; this was what the Chiefs themselves expected. It would have asserted our power, and made a salutary impression on the native mind, for it is a fixed custom amongst themselves, and in after years, when the Middle Island was sold by Taiaroa and the descendants of Tamaiharanui, Rangihaeata himself demanded part of the payment for the blood of his relatives Pehi and his companions, who were murdered at Waharaupo, and their claims were allowed by Governor Grey.

The not doing so, made that Chief entertain a very low opinion of British power. He is reported to have said, “He paukena te pakeha,”—The Governor is soft; he is a pumpkin.

After the Wairau affair, Rangihaeata went up the Rangitikei. page 336 Two Wanganui Chiefs pursued after him, and had they not been dissuaded by others, would certainly have taken him prisoner, and given him up to the Governor, for they had no love for him.

When the disturbances three years later broke out in the Hutt, he went and put himself at the head of the^* hostile natives. Rauparaha remained neutral, but having so many of his relatives engaged in the war, who in the native style continued to hold intercourse with him, he was suspected, and the Governor ordered the Captain of the Calliope to seize him, which was no difficult matter, as he continued to reside in his house close to the sea-shore. A boat's crew quietly landed one evening, and carried him back with them to the ship.

A large British and native force was raised, and he was attacked in his pa at Paua-taha-nui, and driven from it; thence he took up a post on a mound in the middle of the forest of the Horokiri Valley, called Remutaka. With some loss he was driven thence, and conducting his men along the heights of the mountains in the depth of winter, supporting themselves chiefly on pitau, (cooked fern tree,) he safely reached Porou-tawao, although pursued by a very large force. The spot he selected was so shut in by swamps, that it was thought most prudent to leave him there.

Rauparaha remained a prisoner for nearly two years. The writer saw him on board the Calliope, a few days after his being taken. He was well fed and kindly treated, and had a large cabin given up to him; he appeared in good spirits, and did not seem to repine at his lot; in fact, he became strongly attached to Captain Stanley, an open jovial British sailor, and afterwards, when released at Auckland, he left all his valuables in the Captain's charge, and whenever the Calliope came near his residence, he showed Captain Stanley, in every way which laid in his power, his attachment to him. The old Chief on returning to his tribe, did not feel that he had been degraded; neither was there any diminution of his regard for Europeans. The Governor wisely gave him several handsome presents on his departure, and from that time to his death, he quietly resided amongst his people, and invariably might he be seen at the daily service, morning and evening, dressed in a captain's naval uniform. He seemed to view the rapid advance of his tribe in the arts of civilization with the greatest satisfaction, as well as the progress of the children in the schools.

In November, 1849, the old Chief expired, at Otaki. He was not baptized, and although his son wished the burial service of the Church to be used at his funeral, the minister did not feel himself justified in doing so. It was, however, used, a lay member of the Church Missionary Society from Wanganui opportunely passing through the place, read the page 338 service over him; and thus terminated the eventful life of this New Zealand warrior.

In stature, he was not above five feet six inches; but his countenance was striking;^* he had a Roman, or hooked, nose, an eagle glance, which read the thoughts of others without revealing his own, and a look which clearly marked his dauntless bearing; it seemed impossible to take him by surprise. His being long accustomed to command, gave him a dignified demeanour; and his fertility in expedients, a cunning, or rather shrewd cast of countenance. Even when clad in a blanket, few could look at him without being impressed with a feeling that he was no ordinary person.

The character of this Chief has been variously drawn. The settlers in general viewed him as everything bad, most treacherous, and deceitful; but this opinion was not founded on their personal acquaintance with him, so much as from report. The whalers and traders, who had the best opportunity of being intimately acquainted with him, and that, too, at a time when his power to injure was the greatest, invariably speak of him as having ever been the white man's friend; he always placed the best he had before them, and in no instance have I heard of his doing any one of them an injury. Speaking of him to an old whaler, he said most emphatically, that he never let the white man who needed, want anything he could give, whether food or clothing. In fact, his natural sagacity told him that it was his interest to make common cause with the Europeans, for it was through them he acquired the sinews of war, guns, powder, and shot, and everything else that he required.

Sir George Grey, by his kindness and presents, drew Rangihaeata several times from his retreat at Poroutawao, as a tiger from his lair, and when he thought he had conciliated his regard, and secured his friendship, he asked him to sell Waikanae. It would have been a subject for an artist to picture the indignant looks of the Chief; he flatly and rudely refused, telling him to be content with what he had got. “You have had Porirua, Ahuriri, Wairarapa, Wanganui, Rangitikei, and the whole of the Middle Island given up to you, and still are not content; we are driven up into a corner, and yet you covet it.” Chagrined and disappointed, the Governor took his leave. He, however, was most highly esteemed and honored in his departure, by many tokens of regard and interesting addresses from those very natives, though they refused to accede to his wish and part with their land.

It need not be said that his land negociations were speedily terminated, and the Governor and his attendants were soon threading their way back along Rangihaeata's swamp-girt road.

He is now an old man, with a head white as the top of Tongariro, and with a spirit somewhat resembling that volcano, always fuming. His white hair strangely contrasts with his bronzed features, and highly tattooed countenance.

He remains unchanged in his views, and will doubtless continue so during the short period still remaining for him on earth. His countenance has not the marked character of Te Rauparaha's, neither does he appear to have equalled page 341 his relative, either in wisdom or courage, or nobleness of deportment; still he has been a wonderful man, and guilty of much crime, and will be little regretted when he is taken away.

The word Rangihaeata means the morning sun-beam.

The following song was sung, to show that the deceitfulness of Te Rauparaha was known:—

Taware mai, te tangata taware	Deceive, deceive the man, mai,
Pokipoki mai, te wahine pokipoki mai,	Flatter, flatter the woman,
E mahi, te mahi, koua, mahia,	Work, work it is done,
E moe, te moe, koua horahia,	Sleep the sleep,
Ina matara huria kenei.	Spread out; it is manifest.

He Puha or Jeering Song on Te Rauparaha.

Haere atu ki te pai,	Go and find out the
A te Paraha,	Good of Rauparaha,
He pai ranei; he kahore ranei,	Is he good, or is he bad?
He waka te watewaia, kuaka	He is a deceiver,
Kia ware, e-kia ware.	Don't forget, don't forget.

A Frame to Deposit Corpses in until Decomposed.