themselves who might follow; because the Ngatiapa tribe, though weakened, remained still unconquered, and a considerable proportion of their military force still maintained themselves in independence in the country under their chief Te Hakeke.

But what was no doubt fully as much in favor of the Ngatiapa tribe, and which may probably have been the cause of their not having been eventually subjugated was the fact already noticed that Rauparaha on his return from the North, after having invited the Ngatiraukawa to come down, had made peace with the Ngatiapa, thereby waiving any rights he might have been supposed to claim over their lands; and indeed from that time for a long period afterwards friendly and confidential relations undoubtedly were maintained between Te Rauparaha and his tribe and the tribe of Ngatiapa,--which were only broken off, more by accident than by design of either party, in consequence of a few men of the Ngatiapa having been killed in an attack made by Ngatitoa and others on a fort belonging to the Rangitane tribe in which these Ngatiapa men happened to be staying at the time, and whose death was afterwards avenged by the Ngatiapa--after which peace was again established between them and Te Rauparaha.

To Europeans not much acquainted with the peculiarities of Maori thought and action, the destruction by these passing parties of Ngatiraukawa of individuals of the Ngatiapa tribe--a tribe with whom Rauparaha was then on peaceful and even friendly terms, their destruction by parties who were not only also allies of Rauparaha, but who were then actually in expectation of receiving from him great benefits in the shape of grants of land, and above all the opportunity of trading for firearms, may appear a strange inconsistency, and not to be reconciled with the fact of the people so treated being in any other position than that of helpless subjection, and not--as has been seen--in alliance with the paramount chief Rauparaha; but to those who know what the state of society (so to call it) was in those days, and have noted the practical consequences arising therefrom, this matter presents no difficulty. The Ngatiraukawa parties would, as a mere matter of course, act as they did without anticipating any reference whatever to the matter by Te Rauparaha, to whom they were bringing what he most wanted, a large accession of physical force, and who would not therefore have quarrelled with them at this time for such a small matter as the destruction of a few individuals, no matter who they were, provided they were not of his own particular tribe.

It was the pride and pleasure of the Raukawa to hunt and kill all helpless stragglers whom they might fall in with;--it was customary under the circumstances, and being able also to do it with impunity, they were, according to the morality and policy of those times, quite within rule in doing so. As for the Ngatiapa tribe themselves, they would not at all blame the Ngatiraukawa in the sense of their having done anything wrong; being Maori themselves they would appreciate the circumstances of the case, knowing that they themselves would have done the same if in the same position. They would also fully understand the reason why the paramount chief Rauparaha could not notice the matter, and that in fact the Ngatiraukawa had done nothing to be considered as wrong or out of order, but only something to be returned in kind and with interest at some future day, provided that the Ngatiapa should ever be able, and that it would be good policy in them to do so when the opportunity offered.

I have made these remarks, which are applicable to the actions and proceedings of all the different Raukawa parties when on their way south to join Te Rauparaha at Kapiti, for the purpose of showing that no acts of the Ngatiraukawa tribe previous to the arrival of their whole force at Kapiti, whether by killing or enslaving individuals of the Ngatiapa, or by taking a merely formal possession of any of their lands, did give them (the Ngatiraukawa), any rights of any kind whatever over the lands of the Ngatiapa tribe according to any Maori usage or custom.

It should be noted here, that on the first coming of Rauparaha on his expedition of conquest, he found living amongst the Ngatiapa a party of Rangitane, a tribe whose proper tribal lands were adjacent to, but distinct from, those of the Ngatiapa. These people, upon the second coming of Rauparaha on his return from the North were still there, and they, in confederation with some other people of the Muaopoko tribe, did by means of a treacherous stratagem very nearly succeed in killing Te Rauparaha, who barely escaped by flight, leaving four of his children and all, or very nearly all, of his companions dead at the place where they were attacked. This affair occurred immediately after Rauparaha had made peace formally with the Ngatiapa tribe, who, it is in evidence, had warned him against the treacherous design of the Rangitane and others; notwithstanding which they very nearly succeeded in ridding themselves of the most dangerous of all their enemies, Te Rauparaha--famous himself for wiles and stratagems--and who, it is pertinent to the matter in hand to remark, either conquered by force or made tools of by policy, or destroyed by treachery, almost everyone he came into contact with. The Ngapuhi warriors, strong in warlike ability, doubly strong in being armed with firearms, he made use of to conquer for him a great territory, and then dismissed them, paying them for their great services with friendly flattering words, a few prisoners, and some insignificant presents. The Ngatiapa he spared and made friends with, and even allowed to purchase firearms at Kapiti, evidently with the purpose of using this tribe as a check upon his friends the Ngatiraukawa, who were much superior to his own tribe in numbers, and who in their turn were to be pitted against the numerous enemies by whom he was surrounded, and who had become so in consequence of his recent conquests. The effect however of the nearly successful attempt by the Rangitane, as regarded themselves, was to prevent Te Rauparaha from extending to them the same favorable consideration which he had done to the Ngatiapa, and to cause him to pursue them with persistent and vindictive warfare, slaughtering a great proportion of their fighting men, breaking their military force, and driving them from place to place whenever opportunity offered, during which operations we lose sight of them on this block; and when we afterwards find a small company of people called "Rangitane," settled unopposed and apparently in a permanent manner at Puketotara, just within the country of the Ngatiapa, and not far from the boundary of the proper tribal estate of the Rangitane tribe, we find on investigation that these people are called "half-castes" or children of inter-marriages between members of the Ngatiapa and Rangitane