The Days of Savagery.
THE INTENDED VISIT OF TE KOOTI.
A NARRATIVE OF THE OLD DAYS. Wx are informed that Peka Kerekere and one or two other natives left yesterday to meet Te Kooti, whom they expect to intercept on thia side of Opotiki, through which place it ia understood he will pass. Great preparations are being made for the reception feast, and special arrangements are to be made for any pakehas who care to go out. A series of sketches are being contributed to the Christchurch Press by " The Warrigal," whose fine descriptive pan and hia knowledge of the Maori history and customs, gives bis productions a peculiar charm and interest, We subjoin an extract which should find many interested readers The sun rested on the mountain and over the world there came a great calm. I turned my back to Alexandra, on the sights and Bounds of human life, for I wished to see the put apart from the present. I wished to see something of
MAORI LIFE AND HISTORY. Picture after picture came before me as I looked towards the river, pictures conjured up by the tales of old Maoris, by history and by fancy. Away to the north yonder I see a great Maori nation; they people the land from the Waitemataand the Manukau northwards as far as man can travel. They are the Ngapuhis, the proud Ngapuhis, the loyal Ngapuhis, as we called them not so long ago—- • race of warriors straight limbed, swarthy, and fiery. They received the pakeha with k Eastern courtesy, for with Eastern cunning they saw the advantages he could bring them. A chief amongst them trained in the art of savage warfare from bis birth, and gifted with a genius transmitted from a long line of ancestors, embraced the Christian faith in much the same spirit that the generality- Of Maoris have done. this was nosoi —the terrible Hongi, the Napoleon of New Zealand. As a converted heathen chief he appeared before King George of England, and that monarch loaded him with various gifts as useful to him as his Christianity was, Hongi had seen the power 6! the European firearm, and he sold the king's gifts to purchase guns and ammunition. He armed a chosen band of warriors with muskets, and trained them in the white man's art of war; then flung of? his Christianity with his clothes, and went on tbs warpath, None cf his race ever tasted such a feast of battle and bloodshed, No Maori warriors had such a career of conquest and .cannibalism as did his, They swept the country from Hokianga to the Thames, and the proud Waikatos trembled at their deeds. Potatau was chief of the Ngetimaniopotoa then and lived in bis where atTe Kowhai; he learned how Hongi with bis Ngapuhi braves had sailed from the Waitemata and paddled up the Tamaki river, carrying death and desolation as he went. Mauinena and Makoia, Strong pas held by the Ngatiwhatuas, fell before mm, and Ngatiwhstua bones are dug up even yet by the white settlers of Panmure. Then came news of Hongi and hiti men dragging their canoes over the Isthmus at utahuhu, and launching them on, the Manukau Harbor. Hongi had sworn VENOFANCS ON THE WAIKATOS, and he bent his course towards them, Pat* Onehunga he sailed, past many a volcanic cone and shallow reach, over the widest part of the Manukau, until he saw the yellow cliffs of Awitu; then southwards with the tide up the Waiuku channel until he reached the extreme end cf the inland sea. Then the flax ropes were tied to the canoes, the men bent their shoulders to the strain and Over the land they went and launched the canoes on the Awaroa creek and paddled down its course until they r.ached tbe waters of the Waikato, Ah ! here was a river such as the Ngapuhis had never eien, hw? was a glorious stream which their foes has called their own. Against the swift current-the invaders urged their way, paddiing-and poling to the tune of war songtond charifi-of yiffories. The natives of the laglhrouched in the fern as they heard the or fled to the ranges, and hid themselves in the dense bush. Past Bangiriri, through the gorge at the base of sacred Mount Taopiri, they went up to the rivet until they saw Ngaruawahia and the dark atiil waters of the Waipa, I hear their glad shouts as they leave the swift Waikato and enter the Waipa—the river that touches softly, I follow their course in fancy, they camp where I camped, the ruined pas I saw were destroyed by them. In the shadow of the wooded ranges they paddle surely onward, the stream grows narrower and swifter, but they choose the deep water and the sheltering' banks. The Waikitos flee southwaids, they hurriedly provision this pa, they strengthen the walls I see about me, and watch the river day and night, Soon the cry, ••they oome, they come I" 6
is heard. Potatau and his chief warriorg hurry to that point of land, and see the lone canoes slowly making their way against thu stream. Already tbe Ngapuhis shout ie triumph. The Matakitski pa will soon bo theirs, the Ngatimaniopotos are a tribe t be eaten, Potatau is as nothing before their leader Hongi. On come the canoes, some of them enter the Mange piko creek just below, some cf them pass the point of land and scramble up the banks of the Waipa. Potatau cheers his warriors, he speaks to them of -past victories, he sings the deeds of their forefathers; whilst his men twist the flax ‘eandpt their weapons round their wrists and try the balance of their spears. On the ground where I now sit the bravest of the Bravest of the Waikatos are gathered, whilst the women and children peer over the wall behind there and talk in frightened whispers. nTbe Ngapuhis shout their battle cry, the JiWlkatos man the defence. Up the steep thanks of creek and river climb the foe, and defenders of the pah hurl spears and. Wases at them; but neither can stay their taigiess. The spar of musketry drowns the Words; the leaden balls slay tbe hurlers of the epears, on come the Ngapuhis, nothing can sitop them. Tbe Waikatos fight with all the Beaperate fury of their race; but the leaden shower mows them down, the greatest warriars fall before they can strike a blow; already ujW feel the bitterness of defeat; they canwithstand the deadly magic their foes gjyeuearned from the white man, Tfe;n- -■ tpg wt >ts thunder they crouch behind the -jails and up comes Heagi with nearly two •/thousand warriors. ■" ™ WIIKATOS ABE mates; women, and children shriek and try to yScape; they clamber over the walls; they f leap into the deep ditch and others leap upon are crushed and smothered by ■MJlWeeing multitude, whilst Stand on the waits and shoot down all who preach the open ground. The air ie filled with smell of blood when the sun goes down Twer Pirongia, and then on this space before fires are lighted and human victims roseted for the feast of victory. When darksS*> ctole over the river ana over the hills a ..terrible Orgie began such as will never more be seen in New Zealand, The music of the < feastera was tbe savage cbaunt, the death ..Cry, and the shriek of women, The picture is —-too terribis to look on. I would sooner imagine Ue scattered and beaten Waikatos hiding amongst the fern, and think of Potatau in his broken slumbers dreaming of his great revenge and cf the time when ho should . become a king and founder of dynasty, The last rays of sunlight have shot over the' mountain, the river takes a tender mallow gleapi, and all the land shines with twilight loveliness, such loveliness as makes to* think that la the future men, softened by its influence, will be as kind and true as the old inhabitants wen fierce and terrible.
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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 256, 5 February 1889, Page 3
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1,343The Days of Savagery. Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 256, 5 February 1889, Page 3
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