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running. None of the party had the least suspicion that the approaches to Kaiapoi were in the hands of a hostile northern force. They journeyed on towards their destination till they reached the causeway through the Ngawari swamp, where they fell suddenly and unexpectedly into the hands of an ambuscade. Both Hape and Te Puhirere were killed, but some of their companions, by jumping into the swamp, succeeded in making good their escape, and found shelter in the pa.

After the massacre of Rauparaha’s chiefs by the inhabitants of Kaiapoi, and his withdrawal from the neighborhood, the survivors of the Akaroa party returned home. When passing the spot where they had been attacked, they found the clothing of the two chiefs who were killed, and not liking to lose such good mats, they picked them up and carried them home, and appropriated them to their own use. In time it came to be generally reported that Hape and Puhirere had been kaipirautia, or dishonored after death, by some persons who were known. When a full report of what had happened reached the ears of Te Mai hara nui, he expressed the greatest indignation at the indignity perpetrated on his deceased relatives by those who had dared to wear their mats. He summoned the warriors of Ngai tarewa, Ngati Irakehu, and Ngati hui kai, and led them to avenge the insult by attacking in succession all the pas erected by the refugees at Panau and elsewhere. A few only were killed; the majority were spared, and employed by their captors as slaves.

Two of these prisoners, who had fallen to the lot of Paewhiti (old Martin), did not agree very well with their master, and ran away to their friends at Koukourata. Tamati Tikao, who was then a boy, remembers how angry his father Taupori was because the runaways did not seek his protection; for he had