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carried him off to Kapiti, where he grew so much into favor with his master, that he was treated more like a son than a slave, and finally allowed to return to his home in Akaroa.

Amongst those who escaped were two refugees from Kaiapoi—Aperahama Te Aiki and Wi Te pa. They happened to be outside the gate when the slaughter began, and at once sought shelter in the scrub that covered the hill sides to the water’s edge. They were observed by two men in charge of one of the northern war canoes, who pulled to the beach just under their hiding place, exclaiming “Our slaves, two for us,” And they might have been caught, but for the courage of Wi Te pa, who fortunately had a loaded gun with him. Creeping down through the bushes, he stood concealed just above high water mark, and as the man in the bows was preparing to jump on shore Te pa fired, and nearly blew the top of his head off; his companion, seeing what had happened, pushed the canoe back again into deep water with all speed, and the two fugitives made their way to the hills, where they were joined by the late Pita Te Hori and others, and having evaded the parties sent by Rauparaha in pursuit, succeeded in making good their escape to the south. The majority of the inhabitants of Onawe were either killed or carried away into captivity. In the evening of the day on which the pa was taken, the prisoners were all examined, and the old men and women were picked out and put to death on the flax flat, now Mr Callaghan’s paddock, in Barry’s Bay. There the bodies were cut up, and so much carried off to the camps as the northern warriors required as a relish for their fern root.

The capture and destruction of Onawe almost annihilated the Maori inhabitants of the Peninsula.