Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/66

Mana, in Cook’s Straits. On the passage Te Mairanui was lashed to the mainmast, and his little daughter allowed to walk about the deck. The story goes that one day Te Mairanui called his daughter to him, and, using these words, said, ‘They are going to kill me, but they shall not kill or make a slave of you.’ With that he took hold of her and dashed her brains out against the combings of the main hatchway. On the arrival of the brig at Mana, Te Mairanui was taken ashore, and killed in this way: He was hung up by the heels, a vein cut in his throat, and as he bled to death, they caught the blood in a bowl and drank it. I have never heard (as Mr Travers asserts) that a red-hot ramrod was pushed through his neck, or that Te Mairanui’s wife was taken by the party of Te Rauparaha. I have not read Mr Travers’ work on ‘The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha,’ but I question very much whether he was better informed than myself.

“Marmon says that Te Rauparaha and his party went overland from Cloudy Bay to Banks Peninsula. Now, this of itself is sufficient to throw a doubt over his whole version. And, again, he must have been quite ignorant of the geography of the Middle Island of New Zealand, or he must have known that it was impossible in those days to travel the distance without canoes. Then for Te Rauparaha to bring away fifty slaves was another impossibility. How could he cross the many rapid rivers? where could he get food from for them (there was little or no fern root, as in the North Island)? are all questions to be asked. Then, again, Rauparaha’s settlement or pa was on the North Island. He had no settlement or pa in those days on the Middle Island, being always in fear of Bloody Jack and his tribe, from whom he had several narrow escapes. At one time they had a desperate fight in Fighting Bay,