Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/67

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Stories of Banks Peninsula.

close to Port Underwood, in Cloudy Bay, which is called to this day Fighting Bay in memory of the fight referred to, so that it is very clear that Te Rauparaha would have to take his departure for his own settlement on the North Island, and this could not be done without canoes. Then, again, Natives in those days never travelled any distance by land when they could go by water in their fine large war canoes, carrying from fifty to a hundred men. If Marmon’s version is true, Rauparaha had full satisfaction or revenge for his brother being killed, in killing the unfortunate natives and taking away the fifty slaves. He would not have gone a second time. It is the first time that I have ever heard John Cowell’s name in connection with Captain Stewart.

“I may state that I arrived in New Zealand in May, 1836, in the whaling ship Louisa, of Sydney, Captain Haywood. We anchored under Mana Island, in Cook’s Straits, where the ship remained during the bay whaling season, from May to October. Te Rauparaha was our chief, or we were under his protection, for which he was well paid in blankets, &c. Although he was a terror among the natives, he was always very good to the whites; in fact, in one instance I have to thank him tor saving my life. It happened in this way: I was ashore with a boat’s crew, filling water casks, when Te Rauparaha’s son, a lad about sixteen to seventeen years of age, was very troublesome to our men, and annoyed them so much that one of our crew, in a hasty moment, struck young Te Rauparaha in the face, and made his nose bleed. Now, to draw blood from a chief was one of the greatest crimes that could be committed, and the transgressor very seldom escaped with his life. When the Natives saw the blood, they were very much excited, and came rushing upon the crew, flourishing their tomahawks. We all thought our last hour had come. Old Te Raupa-