A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19948, 7 June 1930, Page 10

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

A STORY OF HORRORS.

CAPTURE OP THE BRIG ELIZABETH. (BFK3AIAT WBITTM JOB THB IKIMj [By W. P. Aubcanbbr and H. D. Skinnbb.] (All Bights Beeerved.) No. V The dead body of an enemy always smells sweet.-—Feudal proverb. The old-time Maori had many virtues. No ordinary European who came in contact with him could feel him aa a mental inferior. He could be a loyal and devoted friend. When he acted badly towards Europeans who had not ill-treated him, it waa generally because there had been ill-treatment by their predecessors of which they had no knowledge, or because pome point in his elaborate code of manner* had been outraged by them in their ignorance of the code. When his acta appeared most inexplicable to them, and perhaps repellent, they were usually entirely consistent with a philosophy of life and a system of reasoning different altogether from theirs, but both rational and logical once the foundation* of it were understood. But * prime part of his code made revenge, or M ntu,*» for injury—"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"—a sacred necessity. As an enemy he could be tTeaeherous, and it was more common • for him to be callously and also ferociously cruel. Though it was rare for him to torture bis victims slowly, in cold blood, like the North American Indians, the orgies by which he would express his triumph over them, when bis worst passions were aroused, are described mildly aa devilish. Yet, he found Europeans who did not shudder at them, or if they shuddered, were quite ready to e.bet him in them, for their own interests, among the rough class who made his first contact with "civilisation." The next chapter in Te Bauparaha's history, and in hia conflict with. the southern Maoris, is one that we might well wish could be omitted, for the credit of both races. > The story of the brig Elizabeth does not need telling again in detail. It is all contained in the evidence given during the preparations for a trial at Sydney, on which Dr. MeNab haa worked in "The Old Whaling Days," There are additions from Maori sources which contradict ona another, and. which are not needed to augment its horrors. Te Pehi had been killed at Eaiapoi, For that "ntu"—compensation—was imperative, and the most perfect "utu" was that as it had been done to Te Pehi, the chieftain of Ngati Tea, bo also .should it be done, with interest, if possible to Tama-i-hara-nui, the most exalted chieftain of his slayers. How to get possession of Tama-i-hara-nui was the? problem to which Te' Bauparaha applied his resourceful brain. To JUmparaha's Ingenuity. His ingenuity was equal to the demand on it. In October, 1830, the brig Elizabeth, Captain John Stewart, was at Kapiti, trading in flax with Sydney. (An advantage of this story, involving European courts, is that it gives us, tor the first time absolute dates to work upon, from which those of preceding and succeeding events can be calculated.) Te Bauparaha proposed to Stewart that, for a payment to be made in flax, he should place his ship at the Maori chief's disposal, and convey a party of his warriors to Akaroa to capture Tama-i-hara-nui and bring him back to Kapiti. He had made the overture previously to Captain Briggs of the Dragon, who refused to have anything to do with it. No doubt on this occasion the same representations were used. Te Pehi, who had been killed, was a friend of the white man. Tama-i-hara-nui was a human monster, who had been the cause of more than one of them being killed. This last charge was apparently an invention. Captain Stewart, we can imagine, felt the least concern about the merits of the feud. Be wanted flax, and against the advice of Briggs, whom he consulted, received Te Bauparaha and 120 of his men, armed with muskets and native weapons, on board his vessel. A party so large eould not fail to be, in effect, the masters of the vessel. Te Bauparaha had chosen the best means for his adventure. The sight of a northern war fleet entering their harbour would have sent the southern Maoris scurrying at once to their strongest pas. They could have no suspicions of a trading ship. The unspeakable Stewart did his part to ensure that they should not have any. For two or three days the ship lay at anchor in Akaroa Harbour. Te Bauparaha and hia men were kept out of sight below, while Stewart invited the natives to trade their flax for muskets, and sent a message to Tama-i----hara-nui, who was at a distance, to come and do business. When he arrived at last with his little daughter, he was eecorted to ij cabin, then clapped in irons and confronted with his enemy, Te Bauparaha, and Te * Hlko, the son of his victim, Te'Fehl. Their taunts can be easily:imagined. Other natives, incWfling the chief's wife, innocent of all suspicions, came on board to trade, and as they came were forced down into the. hold. The Sack of Takapuneke. If Stewart had returned then he would have more than fulfilled his contract and enough devilry would have been done, or made possible. But Te Bauparaha was not satisfied, and Stewart was not the man to bulk him of any more satisfaction he might require. Twenty years before Maoris had: seised and burned the Boyd, after massacring her crew, in Whangaroa Harbour, and this party was large enough to do what it liked with-the Elizabeth, Stewart's part in. wild which followed was not limited eveto to helpless toleration, for, when, a, party of the northern Maoris,, went ashore 'that night and, approaching it from two sides, burned Tama-i-hara-nui's village, opposite Aka-1 roa, Stewart and a number of his' crew went with them, in the ship's! boats,, and appear, rather to have enjoyed the atrocities which followed. It; is alleged that the. sailors took prisoners, and handed them over to their Kapiti enemies. The Ngati Toa took captive those whom they did not kill or who failed to escape in the smoke and darkness which alternated with the flames of blazing . whares. The village was still burning in the morning, when the cannibal feast took place on shore. What was not eaten was packed in baskets to be taken, with about ffcwenty living prisoners, to Kapiti. ." , ,''.,'... Such was the.sack of Takapuneke. It was not a pa, but an unfortified village, which Tama-i-hara-nui, some before, had made one of his 4-welling., nlaces, in order to be near the Enropean*%aders. It was on the site | .°f aa earii er pa. It was not on the . Akaroa side of the harbour, as haa