TE KOOTI'S ESCAPE FROM THE CHATHAMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 8756, 1 April 1889, Page 6

TE KOOTI'S ESCAPE FROM THE CHATHAMS.

The story of how Te Kooti and his fellowprisoners escaped from the Chatham Islands with, the three-masted schooner. Eifleman in 1868 is not a new one. Prob- : ably, however, tbe story as related by one: of the crew of the Eifleman (which was a Government schooner) has never been pub-; lished; and tbe account appended, as given by one of them, will doubtless be particularly interesting. The narrator (John Martin) is probably the only snf-1 vivor of tbe five men who manned the Eifleman on the day when Te Kooti and his men pulled up to the schooner, armed to the teeth, and took possession of her.; Martin lives in Evans Bay, where he carries on business as a waterman, and where excellent boats and the beat attention can be obtained. Martin was interviewed by a New Zealand Times reporter, and responded with alacrity to an invitation to give an account of Te Kooti’s voyage to Poverty Bay. The substance of bis narrative was as follows:

" We went to the Islands with a cargo of stores—sugar, floor, spices, and other things—but the only thing we had. landed was a plough the Natives took ashore, under a guard. About two o’clock in the afternoon of the day after we got there two boats, with sixteen Maoris in each, came off to ns, and as soon as they got alongside swarmed on the deck pretty quickly. They were armed, and they sent us aJT aft at once. There were five of us there—the mate, named Payne, and four seamen.' Captain Christie, who was in command of; the boat, had gone ashore, and it seems, they collared him and tied him up on the island. Well, they left a guard over us, and went backward and forward with the whaleboats, until at least there were 203 of them—men, women, and children. Just as they had finished bringing them, the' schooner Florence came in, and a couple of boatloads of Maoris went off to her andordered all the men ashore. When the skipper and crew had left her—and I tell you they went ashore as quick as they could—the Maoris made .sail and ran the Florence on to the rocks, and tomahawked holes in her bottom. When they came back to the Rifleman wo asked to be put ashore. . “ Oh, yes,” they replied, "by-and-by.” Te Kooti then told the mate (through an interpreter named Baker, a half-caste, who married Te Kooti’s sister) that he wanted to go to New Zealand, and we must take them. Of course we had to obey. When we got under way there was a strong head wind, and Te Kooti said: "Well, never mind, turn back. J've got all the powder and ammunition, and I don't care so long as we don't meet a man-of-war." Next morning we made a start, the skipper of the guards (who had been released by their wives, 1 suppose) stand-, ing on a hill looking at us. When we got outside the wind freshened almost to a gale. I was at the wheel about half-past seven. Baker came up to me and said: "Don’t be afraid, we’re going to throw a man overboard.’ ‘What! is he dead P' I asked. ‘ Dead, no! he’s alive I ’ Baker then told me that some time before there had been a plan among the Maoris to take a French whaler and escape, but Te Kooti’s father and two young men * * split,’;and Te Kooti and the other four chiefs were flogged. For that reason they were going to throw the old man overboard, and also because he was a Jonah,► Then they brought him on deck, with hie hands tied. He never said a word, and over he went! When he got overboard he swam a little way although his hands were tied, but at last the poor old ebap sank. Well, after that Te Kooti and the Maoris began praying and singing, and about two hours later on the gale died away. That was strange, wasn’t it ? They believed the praying did it. How did they treat ns? My word they treated us fine. You know, there was a lot of beef on board and plenty of porter and . beer. Te Kooti wouldn’t let the Maoris touch that beef; it was for us. Baker was the cook, and we used to. have our meals .first. We had a bottle of porter each to our meals, and as much drink, in fact, as we liked. The Maoris were not allowed a drop of drink, and Te Kooti himself didn’t take anything strong (they tell me he’s changed now). Of course the Maoris watched us very closely. They had regular guards on deck, armed to the teeth, and there was one old fellow slept alongside the wheel with a six-chambered revolver in bis belt, We didn’t have to do any work, for the Maoris could go aloft and do anything. There were five chiefs—Te Kooti and four others—who lived in the cabin, and took their meals after us 5 but Te Kooti was the boss of all, and whatever be said was law. We were five days on the voyage, and on the day we sighted New Zealand Te Kooti allowed the Maoris a bottle of porter to every three men. Baker said be would not give them more because be was .afraid they would turn on us. They decided to laud at a place where they had a pah, about six miles East of Gisborne. When we got there they, started taking the cargo out and ashore, using five canoes and a whaleboat. Next morning they left the schooner. Te Kooti was the last to go, and before be left he gave us J!6 a piece, and told -us we could have any of the stores we wanted. He wanted us to go ashore and live with him and he would give us any amount of land and money, and toll the white people he had forced, us to come with him. This we declined. To Kooti said to the mate, ‘ I suppose you are going to Port Nick (Wellington) now P’ The mate - replied that he was not; that he was going to take the ship away and sell her at Valparaiso. ‘That is a very good idea,’ said Te Kooti. But of course when we got away we came to Wellington, the voyage taking us about eight days.” "What sort of a man wai To Kooti?” "Oh, a pretty well-buib man, about forty, I should think, am* about 6ft Gin high; but he had a naat;, way of looking down. He was very gooc to us, though, wasn’t he P Baker told m< they took .£IBOO away from the island ii; money. When we parted from them 1 , said to Baker, ‘I suppose you’re going to fight now P’ ‘ Oh, no,’ he replied, * but w< want some of out land back.’ When wt got to Wellington we found that people didn’t know Te Kooti had run away with, the Rifleman; and a man-of-war was outlooking for a French whaler which it war supposed the Maoris were on."