TE KOOTI.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 313, 15 May 1869, Page 3

TE KOOTI.

The Nelson Examiner publishes the following remarkable document, which, it says, was found at Te Karetu, one of the places ia Poverty Bay from which Te Kooti was driven. The original, adds our contemporary, is a sort of journal kept by Te Kooti, of what he believes was revealed to him during the five months preceding his escape from the Chatham Islands "We can vouch for the authenticity of the document, a copy of which was transmitted by a gentleman in Poverty Bay, into whose hands it fell, to a friend in Nelson :" — " February. This was the month in which my sickness became great. On the first day I fell into a trance. I had no thought of God, for my sius were greater than the heavens and the earth. I was an utterly bad man, a servant of the devil. As soon as I fell into the trance, this corrupt spirit and this sinful body passed away, and the spirit of God aroused me, saying ' Arise ! lam sent by God to heal you, that you may preach his name to his people who are living as captives in this land, that they may understand that it was Jehovah who drove them here.' Then that sinful spirit came back again into this sinful body, and when my eyes looked, he that was talking to me had gone. My sickness had increased upon me, and when I tried to recollect what was said, I could not clearly from the greatness of my disease, which was increasing as a waterfall that knows no rest. On the 21st March, I fell again into the trance. The same voice came to me. I was roused again, and the same things were said as before. Then that sinful spirit again returned, and wheu I looked, he whom I had seen was gone. Then I asked my friends who were crying over me. Who was he that had been speaking to me ? And when they said they did not know, I perceived that it had been God himself; He who is greater than tbe heaven and the earth, v hose hand is mighty to sustain the body of man, who caused the spirit to enter it, and raises it up. Then I broke into lamentation, saying, " O Jehovah, the God of the righteous, of kings, of hosts, and of those without sin, draw not nigh unto me, for I am uuclean and loathsome, through tbe greatness of my sins. Do Thou rather turn to the great and the righteous." I ceased speaking, and wept over the greatness of the sins within me. Afterwards, on the 10th of April, my disease took fierce hold of me j I was left like a tree blown down and broken by the wind that looks never again to be united to its root. On the 21st day I fell into the trance again. The same voice again aroused me, saying the same thing. I said, .*' Speak, O Lord," He answered, "Be not afraid, for your cry has come unto God, and he has given heed to your crying. Hearken ; I will strengthen you, and make known to you the words which I spoke to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed even down to David. The understanding of man is but the ' letter ; ' it is from the outside only, and is not the truth ; — mine is from within, and is known by none other. Now, therefore, speak my words, and make them known to my people ; speak my words and mine only." When he said this he [I?]

prayed, saying, " O God of the chosen people, O Jehovah, O Christ, O Holy Spirit ; " but when my eyes looked, he who was speaking was gone. There is nothing on earth to which his manner of speaking could be likened. Afterwards he appeared to me again, this time in the likeness of a man. Thereupon I fell flat down, and trembled. His feet were like the white clouds, and his garments were like snow for whiteness. His head was like the stars. His crown like the sun. His girdle like the setting and rising of the sun ; his scourge was like an arrow ; his staff was such as was never seen in this world, and was oi many colours, white, red, green, blue, and others, and its brightness was like the sun, so that you could hardly look upon it. What he said was as glass for clearness when hs spoke it ; the obscurity of it is from this letter, which makes it known. Then he said to me, ' Be not afraid, but stand at my side this day, and listen to my words. Fear not any man, though he be a chief, or a prophet, or powerful, or wise, or of another language, or having another God ; do not heed him, for I have cursed all these things from the beginning of the world.' Then he ceased, but spoke again, saying, ' I will not desert you or my people ;' and he said these things also : 1. " Make [what I have said] known. 2. Be nob afraid. 3. Seek. 4. Be strong." But indeed, all that he told me, with all the prayers and lamentations, I retain them all within me though many, and though I had no book in which to write them. After this came the signs. I saw he had something in his hand ; he held it out to me ; but when I stretched out my hand to take it, 10, it was a hideous reptile. I fell to the ground, and great was my fear, for there never was a reptile like it. Afterwards he said to me, ' Stretch out your hand.' I did so, aud behold there was a fire burning on my hand, and the flame was like that of a candle, but neither was my hand burnt nor any part of my clothes. " These were all the signs that were given during that mouth. On the 10th of April I began speaking the words of God, and continued until the 30tb, and from the beginning of May to the 10th. On the latter day I said to our clergyman, ' Come, give me your books, that I may know really whether these things are in them or not.' But upon his taking hold of the book, 10, it disappeared, and its disappearance cleared up [the doubt] ; (tana tangolmnga i te puhapuha, na, Ima riro, na te tnea ngaro i whahamaramaZ) Then I said to Karamana, ' Take the Gospel to the people.' On the 21st of May there was a great calling upon God ; the small and the great were calling as it had been one man. Then he said to me, ' Let all your friends be called to come here to write down all the things which I say to you ; you shall be a mouth-piece for me, and they shall write it down, and let there be many to search all the books, but do not take heed of any books, for they are the work of man, and unintelligible. But I will speak to you, and you to them, that they may know that I amj a voice from God. If there is any saying they do not understand do you call upon God, and I will disclose it.' So these things were worked at by the people who had been summoned, until they were finished. " After all these things were finished he said to me, on the 30th May, ' Tell my people to assemble here together with the unbelievers, that they may see that Jehovah alone is God, and there is none other who can deliver them.' So they assembled and then he gave his sign. The house trembled, and all the people in it. Afterwards, on the 4th of June, all the elders were called together, and God again gave his sign ; and on the 18th June the fire was seen in the house of worship ; it was seen by great and small. Then the grace [of the Lord] descended upon his people, who finished the writing down of all that he had said ; and from that time began the strengthening of his servants, and of my speech and of my body, and of my fearlessness towards great men ; indeed, from this time began [the doing] of all the things which had been spoken by him to his servants." The following waa not in the journal, but appears to have been written by Te Kooti. It is headed " A prayer on loading a gun :" — " O Jehovah, do Thou be near to

help me in the day of my enemies. Let the Angel direct my sword when I strike at them. Mene tekere to Thy sacred Name. Amen." Mene teliere is not Maori, and appears to be taken from the writing on the wall, " Mene (mene) tekel." Being unintelligible, it would probably be looked upon as of great efficacy.