respect for his elders as well as a willing obedience to those who might be delegated to give him commands. On one occasion even the request of a slave was instantly obeyed. As he grew older the young Te Rauparaha made his first venture into the business of war. Here his prowess in battle and remarkable qualities of leadership began to show themselves early, and in the eyes of his elders marked him off as a leader of exceptional ability far superior to that of any other member of the tribe. He became at this time, according to traditional accounts, “famous in matters relative to warfare, the cultivating of generosity, and the welcoming of strangers and visiting war parties”. In this respect in particular he cultivated the admiration of his tribe by abolishing the customary practice whereby his field labourers were required to give a portion of the food provided for them to strangers who happened to be visiting Kawhia. He would always insist that his kumara planters should keep their full ration and the visitors be fed with supplies specially prepared for them. This practice became well-known in the district where it was often said of a benevolent Maori, “You are like Te Rauparaha, who first feeds his workmen and then provides for his visitors”. These were the early years of the 19th century. The dreaded musket was starting to make its appearance in the north where it had already sounded the beginning of a great period of devastating slaughter unequalled in the history of the Maori tribes. It was a time of great scheming and strategic planning with every powerful chief striving to gain more power through the acquisition of fire arms, and plotting constantly with Machiavellian cunning to overthrow neighbouring chiefs or to wreak vengeance for past insults. The peculiar rules and laws concerning utu (payment in revenge) seemed to be the motivating force behind every act of aggression. The aggressors were always able to find some excuse for making apparently unprovoked attacks on others and generally justified their actions as being utu in some form or other. In September 1819, less than a year before Hongi sailed for England, a war party of Ngapuhi under the leadership of Tamati Wakanene and his brother Patuone arrived on a friendly visit to Kawhia. Having recently acquired a number of muskets near Hokianga they were keen to test them in a slaughtering and devouring raid against some of the southern tribes. Te Rauparaha readily accepted an invitation to join them, and with a large fighting force of Ngati Toa he headed south with the Ngapuhi taua. S. Percy Smith in his Maori Wars of the 19th Century relates part of a report on this expedition given to Mr John White by an old Maori informant who started at Hokianga on the journey. According to this account one of the main reasons for undertaking the expedition was to avenge the deaths of some of their people who had been killed on a previous journey made to procure mats in exchange for Maori weapons. Among the Ngati Toa warriors of the taua was Te Rangihaeta the son of Te Rauparaha's eldest sister Waitohi. This chief who has been described as one of the fiercest in the war party had become one of Te Rauparaha's ablest lieutenants. He accompanied his uncle on every major undertaking against enemy tribes and throughout the 1840's became the most troublesome chief in the Wellington province. Travelling south the war party attacked the Ngati Ruanui and others along the coast sparing the Ngati Awa who were at that time on friendly terms with Ngati Toa and against whom the Ngapuhi apparently had no grudge. As White's informant says while explaining their passage through Ngati Awa territory “we had no reason for further man-killing having satiated our revenge on those who had killed our people, nothing but the pleasure of so doing. This is why we did not attack the tribes who dwelt on the road we followed. It was only those who menaced us and who obstructed our way whom we killed. This was the reason that we quickly reached the country of the south, Taranaki, having no difficulties on the way”. During a short stay at Kapiti Island Te Rauparaha negotiated a temporary peace with the occupying Ngati Apa, possibly a result of having then conceived a desire to occupy the land in that vicinity at some future date. Shortly after-wards as the taua approached Whanganuiatara a ship was sighted in Cook's Strait and Wakanene on seeing it immediately advised Te Rauparaha to conquer the surrounding district in order to trade with the white man for guns and powder and thus be assured of his future as a great chief. For the remainder of this expedition which took the invaders up past the Hutt Valley and half-way through the Wairarapa, the idea of conquest remained uppermost in Te Rauparaha's mind. On their arrival back at Kawhia many months later he began making plans for permanently removing the Ngati Toa tribe to Kapiti and the adjacent mainland. This proved to be a major undertaking which required the co-operation of other tribes such as the Ngati Tama and Ngati Awa through whose territory the migrating tribe would need to pass. Te Rauparaha successfully used his diplomacy in this direction. Resting places along the proposed route through their territory were designated while suitable cultivating areas were also allotted as it was obvious that the whole journey could not be accomplished in one season. During the two years which lapsed before final arrangements for the journey had been completed certain incidents occurred which intensified the animosity between Ngati Toa and their old enemies of Waikato. Not long after Te Raeparaba's return from the southern expedition with Patuone and Wakanene his first wife Marore was