STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 630, 28 July 1882, Page 2

STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

No. 26.—-" Billy Simpson "—continued. The Hannah had another shore whalingparly to land in New Zealand, besides Hempleman's. The destination of the other was Poverty Bay, but the schooner went to Queen Charlotte's Sound. There they stopped for fire or six weeks, and though the one party left them to go to the North, they had a good many additions te their ranks, many of the men forming connections with Maori women. There were four boats' crews in the party, some 30 white men in all, Mrs Hempleman being the only white woman. About a dozen Maories accompanied them from Queen Charlotte's Sound. The Hannah went first to Akaroa, where she stopped two days, before proceeding to land the party at Peraki. There were no whalers in these waters at the time, and the few Maori whares were deserted, for it was jest after the massacre by Rauparaha, and he had laid all the plantations waste, destroyed the pahs, and driven the few people who escaped death or slavery into the interior. As, therefore, there were no provisions to b« got from the Natives, or any object to be gained by stopping in the harbor, the Hannah sailed for Peraki the second morning afterher arrival, and that same day landed the party at their future home. It was fine autumn weather, and many aboard were pleased with the idea that it was St. Patrick's Day (being the 17th of March, 1836) wLen they landed. They soon got their things ashore, and commenced building their Where's. They used to sleep in casks for some time, and they were much delayed by going after whales before they had the trying" works and their own houses put up. Hempleman's house was of sawn timber, brought from Queen Charlotte's Sound. There was no time for planting , . It was just arranged that one boat should be on the fishing ground at daybreak one morning, and another the next, and of course when whales.were got they had to be tried out. Very few amongst the men knew anything about whaling at al'» Captain tlemp'emnn .vas a reuily good hand, but he was always driiikiiii , . A sad -incident, too, depressed tliem much. Mr Beire or Beau, was an excellent headsnmi, in tact, got most of the wlwiltfrf tlint were caught. One day his boat w. a upset in returning to the shore, ami lie and three of the hand* were drowned. Two of these were Sydney natives, fine fellows, who knew their work uiiii luniii nl be spared in tne little settlement. Bee it, it is thought, might have escaped easily, as he was a good swimmer, but he had v heavy monkey jacket on at the. time, and in swimming after the hands to get them to the boat, so that they could hold or, the coat btcame saturated <vith water and dragged him down. He was very deeply regretted indeed. At this time Simpson heard from the Maories a good many tales regarding Rftuparaha's invasion, and lie had previously been shipmates in the See 'with one o£ those who escape , ! . The account he gives of the matter, as related to him by the Maories, is as follows. Some time antecedent to these events, n Ngatiawa chief named Pahi had visited E.irope. He was much impressed with the customs of civilised nations, especially with the fact that wars were usually made against people speaking a different language. He brooded deeply over this idea, and when he returned, he formed the ambitious idea of doing away with the inter-tribal discords, and making the Maories a strong, united people, capable of waging war on other ploces beyond New Zealand, and of repelling any foreigners. In the North, amongst his own people, the idea was weil received, but he then wished to go through the South, and tor that purpos9 announced his intention of coming across the straits to Taiaroa, who was tho leading chief of all these tribes, though he resided in Otago. He came across, but the old feeling of. hatred to the Northern tribes was still strong, and when he got to Kaiapoi he was treacherously murdered by a rangitiera named Tangatahira. The great Northern chief Rauparaha vowed revenge, and right royal " utu " he took, for tha assassination of his friend, Rauparaha induced the captain of a trading brig, named the Mar.ha, to take hinmelf ar.d a number of his warriors to Akaroa. He had no money to give him, but he proffered a.few ot those preserved human heads which were then such a common article of traffic, being sold ns curiosities for the museums of the Old World, and he promised to fill the vessel with pigs and flax as '' utu. , ' Directly the Maories landed, however, they immediately began to massacre all the Natives they could meet, and all the survivors fled to a strongly fortified pah at the end of that peninsula running out between Duvauchelle's and Barry's Bays, now in the occupation of Mr Birdling. The position was a strong one, and it was several days before the attacking force gained an entrance to the pah, but when they did. a most horrible carnage ensued, many of those taken being killed in the most terrible manner. The Maori who was with Simpson in the Bee told him that the conquerors seized many of the children, and, cutting their throats from ear to ear, eagerly drank the hot life blood asit flowed from the terrible wounds, They held high and hideous festival on the bodies of their dead foes, and Simpson says he has himself seen the huge copper Maori in which they roasted several corpses at a time. Bloody Jack was the Maori who held the command in defending the pah. He was not a chief, but his great fighting qualities had placed him at the head in this time of desperate danger. He aud many others escaped after the last successful assault, and found a refuge in the bush.

Every plantation and whare that the merciless victors could find, they utterlj destroyed, so that famine should be the lot of the wretched few who had escaped them. When their horrible work was done they went aboard the brig, and one cannot help thinking that Captain Stewart, •who was the commander of the vessel, was rightly served for aiding the Maoris by carrying them on their bloody errand, when instead of flax and pigs these savages brought aboard a number of their wretched victims. He (Captain Stewart) remonstrated, but was warned that his fate would be a terrible one unless he obeyed Rauparaha in all things ; and there Is little doubt lie would have been killed had they not required his skill to take the vessel back to Kapiti, which was their destination. The voyage must have been a fearful one for Captain and crew, for the Maoris kept murdering their prisoners, and cooked their flesh in the ship's coppers, greatly to the liorror of the sailors, who insisted on them being at once destroyed when the Maoris left the ship. One terrible incident seems to stand out in bold re'ief. When the Martha came up the harbor Rauparaha and his men hid themselves under the hatches, and told Capt. Stewart to make signals to the shore that he wanted to trade, in the hope that some unsuspicious native might be lured aboard and become their victim. The ■experiment succeeded only too well. A ■chief of importance seeing the signal, and thinking the " Martha " was an ordinary trading vessel came on board with his dnughter, and was instantly seized and bound. During the terrible time of the massacre ashore they were left in the hold of the vessel, but when these demons were once more clear of the land they loosed him and taunted him with the horrible and bestial tortures, and indignities they were going to inflict on his daughter as well as himself. Determined if possible to save the poor girl from the indiscribably horrible fate in store for her, the gallant prisoner managed to snatch a tomahawk from one o£ their fiendish persecutors, and killing the miserable girl with a single blow, threw her body into the sea, and tried to leap after it. In this, however, he failed, for before he could take the spring he was seized by his captors, who, baulked of their proposed atrocities on his daughter, promised him a death of agony. Well they kept their hideous promise ! On their arrival at Kapiti at the great feast at which they celebrated their successful raid, the wretched man was brought before them and tortured to death in a most hideous manner, by having red hot bars of iron thrust through hia body. Terrible indeed had been Rauparaha's revenge! (To be continued.)