TAPSEL AND HIS CREW.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1649, 16 January 1913, Page 4

TAPSEL AND HIS CREW.

I ; ABOUT 100 YEARS AGO. "• ' (Dy Telegraph:.—Special Oorresptrident.) i • • „ .' •• Auckland, .Tanuatr.ls. The Maoris have a word "peropero," ; which boars a likcness';to 'the Spanish j word "porro," and this has given rise to t somo controversy of.'late.'■ Mr. AV. H , Ford, of Ngaruawahin, who has made a , close study: of Maori traditions, says:— i "A man named Philip Hans Tnpsol died in. . New Zealand in tho year 1870. For ft . period of 60 years beforehis death, I am | informed, Tapsel lived in New Zealand. > At one point in liis career Tnpsol was t engaged'in piracy, and roamed the ocean j highlvays in search of booty. He their . joined an English maii-of-war. On leaving i tho servioe Tapsel got a vessel and came j to. New Zealand'with a mixed crew,'in-' ; OlilcliiiK Spaniards. His ship was wrecked l and her remains are in the Bay of r Plenty. The Spaniards of lii.q vessel found . their way . anions the Maoris. Captain Edward M'Allcndcr, who came whaling > here aboutlOO years oj;o, had'among Ms . creiv Spaniards. These men exchanged t terms of vocabulary with the Natives', . and found tho words bearin? a ro--5 semblance to the vernacular. 'The forej going information I g!eaue<l from a .grsat--3 grandson, of Captain M'AUender, ■ In conl vcrsation with this gentleman I was able i to sort out several 'Maori' words, in which , the Latin derivation was unmistakably t evident," > ' '1