1 | <html><head><title>The Poor Knights Massacre</title></head><body><h2>The Poor Knights Massacre</h2><p style="margin: 6pt 3.6pt 6pt 0cm" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">Situated thirteen miles northeast of <em>Tutukaka </em>on the east coast of Northland is a small group of islands which were named the Poor Knights by Captain Cook in 1769. </font></span></p><p><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.05pt">Set like jewels in a clear, legend-whispering sea, are the two main islands, <em>Tawhiti Rahi </em>and <em>Aorangi, </em>surrounded by a cluster of islets, including <em>Aorangaia, Te Aaka, </em>(Archway) and <em>Motu </em></span><em><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Kapiti. </span></em><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Hidden in the rocky shorelines of the larger islands are huge deep-water caves, rich in the mysteries of <em>Tangaroa, </em>the great god of the sea.</span></font></p><p><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: -0.05pt">Once these lovely islands were the home of <em>Te Tatua </em>and his tribe, who lived on a <em>pa </em>on <em>Aorangi. </em>There came the day in 1823 when the great warlike chief <em>Hongi Hika, </em>persuaded <em>Te Tatua </em>to take his <em>taua </em>to join him on a fighting expedition to the <em>Hauraki </em>Gulf and the <em>Urewera </em></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">country.</span></font></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">No sooner had the party left, than <em>Paha, </em>a slave who had been in some trouble about a pig, and who was furious at the punishment that had been meted out to him, conceived a wicked plan.</font></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">Stealing a small canoe from <em>Aorangi, </em>he paddled it to the mainland and then journeyed on to <em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.45pt">Rangihoua </span></em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.45pt">at the mouth of the Bay of Islands. As he travelled along, traitorous thoughts<em> </em>ate into<em> </em></span>his mind like maggots, getting bigger and bigger every hour.</font></span></p><p><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: 0.45pt">When he reached<em> Rangihoua, </em>he incited the warriors there to attack the defenseless stronghold of<em> Te Tatua, </em>promising them certain victory, saying, "Come, 0 warriors of<em> Rangihoua</em>, the gates<em> </em></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">of victory are wide open at the islands of <em>Aorangi </em>and <em>Tawhiti. </em>Gone are all the warriors of Te <em>Tatua </em>to the wars down the coast. Only women, children and old men remain. Now is your chance.</span></font><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">"</span></font></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">Excited by the thought of such an easy conquest, the chief, <em>Waikato </em>made rapid preparations for the attack. He fitted out three large canoes with sails made from the canvas of the ship, Brampton, which had been wrecked in the Bay a few months before. Then the <em>taua </em>set out for <span>the<em> pa </em>of<em> Te Tatua </em>on<em> Aorangi.</em></span></font></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">The deepening night hid their approach from the unsuspecting people on the islands, and it was easy for the traitor <em>Paha, </em>to guide the attackers to a safe landing place. There followed a terrible massacre of the defenseless islanders.</font></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">When they found that the invaders had guns, islanders were panic-stricken, and rushed hither and thither, desperately seeking some safe spot in which to hide. But it was too late.<sup>.</sup> Many of the islanders hurled themselves over the steep precipices into the sea and were drowned or dashed to pieces on the rocks below.</font></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><font color="#000000">After this wholesale slaughter, the <em>Maoris </em>from the Bay indulged in an orgy of feasting. They rested a while to recover from their gastronomic excesses, and then loaded their canoes with a <span style="letter-spacing: 0.45pt">number of captives and some of the remaining bodies in order to continue their<em> hakari </em>on their<em> </em></span>own <em>pa </em>at <em>Rangihoua.</em></font></span></p><p><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: 0.45pt">Among the captives were<em> Te Tatua's </em>wife and three male relatives, who were carried off in<em> </em></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">triumph to the Bay. Watching this ghastly scene was the terrified five-year-old son <em>Hori, </em>and a slave <em>Omanoa, </em>who both had escaped capture by being safely hidden in a cave.</span></font></p><p><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: 0.45pt">On his return, despair, horror and rage filled the heart of <em>Te Tatua, </em>when he saw the dreadful </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">scene of desolation on his islands. Only his little son and twenty of his people, mainly women, had survived the massacre.</span></font> </p><p style="margin: 6pt 7.2pt 6pt 0cm" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; letter-spacing: 0.25pt">With despair in his voice he cried, <em>"Ka whatiwhati nga parirau 0 Rupe", </em>the wing of <em>Rupe is </em></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">broken, which is a saying meaning that the men of the tribe were all dead, or departed. He put a <em>tapu of </em>blood on the islands so that no one would live there again, and then he sadly took the remnant of his tribe to the mainland to live.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 6pt 7.2pt 6pt 0cm" class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><strong>Reference: Florence Keene, <em>Tai Tokerau</em>, Northland Room, Whangarei Library</strong></span></font></p></body></html> |
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