Photograph of Auckland taken from a Seaplane 216 H.R.H. The Prince of Wales at the Town Hall 232 Map of the City of Auckland at End of Book. The Coat of Arms of Auckland, printed in facsimile colours, has been inserted on the half-title preceding the frontispiece. [Illustration: Plan of Auckland, 1840, by Felton Mathew, Surveyor General Note proposed reclamations and dock accommodation] THE MAORI HISTORY OF THE AUCKLAND ISTHMUS (Tamaki-Makau-Rau) _by_ GEORGE GRAHAM [Illustration: "He Taua! He Taua!"--A War Party! Sounding the Alarm of an Approaching War Party _After the original by J. McDonald, Wellington_] I _Introduction_ In compiling this history, I desire to narrate in as brief and clear a manner as possible the doings of the ancient Tamaki tribes, as recounted in the folk-lore of their descendants. I have, as far as possible, confined the history to the tribes of the Auckland Isthmus itself--referring to the history and peoples of other parts only so far as is necessary to the clearness of the general narrative. There may be some doubt as to the chronological sequence and to many of the details of incidents herein related--such is inseparable from the legendary history of all races who did not possess written records. However, the narrative as I now present it is in the form accepted by the people--as related to me by that generation of chieftains now almost passed away. THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF TAMAKI Ancient Maori culture did not embrace the knowledge of letters. We therefore possess no written records of the pre-European times. Our information is confined to the tribal folk-lore and folk-songs of the people. We do know, however, that from a very remote past the Pacific had been peopled by races of a more or less Polynesian type, and that branches of these had also reached New Zealand. Legend tells us that the earliest settlers in Ao-tea-roa were a race of giants--the "Kahui-tipua." Of that ilk was one Mata-aho, who had no doubt arrived from lands of a more genial temperature. He called upon his Fire-Goddess (Mahu-ika) to produce subterranean fires to warm his limbs. Hence the volcanic outbursts which have left evidence of the efficiency of that ancient invocation in the form of the extinct volcanic cones and lava flows of the Tamaki Isthmus.