Te Rauparaha
chief · New Zealand · 1768?–1849
Leader of the Māori tribe Ngāti Toa. He led his people from Kāwhia in the North Island south to Kapiti and built up great power there. In 1843 he clashed at the Wairau with an English party that had come to survey the land.
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1843 · What he is said to have cried, arms stretched to the sky, when a gun went off among the English party at the Wairau and he believed death was upon him. Buick writes that a chief would utter this cry only in the deepest stress. He did not die that day; he lived six more years. The English is Buick's.
Farewell, O sun, farewell, thou world of light; come on, O night, come on, O death.
Hei kona e te ra, hei kona e te ao marama — haere mai e te po, haere mai e te mate
Words given in Māori in T. Lindsay Buick, An Old New Zealander, or Te Rauparaha (1911)
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