According to Maori History, Uenuku and Ruatapu lived in the generation that the fleet left Hawaiki; and it was not long before the departure that the incident known as "Te huri-pure-i-ata" occurred, when a number of young chiefs were drowned through the action of Ruatapu, his brother Paikea alone escaping, to become afterwards a famous ancestor of the Maoris.[1] It will be remembered that Ruatapu's parting words to Paikea were, that in the eighth month he would visit his father's people, and that they were all to flee to Hikurangi to save themselves from the inundation which Ruatapu promised. This flood in Maori History is known as "Te tai o Ruatapu;" in Rarotonga it is known as "Te tai o Uenuku;" and local tradition says the people saved themselves by fleeing to Mount Ikurangi, a graceful mountain just behind Avarua, Rarotonga. Whether the scene of this inundation is really connected with Rarotongan Ikurangi, or some other (according to Rarotonga story this mountain was called after another of the same name in Tahiti), is doubtful. As to the nature of the inundation, it was probably an earthquake wave. I myself saw the effect of the wave of 1868, where, after traversing the whole breadth of the Pacific, from South America, it struck the Chatham Islands with such force as to leave whaleboats thirty feet above tide level.
That the above Uenuku is identical with the Maori Uenuku is proved by his father and his son having identical names in both Maori and Rarotonga history. Moreover, the Rarotonga native history says, "Ia Uenuhi-te-aitu, i
- ↑ Col. Gudgeon is strongly of opinion that Paikea was an aboriginal of New Zealand, not one of this family. But he admits that Kahutia-te-rangi, which was, according to most accounts, another name for Paikea, did migrate here.
