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The Pa Maori

The Rapa Island Forts

The Rapa Island Forts

The following notes on the stone erections of Rapa Isle are taken from the account of Vancouver's voyage:—"The tops of six of the highest hills bore the appearance of fortified places, resembling page 415redoubts, having a sort of blockhouse, in the shape of an English glass house, in the centre of each, with rows of palisadoes a considerable way down the sides of the hills, nearly at equal distances. These, overhanging, seemed intended for advanced works, and apparently capable of defending the citadel by a few against a numerous host of assailants. On all of them we noticed people, as if on duty, constantly moving about." This was in 1791.

An account of the stone forts of Rapa Island by Captain J. V. Hall, was published in the first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. Captain Hall's remarks are as follows:— "There are curious remains of apparently fortified places at Rapa, said to be the defences of the earlier warlike times. On the summits of many of the steep hills are to be seen these square fortresses, some of very elaborate construction; but what is very singular, they are mostly solid within. The stones are well squared, of very large size, and well cemented. Around or on the top of one in the interior are still the bones and skulls of a number of warriors to be found, who, they say, were starved out by their opponents."

In the face of later evidence the above account is seen to be quite untrustworthy. The well squared and well cemented stones do not exist, neither do the symmetrical structures of Captain Hall's illustrations.

Ellis, who was at Rapa in 1817, simply says:—"Fortifications crown the summits of many of their hills; these are so constructed as to render them impregnable by any means which the assailants could bring against the besieged."

'The heights of Rapa are crowned with veritable forts, which recall the pa of New Zealand. These constructions, dating from a considerable antiquity, are composed of platforms built up by heavy stones and earth; and the enclosures furnished with parapets measuring about twelve metres in length by ten wide. At their bases one finds stone axes and other tools of ordinary use or for defence. The people built their houses in the neighbourhood, and retired to the fortresses at the least alarm."—Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 19.

The following notes on the stone forts, so called, of Rapa Island, were written by Professor Macmillan Brown, who visited that island in 1917:—"I climbed to the highest fort, a little over 2,000 feet above the sea, in order to see its construction. It was a simple mound built up of lava slabs which had by long infiltration of some adhesive element almost solidified into the appearance of a natural rock. The source of them was apparent all along the slopes of the mountain, landslips and weathering had broken off the lips of the page 416thin beds of lava into convenient flat forms, and a little manipulation with stone chisels and pounders would shape them into the squares and rectangles needed to make the mound. A neighbouring height was crowned with a similar mound that rose steeply into a round tower more than twenty feet high. But away in the distance and across the harbour I could see the outlines of much more elaborate forts, with terrace above terrace, parapets and moats, and in almost every case there rose above all a similar solid round tower which was evidently meant as an outlook into the valleys beyond. These forts were, in short, specimens of the rude megalithic masonry that I afterwards saw in the Society Islands, and still more in the Marquesas, consisting of great stones roughly squared to fit into their place without cement."

It appears that, in former times, the natives dwelling in the different valleys were often at war, and that the stone forts were constructed on the saddles or passes between the different valleys. Our knowledge of these defences is still in a most unsatisfactory stage; we need definite and precise information concerning the terraced defences, parapets and moats. The thorough observer and recorder is much needed at Rapa Island.

The later information concerning the fortified positions on Rapa Island given by S. and K. Routledge in vol. LI. of the Royal Anthropological Institute finally disposes of the remarkably symmetrical, elaborate, and well preserved works that appear in the illustrations in vol. I. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. The account referred to describes the hill forts of that small lone isle as somewhat resembling some of the hill forts of our North Island. Hill peaks were carved into terrace formations of varying sizes, with the peak standing as an isolated tihi or citadel like stronghold. Some twenty of these old forts were counted, and others were unseen. The excavated terrace formations are contained by stone walls or stone faced scarps, the rough pieces of volcanic stone being utilised for the purpose. The shapely structures built of squared stones cemented together of Captain Hall's account existed only in his brilliant imagination.

Scarps presenting a steep batter have been formed in these hill peak refuges by means of excavation and rough stonework. A few low breastworks were seen. In some places a trench had been cut across a ridge, a narrow section being left across it to serve as a pathway, a New Zealand usage. The forts cover from one to three acres. They were used in pre-European times when warring factions of natives sought to destroy each other.

page 417

Mr. Stokes of the Bishop Museum has made a careful survey of these Rapa Island strongholds, and the results of his work will doubtless appear ere long.