Of the years from 1800 to 1810 we know little. In the latter year a second great epidemic swept over these districts. This no doubt brought about a further depopulation of the Isthmus. About 1810, Ngati-Paoa again began to reside on the Tamaki shores, and erected fortresses at Mauinaina and Mokoia (Panmure).
MARSDEN’S VISIT
In 1820, Marsden passed through the district on his way northward. Going by Ngati-Paoa canoe to Riverhead, he met the Ngati-Whatua chieftain Kawau, who escorted him safely to Kaipara. Returning to Tamaki with Kawau, he visited the Ngati-Paoa villages at Tamaki, and met their chieftain Te Hinaki, between whom and the Hauraki chiefs Marsden succeeded in arranging a meeting, the result being a tribal peace between these people.
This peacemaking occurred aboard the ship Coromandel, in the Waiheke Passage. After again visiting the Mokoia pa at Panmure, Marsden finally left for the north overland.
CRUISE’S VISIT TO TAMAKI, 1820
In the same year (1820), the Waitemata was visited by Major Cruise aboard the ship Prince Regent, ten days after Marsden’s departure. He was invited to the Tamaki settlements, and there met the chief Te Hinaki. Cruise gives much detail in his Journal of the local natives and their homes.
Now began in earnest the dreadful era of the Ngapuhi raids. Their war parties were now armed with the destructive firearms obtained by bartering with the early traders to these coasts.
TE KOPERU’S INVASION
A Ngapuhi chief had arrived at Tamaki in 1820, apparently to attack Ngati-Paoa and Hauraki generally. Ngati-Whatua came to assist Ngati-Paoa, and the Ngapuhi attack on Mauinaina was repulsed. Then Te Koperu was invited into the fortress to make peace. There he was treacherously murdered by Te Paraoa-rahi, a Ngati-Paoa chief.
This event was followed almost immediately by Te Koperu’s brother, Te Morenga, attacking the Tamaki pas, and he severely punished Ngati-Paoa, amply revenging Te Koperu’s death.