The Loves of Takarangi and Raumahora

There was, several generations since, a chief of the Taranaki tribe, named Rangirarunga. His pā was called Whakarewa; it was a large pā, renowned for the strength of its fortifications. This chief had a very beautiful daughter, whose name was Raumahora; she was so celebrated for her beauty that the fame of it had reached all parts of these islands, and had, therefore, come to the ears of Te Rangiapitirua, a chief of the Ngāti Awa tribes, to whom belonged the pā of Pukeariki, on the hill where the Governor's house stood in New Plymouth. This chief had a son named Takarangi; he was the hero of his tribe. He, too, naturally heard of the beauty of Raumahora; and it may be that his heart sometimes dwelt long on the thoughts of such great loveliness.

Now in those days long past, there arose a war between the tribes of Te Rangiapitirua and of the father of Raumahora; and the army of the Ngāti Awa tribes marched to Taranaki, to attack the pā of Rangirarunga, and the army invested that fortress, and sat before it night and day, yet they could not take it; they continued nevertheless constantly to make assaults upon it, and to attack the garrison of the fortress, so that its inhabitants became worn out from want of provisions and water, and many of them were near dying.