that followed were see-saw affairs that witnessed different combinations of tribal combatants who were subject to the changing of their own whims.
Ngati Whanaunga and Ngati Maru shared several common ancestors but that did not alter the cause of their quarrels. Nor did the same relationship with Ngati Tamatera and Ngati Paoa alter the outcomes in any way. There were occasions, however, when there was a lull in their fighting, that they vent their spleen on the bystander tribes who were trying to avoid involvement, much to their misfortune.
It was not until the initial sallies against the northern tribes in the late-1700s that Ngati Maru experienced a series of campaigns that eventually led to the serious consequences affecting every tribal group of Hauraki in the 1820s. Proverbial enemies as they were there is some uncertainty as to who started these hostilities but there is no doubt at all as to who finished them. When Ahurei, the Ngati Maru chieftain, led his people north and overwhelmed a section of Ngapuhi in their Bay of Islands fortress, there followed reciprocal expeditions over a term of 30 years that rekindled the fierce fires of vengeance on both sides.
In some instances sections of Hauraki tribes joined the invaders simply to settle old scores against each other that, in hindsight, did not exclude them from the conflagration that was steadily mounting, leading up to the invasion by Ngapuhi in 1821.
Commencing at Tamaki, the armies of the great warlord, Hongi-Hika, attacked every bastion of Marutuahu which stood in his way, leaving a trail of bloody devastation in his wake. The tribes of Paoa, Whanaunga, Maru, Tamatera and Hei felt the foreign might of the musket for the first time. Most retreated inland to seek refuge with their Ngati Raukawa relatives at Maungatautari and Horotiu (Cambridge) in order to escape the fury unleashed upon them. They dwelt among these people for ten years until 1831 when the danger had long abated. During this period of time Hauraki became almost a deserted land.
In their enforced exile they, as their violent background dictated, took part in the wars of their hosts against those of other districts. They acquitted themselves well under their many militant leaders and began to consolidate themselves by building several enormous pa and intermarrying with their hosts. It was during this period that the single name Ngati Maru was applied to all the Hauraki tribes, and even to this day they are referred to as such by other tribes, much to the annoyance of the other Marutuahu divisions.
Their occupation there was about to be terminated. Their hosts observing the interlopers making inroads into their lands and mana, nonchalantly adopting the roles of masters instead of refugees, forced the issue of the Marutuahu returning to their own district. The battles that ensued finally saw the exodus of Marutuahu back to their mountains and now calm seas after the turmoil of the Ngapuhi onslaughts.
In the short time until 1840 ,and even after, they were embroiled in several intermittent excursions against Waikato, Ngapuhi, Whakatohea and Ngai Te Rangi, as well as their own internal squabbles. These upheavals preceded the settlement by Europeans, which of
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