The raids affecting the Coromandel coast in 1820 did not at that stage affect Ngati Paoa in Tamaki. Mokoia in the Tamaki River was a large pa "about a mile long and half a mile broad, and the houses were larger, and more ornamented with carving, than those we had generally observed" (Cruise 1824:215).
Thousands of baskets of potatoes were in storage and a number of pigs were present (Elder 1932:279). The Tamaki area was heavily populated. Rev. Butler observed 20 villages from the top of Maungarei (Mt Wellington) and estimated a population of about 4000 (Elder 1932:312). About 12 months later the pa was attacked by Nga Puhi and a large number of people killed.
The northern tribe of Nga Puhi appears to have been a persistent threat to both sides of the Coromandel Peninsula between the 1790s and the 1830s. Missionaries in the 1830s also refer to frequent disruptions in the area caused by warfare with Waikato, Tauranga and Rotorua tribes. The political insecurity in the area was far worse in the 1820s and 1830s, exacerbated by the introduction of muskets.
After Nga Puhi attacked Mokoia in 1821, Totara pa several months later, and numerous other smaller pa and villages, the majority of the people from Tamaki, Waiheke Island and the lower Hauraki area retreated inland to reside with Ngati Haua at Matamata, and Horotiu near Cambridge. The widespread depopulation is reported in the Land Court records from Waiheke (Waiheke MB 1:6), lower Waihou valley near Matatoki (Hauraki MB 10:7) and from Te Aroha (Waikato MB 2:215). Events became separated into two periods: before and after Hongi. However it is unlikely there was total abandonment of the area for a decade. Various European visitors had contact with people in the Hauraki area during this time. Movement from the coast to the Waikato and re-occupation of the Hauraki area during quiet times in order to retain possession of the land is the most likely scenario. Small groups would have remained in the Hauraki area, based in the hills as in previous times of political upheaval, and also in the area between the Waihou and Piako Rivers (Vennell and More 1976:21).
European visits to the area were few between 1821-31. In 1825 William White, a Wesleyan missionary, saw the St Patrick at Waiheke using local Maori to load spars, and proceeded to the base of the Firth calling in to a fishing village at Waitakaruru en-route to the Waikato (Gittos 1982:25). The Rosanna was in the vicinity of Ponui in 1826 delivering settlers to a colony to be established on Ponui, but on encountering a group of warriors the settlers panicked and reboarded the ship bound for the Bay of Islands (Monin 1992:38).
In 1827 the Frenchman Dumont d'Urville sailed into the Hauraki Gulf. He specifically wanted to explore the "western islands" (the inner gulf and Waitemata) which Cook had bypassed. Near the mouth of the Weiti River north of Auckland, d'Urville commented We did not see any trace of inhabitants, nothing but one or two fires a long way off in the interior. There can be no doubt that this extreme depopulation is due to the ravages of war" (Wright 1950:152).
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