Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/27

 delay proved providential, for it enabled the famous chief Tuhawaiki, better known as “Bloody Jack,” to get news of the plot at Dunedin Heads. He at once sent off a special messenger to stop the project, and there can be no doubt that we owe our lives to his timely intervention. The following details of the plan were subsequently ascertained:—

The Kaiapoi Natives were to account for the Deans, Gebbie, Manson, and Greenwood families. The Port Levy Natives, assisted by the Pigeon Bay Natives, were to account for the Sinclairs and the Hays. Those contingents were then to unite at one of the whaling stations and kill all the whalers. Finally, all the tribes were to rush upon Akaroa and destroy the inhabitants.

The whites would undoubtedly have been overwhelmed had the plot matured, for at that time the Maoris could have easily put 1,000 fighting men into the field. However, the lives would have been dearly sold, for every preparation was made, and every precaution taken against surprise. Had the Sinclairs and our people not sold their schooner (which had sailed for Wellington) we could have escaped in her and gone north.