later led other and even larger war parties to the north, and in one of them inflicted severe losses on the Ngāti Toa at Port Underwood. Akaroa and Peraki were ports of call for these expeditions, the vessels used for the last two of them, in 1838 and 1839, included as many as fifteen whaleboats. About 1839 Te Rauparaha made peace with the Ngāi Tahu, sending back to the south the chiefs Momo and Iwikau, and others of the more important among his captives. The Ngāti Toa and Ngāti Awa at this time began to come under the influence of the missionaries, and released their Ngāi Tahu slaves. Most of the returning Ngāi Tahu went to Banks Peninsula, Port Levy becoming the most populous settlement. They were a broken people, and could not hope to build again the Māori society that had been destroyed by Te Rauparaha's raids, and they had to face a new factor, the coming of the Pakeha. Whalers and sealers Whaling at Banks Peninsula began in the mid-1830s. At least one ship, the Juno, was whaling off Banks Peninsula in 1831. Whaling from the Harbours of Banks Peninsula appears to have been pioneered in 1835 by two Weller ships. In that year, the Lucy Ann, after whaling from Port Cooper, left for Sydney on 22 September with 90 tons of oil. After 1835, Port Cooper and Akaroa were visited by considerable numbers of whaling ships, and Banks Peninsula rated second only to Cloudy Bay as a whaling base. In 1836, at least 11 whaleships were at Banks Peninsula, four being American. The 1836 whaling season brought to Port Cooper two whaling captains. The first was Captain George Hempleman who in 1837 established at Peraki the earliest shore whaling stations on Banks Peninsula, this becoming the first permanent European settlement in Canterbury. The second was Captain George Rhodes who gained such a favourable impression of the pastoral possibilities of Banks peninsula, that he returned in November 1839 to establish a cattle station at Akaroa. Hempleman's permanent establishment at Peraki had a special significance; whereas the ships represented merely transient European contact with this part of New Zealand, the shore stations were beginnings of European occupation of the land. At Peraki on 22 March 1837, Clayton induced a Māori chief named Tohow (Tuauau) to transfer to him all rights to Peraki bay and the country for three miles