ikato and Waipa rivers. Boating
up the Waipa until they could pull no longer, they landed at Mangapouri
near Pirongia. So pleased were they with the place that they decided to
fix a station there. The local chief at once offered land, and set men
at work to clear it, though a few months necessarily elapsed before it
could be actually occupied.

Mr. Williams and his colleagues meanwhile journeyed back into the Thames
Valley, and, after promising Waharoa to send him a teacher as soon as
possible, passed on to the Bay of Plenty. At Tauranga a large gathering
of the inhabitants was held. They had evidently not forgotten the
efforts which had been made four years before by Henry Williams to save
their settlement from the wrath of the Ngapuhi. They had come to realise
that the missionaries actually cared for other tribes as well as for the
favoured Ngapuhi; they felt that a mission station would help in the
preservation of peace; and they undertook to build houses in readiness
for the teachers who should come.

The year 1835 saw the opening of the four new stations. Hamlin and Stack
settled at Mangapouri; Brown and Morgan at Matamata; Wilson at Tauranga;
and Chapman near Ohinemutu, amidst the hot springs and geysers of
Rotorua. It will be noticed that these frontier posts were occupied
mainly by the new men who had not acquired much knowledge of the
language or of the customs of the Maori. Some misunderstandings were
bound to arise from this cause, and Wilson nearly lost his life at
Puriri, but soon a more peaceful state of things ensued. Everything
seemed bright and hopeful when, on Christmas Day, a horrible murder
occurred at Rotorua, which kindled a fresh war, and threw the work into
confusion for several years.

The details of the war lie, of course, outside our subject: it will
suffice to notice those points at which it touched the missionary band.
The Rotorua station was naturally the first to feel its effects. Mr.
Chapman did his utmost to check the outbreak of hostilities, and having
secured the head of the murdered man he had it conveyed to the
relatives. But the victim was a chief of high rank and nearly related to
Waharoa. It was incumbent therefore upon that redoubtable warrior to
obtain _utu_ for the slaughter of his relative. He was still a heathen,
and was deaf to the exhortations of the Christians. "How sweet," he
said, "will taste the flesh of the Rotoruas along with their new
kumeras!" It was not long bef