he whole of the native population had been
converted, the rising when it came would have been a terrible one, and
might have ended in the whole of the white population being either
destroyed or forced for a time to abandon the island. Fortunately the
sub-prophets were men of ferocious character. Too impatient to await the
appointed time, they attacked the settlers as soon as they collected
sufficient converts to do so, and so they brought about the destruction
of their leaders' plans.

These attacks put the colonists on their guard, enabled the authorities
to collect troops and stand on the defensive, and, what was still more
important, caused many of the tribes which had not been converted to the
Pai Marire faith to range themselves on the side of the English. Not
because they loved the whites, but because from time immemorial the
tribes had been divided against each other, and their traditional
hostility weighed more with them than their jealousy with the white
settlers.

Still, although these rumours as to the spread of the Pai Marire or
Hau-Hau faith reached the ears of the settlers, there were few in the
western provinces who believed that there was any real danger. The
Maoris had always been peaceful and friendly with them, and they could
not believe that those with whom they had dwelt so long could suddenly
and without any reason become bloodthirsty enemies.

Wilfrid said nothing to his parents as to what he had heard from Jack,
but he talked it over with Mr. Atherton and the Allens. The latter were
disposed to make light of it, but Mr. Atherton took the matter
seriously.

"There is never any saying how things will go with the natives," he
said. "All savages seem to be alike. Up to a certain point they are
intelligent and sensible; but they are like children; they are easily
excited, superstitious in the extreme, and can be deceived without the
slightest difficulty by designing people. Of course to us this story of
Te Ua's sounds absolutely absurd, but that is no reason why it should
appear absurd to them. These people have embraced a sort of
Christianity, and they have read of miracles of all sorts, and will have
no more difficulty in believing that the angels could destroy all the
Europeans in their island than that the Assyrian army was miraculously
destroyed before Jerusalem.

"Without taking too much account of the business, I think, Wilfrid, that
it will be just as well if all of us in these outlying