TE HEUHETT. 
523 
they should allow them to do so, I told them it was lawful 
to defend their own property, but they had better remon- 
strate with them quietly; and say they did not wish to quar- 
rel. Mawae said, does not Scripture say, “when thine 
enemy hungers, feed him/’ therefore, he refused to allow 
them to go away hungry, and say he would not give them 
food, but would I accompany them, I agreed to do so ; 
immediately I found myself in the midst of a party of two 
hundred armed natives ; we marched to the potatoe grounds 
which were situated in a deep valley, a recently formed 
waerenga,* when a singular sight presented itself ; the 
valley was filled with men, and women busily engaged, dig- 
ging up potatoes, and filling their baskets as quickly as 
possible, whilst on the other side a number of armed men 
were drawn up ready to defend the workers if opposed. 
Mawae, our chief, a noble looking man, jumped upon a large 
log in the centre of the cultivation, and twirling his gun 
round, cried out in a loud tone, listen to me, you shall not 
say I refused food, take the half of the crop as far as this 
tree, but do not presume to dig up a single potatoe be- 
yond it, or I shall fire. They went on digging quietly, 
until they came up close to where Mawae was standing, and 
then ceased ; whilst this was being done I walked over to 
the other side, and spoke to Iwikau and his men, trying to 
make them see that what they were doing was wrong, they 
were very polite, but when the digging was finished they 
tied up their ketes, and quietly walked away ; the potatoes 
taken were far more than required for themselves, most 
of them were sold to the Europeans. Some years after- 
wards, when I paid Iwikau a visit, he inquired if I had 
forgotten our first meeting in Mawae^s potatoe ground, I 
said I had not j he then told me it was his intention, had a 
single shot been fired, to have immediately seized me and 
carried me off to Taupo as a prisoner, and kept me there to 
be their missionary. I have often since thought what might 
have been the result had he done so. 
In May, 1846, a remarkable accident (already alluded to) 
* A forest Clearing. 
