2t6 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. IX. 
thority of the high chiefs over the lower ones as to 
land as well as everything else. 
Maketu, who was in the inner court-yard, shortly 
explained, that he should keep his land for another 
White man, whose acquaintance he had made in Port 
Nicholson when he went there with the fleet, and 
who had promised to marry his daughter and trade 
with him. He did not rise to say this, but spoke from 
a reclining posture, and in a conversational tone, as 
though " unaccustomed to public speaking." 
Turoa leaped in a moment from his seat, and, shaking 
his mats back so as to free his right hand, in which 
the meri ponamu gleamed, ran furiously up and down 
while he insisted on a retractation of this refusal. 
" E Mahtl^ said he, *' the land is yours ; but I am 
" your ariki (or superior chief)," and he leaped into 
the air at the end of his run. " There is my White 
" man ; for him is all the land — you must sell yours 
" too to him." And he lay down again, and wrapped 
his mats round his chin. 
I told Maketu, through the interpreter, that I did 
not wish to buy his land against his will, but that we 
would have that which belonged to him marked out, 
that he might sell it to others. I was asking whether 
any more wished to do the same, and explaining that 
they must not touch any of the payment, when Maketu 
interrupted Brooks by saying, still sitting, " It is 
enough ; the old man has beaten my head with his 
meri, and I am ashamed ; my land is for his White 
man." 
Though I had not shown the natives the goods in- 
tended as payment, I had repeatedly read to them the 
list ; and on this occasion the head chiefs shortly an- 
swiered to my inquiries whether they were satisfied 
with the quantity, — " E Kuru has seen them, — it is 
