Chap. XIII. ROBBERY BY NATIVES. 37& 
watched in silence our search for the missing articles^ 
of which I wrote an accurate list. He sat unmoved 
on a canoe, with his face half-wrapped in his blanket, 
while I spoke. 
I read to him the list of what we had lost, and told 
him that I was sure we had been robbed here. I dwelt 
on the deceitful way in which he and his people had 
plundered their guests while they cajoled them by 
friendly behaviour; and told him that the name of 
thieves would from henceforth remain theirs among 
the White people. 
I then stated firmly, that I would wait one day for 
restoration of the stolen things ; but that, if they were 
not brought back by the next morning, I should send 
the rest of the party on their route, and return to 
Port Nicholson for a large party of soldiers or of my 
friends. " I shall have to go barefooted and alone," 
said I (for one of my boots was among the plunder), 
" but I will return with a war-party to destroy this 
" village and your canoes, and take payment from your 
" cultivations for what you have stolen." 
The audience seemed aghast at this announcement ; 
the women wailed and waved their arms about as 
though at an ordinary tangi ; and the chief stammered 
out various excuses, — that " strangers had taken the 
** things," and that " they were gone to the bush ; he 
" could not find them." 
I had the packs placed carefully inside the house, 
and then repeated my terms. Warning every one to 
be on the look-out and ready with his arms, I then lit 
my pipe, and sat down in front of the chief 
He was at last convinced that I had stated my real 
intentions, and ascended a high fighting-stage at one 
corner of the pa, whence he shouted towards the hills 
an earnest address to the thieves to bring back what 
