Chap. XVII. THE PATRIARCH HEUHEU. 468 
nere, and could not join them, and urged the anger of 
Ihu Karaite as a reason why they should give up the 
idea of lighting, and that the White mihanere said the 
pukapuka or book, would be strong against the heathen. 
But the tone of irony in which some of these reasons 
were stated, particularly by Turoa, who had never ceased 
to be a warm and zealous ally of the Ngatipehi, was 
highly amusing, and showed plainly that none of the 
Patutokoto had any idea of stating their real feelings in 
open assembly. Old Turoa, who alone of all his tribe 
appeared in a ragged mat, which, together with every 
part of his body, was well encrusted with kokorvai, or 
red ochre, and a night-cap which partook of the same 
rusty hue, began with the usual plaintive greeting, com- 
prehending, however, his grandchildren also in the 
list. " You ask for canoes," said he ; " how can I 
" give them to you ? You see I have but one, full of 
" women, and boys, and children. How can you think 
" that I have come to join you ? Beside?," he added, look- 
ing with a most comic grin at Messrs. Mason and Mat- 
thews, " I am just becoming a missionary ; I have the 
" book in one hand, and a cap on my head, which I 
" never wore before ; and the anger of Ihu Karaite 
" will come upon me if I go to fight." He ended by 
urging them to return in peace. Some of the Taupo 
chiefs expressed their determination to go on, whether 
assisted or not ; and after a Wanganui man had 
asked them to go across the country, in order to spare 
the Tf^anganui plantations, old Heuheu concluded the 
conference. 
Above six feet in stature, but so Herculean in limb 
as to disguise his height, he rose proudly from a spot 
of elevated ground where he had been sitting among a 
knot of his wives and children, shook his mats from 
his right arm, and began his speech with slow and 
