Chap. XV. DISPUTE WITH OTHER CHIEFS. 373 
had reckoned upon having my trade close to them. 
I was told that one young man had even lifted his 
spear on the occasion against Rauperaha, but was 
seized and carried up the river to cool, by his more 
submissive friends. I had therefore engaged to have 
another store built, by TVatanui^ relations, at the 
larger joa. 
When we first got to the pa Kakutu, some little 
time elapsed before the horero began. 
I went with Taylor to one of the huts, to assist in 
dressing the leg of a chief who had wounded himself 
in cutting up a whale that had drifted on shore. 
Hauturu, as he was named, was a great favourite of 
mine, from his gentle and dignified manners. He was 
a fine young man, and had been chosen as her second 
husbfind by Rangihaeatas mother Topeora, who was 
the principal resident in the pa. While I was talking 
to him of his wound, Rauperaha crept up doubtingly 
to greet me, and held out his hand. 
I refused this offer in a marked manner, and merely 
answered his greeting by a distant nod. 
He acknowledged the propriety of my refusal, said 
" It is good," and returned to his seat. 
• He then rose to speak. He began with a long 
history of himself and of his conquest of Cook's Strait ; 
all as proving that he was a great chieftain and the head 
of the natives. He displayed, as usual, great eloquence ; 
and he was going on to relate all the circumstances of 
the TVairau affair, but I checked him. I cared little 
to prejudge a serious question, which I still supposed 
would some day be investigated before a competent 
tribunal, from the narrative of the accused man ; and 
I knew that he had already given two or three White 
people different versions from that which he gave the 
man who brought his message to me at JVangartui. 
