450 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALANi). Chap. XVU. 
was a continued struggle against the grasping disposi- 
tion of the many turbulent characters belonging to the 
tribes of that neighbourhood. They were constantly 
threatened with the annihilation of themselves and 
families, by chiefs who said they wanted to receive 
presents of guns and powder and not to hear books 
read. On one or two occasions they were very roughly 
used ; and they had made but little progress among 
these barbarians, when, early in 1827, the famous 
Hongi invaded the district, and brought with him all 
the attendant scenes of plunder and bloodshed. The 
mission-house was sacked by a foraging-party ; and 
the missionaries' lives were only just saved by a pro- 
vidential rencontre with a well-disposed and powerful 
chieftain named Patuone, who escorted them in safety 
to the care of the Church missionaries at the Bay of 
Islands. 
In October of the same year, Mr. Stack prepared to 
restore the Wesleyan mission at Hokianga ; and in 
1828, Mangungu, on that river, its present head-quar- 
ters, was fixed upon for an establishment. Up to 
1830, so little progress was made, that the mission- 
aries were under great fears lest the Society in England 
should determine to break up the mission. 
Better days, however, were now near at hand. 
During the next seven years great success attended 
the continued efforts of these worthy men ; who seem 
to have kept entirely aloof from the political affairs 
entered into by the Church Missionaries, and also to 
have refrained from any private purchases of land. 
One of their number, Mr. White, was, I believe, the 
only exception. But he was dismissed from the 
Society's employment on account of this and other 
infringements of their rules ; and he made or com- 
pleted the greater number of his purchases and 
