496 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XVIII. 
ing in, on first receiving the news. I showed the 
native my rifle and other arms by my bed-side, and 
told him that I would immediately shoot Hangihaeata, 
or anybody else, who should attempt to fire the roof 
over my head. After eating my breakfast, I went un- 
armed to the pa where the two ruffians dwelt. I was 
accompanied by Taylor and two or three friendly 
natives. 
I found Rauperaha sitting under the tent taken at 
JVairau. Near him were his son " Thomson," a 
nephew of Rangihaeata named E TJ^ivn, and several 
other natives. I had hardly begun -to deny every 
particular of the story which the natives had got 
hold of, when Rangihaeata sprang out of his house 
in an adjoining court-yard, and made a furious 
oration. 
He was much excited, as though by drink ; he 
foamed at the mouth, leaped high into the air at the 
end of each run up and down, and made frightful 
grimaces at me through the fence whenever he stopped 
opposite to me to turn and run again. He taunted 
me with being a spy, hiding about inland to watch his 
doings. He repeated the old question, about whether 
the soldiers had four arms and four legs that they 
could take him and put handcuffs on his wrists. He 
applied the most insulting expressions to the Queen, 
to all the Governors, and to all the White people. He 
got to his highest pitch of excitement, when he at 
length challenged me to stand out and fight him man^ 
fully, hand to hand, instead of crouching about in am- 
bush. He roared out his own name, and his known 
bravery, and his known strength, and his known 
skill, and his contempt for the Whites as fighting 
men. All this with occasional interjectional yells, 
grinding of the teeth, protruding of the tongue. 
