HONGI. 
315 
In his last hours, so far from attending to the words of the 
Missionaries, he urged his followers to prosecute the war, and 
exterminate his enemies. When Patuone visited him, a day 
or two before his death, and was told he was dying, he said, 
“No, I am not dying : my heart is quite light. I am not 
dying-” The next day he fainted, and was supposed to be 
dead; when he revived, he said, he should die, but not until 
the morrow. He ordered his powder to be brought to him, 
and when he saw it, he said to his children, Ka ora koutou ,— 
you will be safe ; intimating, the powder would be their pro¬ 
tection. He then summoned his sons, and gave the coat of 
mail he had received from the King of England to one of them, 
and then divided his battle-axes and fire-arms amongst them, 
sternly demanding, “ Who will dare to attack my followers 
after I am gone ?” 
Early next morning, though evidently sinking fast, he 
continued to rally his friends, and said, “ No matter from what 
quarter your enemies come, let their numbers be ever so great, 
should they come here hungry for you, kia toa, kia toa, be 
brave, be brave ! Thus will you revenge my death, and thus 
only do I wish to be revenged.” He continued repeating 
these words until he expired. 
Patuone, as soon as he heard that Hongi was dead, bid his 
followers sit still, whilst he and a few of his friends went to 
see the corpse, lest Hongi’s people should be alarmed, as they 
had blockaded all the entrances to the pa. At first he was 
refused permission to enter, until Hunaroa interfered; he 
found one of his sons binding him up, his head still reclining 
on his breast. When the body was fully dressed, and his 
head richly ornamented with feathers, all the obsequies due 
to so great a Chief were performed. His family, fearing an 
attack, wished to bury him at once, but Patuone said, “ Why 
all this haste ? You will be the first to bury your father alive : 
let him smell before you bury him: what if he does smell ?” 
Yielding to this advice, he laid in state for two more days, 
which were spent in repeating the pihi, or funeral ode, in 
cutting themselves, in crying, and firing off guns. In the 
meantime, Hongi’s friends arrived from the Bay of Islands, 
