end--the
thorough conversion of the people to the Christian faith. Such
conversions were rare, but they were just frequent enough to give
encouragement. At first it was only the old and the sick who were drawn
by the announcement of a heaven where bloodshed and turmoil should
cease. Of these the case of the old man, Rangi, is notable through his
being the first of his race to be received into the Church of Christ by
baptism (1825). A much more striking conversion was that of Taiwhanga,
one of Hongi's chief warriors, in 1829. His struggles against the
fascinations of the old life were severe and prolonged. Frequently he
was solicited to go with a party on the warpath, and even his musket was
coveted as a weapon endowed with more than ordinary power. At last he
resolved that his children should be baptised, and the letter which he
wrote to the missionaries on this occasion is of uncommon interest:
"Here am I thinking of the day when my son shall be baptised. You are
messengers from God, therefore I wish that he should be baptised
according to your customs. I have left off my native rites and my native
thoughts, and am now thinking how I may untie the cords of the devil,
and so loosen them that they may fall off together with all sin. Christ
is near, perhaps beholding my sinfulness; he looks into the hearts of
men. It is well for me to grieve in the morning, in the evening, and at
night, that my sins may be blotted out."

The baptism of Taiwhanga's children (August 23) was naturally looked
upon as a significant event. William Williams spent part of the previous
day in translating the baptismal service, and he determined to baptise
at the same time his own infant son, Leonard Williams, afterwards to
become Bishop of Waiapu. Six months later, Taiwhanga himself came
forward publicly for baptism, and received the appropriate name of
David. He immediately became an active missionary among his own
countrymen, and proved an invaluable help to his teachers.

In spite of these and other gleams of success, the mission seemed to its
friends to be doing little during these years, inasmuch as it made no
extension beyond the limits of the Bay of Islands. The regret was shared
by the leaders on the spot, and it has already been shown how Williams
made more than one attempt by sea to effect an opening in the Bay of
Plenty. It must be remembered, however, that the country to the
southward of the northern isthmus had been desolated by Hong