asion did not fail to excite in our breasts
sensations and feelings corresponding with the peculiar situation in
which we were. We had retrospect to the period when this holy ordinance
was first instituted in Jerusalem in the presence of our Lord's
disciples, and adverted to the peculiar circumstances under which it was
now administered at the very ends of the earth."

In spite of the more promising appearances, however, Marsden seems to
have realised that the missionaries must never be left so long again
unvisited. In little more than three months he was again in New Zealand.
There had been no difficulty about leave of absence this time, for the
Admiralty needed kauri timber, and was glad to avail itself of his
influence with the Maoris, and his knowledge of their ways. Marsden made
the most of this unlooked for opportunity, and stayed nine months in the
country. Of all his visits this was the longest and the most full of
arduous effort, but its results were almost nullified by subsequent
events. For it happened that on his arrival at Te Puna he found another
enterprise in contemplation--one which would leave its mark upon
history, and make the year memorable with an evil memory in the annals
of New Zealand. This was the journey of Kendall and Hongi to England.
To understand the course of events and to appreciate its fell
significance, it is necessary to keep in mind both what the Englishman
was doing in New Zealand, and what the New Zealander was doing in
England, during those same months of the year 1820. They will meet again
next year in the parsonage of Parramatta, and then the results of their
separate courses will begin to show themselves.

Hongi, though less definitely favourable to the mission than had been
his nephew Ruatara, had hitherto always stood its friend. On Marsden's
last visit he had indeed disbanded a large army at his request, and had
seemed ready to relinquish his design of obtaining _utu_ for the blood
of several Ngapuhi chiefs who had been lately slain in battle. But the
obtaining of _utu_ was almost the main object of the heathen Maori. An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood and death for
death--this was his creed. If the blood of the murderer could not be
had, then someone else's blood must be shed--someone, too, of equal rank
and dignity. Hongi could not bring himself to accept the new message of
peace, and his dissatisfaction was, it would seem, fanned by Kendall,
who ha