's stockade at Mokoia, and was only saved by his armour from sudden
death by a treacherous bullet. Hinaki would grant no satisfaction; a
general assault took place, and after a desperate contest the _pa_ was
taken. Hongi swallowed his rival's eyes, and drank the blood that welled
from his throat. The taste of blood seemed to rouse the tiger in his
nature, and he proceeded to sweep the country with fire and sword.
"Powerful tribes on both sides of the Thames were cut off, and for years
the whole country was deserted." The districts which Marsden had visited
so hopefully the year before were all reduced to desolation. The people
whom he had found so receptive of divine truth were now no longer to be
seen: they were either killed, carried into slavery, or driven to the
mountains of the interior.

The missionaries were not exposed to this awful carnage, but their
position can only be described as terrible. The Mokoia expedition
brought back (it was said) no less than 2,000 prisoners. Several of
these were slaughtered in cold blood at the very doors of the station at
Kerikeri. The Maoris were inflamed with the lust for blood; they gloated
over the sufferings of their enemies. They surrounded the mission
premises with poles, upon which were stuck the heads of the slain, while
the remains of the cooked flesh lay rotting on the ground. The unhappy
missionaries could do but little. They rescued a few children from among
the prisoners, but for the rest they had to bear as best they might the
intolerable humiliation of feeling that they owed their very safety to
the protection of Hongi. The Kerikeri settlers were reduced to the
further degradation of making cartridge boxes for the troops, while
their forge was used for the manufacture of ammunition. How much is
contained in these few lines from the schoolmaster's diary: "The natives
have been casting balls all day in Mr. Kemp's shop. They come in when
they please, and do what they please, and take away what they please,
and it is vain to resist them."

Marsden and the Home authorities were powerless to help. Of course
Kendall was dismissed. So was another of the settlers. Others left of
their own accord, and the Society at Home thought of abandoning the
mission. The one bright spot was Rangihoua or Te Puna, where the two
original catechists, King and Hall, kept quietly on, thus showing the
value of Marsden's training during the years of waiting in Sydney. Their
settlement was gra