time with great animation. He at last worked himself apparently into a most terrible pitch of fury, at which I only laughed. The cause of complaint was my having ascended Tongadido. I said that a Pakiha could do no harm in going up, as no place was taboo to a Pakiha; that the taboo only applied to Mowries; and finally, that if the mountain was an atua, I must be a greater atua, or I could not have got to the top of it, and that it was all nonsense to put himself in a passion with me, as I did not care for it; but if he would see that the people made haste with the canoe, I would give him some tobacco. I then took out one fig for each of his companions, who sat still all the time without saying a word, and gave him three figs. It proved a most astonishing sedative. He quite changed his tone in a minute and sat down again. He could not help saying, however, that if he had thought I could have gone up the mountain, he would have prevented my ever trying it, and requested me not to tell any other Pakihas of it on any account.
There were no great thanks due to any of them for letting me go, when they had done all in their power to misdirect me; but I thought it as well to let the matter rest, and shook hands with him.
This chief was the most important man I met with in New Zealand; that is to say, his supremacy over the other chiefs was more widely acknowledged. This personal influence had, I suppose, been acquired by his superior courage and physical strength, for in reality all the chiefs are equal by hereditary right, and in all the other tribes it would be difficult to say who was the first chief. Here, however, and throughout all the different villages of the Towpo tribe, he was acknowledged as the "great chief." He had crossed the lake on purpose to see me, and I suppose was rather annoyed to find that I thought of going away without shaking hands with him. He said during his rage, that he "did
