Te Teniere Ropere.
E hoa, tena koe,
Kia ora koe. Ma te atua koe e tiaki. Heoi te mihi. I have received your letter of 12th October, and my heart is exceedingly glad. Of all your old friends mentioned in your letter I alone am left; all are gone. When the Duke of Cornwall came to Rotorua I was presented to him, and as the chief of the Bay of Plenty tribes received a medal in honor of his visit, and, on behalf of the natives generally, would now like to express their extreme pleasure at the royal visit. I am now an old man and am unable to say all I would wish to say to you; but I am sending you by this mail a pounamu whakakai e mau ana ki te taringa o te tangata, and I hope that you will wear it in remembrance of the old days when we fought together side by side.
