These two intended murders, however, were prevented by the people with whom we had taken our meal. We then rode on. Arriving at a point beyond, we saw a small detachment of the native troops, consisting of ten or twelve men, who were burning a small house on the beach. When they saw us riding up, they called out to stop, or they would fire on us. I recognized the first, a young man in this small detachment, and when he recognized me, he ran up and cried out, "What news do you bring?" I simply said that I wanted to see the chiefs in command, and asked him where they were. He said: "They are in the fort." I inquired which one of the forts, and he replied: "The one at Poroporo." I asked again where was Ori. Ori was a half brother of my father's. He replied: "He is in Papenoo." We continued riding as fast as we could, and everywhere on our route we saw people running about in great excitement, as the news of the two steamers coming to bombard the village had already arrived before us, and they were making their way into the bush, with all they could of their utensils. Arriving at the nearest part of the fort, I called out to a young man that I had previously known, who ran out to us and took our horses, and led us on foot up to the fort. This man, however, I sent ahead, to inform the chiefs, that I knew well, to come out of the fort and meet me. About half way up to the fort, three of these chiefs came out, and cried with pleasure when they saw me. One of the three was Pihato, a son of the old chief of Papenoo, who was the head man in the fort. Arato was another. He was a brother in law of Ori, my uncle. I then asked these three men where all of the chiefs were collected, and they said that they were then

Indigenous Histories