The whole barely numbered two thousand.

Confronting the Whites were the native tribes, who, if united and irritated, could have swept all before them.

Hobson, a man accustomed to command rather than to manage, was instructed to control the Maoris by moral suasion.

He was to respect their institutions and customs when these were consistent with humanity and decency, otherwise not.

How in the last resort he was to stamp out inhuman and indecent customs was left unexplained, though he asked for an explanation.