Rauparaha, before told of and still the most influential chief near Cook's Straits, was exactly the man to take advantage of the situation.

He had taken the muskets and gunpowder of the Company, and was now only too pleased to refuse them the price they thought to receive.

It was, as already said, impossible to justify all, or nearly all, of Colonel Wakefield's gigantic purchase.

But it was certainly incumbent on the Government to find a _modus vivendi_ with the least possible delay.

On the one hand they had thousands of decent, intelligent English colonists newly landed in a savage country, and not in any way responsible for the Company's haste and ignorance.