Ruatara lay dying.

He had been seized with a fever, and the natives, believing him to be attacked by a devouring demon, placed him under _tapu_, and kept food, medicine, and his white friends from him.

When Marsden, by threatening to bombard the village obtained access to the sick man, it was too late; he found his friend past hope.

Thus was the life of this staunch ally--a life which might have been of the first value to the Maori race--thrown away.

Though the missionary's friend, Ruatara died a heathen, and his head wife hung herself in customary Maori form.
Such was the setting up of the first mission station.