For some time an uncertain kind of peace prevailed, but the irritation among the natives was all the time on the increase, and the trouble more and more took the form of hostility on the part of the natives as a whole to the whites. The chiefs in the Waikato began to gather their forces to come to the help of the Maoris in the Taranaki district. Bishop Selwyn, anxious to check the growth of this hostile Maori feeling, went to a Conference of Maoris, where on the Sunday the Maori chief preached to the assembled people on the text: “Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity”; and spoke of the gain it was that the Maoris were now joined together as one brotherhood under a Maori king. When the next day the Bishop was allowed to speak to the people, he said: “Here I am a mediator for New Zealand. My word is mediation. I am not merely a Pakeha (Englishman) or a Maori; I am a half-caste. I have eaten your food, I have slept in your houses; I have talked with you, journeyed with you, prayed with you, partaken of the Holy Communion with you. Therefore I say I am a half-caste. I cannot rid myself of my half-caste; it is in my body, in my flesh, in my bones, in my sinews. Yes, we are all of us half-castes. Your dress is half-caste—a Maori mat and English clothes; your strength is half-caste—your courage Maori; your weapons English guns.... Therefore I say we are all half-castes; therefore let us dwell together with one faith, one love, one law.” He proceeded to implore them to allow the Waitara case about the disputed land to be tried by law; and that all together should set right the wrong which had been done by men on both sides. Finally he turned to the whole assembly and said: “O all ye tribes of New Zealand, sitting in council here, I beseech you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we all believe and hope, agree to the proposals by which we shall all live in peace and happiness.” Some were convinced, but the majority refused to give up the lands. It was not long before hostilities began. Sir George Grey came down to investigate the question of the claim to Waitara, but he brought troops with him and the suspicious Maoris felt this meant war. They ambushed a small party of soldiers consisting of two officers and seven men, and killed all but one. Sir George Grey, though in the meanwhile he had discovered that the Maori title to the Waitara was sound, felt that British authority must be vindicated and the murderers punished, so fighting began.