The early months of the year 1864 saw the first appearance of the fanatical sect of the _Pai Marire_, or Hauhau. Various opinions exist as to its cause of origin, but no member of it has put his own views on record for the benefit of posterity. Some believe that the sect was founded as a deliberate attempt to strengthen the weakening attachment of the natives to the national cause, by giving them the powerful bond of a common religion--so to call it. Others maintain that the inception of the movement was in a madman's brain, and that it was used for political purposes only when it was perceived how readily the more ignorant and superstitious of the Maori accepted it. Lastly, not a few insist that such a religious development was the natural outcome of instilling half-a-dozen views of Christianity into the receptive brain of an intelligent race, able and accustomed to think for themselves. These last argue that, when the Maori had listened to (in order of sequence) the Anglican, Wesleyan, Baptist, and Catholic versions of the "faith once delivered," the various contentions became so jumbled up in some minds that their owners began to study the Bible for themselves. The result of the research of some of the less enlightened was the formation of a "religion" which was a grotesque blend of Judaism, Paganism, and elementary Christianity (very little of this last) which was used as a means to an end by those who utterly scorned it--the end being the destruction of British supremacy. The author of the creed, one Te Ua, does indeed seem to have been a mild-mannered lunatic. He broke out rather violently about the time of a shipwreck on the Taranaki coast, and, while tied and bound for the good of the community, indulged in a madman's dream which he subsequently proclaimed as a "revelation." Having managed to free himself, Te Ua declared that the archangels Michael and Gabriel, together with many spirits, had landed from the wreck and given him power to burst his bonds. His companions, finding this story hard to believe, again secured Te Ua, and this time with a chain. No use. With an effort of that strength which sometimes appears in the insane, Te Ua snapped the chain and leaped at a bound into the position of a seer.