Ready enough was the response, for the law of the Maori required them to take revenge for every injury. The lure was spread, the master of the _Boyd_ went ashore at Whangaroa with part of his crew, and every man of them was slain and eaten. Even then Tarra's vengeance was not glutted. With his tribe at his back he boarded the _Boyd_ and killed every person on the ship with the exception of four. A woman and two children hid themselves, and Tarra spared the cabin-boy because of some kindness the youngster had once done him. Singular contrast! The savage, who could go to the most appalling extremes to satisfy his hate, was, even at the very height of his murderous wrath, capable of gratitude. This awful massacre set back for years the clock which had seemed about to strike the hour for beginning Maori civilisation, while the resentment of the whites led to a slaughter as wholesale as that which it was intended to revenge. On hearing of the massacre of the _Boyd_ a chief named Te Pahi, whose daughter was wedded to an English sailor, hurried to Whangaroa, and was instrumental in saving the lives of the woman and two children. His good deed done, Te Pahi returned to the Bay of Islands, where he lived. Terrible danger menaced him. In some unexplained way he had got the credit of having engineered the _Boyd_ affair, and the crews of five whaling ships, accepting the rumour for truth, condemned the unfortunate chief unheard, and took bitter vengeance upon him. Their task was easy, for the village was unfortified and the Maori wholly unsuspicious. Fully armed, the whalers fell upon the innocent people, sorely wounded the chief, and slew some two-score persons without regard to age or sex. Te Pahi himself escaped in the confusion, only to be killed not long afterwards by some of his own race because of the help he had given to the survivors of the _Boyd_. Doubly unfortunate was poor Te Pahi. Thus bad began and worse remained behind. During the next decade numbers of tribesmen fell beneath the weapons of casual white visitors, while the Maori, on their side, smote with club and spear, and gathered as deadly a toll. The country seemed drifting back into that state of savagery whence it had promised a short time before to emerge. It might have done so, but that at this juncture occurred an event which laid the true foundations of civilisation, and heralded that peace which, though long in coming, came at last. CHAPTER X RONGO PAI![55] In spite of the tragedy of the _Boyd_, in spite of the war of individuals which vexed the coast--though murder was added to murder, revenge piled upon revenge,--more Pakeha filtered into New Zealand, content to brave death for the chance of obtaining a home and wealth.