"Suddenly we came upon about eighty Maoris, all men, and Titokowaru with them. They gathered round us as we dismounted, and Titokowaru came and took my right arm, and a big burly fellow my left. They sat me between them, holding me fast, while the smoke from the fire close by almost smothered me. An old bald-headed Maori began to speak in an excited manner, and when he had done a very rascally looking young fellow made a speech, coming up to me and smacking his thigh, and letting out an angry grunt at the end of every period. When he finished, Kātené spoke, and did his best to turn away their anger; reminded them of the good the missionaries did in getting them released from bondage in the Waikato and the Ngapuhi Country. "Then Williams spoke, and at the close of his speech a fine man in a _piupiu_ (flax waist-mat) orated, and then came forward to _hongi_ (rub noses) with me. After which there was a little fraternisation, and we came away. Even old Kātené looked very white while the row was on, but I did not know enough to be scared. It was a narrow escape; I, of course, know now what I did not know then. I thought at the time Titokowaru was protecting me, but I think now he was making sure that I did not get away." Titokowaru died at his village near Manaia, on the Waimate Plains--the scene of his olden battles against the whites--towards the end of 1889. To the end he was a sturdy enemy of the Europeans, and though he did not actually fight against them after 1869, he was the leader in many obstructive movements against white settlement, surveying, and road-making. REWARD FOR TITOKOWARU'S HEAD Under address and date Downing Street, February 26th, 1869, the Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G., Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote to Sir George F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., Governor of New Zealand: "I see it stated in the newspapers that you have offered a reward of £1,000 for the person of the Maori chief Titokowaru--I infer alive or dead--and £5 for the person of every Maori rebel brought in alive. I do not at present pronounce any opinion as to the propriety of these steps, but I must observe that they are so much at variance with the usual laws of war, and appear, at first sight, so much calculated to exasperate and extend hostilities, that they ought to have been reported to me by you officially with the requisite explanation, which I should now be glad to receive." In the course of his reply to this despatch Governor Bowen said: "It is contended that this passage implies that the Maoris now in arms ... are foreign enemies, or at all events belligerents, with whom the usual laws of war must be strictly observed." On this, Earl Granville remarked in a despatch of November 4th: