After completing arrangements for securing the signatures of a few eligible chiefs who were living near the Mission station of the Rev. Mr. Preece, Major Bunbury, late in the evening of Friday the 8th, took his departure from Coromandel in the schooner _Trent_, chartered from Captain Bateman, and coasted round to Tauranga, a district where, in consequence of a war with the Rotorua people, the claims of the Crown had not been enthusiastically received. On Sunday, at nightfall, the vessel arrived at the entrance of the harbour, but prudent seamanship dictated the wisdom of remaining in the offing till the morning, when the treaty party landed at the Mission station and were welcomed by Mr. Stack. "I was agreeably surprised," wrote Major Bunbury to Captain Hobson, "to learn that most of the native chiefs in this neighbourhood had already signed the treaty, the exception being the principal chief, and one or two of his friends at the Omimoetoi (Otumoetai) _pa_. This _pa_ we visited the same evening, accompanied by Mr. Stack. It was a very extensive fortification, and appears to contain about one thousand men. The chief who had declined signing is a very young man, and his manner was timidly reserved and less prepossessing than most of those I had before seen. On our taking leave he made the usual remark, that he wanted to consult the other chiefs, and that he would meet us with them at the Mission station on the morrow. On the following day he did not speak until the close of the conference, and then only in private to Mr. Williams--after Mr. Stack and I had left them--to enquire how much he was to get for his signature.[128] Another chief expressed some indignation because the Christian chiefs had not--as he said--met them. I presume he meant those from the other _pa_ where Mr. Stack's influence was supposed to extend more than to his own, and where a Roman Catholic European residentiary and the Catholic Bishop are supposed to have more influence." A third chief, evidently of an enquiring mind, created some amusement by his quaint method of arriving at a complete analysis of the position. The debate had to all appearances closed--his own speech being no small contribution to the oratory of the day--and he was approached with a view to securing his signature, he firmly deprecated everything in the nature of hurry, and calmly _taihoa-ed_[129] the whole proceeding. "Now first let us talk a little," he said. "Who was the first stranger who visited our shores?" On being told it was Captain Cook, he continued, "And who was Cook's king, was he not Georgi?" To this a reply was returned in the affirmative. "And who then," he asked, "is this Queen?" Major Bunbury took some trouble to explain to him that the King George to whom he referred had been dead for some years, as also his two sons George IV. and William IV., who had succeeded him on the throne, and that the present Queen now reigned because she was the next in line to these dead monarchs.