This appeal finally broke down the resistance of Iwikau. They attended the conference at Waitangi, and amongst others of influential rank were invited to sign the treaty. Before signing, Iwikau remarked to Captain Hobson, "I have heard the payment for the chiefs' consent to the Queen's rule consists of blankets." To which the Queen's officer, always anxious that his presents should not be misunderstood, replied, "No, not exactly. The blankets are not payment, but a friendly gift to you folks who have come from afar, and as a means of keeping you warm on your home journey." The point of distinction was evidently neither so wide nor so fine as to cause Iwikau any alarm, and he signed the document with a portion of his _moko_, his clan being Ngati-Turumakina. Te Korohiko also signed, and when the gathering had broken up they returned to Taupo to report their proceedings. They met Te Heuheu at Rangiahua, his _pa_ at Te Rapa, where he stood in the midst of the assembled people, a giant amongst men. When the self-constituted ambassadors had concluded their explanations, and produced their blankets the storm which Iwikau had secretly feared burst upon them. "What amazing conduct is this of yours? Were you two, indeed, sent to perform such acts? O say! O say! is it for you to place the _mana_ of Te Heuheu beneath the feet of a woman. I will not agree to the _mana_ of a strange people being placed over this land. Though every chief in the island consent to it, yet I will not. I will consent to neither your acts nor your goods. As for these blankets, burn them." Thus did Te Heuheu assert his prerogative, and scorn the interference of the stranger, but he was soon soothed into a more reasonable frame of mind, by Iwikau, who urged his angry brother to await future developments when he would himself see the treaty. "Be not so severe and you can state your thoughts to the Queen's official yourself, for he is travelling the islands of Ao-tea-roa and Wai-pounamu, seeking you, the surviving chieftains, that you may agree to that marking."[131] Te Heuheu consented to wait, and the blankets were for the moment preserved. At length news arrived that Parore, a Nga-Puhi chief, and the Queen's official were on their way to Rotorua to bear the treaty to the Arawa chiefs. Then Te Heuheu thus instructed his people: "When the officer reaches the Arawa at Rotorua I shall attend. Let the tribe accompany me, armed, as trouble may arise over my declining to accept the Queen's rule."