Previous to the teaching of Te Ua the majority of the tribes had for a short time combined together for mutual support against the white men, and had chosen a king (the head chief of the Waikato tribe). This coalition did not last long, as the intense jealousy between the various tribes caused many of them to abandon it, some of them remaining neutral, while others joined the Government and fought with the greatest gallantry on our side. This alliance was strengthened by the acts of the apostles of Te Ua, the disciples of whom spared neither white man nor Maori refusing to join them or their absurd faith. Te Ua, although a man of weak intellect, was of a peaceful disposition, and more friendlily disposed towards the white settlers than he was toward the king, so much so that when the ship _Lord Worsley_ was wrecked on the Taranaki coast he attempted to persuade his tribe not to plunder the ship nor passengers. In this he was unsuccessful, as the sight of so much loot was too tempting to the nature of the Maoris. He was much upset by his failure, and solaced himself by long-continued prayers to his atua (god or spirit), Pai Marire. Just about this time he assaulted a woman, whose husband seized him, and, after tying him up, left him in a whare (hut) to meditate and repent. Had Te Ua been in his right mind the man would have killed him. It was during this punishment that his atua stood by him and rendered him the assistance that made him famous and all-powerful among the superstitious tribes. His yarn was this, and, absurd as it may seem to us white men, yet it was swallowed and implicitly believed by the majority of the natives, most of whom were so-called Christians. Te Ua asserted that the archangel Michael, the angel Gabriel, and a host of minor spirits landed from the wrecked ship, _Lord Worsley_, and came to him. Gabriel, who took the lead in everything, ordered him to break his bonds, which he did easily, whereupon the woman’s husband, finding him loose, tied him up again, this time using a chain. Again at the angel’s command Te Ua burst the chain in fragments, and afterwards was considered by the superstitious natives to be a man under the direct protection of God. After this Gabriel visited Te Ua frequently, and between them they concocted a wonderful religion. The angel instructed Te Ua to plant a pole a certain height in the ground, to be called Niu, around which all true believers were to worship, and those found worthy were to be granted the gift of tongues and also to be rendered invulnerable to the bullets of the white man.