Te Ua had thus lost his two factotums in their first fights, and this ought to have been a set-back to the new religion; but it was not so, as he asserted, and with justice, that they had both disobeyed the orders of the angel, who had directed that the head should be carried through the country peacefully and without bloodshed, so that Hepanaia and Matene were to blame for bringing disaster and death to the faithful through their disobedience. Accordingly he despatched two more apostles, Kereopa and Patara, who were to take Captain Lloyd’s head, together with two white men prisoners or deserters (for strangely enough several men deserted from her Majesty’s forces and joined the rebels), and preach the Pai Marire faith to the east coast and Taupo tribes, so that there could be no mistake this time. Te Ua gave them the following written orders:--“While on your journey be careful not to interfere with those whom you may meet; do not quarrel with the pakeha (white man). When you reach Taupo, go on to Whakatane, thence to Opotiki, from thence to Waiapu, and finally to Tauranganui, where your journey will end. If this piece of paper should get torn or dirty, ask another piece from your white friends and rewrite it, that it may arrive clean and in good condition to Hirini Te Kani at Tauranganui. Give him also this flag and the man’s head.” The apostles, far from obeying these orders, at once began to pillage and murder. To start with, on their reaching Taupo, Patara began by breaking into the house of the Rev. Mr Grace, who at the time was absent, and, appropriating the reverend gentleman’s goods, sold them to the Christian flock, who at once became converts to Pai Marire. This was playing a low-down game on the absent missionary, but much worse was to follow. Having converted Taupo, Kereopa and Patara again disobeyed orders, for instead of proceeding direct to Whakatane they altered their route to the Uriwera country and held a meeting that for crazy devilry would be hard to beat. Forming some two or three hundred of the Uriwera warriors into double rank, facing inwards, they then proceeded down them, carrying the head, forcing each man to look into the dead eyes, at the same time working them up to a pitch of mad fanaticism by their wild prayers and incantations which drove their hearers into a raving frenzy. Then calling for the widows of the warriors slain at Orakau to come forward, Kereopa directed them to vent their revenge on the head and the two wretched white men. The women, mad with excitement, pretended to eat the head, but it was eventually taken from them; the fate of the white men, however, had better be left to the imagination of the reader.