The apostles, having converted the Uriwera, departed and left for Whakatane, where all the people at once joined them, and proceeded to Opotiki, a flourishing mission belonging to the Church of England, under the charge of the Rev. C. S. Volkner, who had resided there several years. This gentleman by his admirable conduct had justly earned the respect of both settlers and natives, the latter especially (his own flock) professing much love for him. Yet on the advent of the apostles they at once joined the Pai Marire faith, their Christianity falling from them like a garment. Mr Volkner was absent in Auckland when Kereopa and Patara reached Opotiki, and the latter, before proceeding on a short journey, wrote him a letter telling him not to return. Mr Volkner, however, accompanied by Mr Grace, was on his way, and reached Opotiki on the 1st of March 1865, in the schooner _Eclipse_, which was immediately boarded and seized by his late parishioners. All the passengers and crew were made prisoners (with the exception of Captain Levy, who, being a Hebrew, was considered a Hau Hau of sorts), and marched up to the Roman Catholic Church, inside which Kereopa was holding a council to try Mr Volkner on the most absurd charges. The council was adjourned, the prisoners being confined in a tumbledown hut, but again met that night, when, with the exception of two or three, all of the tribe voted for their minister’s death. Next day at two P.M. Mr Volkner was led out and murdered in a most brutal manner, being hung, Kereopa firing a shot into him at the same time. The body was then carried into the church, where this fiend ordered it to be decapitated, and directed his new converts to drink and smear themselves with their victim’s blood, which they all did, Kereopa giving them a lead by gouging out the eyes and swallowing them. The first to participate in this horrible act was Volkner’s own woman-servant, who from a child had been brought up and educated by the Church Mission. Patara returned the same night and was bitterly angry with Kereopa on account of this foul murder, although he had annexed and sold all Mr Volkner’s belongings previous to his departure on his short journey. A few days afterwards the cutter _Kate_ put into Whakatane and was immediately boarded by the Hau Haus. Her crew and passenger, Mr Fulloon (a Government agent), were soon brutally murdered. Kereopa, followed by Patara, reached Poverty Bay. At once the Christians joined them, and Bishop Williams of Waiapu was only saved from being murdered, together with his whole family, by two or three chiefs who remained loyal to him, and these would have failed had not the Bishop just escaped in the nick of time on board a steamer.