himself this was construed into a curse and Katatori with about twenty men came to take the woman as payment. A canoe and some other things were given to the party and I told them not to remove the woman from the Waitara Pah on any a/c. and I was afterwards glad to find they did not do so. Matui the principal chief of waitaras son accompanied me to the Taniwa where I avoided entering into any conversation with the natives respecting their land. Pirika arrived with the Auckland mail and brought intelligence of a horrible murder that was committed at the Auckland Flagstaff the keeper of which with his wife & child were murdered and the house burnt to the ground. Saturday Nov, 6th. 1847. Breakfasted at Stockmans house who left for Mokau on the preceding and who I was anxious to see on a/c. of the land claims in right