To them another warrior of Henou’s party replied, in what Nicholas calls a masterly style of native eloquence.  In easy dignity of manner he greatly excelled the other orators.  “He spoke,” says the author, “for a considerable time; and I could not behold, without admiration, the graceful elegance of his deportment, and the appropriate accordance of his action.  Holding his pattoo-pattoo[CK] in his hand he walked up and down along the margin of the river with a firm and manly step.”

The debate was carried on by other speakers for some time longer; but at last it appeared that conciliatory counsels had carried the day.  The two parties satisfied themselves with a sham fight, Wiveah merely presenting the injured Henou with a quantity of potatoes.

The most singular part of the debate, however, was yet to come; for immediately after the sham fight, the old orator again rose, and, although vehement enough at the beginning of his harangue, became still more so as he proceeded, till at last he grew quite outrageous, and jumped about the field like a person out of his senses.

In the latter part of the debate, Wiveah and Henou themselves took up the discussion of the question, and seem, by the account given, to have handled it with more mildness and good temper than almost any of their less interested associates.

At the close of Wiveah’s last address, however, “his three wives,” says Nicholas, “now deemed it expedient to interpose their oratory, as confirming mediators between the parties, though there was no longer any enmity existing on either side.  They spoke with great animation, and the warriors listened to their separate speeches in attentive silence.  They assumed, I thought, a very determined tone, employing a great deal of impressive action, and looking towards the opposite chief with an asperity of countenance not warranted by the mild forbearance of his deportment.  The expostulating harangues, as I should suppose they were, of these sturdy ladies completed the ceremonials of this singular conference; and the reconciliation being thus consummated, the parties now entertained no sentiments towards each other but those of reciprocal amity.”

It would appear that the New Zealand women sometimes carry their martial propensities farther than they are stated to have done in the present case.  Nicholas was once not a little surprised, while witnessing a sham fight, to observe Duaterra’s wife, the Queen of Tippoonah,[CL] exerting himself, with most conspicuous courage, among the very thickest of the combatants.

Her majesty was dressed in a red gown and petticoat, which she had received as a present from Marsden, that reverend gentleman having been obliged himself, in the first instance, to assist in decorating her with these novel articles of attire; and, holding in her hand a large horse-pistol, always selected the most formidable hero she could find as her antagonist.