Hongi fell back upon fraud and offered honourable peace, if a certain sacred greenstone _mere_ were handed to him as a trophy.

It was solemnly handed over, and the principal invaders were feasted in the _pa_.

One of them, ashamed of the intended treachery, whispered to an acquaintance in the garrison, "Beware!" In vain.

That night, as Hongi's victims were sleeping securely, the Ngapuhi rushed the stockade and all within were killed or taken.

The dead were variously reckoned at from two hundred to a thousand.