One division of the Ngapuhi were sufficiently disgusted at Hongi's deceit to refuse to join in the surprise, and Waikato, the powerful chief who had accompanied him to England, declared he would go afield with him no more.

Even his own special clan, though they had yielded to the furious exhortations of his blind wife Kiri, an Amazon who followed him in all his fights, urged him to spare some of the captives of rank.

The pitiless victor spared none.

Five he killed with his own spear.

The death songs of two have been preserved and are quoted as choice specimens of Maori poetry.
Between 1821 and 1827 Hongi carried fire and sword into almost every corner of what is now the Province of Auckland.