For the first time the Maoris used firearms.

Probably a fourth of their race perished in this ill-starred epoch.

Hongi, the chief of the Ngapuhi tribe, before referred to, is usually spoken of as the first to introduce the musket into the tribal wars.

This was not so.

His tribe, as the owners of the Bay of Islands and other ports frequented by traders, were able to forestall their fellow-Maoris in getting firearms.