Page:Overland Journey of the Governor of New Zealand.djvu/49

Rh your life be spared beyond the usual term granted to man on earth! May God preserve you and your children!

O my loving friend Featherston, here is your letter of the 28th of March, which has reached me. Great has been our emotion over your letter, full of kind words to us and sentiments of regard for your Maori people. We respond to your kind words thus expressed, and we think mournfully of the wide sea that now divides us. Many days and many nights must pass before our bodies could reach each other, and our lips speak face to face. But the heart can travel across at once and hold communion with yours.

We shall never forget each other. Our regard for each other will never grow cold.

O father, I have nothing to tell you. There is only one thing to say: the island is at rest. Men of bad hearts may cause disturbance again, but now all is at peace. All I have to say is, salutations to you and your family!

There is nothing in my letter, but yours was full; the return I make is a poor one. But when you receive my letter you must send us another, and continue your good advice to us.

Again, here is another word. I have told you that the island is at peace. This is the result of the good policy of the present Government. They are securing the confidence of the people throughout the island. Ended.

I bid you farewell, O my father! Abide you and your family in your new home. Farewell!

From your friend of long standing, , And from all the Ngatiawa tribe.

Father, you are remembered by all the tribes with affection. But, O father, many of the people that belonged to your tribes, the Ngatiawa and Ngatiraukawa are dead, having been carried off by fever.

Ended!