The quest for peace - Northern War

Governor Robert FitzRoy publicly declared that the ‘rebels had suffered severely’. Behind the scenes he gave Henry Despard the authority to conduct peace negotiations. FitzRoy also began talks with Hone Heke through the missionaries Robert Burrows and Henry Williams.

George Grey

Heke declared that he would ‘never to submit to the flag’. FitzRoy was generally accepting of Heke’s terms. The one sticking point was over the Governor’s insistence that some Maori land be ceded. Te Ruki Kawiti shared the rights to the land in question with a number of neutral and pro-government Maori. He objected to this demand. By late October Heke began to waver but by then FitzRoy had been replaced by George Grey.

Grey assumed control of the campaign on 18 November 1845. He believed FitzRoy’s negotiations had been ‘inconsistent with the interests of the British Government’. He was particularly incensed by a letter he received after his arrival in which Heke pointed out that:

God made this country for us.  It cannot be sliced … Do you return to your own country, which was made by God for you. God made this land for us; it is not for any stranger or foreign nation to meddle with this sacred country.

Negotiations broke down in early December. Grey ordered Despard to move against Ruapekapeka, the new pa being constructed by Kawiti south-east of Ohaeawai.