pā on Māngere Mountain called Whakarongo. In late 1837, members of Tainui iwi Ngāti Mahuta settled at Māngere Bridge, after receiving an offer from Ngāti Whātua to share land. On 20 March 1840, Ngāti Whātua chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Orua Bay on the Manukau Harbour, inviting Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson to settle in Auckland, hoping this would protect the land and people living in Tāmaki Makaurau. In the winter of 1840, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei moved the majority of the iwi to the Waitematā Harbour, with most iwi members resettling to the Remuera-Ōrākei area, closer to the new European settlement at Waihorotiu (modern-day Auckland CBD). A smaller Ngāti Whātua presence remained at Māngere-Onehunga, as well as members of Te Uringutu. In the late 1840s, Governor George Grey asked Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (then known as a powerful chief and negotiator, but later the first Māori King) to settle his people in the Māngere Bridge area to defend the township of Auckland, in an arrangement similar to the European Fencible Corps settlements on the outskirts of the Auckland township. Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and his people (known as the Māori Militia) settled near to the land where his brother Kati Takiwaru lived, an area of around the base of Māngere Mountain. The Māngere Bridge area was divided into 81 single-acre and 81 two-acre lots by the colonial government. In 1847, the first ferry service between Onehunga and Māngere Bridge was established by Mr Bradney, where passengers would raise a flag at Māngere Bridge to signal the ferry operator. The 1850s were a prosperous time for the region. Māngere Bridge was settled by a mix of Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Whatua, Waiohua-descendant tribes such as Te Ākitai Waiohua and a minority of European/Pākehā farmers. Māori from the Manukau Harbour and Waikato areas would bring goods to sell or barter with the European population, including goods such as peaches, melons, fish and potatoes. In 1858, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero relocated to Ngāruawāhia, with his role as tribal leader of the Māngere settlement taken up by Tāmati Ngāpora. In the late 1850s, the St James Anglican Church was constructed as a joint project between European settlers and the Ngāti Mahuta militia, using scoria taken from Māngere Mountain. The prosperity was short-lived, as on 9 July 1863, due to fears of the Māori King Movement, Governor Grey proclaimed that all Māori living in the South Auckland