On 22 February 1860 mounting tensions over the sale of a 600-acre (240 hectare) block of land at Waitara led to the declaration of martial law in Taranaki and three weeks later, on 17 March, Governor Thomas Gore Browne ordered a military assault on Te Atiawa chief Wiremu K*ngi and _his_ people at a defensive p*. <sep>, Pronoun: his <sep>, A: Thomas Gore Browne <sep>, B: Wiremu K*ngi