In 1882 and 1883 “Whakatangi” (literally, “to-make-cry”) wrote 27 letters in Māori to Piki and Raurau.  At first glance, one might presume that the author was a Māori man, but the content and emotional language reveals him to be George Thomas Wilkinson, a government agent recently posted to Alexandra on the edge of the King Country, writing to his Māori wives living at Hauraki.   This presentation addresses Wilkinson’s emotional world through the affective language he deployed. Through his words we consider the extent to which he is bound to Māori emotional practices. History is often interested in men like Wilkinson purely for the impact of their official work, but many colonial agents lived in or near the communities they worked within.  We argue that Wilkinson’s letters, which until now have gone unnoticed, can provide a deeper understanding of colonial-indigenous relationships. While his land purchasing may have facilitated the “opening up” of the King Country, an area of about 7,000 square miles of Māori land that had hitherto sat outside of the state’s authority, his letters reveal a complex individual closely enmeshed within the Māori world he sought to manage.