The Pākehā missionaries then realised that their "mana" as teachers depended on the number of converts they made. Watkin's register of baptisms records the explosive result. In 1841, he baptised two Māori (one of them intended marrying a Pākehā); in 1842 he baptised three Māori; and then in 1843 he baptised 193 and another 158 before leaving in 1844. As many missionaries realised, the Māori transformed Christianity in the process of 'conversion'. To the despair of Watkin, the Māori interpreted the Christian karakia in their own way. Much to the dismay of the practical Wohlers, the strict moral code of the Old Testament proved infectious. When Selwyn preached a 'sermon on contentment with one's lot' the Māori stopped producing food and trade with American whalers fell off abruptly; ""the pigs ate the potatoes, the Māori ate the pigs, and there was nothing left"."