THE HAU-HAUS.
The next three months made a great change in the appearance of The
Glade. Three or four plots of gay flowers cut in the grass between the
house and the river gave a brightness to its appearance. The house was
now covered as far as the roof with greenery, and might well have been
mistaken for a rustic bungalow standing in pretty grounds on the banks
of the Thames. Behind, a large kitchen-garden was in full bearing. It
was surrounded by wire network to keep out the chickens, ducks, and
geese, which wandered about and picked up a living as they chose,
returning at night to the long low shed erected for them at some
distance from the house, receiving a plentiful meal on their arrival to
prevent them from lapsing into an altogether wild condition.
Forty acres of land had been reploughed and sown, and the crops had
already made considerable progress. In the more distant clearings a
dozen horses, twenty or thirty cows, and a small flock of a hundred
sheep grazed, while some distance up the glade in which the house stood
was the pig-sty, whose occupants were fed with refuse from the garden,
picking up, however, the larger portion of their living by rooting in
the woods.
Long before Mr. and Mrs. Renshaw moved into the house, Wilfrid, whose
labours were now less severe, had paid his first visit to Mr. Atherton's
hut. He was at once astonished and delighted with it. It contained
indeed but the one room, sixteen feet square, but that room had been
made one of the most comfortable dens possible. There was no flooring,
but the ground had been beaten until it was as hard as baked clay, and
was almost covered with rugs and sheep-skins; a sort of divan ran round
three sides of it, and this was also cushioned with skins. The log walls
were covered with cow-hides cured with the hair on, and from hooks and
brackets hung rifles, fishing-rods, and other articles, while horns and
other trophies of the chase were fixed to the walls.
While the Renshaws had contented themselves with stoves, Mr. Atherton
had gone to the expense and trouble of having a great open fireplace,
with a brick chimney outside the wall. Here, even on the hottest day,
two or three logs burnt upon old-fashioned iron dogs. On the wall above
was a sort of trophy of oriental weapons. Two very large and comfortable
easy chairs stood by the side of the hearth, and in the centre of the
room stood an old oak table, richly carved and black with age. A
book-case of similar age and make, with its shelves well filled with
standard works, stood against the one wall unoccupied by the divan.
Wilfrid stood still with astonishment as he looked in at the door, which
Mr. Atherton had himself opened in response to his knock.
"Come in, Wilfrid. As I told you yesterday evening I have just got
things a little straight and comfortable."
"I should think you had got them comfortable," Wilfrid said. "I should
not have thought that a log cabin could have been made as pretty as
this. Why, where did you get all the things? Surely you can never have
brought them all with you?"
"No, indeed," Mr. Atherton laughed; "the greatest portion of them are
products of the country. There was no difficulty in purchasing the
skins, the arms, and those sets of horns and trophies. Books and a few
other things I brought with me. I have a theory that people very often
make themselves uncomfortable merely to effect the saving of a pound or
two. Now, I rather like making myself snug, and the carriage of all
those things did not add above five pounds to my expenses."
"But surely that table and book-case were never made in New Zealand?"
"Certainly not, Wilfrid. At the time they were made the natives of this
country hunted the Moa in happy ignorance of the existence of a white
race. No, I regard my getting possession of those things as a special
stroke of good luck. I was wandering in the streets of Wellington on the
very day after my arrival, when I saw them in a shop. No doubt they had
been brought out by some well-to-do emigrant, who clung to them in
remembrance of his home in the old country. Probably at his death his
place came into the hands of some Goths, who preferred a clean deal
table to what he considered old-fashioned things. Anyhow, there they
were in the shop, and I bought them at once; as also those arm-chairs,
which are as comfortable as anything of the kind I have ever tried. By
the way, are you a good shot with the rifle, Wilfrid?"
"No, sir; I never fired a rifle in my life before I left England, nor a
shot-gun either."
"Then I think you would do well to practise, lad; and those two men of
yours should practise too. You never can say what may come of these
native disturbances; the rumours of the progress of this new religion
among them are not encouraging. It is quite true that the natives on
this side of the island have hitherto been perfectly peaceable, but if
they get inoculated with this new religious frenzy there is no saying
what may happen. I will speak to your father about it. Not in a way to
alarm him; but I will point out that it is of no use your having brought
out firearms if none of you know how to use them, and suggest that it
will be a good thing if you and the men were to make a point of firing a
dozen shots every morning at a mark. I shall add that he himself might
just as well do so, and that even the ladies might find it an amusement,
using, of course, a light rifle, or firing from a rest with an ordinary
rifle with light charges, or that they might practice with revolvers.
Anyhow, it is certainly desirable that you and your father and the men
should learn to be good shots with these weapons. I will gladly come
over at first and act as musketry instructor."
Wilfrid embraced the idea eagerly, and Mr. Atherton on the occasion of
his first visit to The Glade in a casual sort of way remarked to Mr.
Renshaw that he thought every white man and woman in the outlying
colonies ought to be able to use firearms, as, although they might never
be called upon to use them in earnest, the knowledge that they could do
so with effect would greatly add to their feeling of security and
comfort. Mr. Renshaw at once took up the idea and accepted the other's
offer to act as instructor. Accordingly, as soon as the Renshaws were
established upon their farm, it became one of the standing rules of the
place that Wilfrid and the two men should fire twelve shots at a mark
every morning before starting for their regular work at the farm.
The target was a figure roughly cut out of wood, representing the size
and to some extent the outline of a man's figure.
"It is much better to accustom yourself to fire at a mark of this kind
than to practise always at a target," Mr. Atherton said. "A man may
shoot wonderfully well at a black mark in the centre of a white square,
and yet make very poor practice at a human figure with its dull shades
of colour and irregular outline."
"But we shall not be able to tell where our bullets hit," Wilfrid said;
"especially after the dummy has been hit a good many times."
"It is not very material where you hit a man, Wilfrid, so that you do
hit him. If a man gets a heavy bullet, whether in an arm, a leg, or the
body, there is no more fight in him. You can tell by the sound of the
bullet if you hit the figure, and if you hit him you have done what you
want to. You do not need to practise at distances over three hundred
yards; that is quite the outside range at which you would ever want to
do any shooting, indeed from fifty to two hundred I consider the useful
distance to practise at. If you get to shoot so well that you can with
certainty hit a man between those ranges, you may feel pretty
comfortable in your mind that you can beat off any attack that might be
made on a house you are defending.
"When you have learnt to do this at the full-size figure you can put it
in a bush so that only the head and shoulders are visible, as would be
those of a native standing up to fire. All this white target-work is
very well for shooting for prizes, but if troops were trained to fire at
dummy figures at from fifty to two hundred yards distance, and allowed
plenty of ammunition for practice and kept steadily at it, you would see
that a single company would be more than a match for a whole regiment
trained as our soldiers are."
With steady practice every morning, Wilfrid and the two young men made
very rapid progress, and at the end of three months it was very seldom
that a bullet was thrown away. Sometimes Mr. Renshaw joined them in
their practice, but he more often fired a few shots some time during the
day with Marion, who became quite an enthusiast in the exercise. Mrs.
Renshaw declined to practise, and said that she was content to remain a
non-combatant, and would undertake the work of binding up wounds and
loading muskets. On Saturday afternoons, when the men left off work
somewhat earlier than usual, there was always shooting for small prizes.
Twelve shots were fired by each at a figure placed in the bushes a
hundred yards away, with only the head and shoulders visible. After each
had fired, the shot-holes were counted and then filled up with mud, so
that the next marks made were easily distinguishable.
Mr. Renshaw was uniformly last. The Grimstones and Marion generally ran
each other very close, each putting eight or nine of their bullets into
the figure. Wilfrid was always handicapped two shots, but as he
generally put the whole of his ten bullets into the mark, he was in the
majority of cases the victor. The shooting party was sometimes swelled
by the presence of Mr. Atherton and the two Allens, who had arrived a
fortnight after the Renshaws, and had taken up the section of land next
below them. Mr. Atherton was incomparably the best shot of the party.
Wilfrid, indeed, seldom missed, but he took careful and steady aim at
the object, while Mr. Atherton fired apparently without waiting to take
aim at all. Sometimes he would not even lift his gun to his shoulder,
but would fire from his side, or standing with his back to the mark
would turn round and fire instantaneously.
"That sort of thing is only attained by long practice," he would say in
answer to Wilfrid's exclamations of astonishment. "You see, I have been
shooting in different parts of the world and at different sorts of game
for some fifteen years, and in many cases quick shooting is of just as
much importance as straight shooting."
But it was with the revolver that Mr. Atherton most surprised his
friends. He could put six bullets into half a sheet of note-paper at a
distance of fifty yards, firing with such rapidity that the weapon was
emptied in two or three seconds.
"I learned that," he said, "among the cow-boys in the West. Some of them
are perfectly marvellous shots. It is their sole amusement, and they
spend no inconsiderable portion of their pay on cartridges. It seems to
become an instinct with them, however small the object at which they
fire they are almost certain to hit it. It is a common thing with them
for one man to throw an empty meat-tin into the air and for another to
put six bullets in before it touches the ground. So certain are they of
their own and each others' aim, that one will hold a halfpenny between
his finger and thumb for another to fire at from a distance of twenty
yards, and it is a common joke for one to knock another's pipe out of
his mouth when he is quietly smoking.
"As you see, though my shooting seems to you wonderful, I should be
considered quite a poor shot among the cow-boys. Of course, with
incessant practice such as they have I should shoot a good deal better
than I do; but I could never approach their perfection, for the simple
reason that I have not the strength of wrist. They pass their lives in
riding half-broken horses, and incessant exercise and hard work harden
them until their muscles are like steel, and they scarcely feel what to
an ordinary man is a sharp wrench from the recoil of a heavily-loaded
Colt."
Life was in every way pleasant at The Glade. The work of breaking up the
land went on steadily, but the labour, though hard, was not excessive.
In the evening the Allens or Mr. Atherton frequently dropped in, and
occasionally Mr. Mitford and his daughters rode over, or the party came
up in the boat. The expense of living was small. They had an ample
supply of potatoes and other vegetables from their garden, of eggs from
their poultry, and of milk, butter, and cheese from their cows. While
salt meat was the staple of their food, it was varied occasionally by
chicken, ducks, or a goose, while a sheep now and then afforded a week's
supply of fresh meat.
Mr. Renshaw had not altogether abandoned his original idea. He had
already learnt something of the Maori language from his studies on the
voyage, and he rapidly acquired a facility of speaking it from his
conversations with the two natives permanently employed on the farm. One
of these was a man of some forty years old named Wetini, the other was a
lad of sixteen, his son, whose name was Whakapanakai, but as this name
was voted altogether too long for conversational purposes he was
re-christened Jack.
Wetini spoke but a few words of English, but Jack, who had been educated
at one of the mission schools, spoke it fluently. They, with Wetini's
wife, inhabited a small hut situated at the edge of the wood, at a
distance of about two hundred yards from the house. It was Mr. Renshaw's
custom to stroll over there of an evening, and seating himself by the
fire, which however hot the weather the natives always kept burning, he
would converse with Wetini upon the manners and customs, the religious
beliefs and ceremonies, of his people.
In these conversations Jack at first acted as interpreter, but it was
not many weeks before Mr. Renshaw gained such proficiency in the tongue
that such assistance was no longer needed.
But the period of peace and tranquillity at The Glade was but a short
one. Wilfrid learnt from Jack, who had attached himself specially to
him, that there were reports among the natives that the prophet Te Ua
was sending out missionaries all over the island. This statement was
true. Te Ua had sent out four sub-prophets with orders to travel among
the tribes and inform them that Te Ua had been appointed by an angel as
a prophet, that he was to found a new religion to be called Pai Marire,
and that legions of angels waited the time when, all the tribes having
been converted, a general rising would take place, and the Pakeha be
annihilated by the assistance of these angels, after which a knowledge
of all languages and of all the arts and sciences would be bestowed upon
the Pai Marire.
Had Te Ua's instructions been carried out, and his agents travelled
quietly among the tribes, carefully abstaining from all open hostility
to the whites until the whole of the native population had been
converted, the rising when it came would have been a terrible one, and
might have ended in the whole of the white population being either
destroyed or forced for a time to abandon the island. Fortunately the
sub-prophets were men of ferocious character. Too impatient to await the
appointed time, they attacked the settlers as soon as they collected
sufficient converts to do so, and so they brought about the destruction
of their leaders' plans.
These attacks put the colonists on their guard, enabled the authorities
to collect troops and stand on the defensive, and, what was still more
important, caused many of the tribes which had not been converted to the
Pai Marire faith to range themselves on the side of the English. Not
because they loved the whites, but because from time immemorial the
tribes had been divided against each other, and their traditional
hostility weighed more with them than their jealousy with the white
settlers.
Still, although these rumours as to the spread of the Pai Marire or
Hau-Hau faith reached the ears of the settlers, there were few in the
western provinces who believed that there was any real danger. The
Maoris had always been peaceful and friendly with them, and they could
not believe that those with whom they had dwelt so long could suddenly
and without any reason become bloodthirsty enemies.
Wilfrid said nothing to his parents as to what he had heard from Jack,
but he talked it over with Mr. Atherton and the Allens. The latter were
disposed to make light of it, but Mr. Atherton took the matter
seriously.
"There is never any saying how things will go with the natives," he
said. "All savages seem to be alike. Up to a certain point they are
intelligent and sensible; but they are like children; they are easily
excited, superstitious in the extreme, and can be deceived without the
slightest difficulty by designing people. Of course to us this story of
Te Ua's sounds absolutely absurd, but that is no reason why it should
appear absurd to them. These people have embraced a sort of
Christianity, and they have read of miracles of all sorts, and will have
no more difficulty in believing that the angels could destroy all the
Europeans in their island than that the Assyrian army was miraculously
destroyed before Jerusalem.
"Without taking too much account of the business, I think, Wilfrid, that
it will be just as well if all of us in these outlying settlements take
a certain amount of precautions. I shall write down at once to my agent
at Hawke Bay asking him to buy me a couple of dogs and send them up by
the next ship. I shall tell him that it does not matter what sort of
dogs they are so that they are good watch-dogs, though, of course, I
should prefer that they should be decent dogs of their sort, dogs one
could make companions of. I should advise you to do the same.
"I shall ask Mr. Mitford to get me up at once a heavy door and shutters
for the window strong enough to stand an assault. Here again I should
advise you to do the same. You can assign any reason you like to your
father. With a couple of dogs to give the alarm, with a strong door and
shutters, you need not be afraid of being taken by surprise, and it is
only a surprise that you have in the first place to fear. Of course if
there were to be anything like a general rising we should all have to
gather at some central spot agreed upon, or else to quit the settlement
altogether until matters settle down. Still, I trust that nothing of
that sort will take place. At any rate, all we have to fear and prepare
against at present is an attack by small parties of fanatics."
Wilfrid had no difficulty in persuading his father to order a strong oak
door and shutters for the windows, and to get a couple of dogs. He began
the subject by saying: "Mr. Atherton is going to get some strong
shutters to his window, father. I think it would be a good thing if we
were to get the same for our windows."
"What do we want shutters for, Wilfrid?"
"For just the same reason that we have been learning to use our
firearms, father. We do not suppose that the natives, who are all
friendly with us, are going to turn treacherous. Still, as there is a
bare possibility of such a thing, we have taken some pains in learning
to shoot straight. In the same way it would be just as well to have
strong shutters put up. We don't at all suppose we are going to be
attacked, but if we are the shutters would be invaluable, and would
effectually prevent anything like a night surprise. The expense wouldn't
be great, and in the unlikely event of the natives being troublesome in
this part of this island we should all sleep much more soundly and
comfortably if we knew that there was no fear of our being taken by
surprise. Mr. Atherton is sending for a couple of dogs too. I have
always thought that it would be jolly to have a dog or two here, and if
we do not want them as guards they would be pleasant as companions when
one is going about the place."
A few days after the arrival of two large watch-dogs and of the heavy
shutters and door, Mr. Mitford rode in to The Glade. He chatted for a
few minutes on ordinary subjects, and then Mrs. Renshaw said: "Is
anything the matter, Mr. Mitford? you look more serious than usual."
"I can hardly say that anything is exactly the matter, Mrs. Renshaw; but
I had a batch of newspapers and letters from Wellington this morning,
and they give rather stirring news. The Hau-Haus have come into
collision with us again. You know that a fortnight since we had news
that they had attacked a party of our men under Captain Lloyd and
defeated them, and, contrary to all native traditions, had cut off the
heads of the slain, among whom was Captain Lloyd himself. I was afraid
that after this we should soon hear more of them, and my opinion has
been completely justified. On the 1st of May two hundred of the Ngataiwa
tribe, and three hundred other natives under Te Ua's prophet Hepanaia
and Parengi-Kingi of Taranaki, attacked a strong fort on Sentry Hill,
garrisoned by fifty men of the 52d Regiment under Major Short.
"The Ngataiwa took no part in the action, but the Hau-Haus charged with
great bravery. The garrison, fortunately being warned by their yells of
what was coming, received them with such a heavy fire that their leading
ranks were swept away, and they fell back in confusion. They made a
second charge, which was equally unsuccessful, and then fell back with a
loss of fifty-two killed, among whom were both the Hau-Hau prophet and
Parengi-Kingi.
"The other affair has taken place in the Wellington district. Matene,
another of the Hau-Hau prophets, came down to Pipiriki, a tribe of the
Wanganui. These people were bitterly hostile to us, as they had taken
part in some of the former fighting, and their chief and thirty-six of
his men were killed. The tribe at once accepted the new faith. Mr.
Booth, the resident magistrate, who was greatly respected among them,
went up to try to smooth matters down, but was seized, and would have
been put to death if it had not been for the interference in his favour
of a young chief named Hori Patene, who managed to get him and his wife
and children safely down in a canoe to the town of Wanganui. The
Hau-Haus prepared to move down the river to attack the town, and sent
word to the Ngatihau branch of the tribe who lived down the river to
join them. They and two other of the Wanganui tribes living on the lower
part of the river refused to do so, and also refused to let them pass
down the river, and sent a challenge for a regular battle to take place
on the island of Moutoa in the river.
"The challenge was accepted. At dawn on the following morning our
natives, three hundred and fifty strong, proceeded to the appointed
ground. A hundred picked men crossed on to the island, and the rest
remained on the banks as spectators. Of the hundred, fifty, divided into
three parties each under a chief, formed the advance guard, while the
other fifty remained in reserve at the end of the island two hundred
yards away, and too far to be of much use in the event of the advance
guard being defeated. The enemy's party were a hundred and thirty
strong, and it is difficult to understand why a larger body was not sent
over to the island to oppose them, especially as the belief in the
invulnerability of the Hau-Haus was generally believed in, even by the
natives opposed to them.
"It was a curious fight, quite in the manner of the traditional warfare
between the various tribes before our arrival on the island. The lower
tribesmen fought, not for the defence of the town, for they were not
very friendly with the Europeans, having been strong supporters of the
king party, but simply for the prestige of the tribe. No hostile war
party had ever forced the river, and none ever should do so. The
Hau-Haus came down the river in their canoes and landed without
opposition. Then a party of the Wanganui advance guard fired. Although
the Hau-Haus were but thirty yards distant none of them fell, and their
return volley killed the chiefs of two out of the three sections of the
advance guard and many others.
"Disheartened by the loss of their chiefs, the two sections gave way,
shouting that the Hau-Haus were invulnerable. The third section, well
led by their chief, held their ground, but were driven slowly back by
the overwhelming force of the enemy. The battle appeared to be lost,
when Tamehana, the sub-chief of one of the flying sections, after vainly
trying to rally his men, arrived on the ground, and, refusing to obey
the order to take cover from the Hau-Haus' fire, dashed at the enemy and
killed two of them with his double-barrelled gun. The last of the three
leaders was at this moment shot dead. Nearly all his men were more or
less severely wounded, but as the Hau-Haus rushed forward they fired a
volley into them at close quarters, killing several. But they still came
on, when Tamehana again rushed at them. Seizing the spear of a dead man
he drove it into the heart of a Hau-Hau. Catching up the gun and
tomahawk of the fallen man, he drove the latter so deeply into the head
of another foe that in wrenching it out the handle was broken. Finding
that the gun was unloaded, he dashed it in the face of his foes, and
snatching up another he was about to fire, when a bullet struck him in
the arm. Nevertheless he fired and killed his man, but the next moment
was brought to the ground by a bullet that shattered his knee.
"At this moment Hainoma, who commanded the reserve, came up with them,
with the fugitives whom he had succeeded in rallying. They fired a
volley, and then charged down upon the Hau-Haus with their tomahawks.
After a desperate fight the enemy were driven in confusion to the upper
end of the island, where they rushed into the water and attempted to
swim to the right bank. The prophet was recognized among the swimmers.
One of the Wanganui plunged in after him, overtook him just as he
reached the opposite bank, and in spite of the prophet uttering the
magic words that should have paralysed his assailant, killed him with
his tomahawk and swam back with the body to Hainoma."
"They seem to have been two serious affairs," Mr. Renshaw said; "but as
the Hau-Haus were defeated in each we may hope that we have heard the
last of them, for as both the prophets were killed the belief in the
invulnerability of Te Ua's followers must be at an end."
"I wish I could think so," Mr. Mitford said; "but it is terribly hard to
kill a superstition. Te Ua will of course say that the two prophets
disobeyed his positive instructions and thus brought their fate upon
themselves, and the incident may therefore rather strengthen than
decrease his influence. The best part of the business in my mind is that
some of the tribes have thrown in their lot on our side, or if not
actually on our side at any rate against the Hau-Haus. After this we
need hardly fear any general action of the natives against us. There are
all sorts of obscure alliances between the tribes arising from
marriages, or from their having fought on the same side in some far-back
struggle. The result is that the tribes who have these alliances with
the Wanganui will henceforth range themselves on the same side, or will
at any rate hold aloof from this Pai Marire movement. This will also
force other tribes, who might have been willing to join in a general
movement, to stand neutral, and I think now, that although we may have a
great deal of trouble with Te Ua's followers, we may regard any absolute
danger to the European population of the island as past.
"There may, I fear, be isolated massacres, for the Hau-Haus, with their
cutting off of heads and carrying them about, have introduced an
entirely new and savage feature into Maori warfare. I was inclined to
think the precautions you and Atherton are taking were rather
superfluous, but after this I shall certainly adopt them myself.
Everything is perfectly quiet here, but when we see how readily a whole
tribe embrace the new religion as soon as a prophet arrives, and are
ready at once to massacre a man who had long dwelt among them, and for
whom they had always evinced the greatest respect and liking, it is
impossible any longer to feel confident that the natives in this part of
the country are to be relied upon as absolutely friendly and
trustworthy.
"I am sorry now that I have been to some extent the means of inducing
you all to settle here. At the time I gave my advice things seemed
settling down at the other end of the island, and this Hau-Hau movement
reached us only as a vague rumour, and seemed so absurd in itself that
one attached no importance to it."
"Pray do not blame yourself, Mr. Mitford; whatever comes of it we are
delighted with the choice we have made. We are vastly more comfortable
than we had expected to be in so short a time, and things look
promising far beyond our expectations. As you say, you could have had no
reason to suppose that this absurd movement was going to lead to such
serious consequences. Indeed you could have no ground for supposing that
it was likely to cause trouble on this side of the island, far removed
as we are from the scene of the troubles. Even now these are in fact
confined to the district where fighting has been going on for the last
three or four years--Taranaki and its neighbourhood; for the Wanganui
River, although it flows into the sea in the north of the Wellington
district, rises in that of Taranaki, and the tribes who became Hau-Haus
and came down the river had already taken part in the fighting with our
troops. I really see no reason, therefore, for fearing that it will
spread in this direction."
"There is no reason whatever," Mr. Mitford agreed; "only, unfortunately,
the natives seldom behave as we expect them to do, and generally act
precisely as we expect they will not act. At any rate I shall set to
work at once to construct a strong stockade at the back of my house. I
have long been talking of forming a large cattle-yard there, so that it
will not in any case be labour thrown away, while if trouble should come
it will serve as a rallying-place to which all the settlers of the
district can drive in their horses and cattle for shelter, and where
they can if attacked hold their own against all the natives of the
districts."
"I really think you are looking at it in almost too serious a light, Mr.
Mitford; still, the fact that there is such a rallying-place in the
neighbourhood will of course add to our comfort in case we should hear
alarming rumours."
"Quite so, Mr. Renshaw. My idea is there is nothing like being prepared,
and though I agree with you that there is little chance of trouble in
this remote settlement, it is just as well to take precautions against
the worst."