TE NGUTU-O-TE-MANU
Colonel McDonnell returned to the district on the same day as the fight
at Turu Turu Mokai took place, reaching the blood-stained ruin at noon.
There was, however, nothing to be done but wait for the reinforcements,
which, as they arrived, were licked into shape as rapidly as possible,
although it was not till the 21st of August they were deemed fit to be
introduced to the Hau Haus.
On this date a strong patrol was sent to have a look what Titokowaru
was doing, but that nobleman, not caring to have his privacy intruded
upon, hunted the new chums out of the bush, killing four and wounding
eight of them. So the disgusted O.C. decided to await the arrival of
the Wanganui warriors, whose enlistment was being delayed by our old
friend, Mete Kingi.
At last seventy splendid Wanganui Maoris reached Waihi, under the
command of their gallant chief, Te Kepa, when the Colonel determined to
make an effort, as if the new levies were to be used at all they must
be used at once. There was no more time to train them; they had been
enlisted for only three months, and their time of service would shortly
expire.
It was therefore now or never. The country simply howled for him to
wipe out Titokowaru; our Wanganui natives were hungry for a fight, so
that although himself and all his officers knew well that the new chums
were not to be trusted in the bush, still he made up his mind to march
out and attack Titokowaru in his vaunted stronghold.
Now, before I begin the yarn of this most disastrous expedition let
me inform you that at this period I do not think our gallant and much
respected O.C. was at his best, nor was this to be wondered at. For
nearly two years he had been struggling, not only against the Hau
Haus but also against an obtuse Government, who had listened to his
bitterest detractors and enemies, while they wilfully closed their eyes
to the obvious requirements of the district, and who, regardless of
his expostulations, had reduced his fighting strength to an absurdly
inadequate force, and even now, when his prognostications had been
proved correct, suffered the very men whose lying reports had misled
them to remain in office and hamper the endeavours he was making to
straighten out the desperate muddle for which they were responsible.
Again he had at present under his command for a very limited space
of time a field force on the bulk of which neither himself nor his
officers could rely, and with which he was expected to work immediate
miracles, and, as if all these circumstances were not enough to worry
him to distraction, just at the moment his services were most in demand
his only trusty spy, Katene, deserted and joined the Hau Haus, so that
he was left without any reliable information to guide his movements.
Therefore I am sure that several of the decisions he came to and acted
upon would have been otherwise had not his keen judgment been obscured
by manifold anxieties and worries more than even his strong and brave
spirit could tolerate, and that on this occasion he was not in full
possession of his brilliant fighting faculties.
Anyhow, as something had to be done, he issued orders that a field
force composed of two hundred white men and the seventy friendly
natives should parade on the night of the 6th of September 1868.
During the day every preparation was made, but alas when night fell the
Tohungas (medicine men) discovered something had gone wrong with the
moon and a star, an unfortunate occurrence, as it denoted the overthrow
of the expedition, and the Maoris, who up to that time had been in a
state of huge delight at the chance of a scrap, now hung back.
In a moment the whole aspect of affairs was changed, as even Te Kepa
and his best warriors begged the O.C. to postpone the taua (war party)
for twenty-four hours. On any other occasion I am sure he would have
done so, as the Colonel was always most anxious not to run counter with
the superstitions of our valuable allies, but the irritated, overdriven
man was inexorable, and issued orders that the expedition should start
that very night, let the moon and star shine as unpropitiously as they
darned well pleased.
At this decision the hearts of the Maori warriors became very dark
indeed, and they held a meeting so as to discuss what on earth should
be done. They were all keen for a fight, but it was flying in the
face of Providence and courting disaster for themselves should they
neglect such pregnant warning; so things looked very black, as
should the Maoris refuse to march it was quite clear to all of us the
impossibility of our proceeding.
At last, after many speeches, a grim old warrior of great experience
got on his hind-legs. Quoth he: “Men of Wanganui, we have done all in
our power to persuade the white chief not to go, but he insists on
doing so, notwithstanding the predictions of certain disaster we have
received. We are bound by honour to accompany him; besides, we languish
for a fight. The taua will be defeated and the white men cut to pieces,
which will serve them right for neglecting this warning. But we, my
children, having protested against such godless profanity, will escape
without injury, and as we go in honour we shall, provided we fight
bravely, all return safe with our honour enhanced.” This speech ended
the meeting and the friendlies determined to come with us.
Now you good people who live at home at ease may laugh at a white
man believing, or even tolerating, the prophecies of a savage
devil-dodger, but very many experienced frontiersmen, in the course
of their pilgrimage through wild countries and among wild races, come
across so many queer and uncanny incidents quite inexplicable to
their philosophy, therefore they are not so ready to laugh at or deny
that which they cannot understand. Consequently many of our old hands
believed in the sombre prognostications of the Tohungas, and perhaps
were not wrong in doing so, for if the proof of the pudding is in the
eating of it, surely the value of a prophecy is in the veracity of its
fulfilment, and on this occasion the soothsayers certainly scored
the straight tip, as on the next day the friendly natives, although
they fought with a reckless gallantry never surpassed in the annals
of war, and while covering our retreat exposed themselves in a manner
that even astonished the fanatical Hau Haus, yet, during the whole
disastrous affair, they had not one single man scratched, while what
happened to us white men I shall now relate.
[Illustration: COL. WHITMORE.]
Well, this difficulty being satisfactorily overcome, we paraded at
ten-thirty P.M. on the 6th, two hundred white men and seventy Maoris, a
force quite sufficient had the former been of the same calibre as the
old rangers and military settlers, but alas, out of the two hundred,
not more than forty men had ever been in the bush before, and these
old hands had no confidence in their inexperienced comrades; in fact,
the old joyous devil-may-care spirit so noticeable in the ranks when
starting on past expeditions was on this parade entirely wanting,
and the old war-dogs looked more as if they were attending their
grandmother’s funeral than starting for a jolly romp with the Hau Haus
in the bush.
Anyhow we started, the night being bitterly cold, with a very heavy
frost that gave our nearly naked allies jip, laming their bare feet to
such an extent that some of them were crippled for weeks afterwards, so
that even they did not escape scot-free, but were in some way punished
for accompanying their ungodly and incredulous white comrades.
Two miles had been covered when we came to the flooded Waingangora
River, whose icy waters rose breast-high as we forded it linked arm in
arm so as to prevent being swept away. Oh, scissors! it was cold, my
shawl and jumper being frozen as stiff as boards five minutes after I
had crossed! We, however, pushed on, and when daylight came we were
deep into the bush on the western slopes of Mount Egmont.
Now we had no idea where the Hau Haus really were, as all the
information the Colonel had received since Katene’s desertion had been
conflicting, some reports stating that Titokowaru had fallen back to an
inland pah called Ruaruru, the position of which was quite unknown, and
as the so-called peace had given him plenty of time to build a dozen
new pahs, provided he had a mind to do so, he might be anywhere within
fifty miles of us.
We had therefore to follow the old bush-whackers’ plan--viz. enter the
bush and cross it in a straight line, and if you cut a well-defined
track follow it in the most likely direction to the bitter end.
This we did until one-thirty P.M. on the 7th, when we cut a well-worn
path which ran nearly north and south. This was a streak of luck, and
at a short council of war it was decided we should follow the track in
a southerly direction towards the sea.
After a short halt and a bite of cold, sodden food, for of course no
fires could be lighted and our rations had been soaked in the waters of
the Waingangora, we moved on for nearly an hour, when another halt was
called and Te Kepa ordered one of his men to climb a gigantic rata-tree
so as to obtain an outlook and try if he could spot any smoke rising or
see any indications of a clearing in the adjacent bush.
The fellow ran up one of the huge pendent vines like a monkey, being
soon lost to sight among the lichens, orchids and parasites that draped
the branches. He had not been gone over a few minutes when down he
slid, reporting he could see plenty of smoke not more than half-a-mile
down the track, and could plainly hear the sound of a haka (indecent
dances accompanied by unprintable libretto). This was a real slice of
luck, as if the Hau Haus were hakaing they could not be aware of our
vicinity, and we might catch them on the hop.
Another council of war was held, when Te Kepa gave the soundest advice,
which I am certain would have been followed by the O.C. had he been
in his normal state, although there is no doubt that the reasons he
assigned for the action he took were very weighty.
The chief’s advice was as follows:--“We are here without the Hau Haus
suspecting us, but we ourselves are ignorant what sort of a pah we
have to attack or where it is exactly situated. Now therefore let the
white men, many of whom are tired, retire a short distance off into
the bush, where, keeping perfectly quiet, they can lie down and rest.
I will place my men in ambush along the track, so as to tomahawk any
one of the enemy who may pass without noise, though I do not expect any
of them to do so. Then when it is dark I and my picked scouts will go
and reconnoitre the Hau Haus’ position, so that at daylight to-morrow
morning we shall know what to do and fight with our eyes open.”
Now there was much wisdom in this counsel, and had the Colonel followed
it we should have at one blow knocked Titokowaru out of the running,
but the O.C. decided otherwise, asserting the great danger we ran of
the Hau Hau scouts cutting our trail, when the enemy would either clear
out or prepare themselves to resist our attack. Accordingly he gave
orders for us to immediately advance in the following formation:--
Te Kepa with his seventy men led the van, followed by Major Von Tempsky
with one hundred white men, while the Colonel, commanding the remaining
hundred white men, brought up the rear; the column to move in close
order and as rapidly as possible.
Te Kepa’s men had not marched more than a quarter of a mile when they
came to a tent with a woman standing outside it, who directly she saw
the advance-guard ran down the track screaming at the top of her voice,
with a few of the friendlies in close pursuit, but they did not succeed
in overtaking and despatching her before she raised a hullabaloo that
would have alarmed the dead.
As the pursuing natives passed the tent a man and two children jumped
out, who were at once shot, though another child was saved, one of
Te Kepa’s men carrying it on his back all through the subsequent
engagement.
The screams of the woman, together with the firing, had of course
alarmed the Hau Haus; the singing of the haka at once ceased, and as
there was now no possible hope of surprising them we pushed on rapidly,
though with all due caution, until we came to a large clearing.
Here we halted for a few minutes, while the O.C. made his final
arrangements. Not a vestige of a pah was visible, nor, as a matter
of fact, did any one of us catch a glimpse of the pah on that day. In
front of us was a patch of dense, heavy bush containing huge trees, and
we knew that somewhere among these was the lurking-place of Titokowaru.
The Colonel’s orders were concise. Te Kepa was to deploy his men in
extended order to the left, so as to surround the pah on that side;
Von Tempsky was to execute the same movement to the right; and his own
party were to advance in extended order to the front.
So far so good, and as soon as Te Kepa and Von Tempsky had cleared our
front--I was with the Colonel’s party--we deployed and extended, but
directly we began to advance our troubles began, as the new chums would
keep on closing in instead of moving forward in open order.
This inclination to crowd into a mob became worse as we entered the
bush, so that, notwithstanding all the efforts of us officers, and the
objurgations of the old hands, all formation was speedily lost.
Passing through a narrow strip of bush we came to a deep and broad
creek, whose steep banks were covered with dense undergrowth. This we
had to cross, and as we descended the bank the left of Von Tempsky’s
party surged into the right of ours.
In vain we raved at them, even going so far as to strike some of
them and threaten others with our revolvers, but it was no good, the
wretched conscripts had a bad attack of bush funk and would not obey
orders.
As we struggled down into the creek I fell over Tim, who said to me:
“For the blessed Virgin’s sake, take care of yourself this day, Mr
Dick, sure these damned hooligans will land us up to our necks in
the bog. May Satan scrape ye wid red-hot oyster shells, ye narvous
spalpeens, will ye extend or will ye march to hell in sub-divisions,”
he howled, while doing his best to second my efforts, but it was all of
no avail, and we started to cross that creek, so as to ascend the far
side, in a disorganised rabble.
Up to this time dead silence had brooded over the bush, but when we
reached the centre of the creek’s bed a terrific war yell was raised
and a tremendous volley, of at least three hundred rifles and guns,
was poured into us, from a distance of not more than ten yards; which,
tearing our disorganised mob into tatters, transformed the bed of that
forest, fern-embowered creek into a bloody shambles.
This reception was far too stern a one for our nervous new chums, over
forty of whom at once scrambled out of the creek and bolted, never
pausing in their flight until they reached the crossing place of the
Waingangora River.
In vain with the old hands and those of the new chums who had the pluck
to stand, though not the sense to extend, we made a rush and attempted
to charge.
We failed at once, for the cunning enemy had woven the ground vines and
undergrowth on their bank so closely together that nothing except an
elephant could have broken through, while from the lofty rata-trees, in
whose branches the best shots of the Hau Haus had been placed, came
a plunging fire that knocked over man after man, so that we could do
nothing but lie down and return the fire of our invisible enemies.
The casualties among our officers had been very heavy. Lieutenant
Hunter had been killed; Dr Best and Lieutenant Rowan, badly wounded by
the first volley, had been carried out of action, while Captain Palmer
and Lieutenant Hastings, both badly wounded, had subsequently to be
abandoned to the awful fate of falling alive into the hands of the
ferocious Hau Haus.
In the meantime, Te Kepa had fared much better, for with his warriors
well in hand he had worked round the left of the clearing, and with a
rattling charge had swept away the party of Hau Haus sent to oppose
him, subsequently taking up a strong position ready to storm the pah
when ordered to do so.
Our plight, however, was now hopeless, as the enemy manned a low,
well-bushed hill, the fire from which enfiladed the creek, rendering
our position in the bed of it more untenable than ever. Still I am
convinced that, had our men all been old hands, our gallant O.C. would
have pulled us out of the mess, and we should have won the day, but
nothing could be done with the raw new chums, most of whom seemed to be
paralysed by the slaughter and the blood-curdling yells of the Hau Haus.
This being the case, Colonel McDonnell saw that the only way to
preserve the remainder of his force was to order an immediate retreat;
so, directing us to carry out the wounded, he despatched his brother,
Captain McDonnell, to Von Tempsky with orders for him to at once
withdraw his men out of action and join his own party, Te Kepa offering
to cover the retreat of our shattered force.
We had brought ten stretchers with us: these had been rapidly filled,
and as we had now not more than sixty men, officers and privates, left,
we were just able to handle fourteen wounded men, four being carried on
rifles, as it required at least four men to carry a stretcher and six
men to carry a man on rifles through the rough bush, so that all the
remaining dead and wounded men had to be abandoned.
This abandonment of our wounded comrades was a heart-rending calamity,
but nothing else could have been done under the circumstances, although
we knew well the dreadful fate that awaited the unfortunates.
It takes time to write an account of a scrimmage of this sort, but in
reality not ten minutes had elapsed from the moment we had descended
into that infernal creek until we started to get out of it, during
which period, out of the two hundred white men, one-fourth of our force
had bolted, and out of those that had remained over one-third of their
number lay dead or dying in the bed of it.
We had just succeeded in extricating the fourteen wretched sufferers
when Captain McDonnell returned with the information that he had taken
the order to Von Tempsky, who demurred at obeying it as he was of
opinion that another charge might succeed, but while moving a step or
two, so as to try to get a look at the pah, he had been shot dead. He
had then given the order to the next senior officer, Captain Buck, who
promised to at once obey it, when he returned to the O.C., who ordered
him to take some friendly natives and secure the dangerous defile at a
place, on the line of retreat, called Te Maru, so as to prevent the Hau
Haus taking possession of it, which if they had done would have sealed
the fate of the broken force.
This order he carried out splendidly, as just when he reached the
place he fell in with, and utterly destroyed, the party the enemy
had despatched to seize the defile, so that, thanks to the Colonel’s
foresight and his brother’s gallant action, our retreat was secured.
As soon as we had got the wounded up the bank the retreat began, Te
Kepa forming the rear-guard and also protecting our right flank from
the swarm of Hau Haus who now, with triumphant yells, rushed out of
the pah and attacked us furiously, shouting out their intention to
kill and eat the whole outfit. But they had tough nuts to crack in Te
Kepa and his warriors, who, answering them yell for yell and shot for
shot, challenged them to fight hand to hand, taunting them at the same
time with cowardice, insomuch that they feared to charge and finish
off a beaten taua, and reminding them of defunct ancestors who had
been killed and eaten in old-time wars; so with great expenditure of
ammunition and much bad language the miserable retreat continued.
Now it is no pleasant duty for a tired man to struggle through a New
Zealand bush under the most favourable circumstances, but when he has
to form one of a stretcher party to carry a heavy wounded man through
the said bush, his troubles are increased many times, especially should
he be blazed at every yard of the journey, as was our case while
retreating from Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu to Te Maru, men being frequently hit
all along the route, although we were fortunate enough not to lose any
more killed, and so were able, when, thanks to Captain McDonnell, we
had crossed the gorge in safety, to drop our stretchers, turn about,
and give our pursuers such a grilling as to make them turn tail and
leave us alone.
It was now ascertained that Captain Buck with his party had not joined
up, nor did any of us know what had become of them, the truth being
that every officer and man had been so fully employed that no one had
had time to devote a single thought to the absentees.
Colonel McDonnell, who was much cut up, proposed to return and look
for them, but Te Kepa pointed out that in every probability they had
retreated some other way, and as there was no doubt that the great
majority of the enemy had followed us, it therefore stood to reason
Buck’s people were better off than ourselves.
This argument the Colonel was forced to admit, and when he was informed
that six of Te Kepa’s most experienced warriors had, previous to the
retreat being ordered, joined Buck, he reluctantly gave orders for our
retreat to be continued.
The sun had set as we reached Te Maru, so, as we had abandoned our
packs and haversacks, we had to toil, hungry and worn out, through the
bush, carrying our suffering wounded, at which heart-breaking job Te
Kepa and his glorious warriors took turn and turn about, so that we
reached camp at two A.M. on the morning of the 8th.
Here we found everything in a state of chaos, as the d----d runaways,
who had arrived there hours before, had spread the blood-curdling
report that the whole outfit had been cut to pieces and killed,
themselves being the only survivors. Oh, but they received toko from
fist, boot and belt of the infuriated old hands.
There was, however, no news of Buck and his party, which greatly
disturbed our much troubled O.C., and again gave the gallant Te Kepa
another opportunity of displaying his worth, for he immediately
volunteered to start with his men at daylight and search for them.
This he did, but had only proceeded two miles when he met them
returning dead beat, under the command of Captain Roberts. This officer
reported that no sooner had Captain McDonnell given Captain Buck the
orders, and returned to his brother, than Captain Buck, without telling
anyone else of the orders he had received, made the attempt to recover
Von Tempsky’s body but was shot dead in trying to do so.
Captain Roberts then assumed the command, but, as he was in ignorance
of any order to retreat, continued to hold his ground until he was
informed by his own men that the Colonel had retreated.
Fortunately he had just been joined by Te Kepa’s six men, one of whom,
a noted war chief, recommended him to retreat in the direction of the
sea, which he did, and although his new chums behaved very badly, yet
with the few old hands and the friendly natives he managed to beat off
the attacks of the Hau Haus till dark, when after firing a farewell
volley they drew off. He now halted his party till the moon rose,
during which halt two of his men died from cold and exhaustion, and
then, under the guidance of the old chief, extricated his men from the
bush and reached camp as I have already described.
So ended the unfortunate expedition against Titokowaru in his
stronghold at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu.