Auckland at that time was in its heyday of prosperity. The great

Thames gold-digging was in full swing, and as our column of war-worn,

bush-stained men marched through the brilliantly lighted and bustling

Queen’s Street the temptation for a spree was too much for some of our

boys, many of whom had not been into a town or seen a white woman for

three years, so they began to break ranks and slip away, determined to

have one night’s fling, no matter what it cost them. Consequently when

we reached the wharf only about half of our men were present. There

confusion became confounded, diggers, sailors, civilians and women of a

certain class crowding in upon us, tendering the men bottles of liquor

or tempting them from their duty. Waggons and drays loaded with camp

equipage, ammunition, baggage and stores arrived, which all had to be

transferred to the ship, and this was done chiefly by the officers, who

then, as the ship was to sail at daylight, had to form themselves into

a picket to collect their scattered and more than half-drunk men.

After a night of ceaseless work we managed to get all but sixty on

board, the Colonel remaining behind to gather together the stragglers;

nor did he let slip the opportunity of venting his unjust spleen, as

he reported to the Government that his men were all mutinous and his

officers discontented.

This was not true, and caused intense bitterness right through the

field force, as the men were not mutinous, but only fancied they were

entitled to a short spree after their past hardships; and as for the

officers, they had slaved all night without a pause for food or rest

until the ship sailed, which she did at the time ordered.

CHAPTER V

THE URIWERA CAMPAIGN

It was now high time to call on the Uriwera so as to punish them for

past offences and teach them that, because they inhabited the very

wildest and most rugged country in New Zealand, they could not with

impunity murder white people and friendly natives.

The Uriwera are a queer tribe almost distinct from other Maoris, for

although they belong to the same race, yet they have held but little

intercourse with the other tribes, who look upon them as being somewhat

uncanny, and perhaps stand slightly in awe of them. Their country at

that time was absolutely unknown, no white man having ever entered it,

and no Maori war party had ever possessed the temerity to attack them,

so they lived among their inaccessible mountains and deep valleys, a

people quite apart from any others. This strange people were, however,

extremely warlike and ferocious, continually making raids on their

neighbours. They had never had any cause to quarrel with the white

settlers, yet they were one of the first tribes to join the king

movement, and had fought desperately against Sir Duncan Cameron in the

Waikato campaign; then they had joined the Hau Haus, and had committed

many murders.

On Te Kooti’s landing, without receiving any provocation whatsoever,

they had joined him, and accompanied him in his raids on Poverty Bay,

revelling in the brutal massacres that had taken place there, while, to

make their cup of iniquity overflow, they had invited the arch-devil

himself to come to their country, after we had routed him out of

Ngatapa. Well, if they had invited Te Kooti, the little Colonel invited

himself, and he determined to twist their tails so as to teach them

decorum.

As it was well known this was going to be a most arduous campaign, all

hands, officers and men, had to undergo a rigorous medical examination,

and even then only those were selected who were well known to possess

determination and ability to put up with hardships without grousing,

and of course every man was a past master in the art of bush fighting.

Colonel Whitmore’s plans were very clever, though, when we came to

carry them out, they were found to be too comprehensive, for although

no man knew better than he did the great difficulty there is in

carrying out combined movements in a rough country, still neither

he nor anyone else knew what an infernal country we were going to

soldier in, nor had even the most pessimistic man among us gauged the

sufferings we were to undergo. The Colonel, however, was far too good a

soldier to leave anything to chance, so that each of the four columns

about to enter this _terra incognita_ at different points were strong

enough to act alone, and give a good account of themselves should they

even be attacked by the whole strength of the Uriwera plus Te Kooti’s

own men.

I should have gone in with the mounted column, which was to start

from Napier and march up to Te Haroto, so as to block any fugitives

from getting across into the Waikato country, but as I knew that the

horsemen would have but little chance of fighting, I was very glad to

hear that Colonel St John had applied for me to be attached to his

column as boss scout. Tim, of course, I was allowed to take with me,

while Pierre and George did not ask for permission, but came of their

own accord, neither of these gentlemen being troubled with any qualms

of conscience regarding discipline, orders or anything appertaining to

red tape or respectability.

Colonel Whitmore’s own column was to march from Te Matata, cross the

Kaingaroa Plains and attack Te Harema Pah in the Ahikereru Valley; so

far all plain sailing, no great natural obstacles to be overcome and

fairly open country in which strings of pack-horses, though not drays,

could be used. Here he would make a depot for stores. But then he was

to strike into quite unknown pastures and try to meet Colonel St John

at one of those mythical Maori strongholds, Ruatahuna, which, like Te

Ngaihere, everyone had heard about but no one had ever seen.

Colonel St John was to move in from Whakatane, advancing up the river’s

bed, there being no tracks in that country, and to get to Ruatahuna as

best he could, destroying everything _en route_ in the way of pahs,

kaingas or food he might come across; then, provided the two columns

did meet at this mysterious trysting-place, they were to capture it,

and then, combined, were to trust to Providence to find their way

somehow or other across the Huiarau ranges, and join Colonel Herrick’s

column at the big lake Waikaremoana. The whole plan looked well on

paper. It had required an indomitable man to conceive it, and would

require indomitable men to carry it out, as, should any of the columns

meet with a reverse, they could hope for no assistance from any of the

others.

The heaviest fighting and the hardest work would fall to the lot

of Colonel St John’s column, as we not only had to fight our way

right across the worst of the Uriwera country, but it was absolutely

impossible for us to use a pack-animal of any sort, so that we must

carry everything necessary on our own backs, or go without. Winter was

also beginning, which that year promised to be a very cold one. It was

quite impossible to defer the expeditions, indeed it was high time

something should be done, as Te Kooti, just previous to our arrival

on the coast, had made one of his lightning raids against the Mohaka

Settlement, where (thanks to the--well, let us be charitable and call

it discretion--of the militia officers, who, although amply supplied

with men and horses, made no offer to resist him) he had brutally

murdered over seventy white settlers and friendlies, so that we were

all boiling to get after him.

Although everyone worked with a will, it was not before the 2nd of

May sufficient stores and ammunition arrived to enable us to make a

start, but at daylight the following morning the field force paraded

in front of our camp at Oporiau, numbering, all told, two hundred and

forty-five white men and one hundred and eighty friendly natives.

That parade was a queer sight and one that would have made a stickler

for military uniforms shudder. Our men, dressed in their blue jumpers

with their shawls round their waists, and smasher hats, looked like

disreputable Highlanders, while we were loaded up like pack-donkeys.

To give you some idea of our loads let me tell you what each man had

to carry: a Schneider carbine with one hundred and sixty rounds of

ammunition; a revolver with thirty rounds; and of course each man

carried his tomahawk, sheath-knife and pannikin; then each four men had

to carry, taking it in turns, an axe, shovel or pick; then every twelve

men in like manner carried a case containing four hundred and eighty

rounds of carbine ammunition; while each division had to carry five

stretchers.

After these loads had been apportioned, each individual might hump as

many blankets, as much clothing, rations and private property as he

saw fit, but all officers under field rank had to take their turn at

the extra ammunition, tools, etc., as well as to hump their own swag.

True we were all picked men, tried and seasoned by many months of bush

warfare, in robust health, and, with the exception of a couple of field

officers, not a single man under the age of twenty-four or older than

thirty.

Oh, my gentle tourist friend, you who buckle on a pretty, light

knapsack, and tramp for a few hours on a summer’s day along the shady

lanes of Old England, and after a bounteous repast sleep in the

lavender-scented sheets of some picturesque old-fashioned country inn,

and fancy you have earned your repose, picture us, who had to hump

our swags over what is perhaps the very roughest country in the world,

perform our marches in torrents of cold rain or icy sleet, and sleep

covered by a tattered blanket on the sodden ground, soon to be frozen

hard by the bitter frosts of the New Zealand winter, for the months

of May, June and July are the coldest in the year; and at the same

time bear in mind we had to do all that living on foul, putrid bacon

and mouldy lumps of what had at one time been the commonest of ship’s

biscuits.

I have previously stated I was delighted at having been told off to

join Colonel St John’s column, and that for more reasons than one,

as he was universally loved and respected by every officer and man

who had the honour and pleasure of serving under him. Colonel St John

was at this time past middle age, tall and handsome, a gentleman to

the tips of his fingers, and a thorough good sportsman. He had seen

much service, had distinguished himself greatly both in the Crimea

and in India, and although perhaps he lacked the great tactical skill

possessed by Colonel Whitmore, still he could get more out of the men,

as they loved the one and hated the other.

He was, moreover, just and considerate in his dealings with his junior

officers, who regarded him more as a father than as a colonel. To me

individually he was always most kind and friendly, and as he knew my

father and family well I was only too pleased to serve under him.

It was on the morning of the 4th of May, Colonel St John’s column

commenced its march into the Uriwera country, the scouts having left

the night before, my orders being to enter the Whakatane River, proceed

up its bed, keep a bright lookout for ambuscades and fall back to the

Colonel every night.

The first day’s march was a very bad one, as it necessitated the column

crossing the river twenty-eight times during the twenty miles that

brought the tired men to a deserted kainga called Tunanui, where we

bivouacked with fair comfort, this being the jumping-off spot into the

unknown.

The next day the same sort of thing had to be gone through again. The

river-bed did not improve, while during the day heavy showers of sleet

and rain soaked us through. Moreover, as we were now in the enemy’s

country we dare not light fires when we bivouacked, so that we had to

get what rest we could during the bitter cold night, deprived of any

warmth and without the pannikin of miserable tea we all so greedily

looked forward to after a cold and fatiguing day.

The following morning at the first glimmer of dawn we scouts left the

bivouac, and pushed on up the river-bed, but before we had progressed

a couple of miles we came to a place where the river rushed through a

deep, rocky gorge that prevented us making any further use of its bed

as a thoroughfare. I therefore awaited the arrival of the Colonel,

who shortly joined me, and after a short discussion he determined

the column should cross the stream and make its way up a steep,

razor-backed ridge that sloped down to the water. We had considerable

difficulty in crossing, as not only the current ran very fast, but

the bed was composed of slippery boulders over which many of our

men stumbled and fell. At last they were all over, but long before

the last man crossed we scouts had out tomahawk and were painfully

chopping a path through the tangled fern, ground-vines and lawyers--the

latter being scrub, bearing thorns shaped like fish hooks, and are as

dangerous to come in contact with as their human namesakes--with which

the steep slope was densely covered.

On reaching the summit we found ourselves on a long serrated ridge

running within a point or two of the direction we wanted to go, both

sides of it being heavily bushed, but the ridge itself, thanks to its

narrowness and the rocky nature of the soil, only carried stunted

fern, through which we could march with comparative ease. We therefore

thanked our stars for this slice of luck, and, after we had excavated

the larger thorns, licked such scratches as we could get at to lick,

and swallowing a handful of soaked mouldy biscuit, we scouts started,

while the column was still painfully crawling up the slope. Towards

midday we came to where the ridge suddenly ended in a very nearly

perpendicular drop into a deep valley, on the other side of which,

situated on a plateau of the same altitude as that on which we stood,

we saw a large kainga. The cover on our side was very good, so I

halted, sending back Tim and George a few hundred yards to await and

report to the Colonel, while Pierre and I scouted to either flank,

prospecting for the best place to descend. This I found, but when found

it had not much in its favour to recommend it, as it simply bristled

with huge boulders and trees, the ground in between which was, as per

usual, a dense tangle of ground-vines, lawyers and tough fern. Still

it was practicable, and the Colonel on viewing it decided to make use

of it to descend into the deep valley. I also pointed out to him that

across the valley ran up two steep spurs leading to the plateau upon

which the kainga stood, and which perhaps, _faute de mieux_, could be

used for attacking purposes. _Facilis decensus Averni_ may be true,

but we found it by no means easy, much less pleasant, to descend

that infernal hill, and it was only by lowering our loads, and even

one another, down the worst places that at last, tattered and torn,

we reached the foot, but fortunately, although many men were badly

bruised, still no one had received sufficient injury to render him

unfit for further exertions.

On reaching the valley the Colonel, taking myself and scouts with him,

moved forward to reconnoitre, while the main body rested, and as best

they could repaired damages. We had, however, barely time to make

certain that the aforementioned spurs were practicable when from the

kainga on the plateau above out rang the report of a gun that, being

multiplied by the echoes of the mountains and valleys, rumbled like

thunder. Of course we thought we had been spotted, and cursing our bad

luck we fell back to the main body as rapidly as we could. As there

was nothing to be gained by delay the Colonel determined to attack

immediately, so throwing off our packs fifty of the most bruised men

were rapidly told out to remain in charge of them, then, the remainder

of the force being divided into two parties, we started off to force

our way up the spurs. Fortunately these, though steep and serrated,

were not covered with thick scrub, so that the men relieved of their

packs mounted rapidly, and as both parties were in sight of one another

we could regulate our pace so as to arrive simultaneously at the top.

Of course after we had heard the shot we had thought that it had been

fired to give the alarm, and that the Maoris, resenting our intrusion,

would do their best to obstruct our arrival; in fact we had made up our

minds we should have to fight every yard of the way up the spurs. We

however were agreeably disappointed, the shot not having been fired to

give the alarm, but, as we were subsequently informed, it was fired to

execute a mighty big pig.

The Uriwera were in blissful ignorance of our proximity. They had never

fancied for a moment that white men would ever dare to enter their

inaccessible country, and had therefore kept no lookout whatever, so

that instead of meeting with a determined resistance, while mounting

the narrow spurs, we reached the plateau, formed line, extended, and

had advanced close to the kainga before they spotted us.

Whoop, then there was a deuce of a commotion, women and children

running and screaming, men yelling, pigs grunting and singing hymns,

while above all this turmoil out rang our bugles, which, together

with our cheering, added to the din that was in a moment multiplied a

thousandfold by the crash of firearms, while the echoes of all these

noises combined were so extraordinary that anyone might have thought

thousands of men were engaged, or that all the fiends in Hades were

holding their annual beanfeast, and were all drunk at that.

Completely surprised as the Uriwera were, still they made a stout

resistance, but they could not stand for long against our impetuous

charge, for we swept through the village like a flooded reservoir

bursting its dam, so that the surviving men, and there were not many

of them, turned their backs and bolted for the bush. A number of men,

however, unable to escape, took refuge in their huts, from which they

still continued to fire. These were ordered to come out, and so as to

expedite their movements their huts were set on fire. It was however

only granting the inmates a polite choice of deaths, as those who came

out were immediately shot, and those who remained in were quickly

burned to death.

Our losses on that day were trivial, only amounting to one man killed

and four wounded, while we captured fifteen women, a great many pigs

and large stores of potatoes. The women, after being well questioned,

we let go; the pigs were killed, and when each man had taken as much

meat as he could eat and carry, the remainder, with the surplus

potatoes, were destroyed. Truly it was a shocking waste of food, but

absolutely necessary in savage warfare.

That night we fared sumptuously, those men not being on duty sleeping

the sleep of the just, and next morning, as soon as it was light

enough to see, we completed the destruction of the kainga, ate a big

breakfast, and again made our way to the river above the gorge to

proceed on our weary way.

It was now a case of looking out for squalls, as the news of our being

in the country would have by this time been spread from one end to

the other. The country itself was splendidly adapted for ambuscades.

The Uriwera were past masters in the art of laying them, and now,

being enraged by their late losses, would be burning to avenge them,

therefore it behoved us to keep all our senses on deck.

On reaching the bed of the river the Colonel took every precaution, one

of which being, instead of sending forward three or four scouts, who

might be captured, he ordered a party of twelve men to precede the main

body. These men were only to carry their own personal swags, so that

they might be ready at a moment’s notice to put up a fight. The loads

the men of the main body had to carry on this day were very heavy. In

the first place we had three wounded men, who, being unable to walk,

had therefore to be borne on stretchers, and then every man had brought

along with him as much pork and potatoes as he could stagger under. The

bed of the river was also if possible worse than it had been before, as

it was full of big slippery boulders over which the heavily laden men

staggered and tripped as if drunk, many of them having very nasty falls

indeed.

[Illustration: ADVANCE GUARD AMBUSCADED: DEATH OF LIEUT. WHITE.]

We had journeyed about two miles when the advance-guard halted, and at

the Colonel’s request I accompanied him to the front, where we found

the officer in command of them uncertain as to what course he should

pursue. Our advance up the side of the stream we were on was blocked

by a steep though not very high ridge that was covered as usual with

densely tangled scrub, the end of it jutting out into the water, which

was there too deep to allow the men to wade round it. Where we

stood a rocky bar ran to the other side of the river, which appeared

practicable, although the water rushed swiftly across it to the depth

of perhaps four feet. The far bank of the river was low but heavily

bushed, and behind the bush rose up a steep, razor-backed ridge, down

the crest of which ran a narrow path broad enough in places for two men

to climb it abreast.

After carefully studying the look of the country the Colonel decided to

cross the river and take to the path, so that when the main body had

closed up the advance-guard began to wade over, the water in the centre

of the stream, which there ran very fast, taking them half way up their

chests.

That day they were being led by Lieutenant White, a very gallant

fellow, much liked and respected by his brother officers and men. He

had been wounded the evening before, but as he was able to march he

insisted on taking his turn of duty at the point of danger.

The advance-guard entered the ford and had crossed three-fourths of

the way when from the dense brushwood on the far side, over which up

till now the silence of death had reigned, came a tremendous volley,

and down went poor White, shot dead, while four of his men, badly

hurt, splashed the water like wounded wild-fowl. Immediately some of

us dashed into the stream, recovered White’s body, and dragged out

the wounded men; at the same time one division opened a smart fire on

the ambuscade, who, however, after a couple of volleys, ceased from

returning it.

It was a nasty place; the ford was a very narrow one, the stream ran

fast, and the Colonel plainly saw that by hook or by crook the enemy’s

position must be turned, or, should he rely on a frontal attack, he

would lose half his men. He therefore despatched one hundred men, with

whom I went, to cut our way over the aforementioned ridge, ascend the

river until we found a crossing, and then, descending the far bank,

attack the flank of the enemy’s position, he at the same time making a

dash at the ford.

Away we went and tackled the job, having to put in two hours’ hard

chopping before we could get a crossing place, and then, when we had

succeeded in crossing, we had to cut our way down the bank till at last

we came close to the ford, when a toot on our bugle let the Colonel

know we were on the enemy’s flank, there or thereabouts. Out rang his

bugle, and with a cheer we tore and struggled through the remaining

undergrowth, while a storm of whizzing bullets, which fortunately did

us but little harm, tore the foliage to pieces over our heads. At

the same time we charged we could hear close to us the shouts of the

Colonel’s party as they dashed through the water, the sharp file-firing

of his coverers and the volleys of the defending Hau Haus.

Bristling with wrath, we cut and forced our way through the last

intervening scrub, fondly hoping that a good hand-to-hand scrap

would recompense us for our past labour, but as both of our parties

simultaneously broke through the curtains of greenery we found not one

single Maori there to receive us.

Their lines of rifle pits had been beautifully constructed, and were

admirably placed so as to both rake and enfilade the ford, so there

could be no shadow of a doubt that had the Colonel decided upon making

only a frontal attack our butcher’s bill must have been a very heavy

one, or we might have been beaten back; as it was we had forced the

ford with only the loss of Lieutenant White and some half-a-dozen men

wounded.

A party of us at once rushed on up the ridge, exchanging a few shots

with the enemy, who by some hidden path had gained a similar ridge some

three hundred yards off, which they dared us to attack.

The Colonel, however, was convinced that we were on the right

footpath--else why had they taken the trouble to build such elaborate

rifle pits to defend it?--and he was far too old a bird to be drawn

away on a wild-goose chase. His plan was to push on to the famous

Ruatahuna, of course attacking any pahs he came across, and not to lose

time in running after Maoris, who, if he did so, would only retire in

front of him.

As soon as poor White was buried, which was done as rapidly as

possible, the only ceremonies being the volleys the Hau Haus fired at

the burial-party, the whole force moved forward to attack the enemy,

who had occupied another very strong position on the top of the ridge,

from which they poured in a continuous fire at our party that was

slowly mounting the steep and narrow track that ran up from the river.

This track wound about so that both of our flanks were as often exposed

as our front, so it soon became quite evident it would cause an awful

loss of life to try and take their position with a frontal rush.

The Colonel therefore again despatched a party to try and turn the Hau

Haus’ right flank, and again, after immense labour, the movement having

been carried out, we made a combined rush, and charged, the rifle pits

receiving two smashing volleys, and when we entered them we found

nothing but three guns, which some of the Hau Haus must have dropped in

their retreat. These rifle pits were also well constructed, and were

well worthy of being better defended, but, by their having been vacated

without a stouter resistance, we saw it was evidently the game of the

Hau Haus to carry on a war of ambuscades and not risk a stand-up fight.

After a short halt we again moved forward, our advance-guard being

fired into every few hundred yards, while sometimes, by way of a

change, the enemy would tickle us up on the flanks; in fact it was

a most sinful and cuss-wordy march, as the track, if you could call

it such, was never broad enough to allow us to show a greater front

than two men abreast, while the wounded men we had now to carry added

considerably to the toil of our already overloaded men.

We had moved forward about three miles when we sighted on a spur, with

a bush in rear of it, a pah which we afterwards learned was called

Te Whenuanui. It was in a very strong position, but the works and

fence were in a ruinous state, as the Uriwera had never dreamt of our

entering their country, and of course had not had time since they had

heard of our visit to put it into a proper state of defence.

The Hau Haus in the pah were evidently very upset and excited by our

call, as they opened a heavy fire at us when we were quite eight

hundred yards distant, which was of course harmless; and Colonel St

John, splitting his command into three parties, gave orders for an

immediate attack. The party I was with had been sent to the left, and

as we had to get over some very rough country before we could charge,

time was allowed us to get into position.

At last we were all ready; the bugle sounded the advance and charge,

when we all rushed at the tumbledown works, to be met by the usual

heavy but badly directed fire. There was nothing to make us pause;

the rotten fences gave way before our rush, so with a cheer we burst

into the place, just in time to see the tail end of the bolting Hau

Haus disappearing into the bush, and to send a volley after them that

hastened their departure. We did not pursue, as most likely they had

planted a nice little ambuscade at the edge of the bush, and as a rule

there is nothing to be gained by running your head against a stone wall

or walking into a Maori trap, so we humped up our swags and the wounded

men, whom we made as comfortable as possible, and occupied the pah

ourselves for the night.

During the night we had one false alarm, caused by a patrol falling

into a ditch, and various ill-bred Hau Haus prowled round us, telling

us nasty things about ourselves. One of these lewd fellows kept it

up till daylight, and so interfered with one man’s rest that just at

day-dawn he took his carbine and went gunning after the disturber of

his slumber. Good luck attended him, for just as it became light enough

to see his foresight the retiring night prowler, all of a sudden

calling to mind something very ribald that he had up to that moment

forgotten to say, paused at the edge of the bush to unburden himself.

Silly fellow, he had better have taken cover, for he had only made one

indecent gesture, and had only shouted a small portion of what he had

to say, when something hit him, and, ceasing his oration, he took a

header among the fern, where the last thing he ever heard in this world

was the laughter of the men he had lost his life in trying to insult.

The Maoris had left us a bare larder in Te Whenuanui Pah, and our

rations, bad as they had been when issued to us, were by now quite

unfit for human food, and that day we ran completely out of even the

offal we had carried, so we were not sorry when about midday we came

across a pah called Tatahoata, which afterwards turned out to be the

real Ruatahuna.

This pah, or rather fortification, was built on a flat, with a dense

bush to its right front; the Whakatane River, with precipitous banks,

on its left; a deep, rocky creek with high, scrub-covered sides

defended its rear; while a small but thick bush commanded its right

flank. It was indeed an ugly-looking place, but take it we must, or

starve. After an hour spent in reconnoitring, the different divisions

were told off for their several lines of attack, and, the advance being

sounded, we all moved forward.

The Maoris were not only holding the pah, but they had detached parties

in the bush who had to be driven back before we could rush the work

itself. We had just about completed this portion of the game when,

for some reason that has never been explained, the Colonel’s bugler,

without receiving orders, sounded the cease fire, together with the

retire twice over, and then fell, shot dead. The calls filled everyone

with astonishment, nearly amounting to consternation, but of course the

orders were obeyed, and before the O.C. and the few men he had with

him could rush round with counter-orders the natives charged up to our

retiring divisions and poured in a heavy fire, which killed and wounded

a lot of men, among the former being Captain Trevor.

Orders or no orders, we were not going to stand that, so turning on our

pursuers we flew at them like wild cats, and as just at that moment we

received the new orders we pushed our charge so well home that we drove

the Hau Haus before us like chaff, nor did they even make an effort to

defend the pah, but bolted as hard as they could for the shelter of the

bush and broken country, while we occupied the place, which we eagerly

prospected for food.

It was not long, with two such sublime marauders as Pierre and George

looking after my interests, before I had a good square meal stowed away

under my waistbelt, and the Colonel had just sent for me to settle

about some scouting when we heard a distant bugle-call.

Our men started cheering, and shortly afterwards it was reported that

Colonel Whitmore’s column was in sight, while the little man himself,

attended by a few men, came into the pah before sunset, his column

camping some two miles away. That two columns should have been able

to march through such rough country and meet at an appointed though

unknown spot on the prearranged day, speaks well for the officer who

planned the campaign, and also for the men who carried his plans out.

CHAPTER VI

THE TAUPO CAMPAIGN

The two columns having completed the first part of the programme by

uniting at Ruatahuna it behoved our O.C. and the senior officers to

turn to and stage the second act, but here Nature chipped in and bade

them pause.

Our force was composed of picked men, admirably suitable for the work

that lay before them, and, with the exception of the Arawa tribe, the

only cowardly race in New Zealand, the whole outfit were full of fight

and ready to go anywhere. Still it is a well-known fact that, no matter

how good and willing men are, nevertheless they must eat sometimes,

and we were, within twenty-four hours of our junction, absolutely

without food. The inclemency of the weather also greatly added to our

sufferings, as we were never dry during the day, while the bitter

frosts at night froze us hard. Moreover the enemy, though unable to

face us in a stand-up fight, still lingered in our vicinity, and had

even the cheek to commence fortifying a high hill overlooking the camp,

a movement on their part that required a sharp skirmish to dissuade

them from continuing.

Colonel Whitmore had brought some horses with him to Ahikereru; these

now had to be killed, and the flesh served out in short rations, while

parties were detached to try and locate the Maoris’ hidden stores of

potatoes. These ruas (potato pits), however, were so well concealed

that we could find but few, and those we did find we had to skirmish

for previous to looting, and even when we had gained them the supply

did not equal the day’s demand.

Nothing daunted, the little Colonel still determined to carry out his

original plans and make a push for Colonel Herrick’s column, which by

now should be on the Waikaremoana Lake, but here again he was thwarted,

as the Arawas not only positively refused to accompany us, but also

insisted on going home, and it was with considerable trouble they

could be persuaded to carry to the coast our wounded and sick, who by

now reached a considerable number. The indomitable little Colonel had

therefore no other option but to fall back, so he gave orders that the

combined columns should start for Ahikereru, while the Arawas convoying

the wounded should march straight for the coast by another route.

Previous to returning, however, he determined to attack and destroy a

big kainga that my scouting-party had discovered while spud-hunting.

This expedition, trivial though it might be, and of no importance,

was yet a very popular one, all hands eagerly volunteering to take a

part in it, not on account of any glory that might be reaped from its

capture, but the men were all so hungry that they were only too anxious

to undergo the extreme hardships of a long, bitterly cold night’s march

through rugged bush on the chance of being able to get a few mouthfuls

of pork and potatoes; as for the chance of being knocked over or

wounded, that was not taken into consideration at all.

I am only mentioning the above facts as during this insignificant

affair an incident happened to myself that was the cause of making me

the target for a lot of chaff, which though good-natured caused many a

hearty laugh at my expense. It fell out in this way:

At dark a party of two hundred men, under the command of Colonel St

John, and guided by myself and scouts, after the usual wretched march

reached the doomed place some two hours before daybreak, and unable

to surround it we lay down to freeze, starve and wait for the dawn.

Lord, I was hungry, and being so close to the huts it came like balm

to my soul, all of a sudden, to hear an old woman cry out: “It is

time to prepare food, let us arise and make ready the hangis” (ovens

constructed of stones sunk into the ground; these being heated, the

food is placed on them, water is then poured over it, when it is

carefully covered up and the confined steam cooks the viands).

Presently there was a sound of women muttering and grumbling, then a

fire was kindled, followed quickly by others, the combined flare from

these lighting up the cooking places, while we, shrouded in the outer

darkness, lay and licked our lean chaps as we heard the boss woman

directing so many kits of potatoes and so much pork to be cooked in

each hangi; verily I for one wanted no sherry and bitters to sharpen

my appetite. Presently, the stones being hot enough, the fires are

removed, and darkness again covers the scene as the food is placed in

the ovens and covered up.

Again a weary wait, and just as we know breakfast ought to be ready

the sky begins to lighten, and we can see the outline of the kainga.

Surely in my impatience I may be forgiven for uttering the following

prayer:--“O gods of war, ye who pass your days in fighting and your

nights in feasting, listen to your humble votary. Hurry up Phœbus, the

beggar’s slack to-day. Grant us only light enough, and we vow to fight

like bricks and eat like heroes. Let us but get at our enemies and to

our victuals.”

The light comes slowly. Will the Colonel never give the word? His

expectant bugler lies beside him, bugle to lip. The women inside the

kainga call to the men: “Arise, the food is ready to be eaten,” and

we hear the yawns and grunts of the warriors as they wake up from

their natural slumber, some of them soon to be put to sleep again in a

speedier and more permanent manner. There goes the trumpet, endorsed

by a cheer from our over-willing men as with a rush we dash into the

village. Here takes place the usual turmoil: screaming women and

children rush for the bush; men, resisting and fighting desperately,

are shot down, while others are driven out of the place in headlong

flight. We do not pursue, but, with mouths watering, instinctively

gather round the hangis. The women had stated that the food was cooked;

we required no expert evidence, off came the earth-covered mats,

when the steam of the luscious pork and spuds rose to still further

tantalise the famished men.

There was, however, no greedy scrambling. Starving we might be, but we

were comrades in adversity and must fare and share alike. Squads of

men fall in of their own accord, the food is rapidly distributed by

the non-coms., and is more rapidly consumed by the hungry recipients.

Then comes the turn of the officers, who, _noblesse oblige_, have had

to wait, so as to make sure there was enough to feed the men before

attending to their own wants. There was, however, no fear on this

occasion of anyone going short, as one oven remained still unopened,

and around this we eagerly clustered. Pierre presents himself with his

huge knife, the food is served out, juniors, taking precedence, receive

their allotments first, and I had just received mine, consisting of a

lump of pork about the size of my fist, together with a dozen or so of

potatoes, all steaming and piping hot, served up on a fragment of a

Maori mat, and with ravenous eyes was watching the succulent mess cool

sufficiently to devour, when bang, whizz, zip comes a flight of bullets

whistling over our heads.

“Damn,” said the Colonel. “Mr Burke, take thirty men and drive

those blaggards back to perdition; it’s like their infernal cheek

to interfere with gentlemen while breakfasting,” and the old fellow

squared his shoulders and tucked in to his portion.

As I stumbled to my feet I did not say “damn,” as it would not have

been an appropriate expression on such an occasion, and I felt utterly

unable to coin one suitable, so picking up my precious viands, which

I carried in the mat on my left fore-arm pressed against my chest,

where they raised blisters wherever they came in contact with my

bare skin through my tattered shirt, in less than a minute I had

the men extended, and charged at the bush, from the edge of which

spurts of smoke told us that the Hau Haus, disgusted at the loss of

their breakfast, were seeking utu by preventing us enjoying their

forfeited repast. It was as we were advancing I discovered that, with

the exception of my tomahawk and sheath-knife, I was unarmed. This

discovery somewhat flabbergasted me, but it at once flashed through my

mind that I had been in the act of reloading four chambers of my M.

L. revolver when I had received my share of the food, and that, in my

greediness to eat, I had placed my still uncapped pistol on the ground

beside me, and on receiving the unwelcome order, in my anxiety to carry

off the food, I had forgotten the gun. No matter, thought I to myself,

the men must do my shooting for me, so drawing my tomahawk I led them

at the bush, where we quickly drove the enemy back for a few hundred

yards, when they turned tail and made a clean bolt for it, while at the

same time the recall was sounded from the main body.

After seeing that all my men were present and unwounded I gave the

word to retire, and we started wending our way back to the kainga.

I was now clearly entitled to break my long-sustained fast. True, I

could not sit down to eat, but it is better for a hungry man to eat

while walking rather than not to eat at all, so that as my men fell

back at a brisk pace I opened my mat, and, grabbing a handful of the

by now well-smashed and greasy potatoes, conveyed it to my mouth,

instinctively slowing up my pace as I began to eat the precious food.

Lord, how good it was!--not tempting to look at, my gentle reader, nor

was there any romantic refinement in the tableau of a gaunt, unshaven

man, dressed in a tattered shirt and shawl, feeding himself with an

unwashed, blood-stained hand while pushing his way through the tangles

of a New Zealand bush.

Well, refinement or no refinement, I was thoroughly enjoying it; as I

swallowed each grimy morsel I somehow, without noticing the fact, moved

slower and slower, until my men had gained considerably on me, and I

loitered perhaps fifty or sixty yards in rear of them. This of course

was both foolish and wrong, and Nemesis the slut was on my spoor in

a moment. I had swallowed some half-a-dozen handfuls of the smashed

potatoes, and was thinking of tearing off with my teeth a mouthful of

pork, when fizz! just past my ear whizzed a bullet. Disgusted, I turned

round and saw a Maori lad, perhaps thirteen years old, with a revolver

in his hand, running after me, who had evidently made up his mind to

gain distinction by bagging a white man. His intentions, though highly

commendable from his point of view, were deucedly unpleasant from mine,

as the moment I stopped he fired again, making such a good shot that he

put a bullet through my rags which seared my ribs like a red-hot iron.

Angry as I was there was only one thing for me to do, and that was

to bolt, so, _infra dig._ as it might be, I bolted, and went tearing

through the bush pursued by a native urchin who every now and again

squibbed off a shot so as to keep me going. Of course I knew the report

of the first shot would bring my men to the halt, and that I should be

missed the moment they did so. This happened, as I had not run far when

I spotted two men peering round tree-trunks and ready to fire. I ran

between them, still closely followed by my youthful pursuer, who, being

so set upon bagging me, did not spot the ambuscade until he was grabbed

by the scruff of the neck and his pistol wrenched out of his hand. He

was a plucky little beggar, and his fortitude quite surprised us as he

insisted upon being killed at once and not being made a prisoner, at

the same time looking longingly at the provisions I still carried. He

gently intimated he was sick with hunger. Angry as I was I still could

not bring myself to kill the gallant youngster; and then again, the

little beggar was hungry, which put us somehow in the same boat, so

I gave him a half share of my rations, and, after gently admonishing

him with my toe, bade him run after his people, which he did, while we

continued to fall back on the main body, and I managed to finish my

much disturbed and diminished breakfast.

The following day we marched to Ahikereru, and then it became evident,

even to our little game-cock of an O.C., that we had shot our bolt,

and that without a proper supply of food it would be an act of madness

for us to try and surmount the tremendous Huiarau range of mountains,

then quite unknown and deeply covered with snow. Even to stay where we

were was an impossibility, as the distance to our base was so great

that the supply of rations, never regular, must cease on account of the

inclemency of the weather, so that much against his will he determined

to continue the retreat, and take post from Fort Te Teko to Fort

Galatea, along the Rangitaike River, as in these forts there were not

only many provisions stored, but to which ran a good road along which

both drays and pack-horses could easily bring supplies up from the

coast. My word, but we did enjoy ourselves when we reached our new

cantonments!--plenty of good bread and meat to eat, plenty of tea, such

as it was, to drink, and oh, only think of it, dry blankets and tents

in which to sleep! We revelled in it, though the privations we had been

through caused a terrible lot of sickness and we lost very many good

men who could ill be spared. Somehow it has always seemed so rough to

me that a good fellow who has run his risks, faced the music and done

his duty through a hard campaign, should, after he has returned with a

whole skin to comparative comfort, and maybe is eagerly looking forward

to another go at the enemy, be rubbed out by some beastly sickness. The

parsons say it is Providence; I maintain it is rotten bad luck.

We were, however, not allowed a long rest, as the Colonel received

information that Te Kooti intended to break through our lines, so as to

get into the Taupo country, and perhaps from there into the Waikato,

so that we were all kept very busy indeed. At Fort Galatea we mounted

men had met our horses, therefore for a time I had done with the weary

footslogging and was again in the pigskin, with all the huge Kaingaroa

and Taupo plains to gallop over. This was indeed a change for the

better, though the weather was awful, and the south-east blizzards

which swept over the high inland plateau bit us to the very bone. It

was not long before we mounted men located Te Kooti at a native village

called Heruiwi, but he was in too great strength and far too well

posted for us to attack with only a handful of cavalry, so that we had

to fall back on Fort Galatea, purposing to guide up infantry to do the

bush-whacking.

Te Kooti, however, was too old a bird to stay long on his perch after

he knew he had been located. He therefore, breaking cover, crossed the

Taupo plains making for Lake Taupo, but, so that we should remember

him, he managed _en route_ to ambuscade two despatch-riders. One of

these succeeded in scraping clear and reached Galatea with the news

that Te Kooti was on the move, but the other poor fellow was knocked

off his horse and taken prisoner. Now I do not know whether in his

Mission School days Te Kooti had ever read Byron’s poems, though it is

quite possible they had been a portion of the useless literature that

mission folk hand over to youthful savages, but anyhow he treated the

poor captured trooper in the same way as Mazeppa was treated, for,

stripping him naked, he caused him to be tightly lashed on to his

bare-backed horse and then had the two of them cast adrift on to the

Kaingaroa plains, where the poor chap perished miserably.

[Illustration: CAPTURED TROOPER’S LAST RIDE.]

We were, however, quickly to receive further news of Te Kooti’s

activity. Colonel St John the day previous to the despatch-rider’s

escape had started to visit a semi-friendly chief at Tapuaeharuru,

taking with him an escort of volunteer cavalry. On reaching a deserted

kainga, called Opepe, as both the horses of his escort as well as

the men were badly knocked up by the vile weather, he left them behind,

there to recuperate, and rode on to his destination, accompanied by

only four officers and an orderly, expecting to return to Opepe the

following morning. Of course both O.C. and escort were ignorant that Te

Kooti, having broken camp, was on the move to Taupo, and none of them

thought for a single moment there was any immediate fear of danger.

Still the volunteers should have kept on the alert, or at the very

least have taken the precaution of keeping their arms handy; but this

they do not do, for, worn out and chilled to the bone, they simply

enter the best of the huts, light fires, discard their arms and belts

and strive to dry their dripping, sleet-soaked garments.

Presently two Maoris strolled up. “Tena koutou” (salutations to all of

you), quoth they; “we are Arawas,” and they stood among the troopers,

warming themselves and expressing their delight at the chance of doing

so.

In a few minutes three more turned up, with words of salutations on

their lips and murder in their hearts; and this goes on until at

last the infatuated volunteers grow suspicious and try to get hold

of their arms; but it is too late. They are already outnumbered. A

signal is given and the tomahawk does its work. Some two or three,

however, escape, and reach Galatea, but nine of them lie butchered

in cold blood. The Colonel also had a most wonderful escape, as the

Hau Haus, ignorant of his vicinity, moved off the ground immediately

the slaughter was ended and continued their march towards the lake.

Of course directly we got the news at Galatea we were quickly on

Te Kooti’s spoor, but by the time we reached Opepe the Hau Haus

had retired to the other end of the huge lake, where Te Kooti was

immediately joined by the majority of the Taupo tribes. He was

therefore again a leader of some six hundred desperate fanatics, and

there was also every possibility of his being joined by the Upper

Wanganui and the powerful tribe of Waikato.

Had the above coalition taken place it would have been a most

disastrous affair for the colony, as Te Kooti would then have had

nearly three thousand men at his disposal, but fortunately, just at

the critical moment, his men chanced to murder an old and seemingly

insignificant Maori, who nevertheless turned out to be a close blood

relation of the most powerful chiefs of the Upper Wanganui tribes.

These at once demanded utu, and became his bitterest enemies. Then with

three hundred men he pays a visit of ceremony to the Waikatos, whom

he insults, and whose country he is forced to leave, and so once more

falls back to the Taupo country, where he locates himself south of the

great lake and close to the volcanoes Tongariro and Ruapehu. Of course

at that time we knew but little of his movements, but it would have

been bad policy on our part to have attacked him in the Taupo country

immediately after the slaughter of the volunteers at Opepe. In the

first place the country was quite unknown to us, while the scarcity of

rations, the severity of the weather, the desertion of our allies, the

Arawas, and the certainty that the smallest reverse we might receive

would immediately bring to his banner all the wavering tribes, forced

our O.C. to mark time till the weather improved and the big gaps in our

ranks could be filled up by fresh men.

Colonel Whitmore took advantage of this pause to make a trip to

Wellington to interview the Government, an interview that caused

great changes in the plan of campaign, it being decided to mass every

available man on the Taupo plateau, to build a chain of forts from

Napier to Tauranga, so as to cut off all communications between the

Uriwera and the Waikato, and at the same time to ensure safe storage

for a sufficient supply of rations for what was evidently going to be a

most arduous campaign.

Colonel Herrick’s column was ordered from Waikaremoana to Napier,

and started cutting a road for pack-horses up to Runanga, a high

hill situated on the border of the Taupo plains, and here they built

a strong stockade from which communications could easily be kept up

with Opepe (now headquarters), a distance of twenty-two miles, and

Ahikereru, a distance of eleven miles, while in between Runanga and

Napier were constructed three other forts.

Nor were we of the old field force idle. Winter or no winter, we

kept hard at it, scouting and patrolling and learning the country

thoroughly, so that when spring came on we should be ready to take the

field again.

Our dear old O.C., Colonel St John, worn out with past hardships, had

been invalided, but our regret at his departure was somewhat tempered

by our hearing the news that Colonel McDonnell would take command in

the ensuing campaign, which he shortly did, after making a splendidly

plucky march across country from Wanganui to Taupo, a march that had

the greatest moral effect on the natives, as they had up till then

deemed the road impracticable for white men to negotiate even in

summer.

CHAPTER VII

THE TAUPO CAMPAIGN--_continued_

About this time I was despatched with the mounted division to Runanga,

so as to reinforce Colonel Herrick, who on our arrival was able to take

the field with two hundred white men and a strong native contingent,

which he did on 8th September 1869, as on that day he despatched Henare

Tomoana and Paora Hapi, friendly chiefs, in command of one hundred

and forty natives as an advance-guard, the plan being to join hands

with McDonnell, who was on his way from Patea, and we were to try and

catch Te Kooti between two fires. These warriors, however, marched too

fast, as they reached Tauranga Taupo twenty-four hours before they

should have done, leaving the main body with the stores to come on as

best they could. Nevertheless they were there, and had occupied an old

tumbledown pah, when they perceived Te Kooti and his Hau Haus marching

down to attack them. Paora Hapi, who was a renowned fighting man,

wanted to leave the defences, such as they were, and fight it out in

the open, but Henare jibbed at the idea, so that our friendlies stood

a siege of two days, and stood off the Hau Hau attacks very pluckily,

though, through sticking to the pah, it gave Te Kooti the chance to

capture and carry off one hundred and twenty of their horses.

True to time we arrived on the scene, but the Hau Haus, well served

by their scouts, had received notice of our approach, and as a

stand-up fight with mounted men in the open was the very last thing

Te Kooti desired, he raised the siege and fell back rapidly into

rough mountainous country. On the same day we received a rumour that

Colonel McDonnell with the advance-guard of his force had reached

Rotoaira, a small lake lying between Lake Taupo and the active volcano

Tongariro, and I was ordered to ride through to him in order to open

up communications. This was rather a jumpy job, as every yard of the

road ran through enemy’s country, and it might well chance that _en

route_ I should tumble across Te Kooti’s whole outfit; moreover, all

the information I could get as to the whereabouts of the place was

that it lay some ten, or possibly more, miles to the south, or perhaps

south-east, or south-west, of where our camp was. However, I was well

mounted, the country for New Zealand was fairly open, and I had had to

chance it so often during the past four years that the dangers bothered

me but little, so away I went and got through all right, although I was

shot at and hunted quite enough to make it an exciting afternoon’s ride.

Colonel McDonnell was very pleased to see me, as I was to meet him

again, but I was more than surprised at the paucity of his force,

which only consisted of seventy men. He, however, was expecting to be

joined daily by his main body, and as nothing could keep him quiet he

immediately started me off on the scout towards Tokanu. Here I found

the enemy in force, and while trying to gauge their strength got

spotted, and had to run farther and faster than I had ever run in my

life, before or since, but fortunately managed to keep ahead until

night came on, when I got back safely to camp, very nearly dead beat.

The Colonel not being quite satisfied with my report determined to call

on Te Kooti himself, so next morning we paid him a visit, when we found

the bounder not only in a strong position but with fully six hundred

men ready to receive us. These odds being a trifle too long even for

fighting Mac, after an exchange of shots we fell back to Rotoaire,

where we threw up a rough breastwork, and as we fully expected the Hau

Haus to beat up our quarters we all kept a remarkably sharp lookout.

The night passed quietly and early the following morning the main body

joined up. The Colonel at once sent out scouts, who soon returned

with the news that Te Kooti, having abandoned Tokanu, had fallen back

towards Moerangi, hearing which the Colonel, without loss of time,

seized Tokanu, despatching me with orders to Colonel Herrick to join

him there. This trip I got through without trouble, and, on the 16th

of September, both columns joined hands at Tokanu, a very important

strategical position, and one that we could not understand why Te Kooti

should have abandoned without a desperate struggle.

The following morning Hare Tauteka, one of the friendly chiefs, turned

up at the Colonel’s hut in a great state of mind, reporting that four

of his scouts had been cut off, tortured and killed. This was decidedly

unpleasant though, alas! by no means uncommon news. Scouts did at times

get captured, and the Hau Haus, especially Te Kooti, had a nasty way

of entertaining their captives. Still this news required verifying, as

it was unusual for the whole of a patrol of scouts to be captured, one

or more as a rule managing to scrape clear. The Colonel therefore asked

Hare how he had received the information, whereupon he replied that

his scouts should have joined up two days previously, and that no hope

of their safety could be entertained for a single moment, as his pet

prophetess had dreamed a dream that they had been captured, tortured

and killed. The Colonel demanded to see the lady, who with her son was

trotted up, and two more loathsome objects could not be imagined.

The old dame was so hideous and unsightly that she would have afforded

a gang of godly Puritans exquisite delight to torture and burn as a

witch; while the son, who suffered from some horrible form of leprosy,

appeared to be falling to pieces. Notwithstanding the old faggot’s

homeliness she was gifted with a most eloquent tongue, for no sooner

had she appeared than she started in and prophesied a whole hurricane.

Moreover, there was no Delphic ambiguity in her statements, as she

stoutly asserted and maintained that the four scouts had been captured

alive, tortured to death, and that their remains had then been thrown

into a certain swamp, the name of which she mentioned.

Now of course we white men were inclined to laugh and ridicule the

whole yarn, but refrained from doing so, as we should have deeply

offended the superstitious Maoris, so, like the sailor’s parrot, we

thought profoundly, but said nothing.

The following day Captain McDonnell, with Kepa’s advance-guard, joined

up, and he reported that he had been informed by some semi-friendly

natives that Te Kooti had captured four of our scouts, tortured them to

death, and ordered their remains to be thrown into a certain swamp.

Upon hearing this news the Colonel despatched a strong patrol of

mounted men to search the place, and there, sure enough, we found the

poor fellows’ remains, which, from the treatment they had evidently

been subjected to before death mercifully put an end to their

sufferings, showed us plainly that the damned Hau Haus had spared no

torment that devils could invent or fiends inflict.

The old Witch of Endor was now very cock-a-hoop, as her lucky dream

sent up her scrip many points on the market, and her name resounded

through the field force as being quite a first-class, high-toned,

up-to-date and always to be relied upon dreamer of dreams and seer of

visions, in fact a puka old-time witch that all respectable elderly

Maori fighting men must needs give ear to.

Now prophets and cattle of that sort were rank poison to an O.C. of a

column in which a large number of natives served, and our field force

had many more of these critters on our strength than we were entitled

to or desired, in fact they troubled us exceedingly, as, just when the

Colonel would want to make a move, some confounded old image, possibly

suffering from a repletion of villainous ration bacon, would dream that

the proposed expedition would be an unlucky one, and at once the whole

of his congregation would plump themselves down and refuse to budge an

inch. This then was an opportunity that the Colonel could not allow to

slip, for, taking advantage of the old dame’s stock being at so high a

premium, he immediately subsidised her, and in future she dreamt dreams

that concurred with his wishes, and, as our luck was in the ascendant,

the natives were quite ready to do any work they might be called upon

to perform. Truly there are more ways of killing a cat than drowning it

in cream.

Subsequently we heard how these scouts had come to grief. They had

been despatched to discover the route that Te Kooti would be likely to

take should he attempt to break away round our right flank, and had

put in four days’ hard work. On the evening of the fourth day, having

completed the duty, they were well on their way back to camp, and had

cleared the acute danger zone. Of course they had had a very rough time

of it, for, although the spring was now coming on, it was only by the

date in the day’s Order Book you were aware of the fact, as heavy sleet

storms during the day and hard frosts at night had still to be endured.

Well, as I said, they were fairly past the danger line, in fact a

few more hours’ tramping would have landed them safely in camp, when

unfortunately they chanced upon an old potato clearing on which stood

a few huts, while, worse luck still, one of them spotted a rua (potato

pit) containing a lot of potatoes.

The temptation was too great for the worn-out, wet-through and starving

men. Surely they might rest and eat; anyhow they would chance it. They

did so; and entering the best hut they lit a fire, cooked potatoes,

dried their dripping clothes and warmed themselves, then, overcome by

the lassitude brought on by their full meal, and the unwonted heat,

they fell asleep.

Of course they had played the fool, and had done what they well knew to

be wrong, but yet I think St Nemesis might have closed her eyes on the

_faux pas_ of these poor scallywags, but she is not built that way, for

she was on their spoor like a jumping wild cat before they had eaten a

single pratie, and she punished their sin in a most cruel manner.

It happened this way: Although they were in blissful ignorance of the

fact, they had been spotted by two separate parties of Hau Haus, each

numbering forty men. These parties, posted on high ranges of hills, had

not pursued them, as they deemed it impossible to overtake them, but

when they saw them enter the hut they came down from their heights, and

closely surrounded the place. One of them creeps up and peers through

the chinks of the rickety door, and there he sees the four wretched

scouts fast asleep, with their guns made fast to the hut-pole. In a

moment the door of the hut is knocked into splinters, and before one

of the inmates can move a finger they are overwhelmed by numbers, and

securely tied hand and foot.

Next morning the captives are brought before the arch-devil, Te Kooti.

They are all warriors of high repute and rangateras of the bluest

blood, most valuable recruits if they can only be made to join the

Hau Haus. Te Kooti knows this well, and for a long time does all in

his power to persuade or intimidate them to join him, but to all his

specious arguments and diabolical threats he only receives this one

answer: “Do with us as you like; we are warriors of the Great White

Queen, who fear not death, come it as it may.” As persuasion is of

no avail the threats are put into practice, but I will not go into

nauseating details. Frequently at intervals during the next twenty-four

hours the torture is discontinued for a few minutes, and the offer

of life renewed to the sufferers, but so long as speech remains the

overtures are met by the same steadfast answer: “Do with us as you

will; our honour is the honour of the Great White Queen; we fear not

death, come it as it may.” At last it came, and those four savage

gentlemen yielded up their lives, but retained their honour.

If in the far future there should chance to be a _corps d’élite_ among

the legions of angels, I will wager my golden crown that those four

Maori rangateras will swing their flaming tomahawks in its ranks.

Well, now let’s get on with the main yarn. I have previously mentioned

the infernal weather, which that year was the worst ever known in New

Zealand, and as Taupo is always bleak and cold, we came in for more

than our share of snow, sleet and frost; in fact, it being impossible

for human flesh and blood to keep the field, the Colonel occupied the

two strong positions of Rotoaira and Tokanu, while Te Kooti remained

quiet in his fastnesses, both sides having to sit tight for a bit, and

wait till the clouds roll by.

While we are marking time for the clerk of the weather, I think I

may take the opportunity of telling you about a wonderful occurrence

that took place at Tokanu, which is situated among the hot springs

and geysers close to the shores of Lake Taupo. Many of these are hot

enough to cook in, the water boiling furiously, while many others are

cool enough to bathe in, and there was one of the latter particularly

favoured by all hands. Let me try to describe it.

On a flat of silica, quite smooth to the bare feet, are three huge

basins, perfectly round, some seventy feet in diameter and all in a

row, each separated at the surface by only a few feet of silica. Now

the odd thing about these basins is, that the water in the two end

ones rises and falls--that is to say, when the one nearest the lake

is brimful the water in the farther one will sink out of sight, and

_vice versa_. This takes place as regularly as clockwork, one being

full and the other empty, while the middle one always remains brimful,

and although the water in the two end ones is boiling hot, that in the

centre basin is cool enough to bathe in.

This pool had been the favourite resort of the natives for untold

generations, and had never been known to monkey--_i.e._ to blow up--so

of course when we occupied the place we gladly made use of it; in fact

it was full all day long, as in the inclement weather it was the custom

of everyone not on duty to strip in his hut and rush off naked to the

pool, into which he would plunge, and remain for hours in the hot

water, thereby keeping himself warm and out of the icy sleet. Now we

were entitled among other rations to a couple of half-tots of rum per

day, but, like many of our other necessaries, we received them rarely,

and when we did get one it was highly appreciated.

Well, one wretched afternoon all hands not on duty, perhaps one hundred

and fifty of us or more, were in this bathing hole when, oh, joyful

sound, the grog call rang out! Without a moment’s pause every man in

the water jumped out and ran as hard as he could to hustle on his rags

and make the best of his way to the rum-bucket. We were just in time,

for the last man had barely cleared the silica flat when, with a roar

like ten thunder claps lashed together, up went the bathing hole, and

what a minute before had been a placid pool of warm water became a

roaring geyser, throwing up a huge fountain of boiling water at least

two hundred feet into the air, while the screams of it were like ten

thousand steam hooters blowing off at the same time.

Well, now that was a slice of luck, as had the bust up taken place

one minute earlier the whole lot of us would have been blown to

Kingdom Come in smithereens. Think of that, oh, my crazy, fanatical

teetotalerising, red-nose wind-bag, only just think, one hundred and

fifty lives saved by their smartness in answering the wicked grog call.

Ponder over it, my brother, and lay this flattering unction to your

soul, should you by chance have one, that bar the alarm it was the only

call in the bugler’s repertoire that would have been answered in such a

unanimous and energetic style, but cheer up, Brother Stiggins, I will

give you a tip. The next time you spout trash to your brother and

sister fanatics, spin the above yarn, and if you only alter the grog

call for the tea call, you will bring the house down. Surely you can’t

hesitate in telling such a tiny lie for so good a cause.

Just as the weather began to clear, a trooper riding despatch from

Rotoaira to Tokanu returned at the gallop reporting that the road was

blocked and that he had only scraped clear by the skin of his teeth.

The friendly natives refused to believe the yarn, so next morning the

Colonel, with a dozen of us mounted men, rode out to reconnoitre, and

near Tokanu we found the Hau Haus had taken up a strong position on the

spurs of a range overlooking the track.

They at once opened a heavy fire on us, but following the Colonel’s

lead we galloped past them, and in a few minutes met a strong body of

friendlies, led by Captain St George, who had come out of Tokanu to

ascertain the cause of the firing. The Colonel immediately dismounted,

and led the natives on to the attack, while we mounted men cantered

into action opening the ball.

The Hau Haus were in strong force, swarming on the top of the range

across the spurs of which they had dug lines of shelter trenches, the

first line of which, the Colonel leading, we took with a rush, but

the main body of the Hau Haus, undaunted, swept in masses down the

spurs to drive us back. At the start we were far outnumbered, but were

being reinforced every moment by fresh arrivals of friendlies from

both camps, who, coming up at the run, threw themselves promiscuously

into the fight. The charge of the Hau Haus downhill at us was indeed

a pretty sight, as they came on like mountain torrents, yelling like

devils and waving their weapons in the air. McDonnell, however, had

us well in hand, and shouted to us to restrain our fire, which we did

until they were within ten yards of us, when at his word we all fired,

and followed up the volley with a charge that effectually dammed their

torrents of attack.

Faith, it was as swate a little fight as I have ever had the luck to

take part in, for, although it took place upon the spurs of a range

and we had to charge uphill, yet the battle-ground was free from bush

till the summit was reached, so that we could see all the fun that

was going on around us. Another factor greatly to our advantage was

that, the scrap being quite unpremeditated on our part, none of our

limbs of Satan (prophets) had been able to dream dreams, consequently

our friendlies fought with all their native courage, which was in no

wise handicapped by the lugubrious prognostications of some old humbug

suffering from the mullygrubs. A gay and festive hand-to-hand fight

took place that lasted a few minutes, in which tomahawk clinked against

tomahawk, and yell answered yell with all the reckless devilment of a

good old-fashioned Irish faction fight, but at last the Hau Haus give

ground, while we press them so closely, and drive them back so rapidly

that they have to abandon their dead and wounded, who fall into our

hands, the latter receiving the same amount of mercy as they would have

bestowed upon us had the tables been turned.

Presently they give way and bolt, but we pursue just as fast as they

fly, and reach the top rather breathless, but mighty adjacent to their

shirt tails. Here they turn and try to make a stand, but without a

pause we fly at them like a pack of wild dogs at a flock of sheep, and

in less than five minutes they are driven across the summit of the

ridge, and disperse on the far side, a broken, beaten, dispirited mob

of fugitives, while we white men sit down and laugh, and our bould

allies vent their superfluous energy in a blood-curdling war dance in

which the heads of the defunct Hau Haus are passed from hand to hand

like footballs.

This fight, Te Pononga, insignificant as it may appear, was yet of

tremendous importance, although at the moment we were quite unaware of

the fact, but we ascertained shortly afterwards that the celebrated

Waikato war chief, Rewi, with six hundred warriors, had been spectators

of the whole action. It seems that Rewi and his men had come to join Te

Kooti, but had jibbed, as one of the lately tortured scouts had been a

close blood relation to some of the most influential Waikato chiefs.

This rift, however, had been nearly closed by Te Kooti’s wonderful art

of persuasion, who also braggingly prophesied that at his next fight he

would utterly defeat the white man. Thereupon Rewi made the agreement

that if he proved himself to be a true prophet then he, Rewi, would

join forces with the Hau Haus and assist them in driving the white men

to perdition. Te Kooti therefore selected his ground (a great point

in Maori warfare), went through all the Hau Hau ritual and uncanny

incantations, danced the Pai Marire, wound his warriors up to their

extreme height of fanaticism, and then sent a braggart message to Rewi

ordering him to come and look on at his splendid victory. Rewi came,

but when, instead of looking on at the victory, he saw the boasting

prophet with his whole gang of scallywags driven off the chosen field

in headlong flight he quietly packed his grip-sack, and without beat of

drums returned to the Waikato, where he informed H.M. King Potatau that

Te Kooti was a humbug as a prophet, and no great shakes as a fighting

man, so Waikato sat tight and left white man and Hau Hau to fight it

out alone, which was a deucedly lucky thing for us.

The following day, as we were ready to start in pursuit, the Colonel

received a message from Kepa asking him not to fight again until his

arrival, as he was bringing with him seventy renowned warriors, and

that he was most anxious to take part in the next action. This was

indeed good news, as it would give us seventy trustworthy men in whom

the Colonel could place the most implicit reliance, and would also

enable him to dispense with the services of some of the least warlike

of the friendlies, who were now beginning to give a lot of trouble,

especially the Napier Maoris under Renata Kawepo.

Kepa’s advent was indeed a godsend, but more good luck was to follow,

as on the very same day the splendid No. 2 Division of the Armed

Constabulary marched into Tokanu, who, together with the Wanganuis, the

Taupo friendlies and us mounted men, gave the O.C. a fighting field

force sufficient to twist Te Kooti’s tail without the assistance of

the riff-raff who were always too ready to give ear to the romances of

dreaming prophets.

While waiting for Kepa, McDonnell kept all hands, with the exception

of the scouts, closely confined to the camps, as he was most anxious

the Hau Haus should gain sufficient confidence to again collect in a

body, which would enable him to deliver one more smashing blow, as in

such a country it was quite useless trying to run down small parties of

scattered fugitives.

His apparent supineness quickly bore fruit, as we scouts soon

discovered that the broken Hau Haus were drawing together, and in

a few days they had regained sufficient cheek to try and drive off

horses and slaughter cattle grazing in the vicinity of the camps. Yes,

slaughter cattle, my friends; for as regards meat rations we were now

fairly well off, as, a pack-horse track having been cut through the

bush to Runanga, droves of oxen could be sent up to the front, and as

these beasts performed the journey on their own legs they required no

transport. Other rations, however, were still very scarce, as we were

only issued two days’ groceries and biscuits for every eight days.

This had been all right up till now, as on our arrival in Taupo huge

stores of potatoes had been captured, but alas, the succulent spuds had

been eaten, so could not be issued again. It was therefore necessary

to renew our stock, and we scouted hard to find any ruas, but although

we found plenty of these underground storerooms, still they were

invariably empty, the truth being that the Maoris of the district,

having lost such large quantities to us, and also having had to feed

Te Kooti and his hungry gang, were deucedly hard up for potatoes

themselves, and it became evident to all that in the near future Te

Kooti and his mob would have to hunt for new pastures on which to

browse. This being the state of affairs, and no one being anxious to

chase the bounder again across the island, we were all very hopeful,

and most desirous of getting the chance to smash him once and for ever.

Kepa arrived, and his advent was the occasion of the most tremendous

war dance I ever saw in my life, but it is quite impossible for me to

describe it. Only one man has ever been able to picture with a pen an

old-time Maori war dance, and as I can’t pretend to in any way approach

his gift of description, I won’t try to do so. Anyhow it was a very

wonderful sight, and was, I suppose, the last real war dance ever

danced in New Zealand. Of course a few years back, when our present

King, God bless him, visited Rotorua, the tame natives round about got

up a burlesque haka, but although I was not present I will gamble it

was not an old-time war-dance, as, had it been only a fraction of one,

every white female and most of the white men then present would have

fled off the ground overcome with horror and disgust.

While we looked on an officer said to me: “I wish to goodness, Dick,

some of the infatuated idiots who for the past forty years have

subscribed to the New Zealand mission funds could only see this ruddy

lot of Christian natives dancing their war dance, for I ’ud bet my

bottom dollar it would open their eyes and close their pockets.” To

these remarks I fully agreed.

We scouts had by now located Te Kooti, who at Pourere had built a

strong redoubt after the European fashion, but without kaponiers or

any other flanking defence. It stood fairly in the open, close to the

foot of the burning mountain, Tongariro, while Papakai, the village of

the great Taupo chief, Te Heuheu, was within two miles of it. Here Te

Kooti, with the three hundred ruffians who had rejoined him, determined

to make a desperate resistance, and as soon as McDonnell was aware

of the fact he moved forward to deliver what he and the rest of us

devoutly hoped was going to be the _coup de grâce_ to the foul gang of

murderers we had been so long in pursuit of.

The Colonel’s plan of attack was excellent, and I have no doubt we

should have succeeded in surrounding and destroying the whole hive of

vermin had it not been for the old image Renata, whose pet prophet

chose to dream a dream just at the wrong time--_i.e._ the evening

before the attack should have taken place, which said dream caused

Renata and his three hundred Napier Maoris to squat down and refuse to

budge.

The attack therefore was made anyhow, it culminating in a race between

the Wanganuis, St George’s natives and ourselves as to who should

first get to hand-grips with the enemy. When old Renata found we were

attacking without him he got into a terrible fluster, and with sixty

of his men following him ran after us, screaming to us to wait for

him, lamenting that he was disgraced for ever, and cursing his pet

prophet for all he was worth. His penitence, however, came too late, as

a number of the Hau Haus had already got out of the place, breaking

through the gap he and his men, through their confounded folly, had

neglected to stop.

Pourere was rushed in a most orthodox style, as we surmounted the

parapet, which was eight feet high, by climbing on to one another’s

shoulders and jumping on to the top of the defenders, whom we finished

off with butt, tomahawk and revolver. It was quite a tidy little scrap,

in which I came out the richer by receiving two tomahawk cuts and the

poorer by having my shirt and shawl torn to pieces off me, a very

serious loss, believe me, as until I got back to Tokanu every rag of

clothing I possessed was my boots, a somewhat scanty well-worn Maori

mat and bandages. Pourere was a bad beating for Te Kooti, as, although

we only found thirty-eight dead Hau Haus inside the work, yet during

the pursuit very many were killed and wounded. We also captured thirty

women and eighty horses. In this action Te Kooti himself was wounded,

receiving a bullet through his hand, which, lacerating the thumb and

forefinger, amputating the third finger, then passed through the fleshy

part of his side.

Our loss as far as numbers went was trivial, four men only being killed

and four wounded, but alas, we lost two men we could badly spare, one

being the gallant and chivalrous Captain St George, shot through the

head while leading his men to the charge, and the other, the best

little fighting man I have ever known, Winiata Pakoro, whose name will

resound as long as war is ever talked about by the Maoris.

He was killed in the following way:--The parapet of the work was eight

feet from the ground line and four feet thick, being beautifully

riveted with fern. When we rushed the place we advanced in extended

order, and on the charge being sounded ran forward, stooping low and

closing in as we ran. Now Te Kooti had asserted that the reason he

built Pourere after the European style was that he acted under the

direct instructions of the angel Gabriel, in which case his angelship

showed very small knowledge of the art of fortification, as the line

of loopholes was pierced six feet from the ground and straight through

the parapet, not giving the bottom sills any downward slope, so that

his men when firing could not depress the muzzles of their guns,

consequently when they fired their volley at our charging ranks all

their bullets went howling over our heads, not one single man being

touched. In a moment we leaped into the ditch, and, as there were no

flanking defences to enfilade it, we were quite safe, and all paused a

moment, cheering and laughing, to recover breath.

Winiata, however, had no need of more breath, so forthwith scrambled

up to the top of the parapet, and, discharging his rifle into the mob

of defenders, called them all the naughty names he could think of,

then throwing down to his comrades his empty gun he received from them

another loaded one, which he also discharged in the same manner. He had

done this three times, and was in the act of doing it the fourth when

he tumbled backwards into the ditch with a bullet through his brains.

Her saintship Nemesis on this occasion made use of a rod she must have

kept a long time in pickle for the back of that ancient sinner and

believer in dreams, Renata Kawepo, the chief of the Napier tribe, and

she served it out to him in this fashion.

Old Renata, who in no ways lacked pluck, at the last moment charged

with about sixty of his men, but in the pursuit through the bush got

separated from them. While alone he fell across a Hau Hau man and

woman, the latter’s husband having just been killed, and these two

at once attacked him. It would have gone very hard with the poor old

chap had not a trooper and an Arawa come to the rescue, who equalised

matters by promptly killing the man, and then stood by and, acting as

referees, watched a veritable hand-to-hand fight, no lethal weapons

being allowed, between the infuriated Suffragette and Renata. Now

I regret to state it is impossible for me to report that the fight

was fought in strict accordance with the Queensberry rules, or any

other well-known code of laws drawn up for the guidance of pugilistic

encounters, as after scrapping two rounds, during which both of them

should have been frequently disqualified for foul fighting, in the

third and last the vixen got the dog down, mauled him severely, tore

the greenstone ornament out of his ear, taking the greater part of

that organ with it, gouged out one of his eyes, which she promptly

swallowed, and would have finished him off had not the Arawa, suddenly

remembering that the Napier tribe would most probably demand utu from

him for looking on at their chief being outed, put an end to the shindy

by taking the Amazon prisoner. The general verdict of the field force

on this encounter was serve him right, and much more sympathy went to

the woman than to Renata, as everyone was fed up with the pranks of

the Napier tribe and bitterly blamed Renata for giving Te Kooti the

chance of again escaping.

The Napier men, however, were furious, and, being high-toned

Christians, demanded the woman should be given over to them so as to be

tortured and killed. This modest request the Colonel sternly refused,

and promptly ordered all the women prisoners to be brought up to his

own camp for safety. At the same time he solemnly warned the Napier

scallywags that if they dared to play any monkey tricks he would let

loose us mounted men to twist their tails, whereupon the disgusted

Napier tribes said they would go home, and were promptly told to go

to Hades, and they went not as far as they were recommended to go but

to Napier, and this was only to be expected, for you see the beggars

always hung back when ordered to march an unfrequented route or do

anything of an arduous nature.

CHAPTER VIII

HIDE-AND-SEEK WITH TE KOOTI

The Taupo Field Force now had to foot it in what the men called a

devil’s dance--_i.e._ marching and counter-marching all over the big

inland plateau--for Te Kooti, having had sufficient fighting for the

time being, simply refused to be brought to book. Ye gods! how we poor

scouts were worked day and night, as on foot through the bush and

across mountains, or on horseback, over the plains, we searched for the

beggar high and low. Occasionally we would locate him, and, making for

camp as hard as we could pelt, would report to the fretting O.C. we had

him spotted. In a moment the column would start walking all day, or

scrambling all night, till we surrounded the place, then rush it, only

to find the still smouldering fires of his bivouac. Back would march

the disgusted column, and would scarcely have time to eat before fresh

scouts tore in with the report, “We have got Te Kooti located.” Away

would go the swearing column, only to be sold again; and thus the dance

went on. The fact of the matter was that the Hau Hau scouts were just

as good as our own, and kept our camps under such strict observation

that no party of men could leave them day or night without Te Kooti

being at once warned of the movement, and so we could never depend on

his remaining in the same place for more than a few hours at a stretch.

Eventually he disappeared altogether from our ken, and we were utterly

nonplussed as to what had become of him. This was indeed a very

grave and serious responsibility, as no one could surmise from which

direction some horrible story of murder and rapine might be sprung

upon us. Every officer and man, from the O.C. downwards, did his best

to pick up the lost spoor, and despatch-riders were sent to ride day

and night to inform the distant settlers and commandants of frontier

districts that Te Kooti had been lost, and to earnestly warn them to

keep on the lookout for one of his lightning raids, while the hearts

of us poor scouts grew dark, as, although we had done all that human

beings could do, yet somehow it seemed to ourselves that we were to

blame for his miraculous disappearance.

At last it was discovered, after we had marched the boots off our

feet, and our riding-breeches were more holey than a cold wet saddle

demanded, that Te Kooti had retired into the King Country, where he

again, in the most extraordinary way, raised another band of murderous

ruffians.

There we could not meddle with him, for to have done so would have been

to declare war against the powerful Waikato and Ngatimainapoto tribes,

who at that time acknowledged no British rule. Moreover, starvation

was again staring us in the face, as some rotter in the Government,

having a large number of sheep to dispose of, and wool being at a

very low price, suddenly discovered it would be cheaper to feed us on

mutton than on beef, so flocks of sheep were despatched up to the front

instead of herds of oxen. We should not have objected to the change,

but alas, the sheep could not travel up the bush paths or swim rivers

like oxen, and the few that did arrive were so long on the journey

that we well-nigh starved before they reached us. It was therefore

absolutely necessary to reduce the strength of the field force, so as

Kepa at this time received a message from Topia Turoa, the great chief

of the Wanganuis, requesting his presence, as he, Topia, had received a

letter from the Maori King, which he refused to open except in Kepa’s

presence, the Colonel sent home the splendid Wanganui warriors, and

everyone was awfully keen to hear what news this wonderful letter

contained.

In the meantime we starved, but never for a moment relaxed our

vigilance or discontinued our scouting and patrols, as McDonnell knew

full well that the least slackness on our part would encourage the wily

Te Kooti to play us some dog’s trick or another. At last we heard the

purport of the King’s letter to Topia, and as it throws light on some

queer phases in old Maori etiquette I will tell you all about it.

The Maoris were the most hospitable people in the world, being bound

to defend their guests, as their guests were bound to fight for their

hosts. On this occasion, however, Te Kooti was, if not originally, an

unwelcome guest, yet had misbehaved himself to such an extent that his

Maori Majesty heartily wished to get rid of him, as he feared that

he would attract such a following as to enable him, Te Kooti, to set

up an opposition kingdom. Nevertheless, although quite strong enough

himself to eject the artful dodger from the Waikato, yet the laws of

hospitality forbade him to act as his own chucker-out, and he therefore

wrote to Topia stating that he, the King, withdrew his protection from

Te Kooti and requested Topia to immediately assist Kepa in driving the

murderers of women and children from the Waikato. This was nuts to

Topia, as he sadly wanted utu for his old blood relation, Hona, the

insignificant old man the Hau Haus had wilfully murdered shortly after

they had played old gooseberry with the volunteer troopers at Opepe.

Accordingly on Kepa’s arrival Topia sent out the fiery cross, and in

two wags of a cat’s tail had collected a _posse comitatus_ of six

hundred first-class up-to-date fighting men, whom he placed under

Kepa’s command as war chief, but he accompanied them himself so as to

make sure that no monkey tricks would be played or that any of his men

should suddenly fancy themselves to be prophets and start dreaming

dreams, he, Topia, not believing in such necromancing when the serious

business of war was on foot. He likewise warned all hands he would

interpret any dreams with his tomahawk, stated that Te Kooti’s head was

fit to be boiled (an awful cuss word for a Maori chief to use), and

that he meant to have utu for the blood of his relative he had never

seen. So with Topia, Kepa and six hundred fresh men on their track the

Hau Haus did not draw dividends for their brutal murder of a poor old

non-combatant whom they had deemed to be a mere nobody, and as such a

fit object for their wanton cruelty.

Te Kooti however quickly tumbled to the fact that his game was up in

the Waikato, as by one of his lightning marches he turned our right

flank, and although he ran great danger in being caught between Topia’s

men and our column, when he would have been crushed like a nut in a

pair of nut-crackers, yet thanks to a dense fog he scraped through

between us and got clean away to our rear without our being aware of

the fact, and it was only through my cutting his spoor the same evening

that we knew of his desperate movement, and that he had made his way to

Patatere in the country of the Ngaiterangi, a large portion of which

tribe at once joined him.

Now this was one of the most extraordinary facts about this very

extraordinary bounder. Here was a man possessed of no blue blood, yet

Maoris regard high descent to be an essential in their leaders. Again

Maoris have no faith in an unsuccessful general, and it was impossible

to argue that he had been successful. True, he had succeeded in three

or four raids, in which he had ruthlessly tortured and murdered women

and children, yet whenever he had stood up to us in a fair fight, even

although he had chosen the battlefield himself, he had been beaten

and driven off the ground with a great loss of men. Moreover, he had

set himself up as a prophet, and granted a lucky prophet had immense

influence over the superstitious natives, yet on the other hand an

unlucky prophet met with scant ceremony; in fact on more than one

occasion Hau Haus relentlessly killed prophets who had misled them.

Now as a prophet Te Kooti was a distinct failure. He had over and over

again declared himself to be invulnerable, yet he had been wounded

twice, and on one occasion had had to be carried out of action on

a woman’s back. Moreover he had promised his followers time after

time invulnerability, yet every tribe who joined him had lost heavily

in killed and wounded. Now this was sufficient to have damned a big

chief even had he had a previous splendid record, and Te Kooti was

no big chief, while his record previous to his, grantedly unjust,

transportation was simply that of a rowdy chicken thief. Nevertheless,

notwithstanding all his drawbacks and manifold shortcomings, Te Kooti

up to the end never visited a tribe that he could not either frighten

or persuade numbers of that tribe to join his precarious fortunes, and

this without doubt was a marvel, for the Maori is by nature a powerful

reasoner and wonderfully clear-headed. Perhaps the most wonderful thing

of all was that chiefs of bluest blood who would have pilled him like

a shot, had he possessed the effrontery to put himself up for their

club, still willingly submitted themselves to his rule and obeyed his

commands.

On the 20th of January 1870 Topia’s and our column met, and on the

24th our advance patrol surprised and rushed a kainga, in which we

killed one Hau Hau and captured three others, who, after putting both

themselves and us to a deal of trouble, owned up that they were Te

Kooti’s scouts, and that Te Kooti himself was camped a few miles away,

this being the first authentic information we had received of his

actual whereabouts.

Of course the Colonel at once determined to go for him, and Kepa

started off with two hundred of his men to get to the wily one’s rear,

it being arranged that we were to leave camp two hours before daybreak

and make the frontal attack. The country we were in was a sinful one,

and quite unknown to us. It was chiefly composed of deep pumice-stone

ravines with perpendicular sides, and there were so many of them that

Tim’s query, “Where the divil did the man who dug them hape up the

stuff he excavated?” was quite justifiable.

The following morning, just as I was about to leave camp with the

scouts, a dense fog came on, so thick that you could have cut chunks

out of it with a knife, when of course it was a case of sit tight, as

it would have been worse than madness for men ignorant of the locality

to attempt to move.

Time passed, the men fell in, and were ordered to lie down at their

alarm posts--_i.e._ in square surrounding the camp--and wait quietly

till it was possible to move. Daylight came, but the fog was thicker

than ever, the Colonel got vexed, the men did not, as they had been

vexed ever since they had rolled up their blankets, still although

everyone had profound convictions as to the unsuitability of the

weather, none expressed them, for to have done so would have only added

to the sulphurous density of the atmosphere.

The sun must have been well up, although no one could see a foot in

front of his nose, when to our intense surprise crash came a volley,

and a storm of bullets swept over our recumbent force that plainly

demonstrated to us that instead of our being the attackers the boot was

on the other leg, and that Te Kooti was attacking us.

Now at first sight this move on his part might appear to have been a

very considerate one, as it apparently was undertaken so as to save us

the trouble of an early and unpleasant march, but the bounder had no

such philanthropic motive, for it was in reality a very cute scheme.

Te Kooti had been warned the previous day of our presence, and judging

we should start before daylight to beat up his quarters, he had, after

dark, altered the position of his own bivouac, and then, by a detour,

he had called on ours, expecting to find our camp protected only by

a few men whom he hoped to spifflicate, and then capture the reserve

ammunition and anything else of value on which he could lay his dirty

claws. It was a well-thought-out plan, but the fog coming on as it had

done kept us at home, so that instead of his finding a weak camp guard,

whom he could easily have destroyed, he found the whole outfit ready

and only too willing to entertain him.

Well, rip came his first volley which was followed up by others, while

we lay dog-o, as what was the use of firing when we could not even

see the flash of his men’s rifles to aim at. For some time the above

game went on, the Hau Haus occasionally firing a volley, ourselves

lying quite silent, hoping that they would charge, and let us get to

hand-grips, but this they evidently feared to do, as they were bothered

by our silence.

At last the fog cleared, and we saw them, when the Colonel ordered us

to fire and charge, which we did, the enemy bolting like redshanks,

pursued by Topia and his men, but the old chief, although a fine old

duke, was not Kepa, so Te Kooti and his riff-raff, although dispersed,

scraped clear with but small loss. They were, however, to suffer in

another way by having the tables turned on them in a queer manner.

Kepa, as I before mentioned, had started the night previous to take up

a position to the rear of the Hau Hau camp, but hampered by the fog he

missed their old camping-ground, and stumbled by chance on to their new

one, and, as the sound of the firing at our bivouac warned him what was

going on there, he shrewdly guessed Te Kooti’s game, and that the Hau

Hau main body must be fully occupied. He at once took advantage of the

situation by surrounding and rushing Te Kooti’s camp, from which he

easily drove out or killed the few men left in charge of it, thereby

capturing eighty horses and an immense amount of loot. Thus the wily Te

Kooti went out to shear, but, thanks to a fog, got shorn himself.

The loss of the horses and loot was a great blow to Te Kooti, who now

disappeared again in his usual miraculous way. After days and nights of

fatiguing scouting we eventually discovered him with two hundred men

at Kuranui, where we at once attacked him. He, however, refusing to

fight, broke his men into two parties, the trail of one leading towards

Tauranga (Bay of Plenty), the other towards Tapapa. We captured some of

his scouts the same day, who informed us that Te Kooti himself was with

a party _en route_ to Tauranga.

CHAPTER IX

THE END OF NEW ZEALAND WARS

The Taupo campaign had been a disastrous one for Te Kooti. At its

commencement the larger portion of the Taupo and Tuhua tribes had

joined him; the Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto were ready to do so; and the

tribes of the Upper Wanganui, though neutral, were friendly towards

him. Yet within five months he had been fairly beaten five times. The

Upper Wanganuis under Topia had joined us, the Taupo and Tuhua tribes

had lost heavily, and, becoming disgusted with him, had abandoned his

fortunes, while the Waikatos not only laughed at him, but allowed Topia

and Kepa to march through their country to attack him.

Te Kooti, therefore, was now a fugitive, with two thousand pounds’

reward offered for his head, dead or alive, and although he did his

best to make head against us yet he knew himself the game was up;

although an occasional skirmish would take place no further action

happened that could be called a battle. Yet our game was a difficult

one to play, as we must keep the infernal ruffian on the move, or he

would soon have gathered together another strong party, and all our

work would have to be commenced afresh. Likewise there were other

tribes who must be humbled and punished for having taken part in the

numerous massacres. It was in one of these skirmishes that we lost an

old comrade, who fell a victim to his predilection for other people’s

property, notwithstanding the fact that he was taking every precaution

to guard himself from his fate.

I have previously pointed out that but little quarter was served out

to Hau Hau prisoners, very many of whom preferred death to being

made captives, especially if they could get the chance of killing an

enemy before taking their own quietus, so that frequently when a Hau

Hau found he could not get away he would sham death, and await the

opportunity of shooting or tomahawking one of our men, and then resign

himself to his death in such a philosophical way as to be “worthy of

a better cause.” Now a lot of these bounders carried a good deal of

money, which they had looted from the white settlements, and therefore

their pockets and pouches were well worth prospecting.

Among others who were not above replenishing their exchequers in

this way were my two foreign scallywags, Pierre and George, both

of whom regarded the looting of a defunct Hau Hau as a meritorious

act. Now George, although a Greek, feared nothing, yet had a slight

nervousness about being shot by a dead Hau Hau, so that he used to

take considerable precautions, as when he approached a recumbent body

he would do so crawling, and on arriving alongside the stiff ’un would

gently insert between the ribs of the prostrate Hau Hau a huge knife,

then, turning to his marauding comrade, would put his finger to the

side of his nose, and with a Satanic grin murmur: “Dat makes all tings

safe.” These two beauties, being scouts, and having comparatively a

free hand, had great advantages over the other men, as they would often

be rabbitting among the slain before the action was over.

On the occasion of the catastrophe both Pierre and George dropped out

of the firing line the moment the pursuit began, and started in to look

after their own interests. They were both hard at work, and George,

having just made “all tings safe” with one dead Maori, was in the act

of going through his pockets when another seemingly defunct Hau Hau

jumped up and blew a hole through him. Pierre, who was close by, shot

the shamming Hau Hau, and then, being a thorough good business man,

notwithstanding his intense sorrow at the loss of his mate, promptly

went through his pockets as well as those of the two now very dead Hau

Haus.

I was deeply sorry for poor George’s untimely end, as although he was

not quite the sort of man I should have cared to have introduced into

society, and I was well aware he owed his neck over and over again to

the hangman of various countries, still he had been a staunch comrade

to me, and on scores of occasions had not only prevented me going

hungry, but, by his marvellous instinct as a scout, had frequently

saved me from losing the number of my mess, therefore both Tim and

myself sorrowed exceedingly.

Te Kooti now left the Taupo country and made for Rotorua, where he

attempted to persuade the natives to allow him to enter their pah,

which, had they done so, Te Kooti would have murdered every soul it

contained. The inhabitants, however, were saved from this act of folly

by the arrival of Captain Mair, who immediately attacked him, and who,

but for the bad conduct of his men (Arawas), who, although fighting in

their own country and for the safety of their own families, acted in

their usual cowardly manner, would have undoubtedly captured him.

Te Kooti, having been foiled at Rotorua, and knowing the net was

closing round him, made a bolt for the Uriwera country, closely

followed by Captain Mair. A sharp skirmish took place at Kaiteriria,

in which, getting the worst of it in the beginning, Captain Mair

eventually drove him off the field with the loss of his best fighting

man, the infamous half-caste known by the name of Peka, who in reality

was the son of a big white official, and also of his pet torturer,

Timoti Te Kaka, the latter having been wounded and, caught alive, met

a suitable death at the hands of the friendlies. Te Kooti, however,

managed to escape, and with his Chatham Islanders fled to Uriwera.

It now very much looked as if we were in for another winter’s campaign

in that awful country, but our men were by this time fairly worn out,

and as it had been too often conclusively proved that untrained,

untried white men were worse than useless in the bush, and also that

the Taupo line must be guarded by men who could be thoroughly depended

upon, and not by new chums, the new Defence Minister determined on

trying a novel plan, which was giving a contract to the friendly

natives to run down Te Kooti and his broken ruffians, while we held the

chain of forts along the Taupo line, and by continuous scouting and

patrols kept the Hau Haus from again breaking through and disturbing

other parts of the country.

Rapata and Kepa, with the Ngatiporou and the Wanganui tribes, gladly

took up the contract, which amounted to this: they were only to be

remunerated for work done--_i.e._ they received no daily pay, but were

paid in the lump for the number of Hau Haus they killed and captured.

Another expedition was started, composed solely of friendlies, under

their magistrate, Mr E. Hamlyn, who, starting in from Wairoa, were to

thoroughly punish the natives of Waikaremoana.

It would take me far too long to describe the services rendered by

these native columns and the bitter hardships they underwent following

up, capturing or exterminating the remnant of Te Kooti’s followers, nor

did we pass our time reclining on beds of roses, for although we had

the shelter of our forts and a sufficiency of food, such as it was, yet

we were never for a moment idle, as we had always to keep on the alert,

and over and over again had to head off and drive back small gangs of

flying Hau Haus.

In this way the remainder of the year 1870 and the commencement of 1871

passed, during the whole of which period Te Kooti was hunted like a

wild beast through the fastnesses of the Uriwera, while we guarded the

line, and many volumes might be written about the wonderful escapes the

scoundrel had. I myself know of no parallel case in history, where a

man so hunted ever successfully evaded pursuit, but he eventually did

so. After losing nearly all his men, either by bullet or capture, he

at last succeeded in breaking through our line and escaping into the

King Country, where the Waikatos, although they refused to give him up,

effectually prevented him from causing any more trouble, and there he

lived peacefully for twenty years, and died in the odour of sanctity.

Kereopa, the blood-stained apostle of Te Ua, remained with Te Kooti

till the last, but, not being so lucky, was captured and hung,

remarking at the time that he had always known he would have an

unfortunate end, as when he swallowed the Rev. Mr Volkner’s eyes one of

them stuck in his throat.

And now my yarn is finished, as I think I have told you sufficient to

give you some sort of an idea of what the colonial irregular forces

went through while flattening out the North Island of New Zealand so as

to render it safe for white settlers to occupy and dwell therein.

I must, however, ask you to understand that I have only told you of the

small portion of fighting that I took part in myself, for the war raged

in many places at the same time, so that I am clearly not to blame for

being unable to give you a full account of all the fighting, as it was

impossible for me to be in half-a-dozen localities at once.

So trusting to your charity that you will be to the few merits of his

book ever kind, and to its manifold faults a little blind, Dick Burke

bids you so-long. Kiora tatau.

INDEX

Ahikereru, 327, 345, 352

Arawa, 252, 345, 346, 356, 357, 378, 392

Bent, Kimball, 91, 92, 158, 218

Broughton, Mr, 154

Buck, Captain, 235, 236, 237

Buck, 61, 70, 132, 142, 176, 181

Butler, Lieutenant-Colonel, 55, 56, 57, 73, 84, 86, 130

Cameron, Sir Duncan, 34, 35, 43, 253, 325

Chatham Islands, 27, 45, 277, 278

Chute, Sir Trevor, 35, 54, 69, 95, 115, 128, 160

Cracroft, Captain, R.N., 41

De Feugeron, Pierre, 59, 62, 63, 65, 66, 70, 76, 79, 100, 155, 175,

176, 289, 306, 390

Egan, Tim, 28, 31, 52, 57, 65, 67, 70, 78, 88, 102, 125, 132, 176,

247, 306

Egmont, Mount, 67, 75, 95

Featherstone, Dr, 112

Fraser, Colonel, 299

Fulloon, Mr, 27

Galatea, Fort, 353, 354

Gate Pah, 42, 253, 256

Grace, Rev. Mr, 25

Grey, Sir George, 18, 45

Haggarty, Trooper, 170, 210

Hassard, Colonel, 85, 91, 92

Hau Haus, 14, 17, 22, 27, 35, 44, 49, 74, 75, 83, 99, 103, 140, 152,

163, 210, 216, 255, 264

Hepanaia, 20, 21, 22, 211

Herrick, Colonel, 328, 346, 357, 359, 361

Heruiwi, 354

Hirini te Karu, 25

Hokitika, 204, 205

Hori Kingi Te Anaua, 113, 116, 240

Hunter, Major, 219, 244, 245, 246

Hutton, 49, 50, 51, 52, 57, 62, 65, 66, 70, 88, 125, 142

Johnston, Adjutant-General, 43

Kaiiwi, 249, 306

Kaingaroa Plains, 327, 353, 354

Kakaramea, 241

Kantuarius, George, 59, 63, 65, 66, 75, 76, 100, 155, 176, 289,

306, 390

Katotauru, 130

Kereopa, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 394

Ketemarae, 97

Kupapas, 74, 75, 76, 96, 109, 130

Lee, Gipsy, 9, 10

Lloyd, Captain, 19

Lyon, Colonel, 306, 317, 320

McDonnell, Colonel, 45, 47, 54, 55, 73, 74, 76, 96, 100, 112, 140,

148, 159, 223, 241, 253, 357, 360, 369

McDonnell, Ensign, Captain, 73, 126, 234, 363

Makoia, 207

Manawapou, 69, 153

Matene, 20, 21, 23, 24

Matitawa, 127

Mawhitiwhiti, 104, 106

Mete Kingi Te Anaua, 111, 123

Moturoa, 243-249, 314

Mutoa, 23

Ngaiterangi, 255, 384

Ngatapa, 284, 291-305

Ngati Jacks, 258, 275

Ngatiporou, 252, 258, 284, 295, 393

Ngatiruanui, 92, 172, 209

Northcroft, Lieutenant, 77, 176, 182

Nui, 17

Nukamaru, 43, 249

Opepe, 355, 356, 357

Opotiki, 24, 26

Orakau, 25, 42, 82, 256

Otapawa, 73, 82, 91, 98

Otautau, 316

Page, Captain, 19

Pai Marire, 15, 21, 25, 34, 140, 152, 255, 312, 372

Paka Kohi, 203, 241

Parris, 160, 161, 162

Patara, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27

Patea, 54, 129, 131, 203, 207, 240

Pekerangi, 82, 83, 86

Pezant, Father, 95, 109

Pokaikai, 155, 159

Potatau, Maori King, 16, 372, 382

Pourere, 375, 376, 377

Poverty Bay, 27, 249, 283

Puketakauere, 42

Pungarehu, 184

Rangiriri, 42, 82, 86

Rangitaike River, 353

Rapata Te Waha-waha, 252, 284, 287, 294, 297, 393

Regiment, 14th, 57, 109, 115, 128

---- 18th, R.I., 44, 241

---- 57th, 19, 21, 54, 73, 85, 91, 242

Renata Kawepa, 372, 375, 377, 379

_Rifleman_, Schooner, 279

Roach, Lieutenant, 56, 66, 68, 70, 74, 76, 79, 81, 83, 87, 88, 95,

97, 98, 289

Roberts, Captain, 237, 242

Ross, Captain, 215, 216, 217

Rotoaira, 360, 361, 366, 369

Runanga, 357, 359, 373

Rotorua, 200, 391

Ruatahuna, 327, 339, 342, 345

St George, Captain, 369, 375, 376

St John, Colonel, 253, 316, 327, 328,

330, 347, 354, 357

_St Kilda_, s.s., 53, 54, 58, 322

Selwyn, Bishop, 18

Sentry Hill, 21

Smith, Trooper, 61, 70

_Sturt_, s.s., 292, 322

Swanson, Lieutenant, 91

Taranaki, 16, 19, 40, 43, 252

Taupo, 24, 25, 256, 345-379

Tauranga (Bay of Plenty), 251, 252, 253, 286, 292

Tauranga (Taupo), 359

Tauranga-a-Hika, 310, 317

Tauranga-nui, 24, 25, 27

Tatahoata, 342

Te Haroto, 327

Te Huiarau, 328, 352

Te Kepa, 96, 97, 98, 101, 103, 109, 223, 225, 233, 243, 253, 306,

313, 316, 319, 372, 374, 383, 385, 388, 393

Te Kooti, 251, 276, 278, 280, 286, 325, 353, 355, 359, 361, 366,

376, 380, 386, 389

Te Matata, 327

Te Ngaihere, 319, 320, 327

Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, 223-238

Te Pononga, 371

Te Ranga, 43, 261, 265

Te Teko, 353

Te Ua, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24

Titokowaru, 22, 23, 92, 185, 201, 203, 209, 214, 223, 240, 241, 310,

317, 322

Toi, 200, 201

Tokanu, 360, 361, 366, 369, 372, 376

Tongariro, 356, 360, 375

Touchais, 11, 13

Turu Turu Mokai, 215, 216

Topia Turoa, 382, 383, 385, 387

Uriwera, 25, 256, 325-344, 392

Volkner, C. S., 26, 276

Von Tempsky, Major, 45, 73, 74, 219, 231, 234, 253

Waerenga-a-Hika, 27, 45, 276

Waiapu, 24, 286

Waihe, 163, 170, 203, 239

Waikaremoana, 328, 346

Waikato, 16, 42, 252, 356, 371, 381, 383

Waikoko, 128

Waingangora River, 95, 129, 130, 140, 153, 155, 172, 227

Waireka, 41

Waitotara, 130, 314

Wanganui tribe, 223, 239, 306, 319, 321, 372, 382, 393

Wanganui Defence Force, 37, 49, 53

We Hukanui, 153, 154

Wellington, 34, 37, 162

Weraroa 43, 45

West, 38, 46, 47, 49, 51, 57

Whakamura, 316

Whakatane, 24, 25, 27, 327, 331

Whakatohea, 258

Whenua Kura, 204

Whenuanui, 340, 342

White, Lieutenant, 337, 339

Whitmore, Colonel, 240, 241, 243, 252, 283, 291, 306, 310, 313, 323,

326, 343, 345, 357

Williams, Bishop, 27

Williams, Jack, 61, 63, 70, 88, 110, 125, 142, 176, 289

Winiata, 185, 186, 376, 377

_Worsley, Lord_ (ship), 17

THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH.

Transcriber's Notes:

Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.