1852 - Mundy, G. C. Our Antipodes. [Vol. II.] - CHAPTER XI. Skirmishes in the Hutt Valley...

       
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  1852 - Mundy, G. C. Our Antipodes. [Vol. II.] - CHAPTER XI. Skirmishes in the Hutt Valley...
 
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CHAPTER XI. SKIRMISHES IN THE HUTT VALLEY...

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CHAPTER XI.

SKIRMISHES IN THE HUTT VALLEY--AFFAIR OF THE TAITAI--WHO ARMED THE REBELS?--"OULD RAP" DINES WITH SOME OLD FRIENDS--RIDE TO PORIRUA HARBOUR--NEW ZEALAND SYLVA--POST OF PORIRUA--ARREST OF TE RAUPERAHA--PAHATANUI--REMOTE STATIONS OF H.M.'s ARMY--THE HOROKIWI VALLEY--RANGIHAIETA ESCAPES BY FLIGHT.

PURSUING our interesting ride up the valley, which narrowed as we went, in about two miles we came upon another spot where the Maori insurgent and the English soldier had come into collision.

About a month after the combat at the farm, which had subsequently been reinforced and placed under charge of a captain, that officer, with a view to acquaint himself with the roads in the vicinity of his post, the fords of the river, and the position of the enemy, who were reported to be encamped not far distant, and, perhaps, with a desire to avenge the loss inflicted by them on the 16th May, marched out to his front with forty soldiers, a small party of loyal natives under the chief Waiderapa, and a few militiamen; accompanied also by a young officer of the 58th, a volunteer on the occasion.

The main road along which they proceeded was at that time extremely narrow, full of deep holes, and in

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some places up to the knees in mud, the bush so thick that the view of the advancing party hardly extended beyond a few paces to their front and flanks. On reaching a piece of cleared land, or rather land with felled timber lying upon it, where there was a potato patch, one of Waiderapa's natives, who was acting as a scout, springing upon a log to look out a-head, saw several men lying close below him, and, shouting out "Rangihaieta's Maoris," he threw himself flat on his face. A smart volley delivered at fifteen paces from among the logs on the left of the road informed the Captain that he had fallen into an ambuscade. The loyal natives threw themselves into cover, and returned the fire from the same side of the road as the enemy. The English, in skirmishing order, answered it briskly from among the trees on the opposite side of it. In about ten minutes some of the Maoris were seen crossing the road so as to obtain a flanking fire on the right of the soldiers, while a strong party were observed to move swiftly towards the road in their rear so as to cut them off from the stockade. This display of tactics on the part of the barbarians induced the officer to sound the retreat, which movement was accordingly effected without further loss of time or blood. Indeed, the casualties had already been pretty severe; four soldiers were severely wounded, of whom one died, and two were missing; while the young officer of the 58th was severely hurt, maimed perhaps for life, by a shot through the arm. Strange to say, this gentleman was left for some time to the mercy of the savages, who, fortunately, were too much alarmed themselves to perceive him as he lay

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SKIRMISHES IN THE HUTT VALLEY.

concealed in the underwood. The Captain, inquiring anxiously for his comrade, was informed that he had gone wounded to the camp in charge of a soldier; nor was he missed by any one until the party had nearly reached the stockade. Making the best of his way in that direction, he came right upon a party of natives, and thought his last hour was come; but they proved to be friends, and assisted him in his retreat. The two missing men also found their way to the stockade in the course of the evening. Meanwhile, the subaltern of the stockade, hearing the firing, promptly armed his men, who were working on the defences, and, inviting the cooperation of a friendly tribe encamped hard by, advanced with forty soldiers, and no less than a hundred Aborigines under their veteran chief, E Puni, to the support of his superior. Meeting him half way on his retreat, he was, after a short consultation, directed to form an advance guard in the direction of the camp, to which the entire British party accordingly retired. The two native chiefs, on meeting, held a brief koriro, or talk, when Waiderapa and E Puni, joining their forces, determined to return to the scene of action.

An English interpreter, who accompanied the allied warriors, reported that, after throwing forward their scouts, who ascertained that the rebels had made off, they came up just in time to see some of them retreating to the river across the clearing, and dropping blankets, cartridges, and potatoes in their track.

The account of the action given by Waiderapa, affords an amusing specimen of the vain-glorious bombast of the Maori warrior. He appears to have behaved with the

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utmost coolness in the affair; to have particularly requested that none of the soldiers should mix with his men, and that they should not "fire from behind them," as a half-drunken militiaman was seen to do; and he took up his position on the enemy's side of the road, quite independently of his white allies, although his force amounted to but fifteen men.

"The reason why we retreated," said the gallant and self-satisfied chief, in his evidence before a Court of Inquiry, "was, because we were partly composed of soldiers, and partly of natives. Had we been all natives, we would have driven away Rangihaieta's people." "The soldiers," he added, "retreated because they thought the enemy were dividing into two parties to cut them off. I did not think so because they, the enemy, had seen the position that I had taken up!" But the strangest part of this affair remains to be told. About a mile and a half still further up the valley, at a part of it called the Taitai, we were shown a spot where, at the time of the operations above mentioned, stood a stockade by the wayside occupied by a party of militia. The ambushed natives had therefore boldly placed themselves between two British posts, with a flooded river between them and their resources. The militia subaltern hearing the musquetry, proceeded, with a sergeant and twelve men, towards the spot; was, according to his official report, fired upon by the rebels; was briskly engaged with them for an hour and a half, checking their progress, and did not return to his stockade until night was coming on. By this singular incident the highest civil authority in the colony, the ex-officio

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AFFAIR OF THE TAITAI.

dispenser of praise and blame, was misled into the belief that these heroic few had not only held their ground against, but had twice repelled the very party from whom the regulars, under a captain of foot, with a strong body of native allies, and a reinforcement under his subaltern, had been compelled to retreat! It proved afterwards, that if this useful and constitutional arm did indeed exchange shots at all with the hostile Maoris, their main efforts were, with more gallantry than propriety, directed against the friendly natives under E Puni, who, advancing towards the Taitai, was fired upon by the militia in mistake, until the interpreter approaching the post, claimed exemption for his companions.

Here was indeed an unfortunate affair from beginning to end. The leader of the reconnaissance having fallen into the snare deliberately laid for him, had the choice of two alternatives--to fight his way through it, or extricate himself by retreat. All the evidence collected by the inquiry held to investigate the details, agree that the commander was justified in retiring, when he was satisfied that the enemy, whom he supposed to be the whole of Rangihaieta's disposable force, had turned one of his flanks, and were menacing to cut him off from his reserve; that the retreat was conducted slowly and with regularity; and that the Captain was the last man to retire--himself taking charge of the rear-guard. The officer was acting under superior orders, induced by the numerous murders lately committed by the rebels in the immediate vicinity of the British post, to devise -- in conjunction with the officers of militia and loyal chiefs --some plan for discovering the fords by which the

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murderers were in the habit of crossing the river. But a reconnaissance in so impracticable a country, with so small a force, in red coats and white belts too, could hardly meet with a happy result; and indeed the requisite information--if information was all that was wanted-- could have been better gained by native spies in their stealthy manner, than by any operation so ostentatiously conducted. The affair of the 16th June must be classed as a decided defeat, and a very unlucky one at a moment when disaffection was fast spreading among the natives, and when risk of failure should have been avoided with peculiar caution. In examining the ground, somewhat changed doubtless during the eighteen months which had elapsed since the conflict, it appeared to me that Rangihaieta's men must have been on an armed foraging party among the potato gardens of the Huttites, and that they were nearly as much taken by surprise as the British were--or they would hardly have preferred a comparatively open position to one more suitable for ambuscade, and more consonant with their usual mode of attack, among the standing scrub. However, the post they took up was formidable enough; for the huge logs of fallen timber formed an excellent breast-work to which the top branches furnished an abattis not easy to overcome. No mean guerillas these Maoris!--nor are they ill-armed and equipped for the service. The dark naked skin is quite as suitable an uniform as the "invisible" green of the rifle-corps; and the double-barrelled piece, which most of them wield, is an awkward weapon in bush-skirmishes, especially when, after an exchange of volleys, the soldiers make a rush with the bayonet, in

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WHO ARMED THE REBELS?

the faith that there has been no time to load. How came this people to be so well provided with fire-arms, in the face of the vigilant Governor's enactment against their sale to natives, is a question easily answered. The Americans, the French, and above all the Sydneyites, were their purveyors. Not many days ago, while the Governor-in-Chief, the Lieut.-Governor, and the senior officer of the southern district, were on different missions to Wanganui and other places, with strong doubts whether the issue would be peace or war--I cut out of a Sydney newspaper the following advertisement:

"TO NEW ZEALAND TRADERS AND OTHERS.

"Always on Hand, and for Sale at the Stores of the undersigned--

Tomahawks, Handsaws,
Axes, assorted, Saw files,
Adzes, of sizes, Chisels and gouges,
Pickaxes, Spades and shovels,
Crosscut saws, Looking-glasses, and
Fishing hooks.

ALSO,

A large supply of muskets, carbines, single and double barrelled guns,
Gunpowder, loose and in canister, Shot and musket balls, Cartouche boxes and cutlasses.

THOMAS WOOLLEY, George and King-streets."

But trade is trade--stock in hand must be sold off-- the Sydney iron-mongers' fortune must be made--(it is made!) How can he help it if the rebel Maoris should happen to be his best customers? The also in the advertisement is full of pith!

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Quitting those bellicose spots of the now peaceful vale of the Hutt, our riding party proceeded as far as the "Gorge," where the mountains on either hand, closing in upon the little rippling trout stream that the river here presents, seem to push the road into its waters. Beyond this point there is at present only a foot track; but it is the intention of Government to connect the valley and Port Nicholson, by a good road over the intervening ranges, with the extensive and fertile plains of Wairarapa--a district which will no doubt be shortly purchased from the Aborigines, for a moderate sum in hard cash, unmixed with blood--not by a large expenditure of both, as was the case with the Wairau, Porirua, Wanganui, &c. The two former districts were bought early this year for 5,000l., to be paid by instalments extending over five years--not an exorbitant price, when it is considered that the Wairau alone was included in a general land purchase of not less than 2,500 square miles. If it be worth a single round of ball cartridge it is worth that sum.

I was sorry to miss seeing the Wyderop or Wairarapa valley, for I heard much of its beauty. Of its history I know little, except that my old ship-mate, Te Rauperaha, as I was informed, paid a visit to it some years ago-- a friendly visit to the remnant of a tribe that had been driven from their possessions in the north, and had settled down for a quiet life; and he seized that favourable opportunity to massacre some 500 of them--not failing, of course, to eat those who were fittest for the spit. Of the Hutt Valley I prophesy great success, and, should destiny make me a settler in New Zealand, I

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RIDE TO PORIRUA HARBOUR.

would prefer a site for a house on the flank of the hills near the sea, with about 1,000 acres of the alluvial flat at their base, to any other spot visited by me in the country. Waiderapa will be the Bathurst of the Port Nicholson district, and has the same disadvantage as those great Australian plains are subject to--namely, a rugged mountain range separating it from its sea vent.

Another interesting trip which I made, with a party of twelve, from Wellington, was to the military posts of Porirua and Pahatanui. The Governor-in-Chief and his party, who were bent on an excursion further north, passed onwards from Porirua, but the General and the rest performed the whole excursion; and returned to Wellington between daybreak and dark--being about thirty miles on horseback and fifteen or sixteen of boating.

Nothing can be more wild and beautiful in its way than the forest scenery on the military road, between the point where it quits the beach of Port Nicholson, and Jackson's Ferry where it debouches on Porirua Bay. The whole distance of fourteen miles is through a rugged and densely wooded mountain tract, with but few clearings. The line was first opened by the New Zealand Company's people, and was taken up, improved, widened, and completed in excellent style by military labour, under officers who appear to have known and done their business well.

I have no words to describe the luxuriant beauty of the wilderness traversed by this monument of a young

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colony's energy and industry, the gigantic size of the timber, the glossy tufted foliage of tree, and creeper, and parasite, the noble contour of the uplands wooded to their very summits, the dark, tangled, and absolutely impervious glens, rock and ravine, brush and swamp--the natural bulwarks of a country inexpugnable except by Anglo-Saxon enterprise.

Every man who has travelled at all has travelled through tracts of mountain forest, and has felt his soul awed and elevated by the romantic and sequestered grandeur of these portions of the universe, which seem as if purposely made too solemn and sublime for the permanent abode of busy man. The effect produced is still deeper; --the wilderness seems wilder still, when every tree, and shrub, and flower, and weed, and every specimen of animated nature, is utterly strange and unknown to the traveller; when every object is an object of mysterious wonder. Such was my position in traversing this forest pass. The blue vault above and the earth's crust on which I trod, appeared to be my only old acquaintances.

Among the predominant timber-trees, I was introduced to the Totara 1 and the Rimu 2 --the most splendid of New Zealand pines next to the Kauri, which does not flourish so far south--both yielding a wood applicable to the beams of the largest house or to a lady's workbox, a main-mast or a paper-cutter. The Rata 3 --ostensibly one of the legitimate aristocrats of the bush--is, in fact, no~better than a creeper, --a hanger-on, which, attaching

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NEW ZEALAND SYLVA.

itself to some convenient tree, destroys, and in time obliterates all trace of the ladder whereby it clomb to honour and power. The Rata ranks as one of the highest ornaments of the New Zealand sylva--its bright red blossoms literally illuminating the dark flanks of the mountains. There were convolvuli, and clematis, and passiflorae festooning the branches with their light garlands, and enormous brambles covered with little wild roses--such as I have seen among the deodaras and rhododendrons of the Hymalaia--clambering up to the summits of the tallest trees, and toppling down again in a cascade of bloom. These, at least, were to me old familiar friends. Then there were manifold and curious ferns, and fungi, and orchideae, and mosses, and lichens --all objects of simple wonderment and ignorant speculation to one unversed in those sciences which lay open the more hidden operations of nature to the ken of man. Of the three first, there are kinds producing food for the natives. The common, or what appeared to me the common, fern-shrub, grew in some places to the height of eight and ten feet; and the fronds of the tree-fern must, in some instances, have measured fifteen or sixteen feet in length. A sort of sago is made from one species of fern. The root and the young shoots of others are edible. There are but few wild roots fit for human, even Maori, food. Those of certain orchideae afford a meal to the travelling savage.

The epicurean Englishman, balancing whether to emigrate or to stay at home, would probably decide on the former step, when he hears that the truffle is indigenous to New Zealand!

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On the subject of fungi; of all the strange fungi that ever I met with--not excepting the luminous toadstool of Australia, by which you may see to shave yourself at midnight!--the vegetable caterpillar, whereof I saw several specimens found in this district, is the most strange. I believe the insect is, at one stage of its existence, a large grey moth, at another it becomes a caterpillar. When tired of a somewhat dull life, it buries itself in the earth, and, after death, assumes a fungous form, or, at least, there springs from its skeleton a fungous excrescence like a bulrush, which pierces and rises several inches above the ground.

Every third or fourth mile, we passed on the road side the half-ruined stockades of the working parties employed in the creation of the road, each known by the name of the officer who had charge of the party. Rangihaieta, more than once, in his wayward moods, obstructed the labours of the workmen; but had he, with a couple of hundred determined men, systematically resisted their progress, to carry the line through so defensible a country would have been impossible.

About half way we came upon a large patch of tolerably level, and apparently good land, rudely cleared, where was a straggling bush village, and, more to our travelling purposes, a snug little tavern, where, in the heart of the wilds of "Ahina Maui," we partook of a glass of real good English ale, --a most welcome treat. At length bursting out of the solemn arcades of the forest, much as the railway traveller bursts into open day from the mouth of a tunnel, we found the beautiful harbour or estuary of Porirua spread beneath our feet, a prospect

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THE POST OF PORIRUA.

singularly bright, placid, and refreshing to the eye after several hours of sylvan gloom and circumscribed scenery. Near its shore stands the Ferry House, kept by an Englishman, married to a Maori woman, who was dressed in European attire, but with deep "tangi" 4 scars on her face and breast. Turning our horses into a stock-yard, we took to the boats, and, after rowing a short distance down a rushy creek, came upon the open bay.

Porirua Harbour extends north and south about six miles, and is separated from the ocean, with which it communicates through a narrow inlet, by a ridge of pretty high land. With every apparent quality of a commodious port--a refuge much wanted on this open coast--its waters are so shallow as to be navigable only by boats of light tonnage. With exception of the almost invisible mouth, the bay is entirely land-locked, and the richest vegetation flourishing down to the tide-mark, one can hardly believe that he is traversing salt water. Killarney itself is scarcely more lake-like. On the day of our visit the weather was perfect, --bright, and breezy, with clouds sitting on the distant mountains, merely to add charms to the scene, without suggesting uneasy thoughts regarding a wet jacket. But the campaigners, during the earlier military operations of which it was the theatre, saw it sometimes under very different auspices. Housed in reed huts, in a position exposed to gales from the seaward during the season of almost incessant rain; with none of the comforts, and few of the necessaries of life; sleeping on heaps of fern in thin,

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damp, and worn-out clothes; hard worked on the roads and in fortifying their post; hemmed in by a treacherous enemy, whose alertes, however, furnished the only welcome incidents of a monotonous and comfortless existence, --it is hardly to be wondered that at one time discontent took the form of insubordination among some of the garrison, an ebullition, however, which was checked with a firm hand, and the ringleaders being removed and punished, discipline was quickly restored.

Porirua was an important post during the war; a major's command, with 300 men, including the posts of Pahatanui (after its capture) and Jackson's Ferry. The officers' mess at one period numbered ten or twelve members, who daily sat down to a dinner of salt beef, biscuit, and rum, with neither table nor chair, nor bed to turn into when satiated with such delicate viands. Mr. Hume, perhaps, would admit that the daily stipend of 5s. 3d. is not extravagant pay for a young gentleman under such circumstances! With the usual fate of English barracks, those of Porirua are situated on the very dreariest--the only dreary spot in the circuit of the harbour--a sandy flat commanding its entrance. The present building is of stone, with turrets for guns, which, however, to use a horseman's phrase, were never up to their weight.

Within a mile or two of the camp is the pah of Taupo, belonging to Rauperaha, where he was cleverly captured for the following cause, and in the following manner:-- This wily old chief, pretending friendship towards the English during the rebellion, was found to be secretly supplying his old ally, Rangihaieta, then in hostility against them, with provisions and intelligence

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THE ARREST OF TE RAUPERAHA.

across the rear of the British position at Porirua, from Taupo to Pahatanui, Rangi's stronghold; and suspicions existed that he and other disaffected chiefs were conniving at the movement of a hostile body from the Wanganui tribes down the coast, to form a junction with the latter rebel leader.

Preparations had already been made for attacking Rangihaieta in his pah, only three miles from Porirua, but it was judged best to arrest Te Rauperaha, and thus prevent his cooperating with his friend, before Pahatanui was invested. A combined naval and military force was accordingly put on board H. M. S. Driver, with the double intent of attacking the rebels moving down the coast, and of seizing the veteran tiger in his lair. Adverse gales prevented the performance of the former service, which, however, was almost as well accomplished by the Missionary natives of Otako, who opposed and stopped the intended inroad of the northern barbarians.

On the 23d July, 1846, Major Last, of the 99th, with Captain Stanley, of the Calliope, and a party of about 130, landed before daylight with such perfect silence and order, that the stockade of Taupo was surrounded and entered before the inmates caught the alarm. Te Rauperaha was seized in his bed by a band of seamen, and, struggling, biting, and shouting, "Ngatitoa--Ngatitoa--to the rescue!" he was safely carried off to the ship without any casualty. A considerable quantity of muskets and ammunition, and a small iron gun, were also taken in the stockade.

This capture was a good coup d'etat, and neatly

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effected. The "old serpent" (one of his nicknames) was always hatching mischief--his talent lying more in plots than in exploits. His was the treacherous head and Rangihaieta's the bloody hand that, together, perpetrated against their countrymen in former days, and against the whites more lately, a catalogue of crimes such as would make the Newgate Calendar a mere milksop score of venial peccadilloes.

The attention of "the fighting Governor"--thus was Captain Grey styled by the Maoris--was now turned to Rangihaieta. A combined movement from Wellington, Porirua, and from the Hutt Valley across the hills, was planned. The arch-rebel's courage failed him, and he fled from Pahatanui with his followers before the force had assembled; and a party of militia, guided by friendly Maoris along a native path from the Hutt, cleverly slipped in, and secured the evacuated fortress. Had he remained, and fought well, there would unquestionably have been "wigs on the green," for the position and construction of the pah are remarkably strong. Rangihaieta, however, was aware that there were cannon at Porirua that would soon have levelled his wooden walls; and a young artillery officer, by a bold nocturnal reconnaissance, had discovered a hill commanding the place, whence some well-directed salvos would have quickly dislodged the enemy. Perhaps, too, his conscience made a coward of the once bold and bloody warrior--perhaps his thousand murders, like those of King Richard, sat on his right arm, and unmanned him for the field.

Our party enjoyed a pleasant sail up the salt water

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PAHATANUI--REMOTE STATIONS.

lake to the two camps of Porirua and Pahatanui--inspecting the detachments and cantonments of both, and getting at the former place so excellent a lunch as to prove beyond cavil that, whatever might have been the hardship and starvation during the war, no penance in that line was at present undergone by the gallant occupants of the Porirua stockade.

On approaching Pahatanui, we were much struck by its picturesque as well as defensible position. Even in a light boat we found it difficult to get near it, owing to the shallowness of the water--a feature protecting the place from bombardment by gun-boats. Even unopposed, it was not easy to climb up to the pah, which is perched on a bluff facing down the harbour--its flanks defended by ravines, swamps, and a difficult creek. In the construction of the work some pains had been taken; for there is a double line of strong palisades, with trenches and traverses, and flanking defences. On the occasion of my pacific visit to the late stronghold of Rangihaieta, I found it garrisoned by a captain of the 65th, with a fine detachment of young fellows fresh from England. They are now employed in pushing forward the great road which is being gradually extended northwards along the coast, and which will one day connect Wellington with Auckland.

How soon the soldier shakes comfortably and contentedly into positions which at first sight he surveys with horror and disgust! Like a surly lion, driven by hunters from his familiar lair, he growls and grumbles, and kicks up the dust around his new quarters--until, wisely resolved to make the best of it, he finally coils himself

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complacently within them, only hoping that there will be found plenty to eat and drink in the neighbourhood. At Sydney--1,500 miles from the scene--I had heard nothing but complaints of the military occupancy at Pahatanui. Standing within that stockade, I heard of nothing but its productive garden, its fine climate, the shooting, fishing, and bathing, the eels, the ducks, and the pigeons; and certainly I never set eyes on more well-fed and wholesome "food for powder" than the officers and men of this distant detachment of Her Majesty's army. Distant indeed! How many members of the "United Service Club," senior and junior, how many of "The Rag and Famish"--that queen of clubs--how infinitely few of the self-styled "Travellers" --how many of the gallant Household Brigade, "roughing it" in the "warrees" of St. James's, --have ever heard the name of "Pahatanui?" How many have ever heard--or can spell--the name of "Penetanguishine?" Yet they are both British posts, protected by a British force, naval or military; and how immense the distance between these two outworks of Queen Victoria's dominions!--the one on Lake Huron, the other on Lake Porirua. Yet a soldier's fortune has carried the writer to both, within a very few years.

On our return across the harbour, about midway between Pahatanui and Porirua, the entrance of the Horokiwi Valley, on its northern shore, was pointed out to us. Up the forest defiles of this rugged valley, and through regions almost impassable by man or beast, Major Last, with a strong force of troops, militia, and native allies, pursued the flying Rangihaieta. They passed through

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THE HOROKIWI VALLEY.

various encampments that had been deserted in confusion by the enemy--in one of which was found the bugle which had been taken from the slaughtered boy at Boulcott's Farm, and retained as a trophy. Hotly pressed, the rebel chief soon turned to bay, on a spot which had been previously prepared for a stand--a rough breastwork of horizontal logs, pierced for musketry, having been drawn across a narrow and steep spur of a thickly-wooded hill--so narrow, indeed, that but few men could approach abreast, and flanked by steep ravines.

On the morning of the 6th August, 1846, this strong position was attacked with but little effect, and with the loss of a promising and much beloved young officer, Ensign Blackburn, of the 99th Regiment, and two privates killed and nine wounded; --and again on the 8th, two small mortars having meanwhile been brought up. Ensign Blackburn was shot dead by a Maori concealed in a tree, who was instantly knocked off his perch by an artilleryman.

The height and thickness of the trees, however, prevented the efficient practice of the shells; and the inaccessible nature of the country, with the evident intention of the enemy to abandon post after post, firing a few destructive volleys, and then flying from their valueless positions with little or no loss to themselves--were considerations, which, together with the difficulty of subsisting so numerous a force, induced the officer commanding the expedition to desist from further pursuit of his slippery foe. The troops were accordingly withdrawn into the stockades, and the loyal natives, in

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pursuance of their gallant offer, were left to watch the enemy, to cut off his supply of provisions and water, and thus eventually to capture or drive him back. Mr. Servantes, the military interpreter, an officer who in a surprisingly short time had rendered himself a perfect master of the Maori language, remained with the natives and reported progress.

On the 13th, the rebels opening a brisk fire on the loyalists, Puaha, the leading chief of the latter rushed with his followers to meet them, and, finding that the others retreated, pressed forward and entered their works by the front as the rebels passed out by the rear. The poor wretches had been fairly starved out--no remains nor signs of provisions having been found in the camp except the mamuka, or edible fern. A day or two later, the Christian chief, Wiremu Kingi (William King), issuing from Waikanae, 5 fell upon the rear of the discomfited rebels, capturing a few half-famished creatures, who had been driven by hunger to approach the coast. Harassed on all sides, Rangihaieta thought himself fortunate in making his escape to the mountains, almost totally denuded of his "tail." Had the friendly Maoris stuck with more constancy to the pursuit, he must have been caught; for the gallant captain of the Calliope, who was on the coast near at hand, had formed a plan for a joint attack upon him with these allies--which could hardly have failed.

I believe that our troops returned from the above bush-fight with their clothes and accoutrements so

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RANGIHAIETA DEFEATED.

shredded by the rough underwood, and their persons so besmirched with rain, mud, and the smoke of bivouac fires, as to be in but little better condition than Rangihaieta's hunted and ragged regiment of the Horokiwi. This turbulent chief was much humbled by the foregoing events, and he never again appeared openly in arms against the British Government.

1   Taxus.
2   Dacrydium Cupressinum.
3   Metrosideros Robusta.
4   The native women slice themselves with sharp shells, by way of deep mourning.
5   A Missionary station on the sea coast.

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