1870 - Meade, H. A Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand. [Chapters I-VI. - CHAPTER V.

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CHAPTER V.

IT was known before we started that a large party of Pai Marire fanatics, dispatched from the great meeting of Kingites which has just been held, were to pass this way on their road to spread their new faith amongst the tribes lying between Taupo and the south-eastern coast. The loyal natives of Oruanui accordingly sent them word by letter, that if they purposed endeavouring to proselytize the Queenites, or if they were journeying with hostile intentions against either loyal Maories or white men, they could not be permitted to pass that way. The bearer of this letter was a "serjeant of police," named Ihaka. (In nearly all the loyal tribes there are a certain number of natives receiving a small stipend in the Government service, the chief being styled "Assessor,"

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or "Native Magistrate," and having under his orders a proportion of Serjeants and privates of police.)

He had left the pah long before daybreak, and had thus a good start of us. We were to meet this man on his way back, and learn from him what amount of danger we should be likely to incur. at the hands of these men, who were about to enter the territory of our allies, and what would be our best route to avoid them.

No danger whatever to Ihaka himself was apprehended by those at the pah, his person being rendered sacred in his character of herald or ambassador by Maori laws and customs immemorial.

The day wore on, and I was beginning to think the non-appearance of Ihaka rather suspicious, when suddenly Hemipo, pointing to some little wreaths of smoke curling up from some freshly-lighted fires just within the bush, which was then several hundred yards from our road, exclaimed that there were a quantity of bad Kingite Maories; and he was right, for in another instant we discerned many figures moving about amongst the trunks of trees, around their cooking fires. But we spurred on our horses, and passed them safely, and apparently unobserved. We concluded that this was the party of propagandists against whom we had been warned, who had turned off the path to cook their mid-day meal; and we congratulated ourselves on having kept dear of them so easily.

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Unfortunately for us, they were only the advanced guard.

Soon afterwards a very sharp turning in the road brought us opposite the village of Tataroa. It could hardly be called a pah, there being no stockading or continuous earthworks, but it could easily be turned into one, being built on the crest of a small hill or spur.

We met a Maori in the path, leading his horse to water, and he greeted us with the Pai Marire salutation, which we had often heard lately. He stopped in front of each of us in turn, and pronounced some formula, which apparently consisted in repeating the words "Pai Marire" and some other gibberish as rapidly as possible, accompanied by a succession of gestures, commencing like the Roman Catholic sign of the cross, and ending like a military salute. We listened in silence, with difficulty repressing a smile at the somewhat grotesque ceremony, and replied with the usual "Tena-koe" and shaking of hands. We could see two men, of whom Ihaka was one, standing on the edge of the embankment.

To pass, or attempt to pass a settlement openly, without stopping to exchange greetings, smoke a pipe, or partake of food, would have been a great breach of etiquette, sufficient in itself to draw down on the perpetrators very unpleasant attentions from the inhabitants; but perceiving a red flag (the emblem of war) flying from a staff in the midst of the village,

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I suggested caution to Hemipo. He replied that as Ihaka was there, it would be sure to be all safe, and we cantered up the hill, over the crest or opening in the embankment, into the pah.

Instead of seeing only three or four old women and children, as we had been led to expect, we found ourselves in the presence of about 150 armed men, assembled in the open space in the midst of the whares; and a more villainous-looking crew I have never set eyes on in New Zealand.

Many of them wore English arms and accoutrements which had fallen into their hands during the war -- marines' caps, men-of-war's-men's frocks and swords, and soldiers' rifles, water-bottles, &c., double-barrelled guns, and tomahawks.

Instead of the chorus of "Naumai!" and other cries of welcome which usually greet the traveller's ear on arriving at a Maori pah, a single voice bade us "Haere mai" (come hither) and dismount, and a single glance round the lowering countenances before us and the anxious expression on the face of my guide were sufficient to show that we had indeed fallen in evil case.

I was very unwilling to unsaddle my horse as Hemipo was doing, but finding that a Kingite had already approached and cast off my girth, I complied with what I could not prevent. Luckily, however, I had succeeded, when we first dismounted, in passing over unobserved to Hemipo one of my revolvers,

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which he adroitly concealed under his coat; the other was already safe out of sight in my pocket.

While this was going on, an excited discussion took place amongst a knot of Kingites; and I had hardly got my saddle off when one of them came striding towards me, followed by two or three others with guns in their hands. He was armed with one of our cutlass-hilted naval sword-bayonets, which he flourished in a decidedly unpleasant manner. I learnt afterwards that he owned to his intention of killing the Pakeha there and then.

There was mischief in his every look and gesture, and I was in the very act of drawing my revolver from its hiding-place, to sell my life as dearly as possible, when, while the would-be murderers were yet some three paces from us, a big ugly-looking fellow sprung forward and drove them back into the crowd. He then called out something in a very powerful voice-- the whole assembly were marshalled into two sides of a square, of which the flagstaff was the centre, and forthwith commenced the Pai Marire "Karakia" (worship). I was much surprised at their commencing these rites immediately after my arrival, having heard that no white man had yet been permitted to witness them; but I was not then aware that they were being performed solely on my own account. The man who had just come to my assistance was named Te Aokatoa (which means "All the World"), a great burly ruffian, very much tattooed--

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TATAROA.

a fellow who would have made the fortune of any country manager as the melodramatic villain. He was the principal or high priest present, and therefore M. C. of their religious antics. He no more wanted to save my life than did any of his comrades, and was afterwards one of the most violent against me; but he had no notion of permitting so important an event as the sacrifice of the first Pakeha to he consummated except under his direct auspices, and in a manner which should contribute to his own importance and influence over his dupes.

He therefore announced, when he stopped Karouria and his companions who wanted to kill me straight off, that there must first be a great "Karakia," or ceremony of worship, to induce the Great Atua (spirit) to inspire them rightly as to what was to be done with the Pakeha. He, Te Aokatoa, having long ago made up his own mind on the subject in a manner which would have saved any one the trouble of reading these lines.

I must now go back a little, to give Ihaka's version of the circumstances which prevented him from giving us warning of our danger. He says that, on reaching Tataroa in the forenoon, he found that the fanatics whom he had been sent to meet had only just arrived and purposed stopping until the evening; that they had heard that I was coming, in spite of the precautions which were taken at Oruanui to prevent its being known in improper quarters; and,

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connecting my advent with that of Ihaka, they violently upbraided him for "bringing a Pakeha among them, to spy out their doings;" that one of them kept threatening him with a club, and that, being in fear of his life, he could not get away to return and give us warning; but that later a chief named Paora Toki made a speech recommending them not to molest me, on the grounds of not offending the people whose country they wished to pass through. He had scarcely finished speaking, when the cry was raised that the Pakeha was in sight, and immediately afterwards we rode into the pah.

There was no attempt to rob or search us, either because that ceremony was deferred until after the Karakia and the meeting, which was to follow, should have decided as to our disposal, or because there was nothing in our appearance, or the rough clothes we wore, to tempt their cupidity: we were not likely-looking characters to have much money about us, and I need hardly say that our carrying arms was never suspected--had they had the least inkling of this our fate would have been sealed, and that of a few of their number as well. But this part of our little secret was safe enough so long as it was not in danger of discovery by other means than eyesight; for no one would be likely to suspect a Maori of having a revolver, and the other one hung ready to hand, and full-cocked, from two

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loops within my inner breast-pocket, so contrived that, though the jacket itself remained ostentatiously thrown open, no one could detect that it contained anything so solid.

Escape was, from the moment we entered the kainga, utterly out of the question: before we could have got twenty yards we should have been riddled. Hemipo and I were seated on some wood, with our backs to a whare, forming as it were the third side of the square, under charge of a sentry with a sword, and another with a gun, with Ihaka close to us. The "Prophet's staff," which had been set up in the middle of the open space, was a stout spar, some 30 feet high, from which floated first the "Riki," or war-flag, a long red pendant with a white cross. Beneath it, a large handsome flag, very carefully made--black, with a white cross next the staff, and a blue fly, the whole surrounded by a narrow scarlet border; and beneath that again another red pendant, much broader than the upper one, with a St, Andrew's cross and some other design which I forget. The priest stood near the staff, which was further "supported," as they say in Heraldry, by three little children who stood with their backs against it, while two men with drawn cutlasses walked up and down the inner sides of the square to prevent anyone approaching too close to the sacred staff, or the high priest, whilst he was under the influence of divine inspiration.

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AOKATOA.

As soon as silence and order were established, Te Aokatoa commenced gabbling away at a tremendous rate, varying the performance with occasional yells; he then being supposed to be the favoured mouthpiece of the Deity, and to have the gift of divers tongues. Thus I was told at one time that he was speaking English, at another French, and then Hebrew--I need hardly say that it was all gibberish. At intervals he would stop to make obeisance to the staff and to the four points of the compass, with the usual Pai Marire salutation, but accompanied by genuflexions. When he had apparently come to the end of his wind and his Hebrew, he paused a little to take breath, and then chanted a hymn in Maori, followed by something which appeared to imitate the style of our Litany, to which the people gave responses in their own language.

Then, at a signal from the priest, the whole of the assembled tribes (there were delegates from many) sprang to their feet, men, women, and children, and having formed round the flagstaff in a circular column, eight or ten deep, began slowly marching round the staff, pointing to the skies above them with swords or guns or spears, 1 and chanting the responses after the priest in excellent time and powerful voices. It was the first time that I had heard Maories singing in tune. It appeared to resemble some of our own church music, from whence

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it doubtless took its source, though with many wild variations.

The striking character of the surrounding scenery --the scarlet, black, and blue of the flags, with their

white crosses waving forth in strong relief against the dark woods beyond, --the varied and many-coloured dresses--the throng of eager upturned faces, fervent with fanaticism--little children, young girls,

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swarthy warriors, with upraised hands and weapons pointing heavenward--and the swelling chorus rising through the stillness of the primeval forest---all combined to produce a very remarkable effect.

This was the end of the "Karakia;" and after they had all made obeisance to the staff as described above, the congregation resolved itself into a "Runanga" to decide on my fate.

Of the first two speakers who addressed the meeting, the first urged the immediate execution of myself, the second that of my guide as well; both on grounds furnished by their fanaticism, and the presumption that I was a spy; and after each had concluded, as well as when they paused--for they spoke slowly and deliberately--the bulk of their hearers signified their approval with cries of "Let the pig be stuck!" "Let the calf (te kuao) be killed!"

Then uprose Hemipo and addressed the Runanga on my behalf and his own. He had been well primed by the Pakeha-Maori Frank before starting with some good stiff lies. I had thought it better to trust to their knowledge of their countryman's character for the concoction of a plausible account of myself, which should satisfy any Kingites whom by ill-luck we might chance to meet with, than to any story which I could evolve from my own comparative ignorance of the people whose lands we wanted to traverse, by fair means or by foul. He accordingly explained to his audience that I was a civilian Pa-

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keha, who had never had anything to do with either army or navy, or been connected in any way with the war; that I had only recently come out in a merchant vessel for my own pleasure to see the country; that I was going to return to England almost immediately, and that my only reason for wishing to pass through their territory was to avoid missing my passage in the ship, which was to sail next week, &c., &c.; and then a good deal more on his own account, addressing himself, more particularly to the Ngatiraukawas present, a tribe to which his father, old Ngaperi, is related.

But though his own life was nearly as much at stake as mine, I could not help admiring the cool, almost careless way in which he spoke, playing with his riding-whip, as though he were speaking to his own people at home; behaving, in fact, as became a "rangatira" 2 in difficulties.

After Hemipo had finished, Te Aokatoa rose, and advocated my death in a very violent speech of a quarter of an hour's duration. "How dares he," said he; "how dares he come amongst us while our blood is still flowing?" (This was rather a strained metaphor, for it is now many months since last our people tapped their claret--they must have a large supply!)

"Mate rawa! Mate rawa!--let him die! let him die!"

Hemipo or Ihaka translated to me at intervals

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what the various speakers said, Ihaka being able to speak quite enough English for the purpose; but no knowledge of the language was necessary to distinguish the excited words of the savages who wanted my life from the calm delivery of those who were for letting me go in peace.

I had with me His Excellency's letter to Te Heu-heu, which I had brought to be used as a last resource, in case of our falling in with any of his tribe; but the animus displayed against the Governor by more than one of the speakers was so bitter, that any allusion to him, or the production of his letter, would only have left us in worse case than before.

The speakers sometimes addressed me personally, "E Pakeha!" (stranger!), but more often spoke of or at me by a term of abuse. I could, of course, take no part in the discussion, in which my ignorance of the language would only have exposed me to ridicule; so I had nothing for it but to light my pipe, and endeavour to look as if I thought that the bare idea of their killing such a swell as the late honoured guest of the Arawas was really too preposterous to be entertained for a moment.

This, however, was not quite so easy as it may seem, for various small boys would come and squat themselves right in front of me, grinning in a way which plainly showed what sport they expected to have with the Pakeha; and at one period of the debate, so confident were the bloody-minded ones of

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carrying their point, that they went into the whares for their guns, and loaded them.

The next speaker of any note was Karouria, and he not only recommended that I should be killed, but offered in the most handsome manner to do the job himself, emphasizing his remarks by sundry little preliminary flourishes of the aforesaid cutlass so close to my face as to be exceedingly disagreeable.

It was evident from the tenor of his speech and that of others that they expected the immolation of the Pakeha to be literally as simple a matter as the killing of a calf. But Hemipo was evidently game to the backbone, and ready for action; and it was comforting to think that, by running a muck in the crowd which surrounded us, the moment death should be decided on, we could, having the advantage of surprise with eleven barrels and the bowie-knife, send a good many of the vagabonds to precede us to the world of shades. Hemipo had stipulated before starting that he should be allowed the use of one of my revolvers in the event of any fighting being imminent, and had been duly instructed in its use. I learnt afterwards that the display of loading guns was mere wanton braggadocio, or at most but a precaution in case either of us should try to bolt, and that the tomahawk would have been the instrument. The man who was to have used it stood close at my left side during the latter part of the Runanga; a tall man, with no hair on his face, and rather a humorous

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expression of countenance; he wore his blanket like most Maories, toga fashion, and twitched it at intervals as if to keep his right arm clear and free, for he carried a small bone-handled tomahawk, which he took small pains to conceal.

But he was so close that I could easily have shot him through the side of my coat before he could have swung his arm, for, by smoking with folded arms, I could keep my finger close to the trigger without exciting suspicion.

At the time when things looked blackest--when the chances of seeing the sun go down that evening seemed small indeed, --a young woman left her place amongst the Kingites, walked slowly across the open space, and sat down by my feet. This was Ahumai, the same whose three bayonet and shot wounds, inflicted by British troops at Orakau, were shown to us at Waihaha. My acquaintance with her had been of the very slightest, and she had no motive for the demonstration she made in my favour other than a kindly wish to save the life of a comparative stranger. We learnt afterwards that she did us no small service, both at this critical time and while they were expecting our arrival. She is, as I have said before, a woman possessing no small influence with her associates of both sexes, being rather feared by the one and liked by the other--a good-looking, self-willed sort of Amazon. Her husband was killed at the same place where she was wounded. It so happened

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that Mair, who was present, was desired to communicate with the garrison of the pah, for which purpose he went to the end of the sap, which was then close to the native entrenchment, and having called for a cessation of firing, stood up on a little ledge or banquette within the sap, and held a korero with the besieged. But he had scarcely finished the ultimatum which he had to deliver, when one of the men within the pah fired at him. Simultaneously with the shot, the loose soil of the ledge he stood on gave way, and he disappeared into the sap. The Maories concluded that he had been killed, and vehemently condemned the treachery of the man who had fired. This was Ahumai's husband; he was killed a few hours afterwards, and in the words of his fair widow, when relating the circumstance to us at Waihaha, "served him right."

From this time forward our prospects began to mend, and in spite of a hostile speech from an influential old savage, named Paku, the majority of the speakers were of opinion that it would be bad policy to risk provoking an attack from the Arawas, whose territory they wanted to pass through unmolested, by murdering their late guest. But even those best disposed towards us said that had they supposed me to have had any connection with the fighting tribe of Pakehas, or had we met them on the march, we should have been settled with, without any Runanga at all. We were aware of the extra danger of meet-

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ing them on the march, and would have taken good care to give them a wide berth. They also said that had not Hemipo been the son of a chief related to the Ngatiraukawas, he would have suffered the same fate.

One chief only was in favour of letting us proceed on our journey.

At last we were told that we might go, returning by the way we came. Finding ourselves at liberty, we walked down the slope to saddle our horses; avoiding, as well as we could, all appearance of hurry, which might have been likely to provoke an attack, in the same way that snatching one's hand away from a parrot induces it to bite.

But we were not yet at the end of our difficulties, for before we had finished saddling, an Uriwera native came running down from the pah, and called Hemipo on one side. This was to me the most unpleasant moment of all, for I made sure that he was called aside to allow the natives to shoot me comfortably from the pah above, not fifty yards distant. To have been finished after a good scrimmage, and having emptied our pistols into the crowd (who could hardly have used firearms against us without shooting one another), would have been bad enough; but to be shot here like a rabbit, and get no change for the coin of life would have been dismal indeed.

Luckily I was wrong: the man had called Hemipo out of sight of the pah to warn him that a reaction

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was taking place among the Kingites, and that a strong party were still bent on our destruction. Hemipo exclaimed, in the wonderful jargon--the medium of communication between us, --each apparently cherishing the pleasing illusion that he, was speaking the language: of the other, "Nga kakino Maori Kingi wantee makee kiri koe!" i. e. "The blackguard Maori Kingites want to kill you!"

No second hint was needed---we sprang into our saddles and rode for our lives; for whilst the Uriwera was speaking to Hemipo, I had observed four or five vagabonds leaving the pah in the same direction; and from the sneaking way that they were sloping along, in a stooping posture, it was plain that they were after mischief. The fern and bush were thick, so there were probably more whom I could not see. They were doubtless making for a place which commanded the road; and whence, had they got there before us, they would have had some very pretty shooting. As it was, we preceded them, and, avoiding the place where we had seen the Kingites camping in the bush that morning, scarcely drew rein till we had placed some eight or ten miles between ourselves and the enemy. Then perceiving no signs of a pursuit, though we had left some twenty or thirty horses tethered round Taiaroa, and being close to friendly territory, we planted ourselves and horses at the bottom of a gully, well out of sight, and regaled ourselves with biscuit and watercress,

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which we found growing in profusion. We reached the friendly pah of Oruanui, between 9 and 10 P. M., without further adventure.

The writer was the first white man who fell into the hands of these fanatics. The second was a most excellent missionary--him they hanged, and ate his eyes and brains.

28th. --The history of our adventure, detailed and retailed by Hemipo again and again, caused no little excitement at the pah, and the chief's large whare was crowded with Maories who sat round the fire far into the night, discussing the conduct of the fanatics and the kindred question as to the mode in which they should be received on passing through Oruanui.

Ihaka made his appearance some hours after our return, bearing the written answer from the Hau-haus to the demands of the Queenites,

In this document they promised they would not endeavour to proselytize any of the inhabitants of the loyal districts, and asserted that, far from intending to attack the Queenites, or the white settlers of Napier or elsewhere, they only wished to carry peaceably their revelations of the new faith to the Kingite tribes southward and eastward. They concluded by asking to be allowed to pass unmolested, and in a postscript pointed to the fact that the "Runanga" had permitted me to return safely, as an additional reason for their request (or demand, for such it was)

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being granted. They conveniently omitted all allusion to the attempt that was undoubtedly made to cut us off after we had started; perhaps thinking that we knew nothing of it; but there can be little doubt as to the necessity of the friendly warning which was given to Hemipo, or of the intentions of those whom I at the same time saw creeping away from the pah through the bush; for it is not long since a small party of Queenites, who had fallen into the clutches of similar fanatics, were permitted to depart, and then treacherously followed up and tomahawked or shot--all but one, who escaped to tell the fate of his companions.

Having been baffled on this route I proposed to Hemipo to endeavour to gain our outposts by a road which we had had under discussion before--to recross the Waikato at Orakei-korako, and by following a certain unfrequented track from that place, strike into the Tokoroa road, and thence on to the plain of the Waikato. But he had apparently had enough of the Hau-haus, and assured me that he had learnt from Ahumai and Ihaka that the track in question, as well as all others leading to the military posts to the northward, are carefully watched, and that there would be no chance of getting through. It would have been no use pressing the matter any further, so I concluded a fresh agreement with him to take me on to Napier instead.

Moreover, Ihaka brings word that the Hau-haus whom we met at Tataroa are followed by another

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band of armed fanatics, seventy-five in number, who have just arrived at Waimahana, where they remain for a day; they are of the Ngatimaniapoto (Rewi's 3 tribe), and are bound on a similar mission.

We left again for Tapuae-haruru as soon as a fresh horse could be caught for me, the sturdy black being rather "cooked" from the effects of the previous day's gallop.

A wet morning, and bitterly cold evening. Found Mair alone. News had been received that the two natives who were sent with Hohepa to bring back the provisions are coolly amusing themselves at Napier instead of returning immediately, as they were ordered; and the road is said to be clear.

Under these circumstances Poihipi consented to Brenchley's immediate departure for Napier, and has himself accompanied him part of the way, to judge of his reception at the first two or three Kingite settlements, after which he was to leave him to pursue the rest of the journey with three natives and two pack-horses.

Before Brenchley left all the natives of the settlement assembled in front of the whare that we had been living in, and laid before him various presents, mostly heirlooms of the tribe. With Mair's advice he selected a handsome "taiaha" (a sort of spear, or sword-shaped club, of dark red wood, carved and polished, with plume of white dog's hair and small

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scarlet feathers, and more as a mark of the bearer's rank as chief than as a weapon), and a small eardrop of the precious green-stone, together with a photograph of Poihipi, which the worthy chief had sat for in Auckland.

Mair returns shortly to Maketu and Tauranga, with Hooper. He described to me the stir amongst the natives on hearing, late last night, of the adventure with the Hau-haus; a messenger had been dispatched from Oruanui, who arrived after most of the inhabitants had lain down for the night, but they all turned out at once, and having obtained Mair's leave to assemble the tribe at his whare, the Oruanui man got on his legs, and remained there for a good hour or more, treating his audience to a "full and particular account," with many embellishments. We learnt a good many additional details of the affair at Tataroa from Eruera, who had seen one of the Kingites; amongst others the correctness of my conjecture as to the tall man with the little tomahawk being the intended executioner. And in many ways the conviction of how near a thing it had been came home to me far more vividly than at the time of the occurrence.

"You wouldn't have smiled like that if this had been explained to you yesterday," said Mair, when Eruera, to show the place where the coup de grace would have been struck, gently laid his cold forefinger on my temple. --Possibly not.

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Sunday, 2th. --Made an early start this morning, after sleeping for the last time at the old whare, and parted with sincere regret from my good friends at the village by the lake, I determined to make my "Sabbath day's journey " a long one, for the double purpose of overtaking Brenchley and of putting a wholesome distance between ourselves and those of the Hau-hau party who are to follow on the Napier road.

The latter, who have reverted to the observance of the Jewish Sabbath instead of the Christian Sunday, remained all yesterday at Tataroa, thereby giving us a clear day's start.

I may as well pause here for awhile to glance at a few of the particulars which we learnt at the time concerning the Pai Marire religion, as well as to mention what I have heard, since writing the above last year, from those we left behind us--friends and foes. The information furnished to us bore out most of what Father Boibeaux had told us, but as the new religion has no recognized head capable of controlling its followers, its tenets and ceremonies are constantly changing.

The original germ sprang from Te Ua, a comparatively well-meaning and harmless old idiot on the west coast, who lost the very few senses that he had ever been troubled with, from vexation at the obstinacy of his tribe in refusing to comply with his exhortations in favour of peace and honesty at the

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time of the wreck of the 'Lord Worsely;' and it was he who initiated the peaceful greeting, "Pai Marire!" which has since become the watchword of guinary fanaticism. But the leading agitators soon perceived the advantage to the war party which would accrue from the banding together of the whole Maori race in the ties of a common religion, different from that professed by the Pakeha; and while presenting their followers with a brand new religion of their own, they took care to hash up the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish creeds into such a parody on all three, as to allay any sectarian jealousy which existed among those who had previously been members of the Protestant or Romish Churches.

Some one--one can hardly help fancying that it must have been some mischievous white man--has put into their heads that the Maories are the remnant of the lost tribes of Israel; and their observance of the seventh day, their stories of recent miracles at Taranaki, and of the personal appearance of the Almighty on earth in that province, as in the days of the patriarchs, and a great deal more, are all taken from Jewish history. They told us that as soon as all the Maories, or at least all the Kingites, shall have been converted, a certain number of warriors from every tribe are to assemble at some place on the Waikato, whence, after a grand praying-match, a certain holy Seventy will be selected by Divine inspiration, and march down to the sacred river Puniu (a

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tributary of the Waikato), where they will perform the "karakia" by the banks of the stream, and forthwith the troops will be impelled to advance against them; when a misty veil will descend from heaven, rendering the faithful Seventy invisible to the soldiers, who will be divided by the miraculous cloud, and cut to pieces with impunity by the remainder of the warriors. Then the Maori race shall do unto the Pakeha as the Jews did to the Gentiles, whose cities they went in to possess.

It was obvious that delusions such as these could not long survive the success of our arms, and even now (1866) the Pai Marire faith is on the ebb, and the latest reports say that on the east coast, where the mental disease broke out in the most virulent form, the natives are returning to the Christian religion, and rebuilding their churches.

Two other superstitious delusions have obtained for awhile amongst the natives, in times gone by, since their first conversion to Christianity, but neither of them so dangerous, so wide spread, or so lasting as the present. Curiously enough, the prophet or leader of the last fanaticism, who foretold a millennium, and season of miraculous abundance of food and good things of all sorts, so close at hand and so bountiful that it was both useless and impious to go on planting or rearing stock, himself died of starvation in the woods whilst on a short journey.

The Queenites of Taupo and Oruanui decided to

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let the Hau-haus pass in peace, for various reasons: the principal of which was that they could not stop them. They reconciled their loyalty to the Queen and aversion to the fanatics with the duty and custom immemorial of showing hospitality to all strangers journeying through their land in any other than hostile array, by placing raw food with fuel for cooking, in heaps outside the settlements, while they themselves remained within the whares with their arms in their hands. At Oruanui, finding how short-handed were the Queenites, the Hau-haus became very bumptious, and having raised their staff, went through their mummeries before the faces of the inmates of the pah. They pushed on to Taupo sooner than was expected, and Mair nearly came to grief in consequence. It appears that the vagabonds wanted to get hold of him, because they believed that it was he who had guided the troops to Orakau, at which place he acted as interpreter. He was on his way to the pah at Oruanui, but luckily turned off the road to examine a large steam-jet. Whilst he was doing SO, the greater part of the band came streaming along the path in a long straggling line, without either seeing or being seen by him. A few minutes more, and Mair, having satisfied his curiosity, cantered back to the path. A sudden turning brought him face to face with a small number of Hau-haus who had lagged behind the rest. They looked at him very hard, but not knowing that he had avoided the

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others, took for granted that Paku and Te Aokatoa and the other leading chiefs had some good reason for letting him pass, so they, being moreover on Queenite territory, let him go unmolested. At Taupo they were received in the same manner as at Oruanui; not one of Poihipi's people stirring outside his doors, till the Hau-haus, having got hold of a weak-minded old woman belonging to the place, and having made a circle round her, proceeded to subject her to mesmerism, or whatever their mode of influence may be --one at all events well calculated to obfuscate the mind of the individual operated on. An opinion gained ground in the whares that the old lady was rapidly becoming a Hau-hau, when two young men --native police--very gallantly rushed out of a whare, broke through the circle, and dragged her off; at the same time reproaching the fanatics for breach of their written promise. Somehow the latter were ashamed of themselves, and offered no resistance, though they had vastly the advantage in numbers.

After crossing the Waikato at the Taupo ferry, they appear to have broken up into two or more parties, some going eastward and some to the south. Judging by the account in the newspapers of the arrival in the province of Napier of a portion of this band, I must have considerably underrated their numbers.

In every direction the new religion spread like

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wildfire, and a month had barely passed before the effects were shown in the abominable murder of the Rev. Mr. Volkener, one of the best and most zealous missionaries in all New Zealand. The leading facts of the martyr's death are well known to the public; the details are unfit for publication.

Mr. Grace remained, though a sort of prisoner at large, in great danger for many days, the Hau-haus occasionally disputing as to whether it would be better to put him to death at once, or to take him with them alive across country to Taranaki, making use of their living prisoner, and of the baked heads of Mr. Volkener and that of a soldier which they had brought with them, to excite the tribes on their road.

On the 15th of March, a fortnight after Mr. Volkener's murder, the natives went to a great meeting a few miles away, to consecrate a new staff, leaving Mr. Grace but slightly guarded; the next day H. M. dispatch gun-vessel 'Eclipse,' sent by the Commodore from Auckland, arrived off the bar, having Bishop Selwyn on board. An opportunity offered, Mr. Grace having been left with only an old woman to guard him, his sentries, thinking there was no chance of an escape, having gone off to- the meeting; Mr. Levy, the master of the schooner 'Eclipse,' who, being a Jew, was allowed to go where he liked, pulled him on board the man-of-war, the namesake of the schooner.

This man published part of his journal in the

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daily papers, and was soon the hero of the hour; a public meeting being convened to do him honour. But he made a variety of misstatements, all tending to his own glorification and the abuse of Mr. Grace, which were afterwards refuted by the evidence of his own crew and of the other traders living at Opotiki; but not, however, till they had been most recklessly repeated, and sent home for publication in an English Magazine, by one who, though writing only under initials, took small pains to conceal an animus against the minister of a rival creed.

The same day H. M. S. 'Eclipse's' boats, under Lieut. Belson, cut out the schooner, and on the 19th they arrived at Auckland, where Mr. Grace had long been considered a dead man by almost everyone excepting his own wife, who never lost hope and faith. Mair afterwards ascertained that amongst the murderers of Volkener were several of those who had voted for my death at Tataroa.

When the news was first received, the deed was execrated on all hands; even our old and inveterate foes, the Ngatiporos, hastened to assure us that the murder of innocent missionaries was not their mode of making war, and offered to co-operate with us by raising the country to rescue the prisoners and capture the murderers; and the Poverty Bay chiefs came up by sea to make a similar offer, but stipulated for a reward in the event of success. Unfortunately the colonial politicians were busy squabbling as to

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the seat of government, and consequently where the head-quarters of the troops with the fat commissariat contracts should he; so that there was no one in Auckland with authority to take the immediate steps which might have secured success.

Four months later came the murder of Mr. Fulloon, Government interpreter, and the crew of the 'Kate,' by the Hau-haus at Whakatane, both on the east coast. By this time the whole country-side from Taupo to the east Cape was one seething hot-bed of fanaticism, encouraged by the impunity which followed the murder of Volkener. The Government had avowed their inability to assist the plucky little band of loyal natives who yet remained at Taupo, and advised them to fall back on Rotorua, which they did with heavy hearts; and the Queen's flag floats no longer by the waters of the Great Lake.

When Fulloon was killed, Mair was at Rotorua, and as soon as he heard of it, he took measures to avenge his death. In about a week he collected and equipped a sufficient force, and at the end of that time he started from the lower end of Lake Tarawera with 200 Arawas, having sent about 150 more to march down the coast from Maketu.

On the 16th of August the coast party attacked the Pai Marire pah at the confluence of the Awa-o-te-Atua (River of the Spirit) and the Rangitaiki without success, having no boats or canoes. On the same day Mair's party attacked Parawai, a very

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strong position on the above-named river, about seven miles from Mount Edgcumbe, but met with no better luck, and for the same reason. He then effected a junction with the coast party, which the enemy tried to prevent, but failed, losing a chief in the attempt. There were three pahs near the sea, but all too strong to be taken without artillery and boats. Several days were spent in skirmishing, usually picking off one or two Hau-haus, and waiting in hopes of assistance from the Opotiki expedition (English troops, which landed Sept. 8); in this, however, they were disappointed. They then detached a party, who seized all the canoes at Whakatane (the scene of the murder), and got them by fresh water to the rear of the enemy, while the remainder dragged others overland into the lake behind the pahs, and thus cut off their supplies. The Hau-haus evacuated all the pahs during the night of the 10th of October, and retreated in canoes up the intricate channels of the Delta, leaving no traces of their route. But on the 15th, Mair learnt that they had thrown themselves into the Teko pah, and following them up, captured all their canoes, with eleven barrels of powder, and lead for bullets. On the 17th, travelling by land and water with nearly 500 Arawas, he reached the pah.

The place was very strong, having in its rear on one side the Rangitaiki--swift, broad, and deep; and on the other three sides nearly 300 yards of smooth

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glacis. Three lines of palisading with flanking angles and three rows of rifle-pits and breastworks. The pah itself was 90 yards long by 45 broad, and every hut within it was separately fortified. There was, moreover, a covered way communicating with the landing-place on the river.

Sapping was the only way to take such a place. Mair, though a civilian, was present at Orakau, when that place was sapped under the direction of Captain Hurst, E. B., and seems to have made good use of his eyes. Three saps were accordingly started, under cover of a slight undulation of the ground, and, in spite of a heavy fire, made such good progress that on the 19th the Hau-haus craved a truce to arrange terms. Firing was suspended for twenty-four hours, but the saps were kept driving, and the only terms were unconditional surrender. Meanwhile Hemipo, whose father Ngaperi (the old chief whom we met in the wood at Taupo) was one of the leading men in the pah, improved the occasion by lecturing his papa to such good effect, that he came over to the Queenites, bringing with him twenty-five Taupo warriors, the flower of the garrison; and as none of them were implicated in the murders, they were allowed to change sides, and fight in the trenches of the Queenites.

By 2 A. M. on the 20th the Arawas had cut off the covered way, and got close up to the southern angle. Mair then for the last time summoned Te

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Hura to surrender, assuring him that if forced to carry the place by assault, no quarter would be given.

They saw that the case was hopeless, and at sunrise the whole garrison marched out, and laid down their arms.

As they came out, each hapu of the Arawa sprang from their trenches with a yell, and immediately had as fine a war-dance as ever was seen--dear old Poihipi and three or four other hoary old sinners giving the time. It must indeed have been a stirring sight: the long column of prisoners standing with drooping heads, while their captors danced the wild war-dance with all the fury of excitement and success--the war-cry of the Arawa echoing from hilltop to hill-top, while the earth trembled under the stamp of a thousand feet.

And well might they exult, for besides having captured a number of the murderers who had brought such disgrace on the Maori name, there were among their prisoners many of the men who had carried so high a hand at Tataroa, at Oruanui, and at Taupo.

Mair placed the murderers, thirty-one in number, under the special charge of the native police, and the remainder became prisoners of war to the tribe of Arawa. The murderers were first tried by court-martial, and mostly convicted, but the court being afterwards deemed informal, they were tried again by civil law in Auckland, and the sentences were recently carried into effect; five have been hung.

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and others sentenced to hard labour for life, or shorter periods.

On the other hand, more than one of our late fellow-travellers have died or been killed.

Poor Wharetini, the "Southern Planter" as we nicknamed him, the handsomest, the merriest, the most impudent of all --foremost in the war-dance, foremost in the fight--has found that consumption is more deadly than the bullets of the Hau-hau.

Wm. Thompson, 4 Te Heu-heu, and Te Ua have recently consented to meet the Governor; Te Ua has given up the religion which he originated, and is now as well as Te Heu-heu at Wellington with the Governor. The two former, by the advice and example of Sir George, have taken "The Pledge."