[CHAPTER III]
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CHAPTER III.
NATIVE FORTIFICATIONS DESCRIBED. --THE LOCALES SELECTED. --SCARPING --CAUSES OF CAPTURE. --STOCKADES. --INTERIOR OF A FORT. --PROHIBITED VEGETATION. --NATIVE CONTRIVANCES. --PA OF E'ONGI. --MILITARY WEAPONS OF THE ABORIGINES. --VARIETY OF SPEARS. --STONE TOMAHAWK. --ITS USE. --SLINGERS OF OLD. --NATURE OF THE POUNAMU. --THE ONEWOA. --THE HANI-ATOKI PU TANGATA --PATU. --CLUBS. --DAGGERS. --JAVELINS. --ARMOUR. --CANNON. --HEATED STONES. FOR PROTECTION, ETC. --MUNIMENTS OF THE ARMY. --PERSONAL COMBATS. --SUICIDES. --TREACHERY. --PUNISHMENT OF TRAITORS. --CONFUSION CONSEQUENT IN BATTLE. --TROPHIES.
THE fortifications of the natives are called Pa or E'Pa (the fort) and written by Cook as Hippah. The spots chosen for these defences equally evince sound judgment and habitual fear. The locale accounted as best adapted for such defensive places is on the summit of a hill that towers above the adjacent country, or a mountainous pass, having at its foot a river or running stream. Insular retreats distant a few miles from the main are also in especial repute. Another principal object is to scarp the hill in such a manner as to render the ascent both difficult and dangerous to a foe. Remains of such works are to be found on every remarkable elevation throughout the country, except where trees have usurped the flatted sward from long disuse. The defence of the fort is formed by
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two. and even three stout stockades of irregularly-sized poles and posts, varying from eight to thirty feet in height from the ground, in which they are thrust from three to seven feet. The large poles are placed about a dozen feet apart, on which are often carved ludicrous representations of men and animals, the spaces between the poles are filled in with stakes close together, and bound firmly with horizontal pieces by a creeper called torotoro which is tough and serviceable for a long period. These strongholds thus improved by art, have often proved superior to any force the natives could formerly bring against them, and if the defenders had possessed two requisites, viz., provisions and courage, they might not only have defied their assailants, however numerous, but by keeping up a good fire, and a good look out, could have scared them away with much loss. In fact, few instances have perhaps occurred of a pa being taken by a brisk siege; cowardice, treachery, improvidence, and often the triple conjunction, having aided the besiegers. Sorties have been sometimes successfully made, but such heroism is rarely displayed, unless an inferior complement of the natives appear. The stockades that enclose the fort are within a few feet of each other, the outer gate 1 or entrance being much
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less than the inner opening, which in time of war is entered by stepping-stones or small wooden posts like a turnstile. The width is so contracted as scarcely to admit a large-sized man, and between the fences, a fosse is often cut about four feet in depth, sheltering the besieged while in the act of discharging their pieces at the enemy. A more confused scene can scarcely be conceived than a pa during a siege. Some hundreds of low arched huts lie huddled together without form, street or path; among these pig-sties some native palaces raise their heads, and platforms (watas) built on trees for the preservation of food, and not for defensive purposes. Mounds have often been erected during the night, by an enemy, to overlook the interior of the fort, but they are of rare occurrence.
The rush huts near the tiapa or stockade are covered with earth and clay, rendering them musket-proof to their inmates. On these huts, vegetation takes root, and not unfrequently a variety of indigenous products may be seen flourishing on these singular garden-plots; but every article that grows is strictly tapued, and a musket placed by accident on such place would become a sacred or prohibited object ever after.
Some forts have been selected with consummate skill, having the command of mountain-gorges, and narrow passes, that might keep in check an army,
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if defended by a handful of stout-hearted valiant men. Various able contrivances have been in-vented to render the approach to a fortification extremely difficult of access, and many of the locales being out of the reach of cannon, and a wooden post with notches, (whereby one person only can ascend at a time,) being the only method of entering the place, has placed the tribes inhabiting such aeries independent of their belligerent neighbours around.
The pa formed by the celebrated E'Ongi on a promontory jutting into the lake Moperri, situated half way between the Bay of Islands and Hokianga, was a work of much merit. Its skilful arrangement added greatly to the consequence of the self-taught engineer among: his countrvmen. In the harbour of Wangaroa, 35 miles north of the Bay of Islands, are mountains celebrated for the pa's that were formed there; but the former resident tribes of the place have long since been broken up and utterly destroyed.
The weapons employed in the native warfare were not remarkable for beauty or variety, and are now entirely laid aside in favour of the fowling-piece, and the equally destructive tomahawk. The bow and arrow found among all savage nations were unknown in the country, where numerous woods exist admirably fitted for the formation of such universally known weapons. Slings, another
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implement that did much execution, were also unknown. 2 Spears of various length and thickness were the largest weapons, formed from the Kaikatoa (a philadelphus,) and hardened by fire. The
Hani was among the shortest, but was only fitted for parade, as in a close contest, space could not be obtaining for wielding them; they were, therefore,
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speedily laid aside, and the Meri no poenamu or tomahawk of green talc, 3 was immediately taken from the belt where it was suspended, and the lashing of dog's skin attached to it fastened to the wrist of the right hand, while the left was engaged fastening on the tresses of the enemy, whose heads were cut off or split open by the fatal instrument.
The Meri is generally formed of the green talc, jade, serpent-stone, and jasper (for it has been called by all these names) also of wood, and a dark-gray granite called Onewoa.
The toki (axe) and toki poo tangata, an instrument in form of an adze, were also formed of the same materials, and proved particularly useful, as the blows of the combatants were generally directed to the head and neck.
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The head of the spear is called the tongue, (from the resemblance it bears to that active member of the human body,) and is carved with much fancy and neatness. Tufts of parti-coloured feathers are fastened round it. The spears of ten feet in length, noticed by Cook, have long since disappeared. The present spear is only made use of as
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a truncheon, to direct or animate the strokes of the paddles in a canoe, and keep time for the chorus.
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The patu was a wooden implement, not unlike the figure of a violin, and generally made of the rohito, or iron-wood, the handle was often carved, but has long been disused in favour of the tomahawk.
Clubs with an edge set with sharks' teeth were similarly handled; these were terrible weapons, that inflicted wounds and fractures to the last degree painful, as also wooden daggers, rendered hard by the appliance of fire. Javelins, or short spears, did but little execution, being thrown by the hand. A suit of European armour was first made use of in battle by the warrior E'Ongi, who had received it from His Majesty King George IV., but it rather served to impede than aid that chief; at his death, it was distributed among his children. Cannon of a small calibre, and swivel guns have been much prized
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by the natives, but they possess not the tact of rendering those implements formidable.
Stones heated red-hot were also made use of by the tribes to the southward; they were usually ejected among the rush huts in the forts, and caused irremediable confusion when they took effect at night, in the contracted space of the burning fortress. On success attending such efforts, the fort was generally speedily reduced.
Well-filled cartridge-boxes are never omitted to be worn by those natives possessing muskets, and the wetiki or belt is an unfailing companion round the waist of the warriors.
The annexed portrait is that of a warrior, by name Urua-wero, or the Red Hair; a chief born of the tribes of the East Cape, but whose transcendent cruelty induced his brother chiefs to put him viva voce out of the pale of their society: disgusted at the affront, which he had not the power to avenge himself, he quitted the tribes, and with a few of his connexions, betook themselves to the natives of Nuwaka, a district in Hawkes' Bay (Wairoa), under the domination of a chief named E'patu, and were subsequently distinguished for the exercise of a long course of carnage and brutality towards their former friends and relatives.
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In going to battle, each person arms himself as best he may be enabled, some chiefs having double barrelled fowling-pieces and pistols to their share, while slaves, or inferior freedmen, have to work their way ofttimes with a hard pointed stick only. The ability of a warrior in battle is apparently directed to two objects, the capture of prisoners, should his party win the day, or if the contrary should occur, to retreat with laudable swiftness.
Personal combats rarely or ever occur among these people, and a duel with fire arms would be accounted most preposterous, or akin to insanity.
Suicides do not unfrequently occur; jealousy between the sexes, offended pride, being principally the causes for the unhallowed step. The numerous instances of feminine self-immolation may also be adduced among casualties under this head.
The New Zealanders, from the benighted state in which they have remained during many centuries, are much given to treachery, and when successfully practising this most baneful of practices greatly exult at the cunning that has effected their purpose. At the same time no mercy is shown to the wretch who is discovered as being about to betray the tribe or village to the enemy, every torture known among them is inflicted. A traitor has no benefit in becoming one in New Zealand, as he meets with punishment alike from friend or foe. The annals of the country abound with instances of
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the practice of treachery. Chiefs, on paying visits to each other, have been slain while in the act of paying the salutation (ongi.)
Feasts have been made expressly to promote friendship on the one side, when the donors have been set upon and murdered by the guests at a given signal. In other cases the same scenes have been acted vice versa.
Marriages have been instituted, to accommodate hostilities; the consummation (of the union, but not peace) has taken place, and when the fort has been thrown open to the enemy as revellers indiscriminately, the besiegers have arisen en masse at a given signal, and destroyed the confiding people. The above may be termed as general heads that have induced treachery, producing interminable warfare, that has only ended by the entire destruction of one or more of the tribes. This crafty people have also stripped many ships, by treachery and apparent hospitality. 4 The noise
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and commotion attending native warfare, may be said to be past endurance to the ears of any civilized being; quarrels, shoutings, shrieking, and fighting, yells from the living, and screams and groans from the wounded, tend to out-Herod Herod. Nor are the priests silent, amid the clamorous outcries and din created by their followers; incantations follow each other with rapidity, the petulant warriors scarcely giving them time to rest, from personal anxiety to ascertain the subsequent casualties that may befall them.
