MORI AND SETTLER G.A.HENTY UNIV . OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES ATHtRTON TO THE RESCUE. Page 52 MAORI AND SETTLER. A STORY OF THE NEW ZEALAND WAR. BY G. A. HENTY, Aiutlior of " With Clive in India," "Under Drake's Flag," Freedom's Cause," ''The Young Carthaginian" "For the Temple," "Facing Death," "Bonnie Prince Charlie," etc., etc. WITH FIVE PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALFRED PEARSE, AND A MAP. NEW YORK THE FEDERAL BOOK COMPANY PUBLISHERS MY DEAR LADS : In the following story I have made no attempt to give anything like a general history of the long struggle between the brave tribes of New Zealand and the forces of England and the colony. That strug- gle lasted over a period of some years, and to do justice to its numerous incidents in the course of a single volume would have left no space whatever available for the tell- ing of a story. It was divided into two distinct epochs. In the first the natives of the north of the islands fought for their independence and their right to have a king, and be governed by their own laws. Nothing could ex- ceed the courage with which they struggled for these ends, and it needed a very strong force of British troops to storm their pahs or fortified camps, and overcome their resistance. The second epoch embraces the strug- gle brought about by the conversion of a portion of the tribes to the fanatical belief called the Fai Marire (liter- ally "good and peaceful"), whose votaries were generally known as the Hau-Haus. During the earlier war the natives behaved with great moderation, and there were but few cases of the murder of outlying settlers. The slaying of all whites was, however, the leading feature of the Hau-Hau religion, and many cold-blooded massacres occurred during the struggle. The British troops had been for the most part withdrawn before the commence- iv PREFACE, ment of the Hau-Hau troubles, and the war was carried on by bodies of constabulary raised by the colonists, and with the aid of tribes that remained friendly to us. The massacre of Poverty Bay, which forms the leading feature of my story, and the events that followed it, are all strictly in accordance with facts. Yours sincerely, G. A. HENTY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L PAOB A Home Broken Up. 1 CHAPTER U. The Embarkation 19 CHAPTER III. The Voyage 87 CHAPTER IV. A Row on Shore 51 CHAPTER V. A Boat Expedition 67 CHAPTER VI. Putting in the Refit 88 CHAPTER VII. A Savage Surprise 106 CHAPTER VIIL The End of the Vbynge 125 CHAPTER IX. The New Zealand War. 144 CHAPTER X. The Glade ., 163 CHAPTER XI. TheHau-Haus w . 188 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. The First Alarm. 200 CHAPTER XIIL The Attack on the Glade 219 CHAPTER XIV. Fresh Troubles 237 CHAPTER XV. The Massacre at Poverty Bay 255 CHAPTER XVI. The Pnrsuit of Te Kooti 274 CHAPTER XVIL Back at the Farm 293 CHAPTER XVIIL In England... $10 MAORI AND SETTLER. CHAPTER I. A HOME BROKEN UP. "WELL, mother, one thing is certain something has got to be done. It is no use crying over spilled milk, that I can see. It is a horribly bad business, but grieving over it won't make it any better. What one has got to do is to decide on some plan or other, and then set to work to carry it out. " The speaker, Wilfrid Renshaw, was a boy between fifteen and sixteen years old. He was standing with his back to an empty fireplace, his feet well apart, his hands deep in his pockets. He was rather short for his age, but very squarely built. His hair was dark, cut rather short, and so ruffled over his head that there were no signs of a parting ; his eyebrows were heavy, his eyes bright but rather deeply set; his chin was square and his jaw heavy ; his nose was a little upturned, and this together with his eyes gave a merry expression to a face that would otherwise have been heavy and stern. At school Wilfrid Renshaw had been regarded as rather a queer fellow. He was full of quiet fun, and saw a humorous side in everything. He did not take a very leading part in the various school sports, though there was a general idea that if Renshaw only chose to exert himself he could excel in any of them. In point of actual 2 MAORI AND SETTLER. strength, although there were several boys in the school older than himself, it was generally admitted that he was by far the strongest there. But he always went his own way and always knew his own mind, and when he had once given his decision everyone knew that it was of no use attempting to alter it; indeed, his reputation for obstinacy was so great that when he had once said "I won't" or "I will," no one ever attempted to argue with him. He was given to long walks and to collecting insects or flowers. He could never be persuaded to make one of the cricket eleven ; but in winter, when there was little scope for his favorite pursuit, he threw himself into football; and although he absolutely refused to acceptthe captaincy when unanimously elected to that honor, he was con- sidered by far the most valuable member of the team. He was scarcely popular among the boys of his own age ; for although his fun and general good temper were appre- ciated by them, his determination to go his own way, and his entire disregard for the opinion of others, caused him to be considered an unsociable sort of fellow, an impres- sion increased by the fact that he had no particular chums. Among the smaller boys he was greatly liked. He would never allow any bullying when he was present; and although his interference was often resented by some of the elders, his reputation for strength and obstinacy was so great that he had never been called upon to take active measures to support his decisively expressed opin- ions. His father lived in a pretty house a quarter of a mile outside Reading; and as Wilfrid attended the gram- mar-school there, he was much more free to indulge his own tastes and go his own way than if he had been in a boarding-school. His chief companion in his rambles was his only sister Marion, who was a year his senior, MAORI AND SETTLER. 3 although strangers would not have taken her to be so, either from her appearance or manner. She had an active, lithe figure, and was able to keep up with him even dur- ing his longest excursions. They were in fact great chums and allies, and Marion would have indignantly scouted the idea had any one suggested to her that her brother was either obstinate or unsociable. Mr. Renshaw had been intended for the bar, and had indeed been called to that profession ; but shortly after- ward he came into a fortune at the death of his father, and at once abandoned all idea of practicing. After traveling for a few years on the Continent and in the East, he married and settled down near Reading. His time was for the most part devoted to archaeology. He had a rare collection of ancient British, Saxon, and Nor- man anus, ornaments, and remains of all sorts; had written several books on the antiquities of Berkshire and Oxfordshire; was an authority upon tumuli and stone weapons ; and was regarded by his acquaintances as a man of much learning. The management of the house and children, and indeed of all affairs unconnected with his favorite hobby, he left to his wife, who was, fortunately for him, a clear- headed and sensible woman. Mr. Renshaw was, in fact, an eminently impractical man, weak and easy in dispo- sition, averse to exertion of any kind, and without a shadow of the decision of character that distinguished his son. Except when away upon antiquarian excursions he passed his time entirely in his own study, engaged upon a work which, he anticipated, would gain for him a very high position among the antiquarians of the country, the subject being the exact spot at which Julius Caesar landed in Britain. He made his appearance only at meal-times, and then 4 MAORI AND SETTLER. paid but little attention to what was going on around him, although he was kind to his children in a gentle, indifferent sort of way. For many years he had been engaged in making up his mind as to the school to which Wilfrid should be sent; and the boy had at first only been sent to the grammar school at the suggestion of hia mother as a temporary measure until the important decision should be arrived at. This had been six years before, and Mr. Kenshaw had postponed his decision until it was too late for Wilfrid to enter at any of the great public schools. Knowing from long experience what would be the re- sult were he consulted as to Marion's education, Mrs. Kenshaw had, when the girl was nine years old, engaged a governess for her without any previous consultation with her husband, simply telling him of the arrangement after it was concluded, saying : "I know, Alfred, that you have not yei decided whether an education at home or at school is best for a girl, and I have consequently arranged with a young lady to come as governess until you can come to a conclusion upon the point." Wilfrid Renshaw was extremely fond of his mother. His father he regarded with a somewhat contemptuous kind of affection. He did not doubt that he was a very learned man, but he had small patience with his inability to make up his mind, his total want of energy, and his habit of leaving everything for his wife to decide upon and carry out. "It would do father an immense deal of good if some- thing were to happen that would wake him up a bit and get him to take an interest in things," he had said over and over again to Marion. "I cannot understand a man having no opinion of his own about anything." "I do not think you ought to speak in that sort of way, Wil, about father." MAORI AND SETTLER. 5 "Oh, that is all nonsense, Marion. One cannot be blind about a person, even if he is one's own father. Of course, he is very kind and very indulgent, but it would be very much pleasanter if he were so because he wished to give us pleasure, instead of because it is the easiest thing to do. I should be downright pleased if sometimes when I ask him for anything he would say positively I could not have it. ' ' Now the something that Wilfrid had hoped might occur to rouse his father had taken place, and had come in a form very unpleasantly violent and unexpected. The papers a week before had brought the news of the failure of the bank in which the greater portion of Mr. Eenshaw's property was invested, and a letter had the following morning been received from a brother of Mrs. Kenshaw, who was also a shareholder in the bank, saying that the liabilities were very large, and that the shareholders would undoubtedly be called upon to pay even their last penny to make up the deficiency. This news had been confirmed, and there could be no doubt absolute ruin had fallen upon them. Mr. Kenshaw had been completely overwhelmed by the tidings, and had taken to his bed. Wilfrid's holidays had begun a few days before, and his mother at once acquainted him with the misfoTtune that had befallen them, and she now told him that the calls that would be made upon the shares would more than swallow up the rest of their fortune. "There will be absolutely nothing remaining, Wilfrid, except a thousand pounds that I had at my marriage, and which were fortunately settled upon me. This cannot be touched. Everything else will have to go." "Well, it's a bad business, mother. I will go for a walk and think it over. Marion, put on your hat and come out with me." 6 MAORI AND SETTLER. They had been for their walk a long one, and he was now expressing the result at which they had arrived. "One thing is certain something has got to be done." "Yes," Mrs. Renshaw replied, with a faint smile. "The question is, What is it?" "Well, mother, it is quite certain that we four cannot live on the interest of a thousand pounds unless we go into a hovel and live on bread and water." "I quite see that, Wilfrid; but I am sure I do not see how we are to earn money. It is far too late for your father to go back to the bar now, and it might be years before he got a brief. At any rate, we could not afford to live in London till he does so. I have been thinking I might open a little school somewhere." The boy waved his hand. "No, mother, you are not going to take us all on to your shoulders. You have got to look after father ; that will be a full share of the work, I am sure. Marion and I have been talking it over, and the only possible thing we can see is for us to emigrate." "To emigrate!" Mrs. Eenshaw repeated in astonish- ment. "Why, my dear boy, what should we be fit for in the colonies more than here?" "A good deal, mother. A thousand pounds is nothing here, and it would be a good deal out there. It would be horrible to come down to live in a little cottage like work- ing people here, after living like this ; but it would be nothing out there. We could buy land for next to nothing in New Zealand, and could employ a couple of men to work with me to clear it and cultivate it; and get a few cows and sheep to start with, and still have a little money in hand. You and Marion could look after things indoors; I should look after things out of doors." "You don't seem to count your father at all," Mrs. Eenshaw said a little reproachfully. MAORI AND SETTLER. 7 "No, mother, I don't," Wilfrid said bluntly. "You know as well as I do that father would be of no use to speak of in a life like that. Still, I think he could make himself happy out there as well as here. He could take all his books with him, and could inquire into the man- ners and customs of the natives, who are every bit as good as the ancient Britons ; better, I should say. But what- ever we do, mother, whether it is here or anywhere else, we must settle upon it and do it. Of course we must consult him ; but we must quite make up our minds before we do so. If you wait a few weeks for father to make up his mind what we had better do, we shall wait till this thousand pounds is spent and there is nothing to do but to go into the workhouse. "I am sure that my plan is the best for us. I am ai strong as a great many men; and anyhow, out there, there ought to be no fear about our keeping ourselves. I have no doubt that when we get out there father will be able to help in many ways, though I do not know at pres- ent what they are. Anyhow, we shall have a house to live in, even if it is only a log hut, and I have no doubt have plenty to eat and drink ; and that is more than we shall do if we stay here. I could not earn anything to speak of here ; the most I could expect to get would be ten shillings a week as an office-boy. And as to your idea of a school, you might be years before you got pupils ; and, beside, when there are two men in a family it would be shameful to depend upon a woman to keep them." "Why do you think of New Zealand more than Canada, "Because, in the first place, the climate is a great deal pleasanter, and, in the second place, I believe that as the passage-money is higher the emigrants are of a better class, and we are likely to have more pleasant neighbors g MAORI AND SETTLER. people that you and father can associate with than we should have if we went to a backwoods clearing in Can- ada. Tom Fairfax has an uncle in New Zealand, and I have heard him say there are lots of officers in the army and people of that sort who have settled there. Of course I know it is going to be hard work, and that it will be very rough for you and father when we land at first, but I expect it will be better after a time ; and any- how, mother, I do not think we can starve there, and I feel sure that it will come to that if we stop here. At any rate, you had better think it over. "Of coarse if you hit on anything better I shall be ready to agree at once ; but whatever it is we must quite make up our minds together and then tell father. But when we do tell him we shall have to say that we are quite convinced that the plan we have fixed on is the only one that offers a hope of success. Of course I do not expect that he will see it as we do, but if we put it that if he can suggest anything better to be done we will set about it at once, I think he's pretty certain to let things go on as we arrange. I do not mean to speak disrespect- fully of father," he went on, seeing that his mother's face was a little clouded, "but you know, mother, that people who are learned, scientific, and all that sort of thing are very often bad hands at everyday matters. Sir Isaac Newton, and lots of other fellows I have read about, were like that ; and though father is a splendid hand at ary- thing to do with the Britons or Danes, and can tell you the story of every old ruin in the kingdom, he is no good about practical matters. So that we take all the trouble off his hands, I think he will be quite ready to agree to do whatever you think is the best. At any rate, mother, I think my plan is well worth thinking over, and the Booner we make up our minds the better; after all it is a MAORI AND SETTLER. 9 great thing having something to look forward to and /Ian about." Three or four days later Mrs. Renshaw told Wilfrid that think as she would she could see no better plan for utilizing her little capital than for them to emigrate. "It is putting great responsibility on your shoulders, my boy," she said; "for I do not disguise from myself that it is upon you that we must principally depend. Still you will be sixteen by the time we can arrive there, and I think we should be able to manage. Besides, as you say, we can hire a man or two to help, and shall have some money to fall back upon until things begin to pay. There are plenty of women who manage even with- out the assistance of a son, and I do not know why I should not be able to get on with you and Marion to help me, especially as farming is a comparatively simple busi- ness in a new country. At any rate, as you say, with two or three cows and plenty of ducks and hens, and what we can grow on the ground, there will be no fear of our starving." The next day Mr. Renshaw came downstairs for the first time since he had heard of the misfortune. He had received a letter that morning saying that a call was at once to be made on each shareholder for the amount still standing on each share, and this sum was in itself more than he could meet even after the sale of his house and its contents. He was in a state of profound depression. He had, while upstairs, been endeavoring to think of some, means of supporting his family, but had been wholly unable to think of any plan whatever. He knew that at his age he should find it next to impossible to obtain employment, even as a clerk at the lowest salary ; his knowledge of archaeology would be absolutely useless to him, for the books he had already published had not even paid the expenses of printing. 10 MA OEI AND SETTLER. Few words were spoken at breakfast, but when the meal was finished Mrs. Renshaw began : "My dear Alfred, Wilfrid and I have been talking over what we had better do under the circumstances. I have told him that the fail- ure of the bank involves the loss of all our property, that the house will have to be sold, and that, in fact, there re- mains nothing but the thousand pounds of my settlement. We have talked it over in every light, and have quite arrived at the conclusion as to what we think the best thing to be done if you see matters in the same light and will consent to our plan. I had at first thought of starting a little school." "I would never agree to that," Mr. Renshaw said; "never. I must do something, my dear, though I have not maae up my mind in what direction. But whatever it is, it is for me to work, and not for you." "Well, we have already given up the idea," Mrs. Ren- shaw went on. "Wilfrid was sure that you would not like it, and, as he pointed out, the money might be spent before I could obtain sufficient pupils to pay. Beside, he is anxious to be of use; but the difficulty struck us of obtaining any kind of remunerative work here." "That is what I have been thinking, " Mr. Renshaw said. "I shall be willing to work at anything in my power, but I don't see what possible work I can get." "Quite so, my dear. In this country it is of course terribly difficult for any one to get employment unless he has been trained in some particular line, therefore Wil and I are agreed that the very best plan, indeed the only plan we can think of, is for us to go out to a new country. My little money will take us to New Zealand, buy a good- sized piece of land there, and suffice to enable us to clear it and stock it to some extent. The life will no doubt be rough for us all for a time; but none of us will care MAORI AND SETTLER. 11 for that, and at any rate we are sure to be able to keep the wolf from the door." "To New Zealand!" Mr. Benshaw repeated, aghast. "That is a terrible undertaking. Beside, I know nothing whatever about i'arming, and I fear that I am quite unfit for hard work." "I do not think it will be at all necessary for you to work yourself, Alfred. Of course we can hire men there just as we can in England. I believe the natives are willing to work at very low rates of pay, so we need have no difficulty on that score. Wilfrid is growing up now, and will soon be able to relieve you of all responsibility, and then you will be able to devote yourself to your favorite studies ; and I should think that a book from your hand upon native manners and customs would be sure to be a great success. Accustomed as you are to tracing things up from small remains, and with your knowledge of primitive peoples, your work would be very different from those written by men without any previous acquaint- ance with such matters." "The idea certainly pleases me," Mr. Kenshaw said; "but, of course, I shall want time to think over your startling proposal, Helen." "Of course, my dear. In the meantime we will go on packing up and preparing to move at once from here, as you say that there must be a sale of everything ; then you can think the matter over, and if you decide upon any better scheme than ours we can carry that out. If not, we shall be ready to put ours into execution." The next month was a busy one. There was great sym- pathy evinced by all the Eenshaws 5 neighbors and ac- quaintances when it was heard that their whole fortune was swept away by the failure of the bank. There were farewell visits to be paid, not only to these, but to their 12 MAORI AND SETTLER. poorer neighbors. In answer to inquiries as to their plans, Mr. Renshaw always replied that at present noth- ing whatever was settled. Mrs. Eenshaw hinted that, although their plans were not definitely fixed, she thought it probable that they would go abroad; while "Wilfrid and Marion both informed their friends confi- dently that they were going to New Zealand. The work of packing went on. A few articles of furni- ture that were special favorites with them all were packed up and sent to be warehoused in London, in order that they might some day be forwarded to them when they had made themselves a home ; but nothing else was taken beyond their clothes, a good selection of books for their general reading, a large box of those which Mr. Kenshaw declared absolutely indispensable to himself, and a few knickknacks specially prized. Everything else was handed over for sale for the benefit of the creditors of the bank. During these weeks Mr. Eenshaw continued to speak as if he regarded the New Zealand project as wholly impracticable, and on each occasion when he did so his wife replied cheerfully: "Well, my dear, we are in no way wedded to it, and are quite ready to give it up and adopt any plan you may decide upon. The matter is entirely in your hands." But Mr. Kenshaw could hit upon no other scheme; and, indeed, his wife's suggestion as to a book on the natives of New Zealand had much taken his far_cy. Cer- tainly he, a trained antiquarian, should be able to pro- duce a book upon such a subject that would be of vastly greater value than those written by settlers and others having no training whatever that would qualify them for such work. It was probable that he should be able to throw some entirely new light upon the origin and his- tory of the Maoris or natives of New Zealand, and that MAORI AND SETTLER. 13 his book would greatly add to his reputation, and would sell well. Really the idea was not -such a very bad one, and, for himself, he should certainly prefer a life in a new country to shabby lodgings in some out-of-the-way place, after having for so many years been a personage of importance in his own neighborhood. "I see one great objection to your scheme, Helen, and that is that there is a war going on with the Maoris." "I know there is," Mrs. Renshaw, who had talked the matter over with Wilfrid, replied; "but it is confined to two or three of the tribes, and the settlers in other parts have been in no way disturbed. The troops have taken most of their strongholds, and the troubles are considered to be approaching an end; therefore I do not think there is any occasion to be uneasy on that score. Be- side, in some respects the trouble will be advantageous, as we should ; probably be able to buy land cheaper than we otherwise should have done, and the land will rapidly rise in value again when the disturbances are over. But, of course, we should not go to the disturbed districts. These are round Auckland and New Plymouth, and the troubles are confined to the tribes there. Everything is perfectly peaceable along the other parts of the coast." It was not until two or three days before the move was to be made from the house that Mrs. Renshaw recurred to the subject. "You have not [said yet, Alfred, what plans you have decided upon. As we shall leave here in three days it is quite time that we made up our minds about it, as, of course, our movements must depend on your decision. If you have fixed upon any place for us to settle down in, it would be cheaper for us to move there at once instead of wasting money by going up to London first. Another reason I have for asking is, that Robert and William 14 MAORI AND SETTLER. Grimstone, the gardener's sons, who have got an idea from something Wilfrid said to them that we might be going abroad, have asked him to ask you if you would take them with you. They have been working in the garden under their father for the last two or three years, and are strong, active young fellows of nineteen and twenty. As their father has worked here ever since we came, and we have known the young fellows since they were children, such an arrangement would have been a very pleasant one had you liked my plan of emigrating as it would have been much more agreeable having two young fellows we knew with us instead of strangers. Of course I told Wilfrid to tell them that nothing whatever was settled, and that our plans were not in any way formed, and that they had better, therefore, look out for situations about here, and that I was sure you would give them good letters of recommendation." Mr. Kenshaw was silent. "I really do not see that there is any occasion to come to a decision in a hurry," he said irritably. "Not in a hurry, Alfred," his wife said quietly. "You see we have had a month to think it over and I do not see that we shall be more likely to settle upon an advan- tageous scheme at the end of six months than we are now. From the day we leave here and hand over everything to the receiver of the bank we shall be drawing on our little capital, and every pound is of importance. I think there- fore, Alfred, that you and I should make up our minds before we leave here as to what course we are going to adopt. As I have said, I myself see no scheme by which we are likely to be able to maintain ourselves in England, even in a very humble way. A life in the c61onies would, to me, be very much more pleasant than the struggle to make ends meet here. MAORI AND SETTLER. 15 "It would afford an opening for Wilfrid, and be vastly more advantageous for him than anything we should hope to get for him here ; and I think it will be far better for Marion too. Of course, if we decided to emigrate, we could, should you prefer it, go to Canada, Australia, or the United States in preference to New Zealand. I only incline to New Zealand because I have heard that there is a larger proportion of officers and gentlemen there than in other colonies, and because I believe that the climate is a particularly pleasant one. But, of course, this is merely a suggestion at present, and it is for you to decide." "If we are to emigrate at all," Mr. Renshaw replied, "I should certainly prefer New Zealand myself. The Maoris are a most interesting people. Their origin is a matter of doubt, their customs and religion are peculiar, and I have no doubt that I should, after studying them, be able to throw much new and valuable light upon the subject. Personally, I am sure that I am in no way fitted for the life of a settler. I know nothing of farming, and could neither drive a plow nor wield an ax ; but if I could make the native subject my own, I might probably be able to do my share toward our expenses by my books, while Wilfrid could look after the men. The offer of these two young fellows to go with us has removed several of my objections to the plan, and I agree with you that it would be more advantageous for Wilfrid and Marion than to be living in wretched lodgings. Therefore, my dear, I have decided to fall in with your plan, and only hope that it will turn out as well as you seem to expect. It will be a great cfVange and a great trial; but since you seem to have set your heart upon it, I am willing to adopt your plans instead of my own, and we will therefore consider it settled that we will go to New Zealand." 16 MAORI AND SETTLER. Mrs. Renshaw was too wise a woman to point out that her husband had not, so far as she was aware, any plans whatever of his own, and she contented herself by saying quietly: "lam glad you have decided so, my dear. I do think it is the best thing for us all, and I am quite sure it is the best for Wilfrid and Marion. If it had not been for them I should have said let us take a tiny cot- tage near some town where I might add to our income by giving lessons in music or other things, and you might have the companionship of people of your own tastes; but, being as it is, I think it far better to give them a start in a new country, although I know that such a life as we shall lead there must entail, at any rate at first, some hardships, and the loss of much to which we have been accustomed." Wilfrid and Marion were delighted when they heard from their mother that the matter was settled. Both had had great hopes that Wilfrid's scheme would be finally accepted, as there did not seem any other plan that waa possible. Still Wilfrid knew the difficulty that his father would have in making up his mind, and feared there might be a long delay before he could bring himself to accept the plan proposed to him. Mrs. Eenshaw, who was a good business woman, lost no time in arranging with Robert and William Grimstone as to their accom- panying them. Their passage-money was to be paid, and they were to bind themselves to remain for three years in Mr. Renshaw's service on wages similar to those they would have obtained at home; after that, they were to be paid whatever might be the colonial rate of wages. The excitement that the prospect of emigration caused to the young people lessened their pain at leaving the house where they had been born and brought up, with all its pleasant associations and material comforts. It was, MAORI AND SETTLER. 17 however, very trying to them when they bade good-by for the last time to their surroundings and shook hands with their old servants. "If ever we get rich in New Zealand, father," Wilfrid said, "we will come back and buy the house again." Mr. Renshaw shook his head. Just at present he was disposed to regard himself as a martyr, and considered that he had made an unprecedented sacrifice of his own wishes and comforts for the sake of his children, and that no good could be expected to arise from the plan to which he had consented. A good many friends had gathered at the station to say good-by, and it was some time after the train had started on its way to London before any of the party felt themselves inclined to speak. On arriving in town they went at once to lodgings they Lad engaged in Eastbourne Terrace, facing the station. Once settled there, no time was lost in making prepara- tions for their voyage. The files of the advertisements had already been searched and the names of the vessels sailing for New Zealand and the addresses of their owners noted, and after paying a visit to several shipping offices the choice of vessels remained at last between the Flying Scud and the Mayflower. They were vessels of about the same size, both bore a good reputation as sailers, and they heard excellent accounts of the captains who com- manded them. The Mayflower was to sail direct to Wellington round the Cape. The Flying Scud was taking in cargo for Rio and Buenos Ayres, and would proceed thence via Cape Horn. Her rates of passage were somewhat lower than those of the Mayflower, as the route via the Cape of Good Hope was that more generally used, and the number of passengers who had secured berths by her were very much smaller than those who intended to travel by th 18 MAORI AND SETTLER. Mayflower. It was this that principally decided them in choosing the western route ; Mr. Eenshaw was in a depressed and nervous state, and his wife considered that he would be far more comfortable with a comparatively small number of fellow-passengers than in a crowded ship. Marion quite agreed with her mother ; and Wilfrid was also in favor of the Flying Scud, as he thought it would b.e pleasant to break the passage by putting into the great South American ports and getting a glimpse of their inhabitants. Mr. Renshaw himself was quite satisfied to accept his wife's decision, whatever it might be. The Flying Scud was therefore selected, and passages for the party secured in her. MAORI AND SETTLER. 19 CHAPTER H. THE EMBARKATION. THE Flying Scud was to sail in ten days ; and this was ample time for their preparations, for~ Mrs. Eenshaw wisely decided that it was better to buy all that waa requisite for starting their new life in New Zealand. "We have none of us the least idea what will be re- quired," she said. "It will.be far better to pay some- what higher prices for what we really do want out there than to cumber ourselves with all sorts of things that may be useless to us. We have already a considerable amount of baggage. There are our clothes, linen, and books, your father's two double-barreled guns, which, by the way, I do not think he has ever used since we have been married. The only thing we had better get, as far as I see, will be four rifles, which no doubt we can buy cheap second-hand, and four revolvers. "I do not for a moment suppose we shall ever want to use them, but as we may be often left in the house alone I think it would be pleasant to know that we are not alto- gether defenseless. We had better lay in a good stock of ammunition for all these weapons. Besides the clothes we have we had better get serge dresses and suits for the voyage* and a few strong, serviceable gowns and suits for rough work out there. Beyond this I do not think that we need spend a penny. We can certainly get everything we shall want for our new life at Wellington, which is a large place." 20 MAORI AND SETTLER. On the morning of the day on which they were to em- bark the Grimstones came up from Reading. All the heavy luggage had been sent on board ship on the pre- vious day, and at twelve o'clock two cabs drove up to the side of the Flying Scud in St. Catherine's Docks. The one contained Mr and Mrs. Renshaw, Marion, and a vast quantity of small packets inside. Wilfrid was on the box with the driver, and the roof was piled high with lug- gage. The other cab contained the two Grimstones and the rest of the luggage. The Renshaws were already acquainted with the ship in which they were to sail, hav- ing paid her a visit four days previously to see their cabins. The parents had a comfortable cabin to them- selves. Marion was berthed in a cabin with two other ladies, who, she learned, were sisters, the elder about her own age, and Wilfrid found he would have but one fel- low-passenger. The Grimstones were in the steerage forward. The vessel was in a state of bustle, and what to the travelers seemed confusion. Numbers of other passen- gers were arriving, and the deck was littered with their luggage until it could be sorted and sent down to their cabins ; late cargo was being swung on board and lowered into the hold. On the deck aft were gathered the cabin passengers, with relatives and friends who had come to see them off. An hour later the bell rang as a signal for all visitors to go ashore. There were sad partings both fore and aft as the bell clanged on its impatient signal. "I am very glad, mother, that we have no friends to say good-by to us here, and that we got that all over at Beading." "So am I, Wil. I think it much better myself that these partings should be got through before people leave home. It is natural of course that relatives and friends MAORI AND SETTLER. 21 should like to see the last of each other, but I think it is a cruel kindness, and am glad, as you say, that we had no dear friends in London. Those at home have already shown their thoughtfulness and friendship." For in- deed during the last few days hampers of presents of all kinds had arrived in a steady flow at Eastbourne Terrace. There had been great feeling of commiseration among all their acquaintances at the misfortune that had befallen the Renshaws ; and the manner in which they had at once surrendered everything for the benefit 'of the share- holders of the bank, and the calmness with which they had borne their reverses, had excited admiration, and scarce a friend or acquaintance but sent substantial tokens of their good-will or sympathy. As soon as it was publicly known that the Renshaws were about to sail for New Zealand, the boys and masters of the grammar-school between them subscribed and sent a handsome double-barreled gun, a fishing rod, and all appurtenances, to Wilfrid. Mr. Renshaw received two guns, several fishing rods, two crates of crockery, and several cases of portable furniture of various kinds, be- side many small articles. Mrs. Renshaw was presented with a stove of the best construction and a crate full of utensils of every kind, while Marion had work-boxes and desks sufficient to stock a school, two sets of garden tools and innumerable knickknacks likely to be more or less useful to her in her new life. Beside these there were several boxes of books of standard literature. "Everyone is very kind," Mrs. Renshaw said, as the crates and hampers arrived; "but if it goes on like this we shall have to charter a ship to ourselves, and how we are to move about there when we get out with all these things I have not the least idea. " At last the good-bys were all finished, the visitors had 22 MAORI AND SETTLER, left the ship, the hawsers were thrown off, and the vessel began to move slowly toward the dock gates. As soon as she had issued through these she was seized by a tug, and proceeded in tow down the crowded river. There was a last waving of handkerchiefs and hats to the group of people standing at the entrance to the docks, and then the passengers began to look round and examine each other and the ship. Sailors were hard at work the last bales and boxes were being lowered into the hold, ropes were being coiled up, and tidiness restored to the deck. Parties of seamen were aloft loosening some of the sails, for the wind was favorable, and the captain had ordered some of the canvas to be set to assist the tug. "Now, Marion," Mrs. Renshaw said, "we had better go below and tidy up things a bit. Wil, you may as well come down and help me get the trunks stowed away under the berths, and put some hooks in for the brush- bags and other things we have brought; the hooks and gimlet are in my handbag." Wilfrid assisted to set his mother's cabin in order, and then went to his own. It was a good-sized cabin, and when the ship was full accommodated four passengers; but the two upper bunks had now been taken down, and t^ere was, Wilfrid thought, ample room for two. On his own bunk were piled his two portmanteaus, a gun-case, a bundle of fishing rods, and other odds and ends, and a somewhat similar collection of luggage was on that op- posite. Wilfrid read the name on the labels. "Ather- ton, " he, said; "I wonder what he is like. I do hope he will be a nice fellow." Scarcely had the thought passed through his mind when a figure appeared at the cabin door. It was that of a tall, stout man, with immensely broad shoulders. His age Wilfrid guessed to be about thirty-five. He had a MAORI AND SETTLER. 23 pleasant face, and there was a humorous twinkle in hia eye as the lad looked round in astonishment at the figure completely blocking up the doorway. "So you are Renshaw ?" the big man said. "I congrat- ulate myself and you that your dimensions are not of the largest. My name is Atherton, as I dare say you have seen on my luggage. Suppose we shake hands, Renshaw? It is just as well to make friends at once, as we have got to put up with each other for the next five or six months. Of course you are a little appalled at my size, ' ' he went on, as he shook hands with the lad. "Most people are at first, but nobody is so much appalled as I am myself. Still it has its amusing side, you know. I don't often get into an omnibus, because I do not think it is fair; but if I am driven to do so, and there happen to be five people on each side, the expression of alarm on those ten faces when I appear at the door is a picture, because it is man- ifestly impossible that they can make room for me on either side." "What do you do, sir?" Wilfrid asked, laughing. "I ask one of them to change sides. That leaves two places Vacant, and as I make a point of paying for two, we get on comfortably enough. It is fortunate there are only two of us in this cabin. If I have the bad luck to travel in a full ship I always wait until the others are in bed before I turn in, and get up in the morning before they are astir ; but I think you and I can manage pretty comfortably." "Then you have traveled a good deal, sir?" Wilfrid said. "I am always traveling," the other replied. "I am like the fidgety Phil of the story book, who could never keep still. Most men of my size are content to take life quietly, but that is not so with me. For the last twelve 24 MAORI AND SETTLER. or thirteen years I have been always on the move, and 1 ought to b worn down to a thread paper ; but unfortu- nately, as you see, that is not the effect of travel in my case. I suppose you are going out to settle?" "Yes, sir. I have my father, mother, and sister on board." "Lucky fellow!" Mr. Atherton said; "I have no rela- tions worth speaking of. ' ' "Are you going to settle at last, sir?" Wilfrid asked. "No, I am going out to botanize. I have a mania for botany, and New Zealand, you know, is in that respect one of the most remarkable regions in the world, and it has not yet been explored with anything approaching accuracy. It is a grand field for discovery, and there are special points of interest connected with it, as it forms a sort of connecting link between the floras of Australia, Asia, and South America, and has a flora of its own en- tirely distinct from any of these. Now let me advise you as to the stowing away of your traps. There is a good deal of knack in these things. Have you got your port- manteaus packed so that one contains all the things you are likely to require for say the first month of your voy- age, and the other as a reserve to be drawn on occasion- ally ? because, if not, I should advise you to take all the things out and to arrange them in that way. It will take you a little time, perhaps, but will save an. immense amount of trouble throughout the voyage." "Wilfrid had packed his trunks with things as they came to hand, but he saw the advantage of following his fellow-passenger's advice, and accordingly opened his portmanteaus and piled the whole of their contents upon his berth. He then repacked them, Mr. Atherton sitting down on his berth and giving his advice as to the trunk in which each article should be placed. MAORI AND SETTLER. 25 The work of rearrangement occupied balf an hour, and Wilfrid often congratulated himself during the voyage upon the time so spent. "When all was complete and the cabin arranged tidily, "Wilfrid looked in at the next cabin. This was occupied by two young men of the name of Allen. They were friends of an acquaintance of Mr. Kenshaw, who, hearing that they were journeying by the same ship to New Zealand, had brought them down to Eastbourne Terrace and introduced them to Mr. Een- shaw and his family. The two were occupied in arrang- ing their things in the cabin. "Well, Renshaw, " James, the elder of them, said when he entered, "I am afraid I cannot congratulate you on your fellow-passenger. We saw him go into your cabin. He is a tremendous man. He would be magnificent if he were not so stout. Why, you will scarce find room to move!" " 'He is a capital fellow, " Wilfrid said. 'I think we shall get on splendid together. He is full of fun, and makes all sorts of jokes about his own size. He has traveled a tremendous lot, and is up to everything. He is nothing like so old as you would think, if you have not seen his face. I do not think he is above thirty-five or so. Well, as I see you have just finished, I will go up and see how we are getting on." When Wilfrid reached the deck he found the vessel was off Erith, and was greeted by his sister. "You silly boy, you have been missing the sight of all the shipping, and of Greenwich Hospital. The idea of stopping below all this time ! I should have come to call you up if I had known which was your room." "Cabin, you goose!" Wilfrid said; "the idea of talk- ing of rooms on board a ship. I would have come up if I had thought of it ; but I was so busy putting things to $ 6 MAORI AND SETTLER. right and making the acquaintance of the gentleman in the cabin with me that I forgot altogether we were mov- ing down the river. "Which is he, Wilfrid?" Wilfrid laughed and nodded in the direction of Mr. Atherton, who was standing with his back toward them a short distance away. Marion's eyes opened wide. "Oh, Wil, what a big man! He must quite fill up the cabin." "He seems an awfully good fellow, Marion." "I dare say he may be, Wil; but he will certainly take up more than his share of the cabin." "It is awkward, isn't it, young lady?" Mr. Atherton said, suddenly turning round on his heel, to Marion's horror, while Wilfrid flushed scarlet, for he had not the least idea that his words could be heard. "I have capital hearing, you see," Mr. Atherton went on with a laugh, "and a very useful sense it is sometimes, and has stood me in good service upon many occasions, though I own that it effectually prevents my cherishing any illu- sion as to my personal appearance. This is your sister, of course, Eenshaw ; in fact, any one could see that at a glance. There is nothing like making acquaintances early on the voyage ; the first day is in that respect the most important of all." "Why is that?" Marion asked. "Because as a rule the order in which people sit down to table on the first day of the voyage is that in which they sit the whole time. Now, if one happens to sit one's self down by people who turn out disagreeable it is a very great nuisance, and therefore it is very important to find out a little about one's fellow-passengers the first day, so as to take a seat next to some one whom you are MAORI AND SETTLER. I should certainly say do not go near the disturbed' dis- tricts, for one cannot assert that if hostilities continue they will always be carried on in that spirit. However, things are at present perfectly peaceable throughout the 14 2 MAORI AND SETTLER. provinces of "Wellington and Hawke Bay, and it may be hoped it may continue so. I have maps and plans of all the various districts, and before your son starts will give him all the information I possess as to the advantages and disadvantages of each locality, the nature of the soil, the price at which land can be purchased, and the repu- tation of the natives in the neighborhood." The next day the Eenshaws landed after breakfast and took up tbeir abode in the new lodgings. These were plainly but comfortably furnished, and after one of the trunks containing knickknacks of all descriptians had been opened, and some of the contents distributed, the room assumed a comfortable homelike appearance. A lodging had been obtained close by for the two Grim- stones. The young fellows were heartily glad to be on, shore again, for life among the steerage passengers dur- ing a long voyage is dull and monotonous. Mr. Kenshaw had looked after them during the voyage, and had sup- plied them from his own stores with many little comforts in the way of food, and with books to assist them to pass their time; still they were very glad the voyage was over. When he now told them it was probable that a month or even more might pass after their arrival in the colony before he could settle on a piece of land, and that during that time they would remain at Wellington, they at once asked him to get them work of some kind if he could. "We should be learning something about the place, sir; and should probably get our food for our work, and should be costing you nothing, and we would much rather do that than loiter about town doing nothing." Mr. Eenshaw approved of their plan, and mentioned it to Mr. Jackson, who, on the very day after their land- ing, spoke to a settler who had come in from a farm some twenty miles in the interior. MAORI AND SETTLER. 143 "They are active and willing young fellows and don't vrant pay, only to be put up and fed until the man who has brought them out here with him gets hold of a farm." "I shall be extremely glad to have them," the settler said. "This is a very busy time with us, and a couple of extra hands will be very useful. They will learn a good deal as to our ways here in the course of a month, and, as you say, it would be far better for them to be at work than to be loafing about the place doing nothing." Accordingly, the next morning the two Grimstonea went up country and set to work. 144 MAORI AND SETTLER. CHAPTER IX. THE NEW ZEALAND WAE. FOB a few days the greater part of the passengers who had arrived by the Flying Scud remained in Wellington. Mr. Atherton and the two Aliens had put up at the same hotel. The latter intended to go out as shepherds or in any other capacity on a farm, for a few months at any rate, before investing in land. They had two or three letters of introduction to residents in Wellington, and ten days after the arrival of the ship they called at the Eenshaws to say good-by, as they had arranged to go for some months with a settler up the country. They prom- ised to write regularly to Wilfrid and tell him all about the part to which they were going. "Mr. Atherton has promised to write to us, "they said, "and tell us about the districts he visits with you, and if you and he discover anything particularly inviting we shall at any rate come and see you, if you will give us an invitation when you are settled, and look round there before buying land anywhere else. It would be very pleasant to be somewhere near you and him." "W T e shall be very glad, indeed, to see you," Mrs. Ben- shaw said; "still more glad if you take up a piece of ground near us. Having friends near is a very great point in such a life as this, and it would be most agreea- ble having a sort of little colony of our own." "We should have liked very much," James Allen said, "to say good-by to the Miss Mitfords, but as we do not MAORI AND SETTLER. 145 know their father and mother it might seem strange for us to call there." "I do not think they are at all people to stand on cere- mony, Mrs. Renshaw said; "but I will put on my bonnet and go round with you at once if you like." This was accordingly done. Mr. Mitford had heard of the young men as forming part of the little group of passengers on board the Flying Scud, and gave them a hearty invitation to pay him a visit if they happened to be in his neighborhood, and the next day they started for the farm on which they had engaged themselves. Two days later there was a general break-up of the party, for Mr. and Mrs. Mitford started with their daughters in a steamer bound to Hawke Bay. "Will you tell me, Mr. Jackson, what all the trouble in the north has been about, ' ' "Wilfrid asked that even- ing, "for I have not been able to find out from the papers?" "It is a complicated question, Wilfrid. When New Zealand was first colonized the natives were very friendly. The early settlers confidently pushed forward into the heart of the native districts, bought tracts of land from the chiefs, and settled there. Government purchased large blocks of land, cut off by intervening native terri- tory from the main settlements, and sold this land to settlers without a suspicion that they were thereby doom- ing them to ruin. The settlers were mostly small far- mers, living in rough wooden houses scattered about the country, and surrounded BV a few fields; the adjoining land is usually fern or forest held by the natives. They fenced their fields, and turned their cattle, horses, and sheep at large in the open country outside these fences, paying rent to the natives for the privilege of doing so. "This led to innumerable quarrels. The native plan- 146 MAORI AND SETTLER. tations of wheat, potatoes, or maize are seldom fenced in, and the cattle of the settlers sometimes committed much devastation among them ; for the Maori fields were often situated at long distances from their villages, and the cattle might, therefore, be days in their patches before they were found out. On the other hand, the gaunt, long-legged Maori pigs, which wander over the country picking up their own living, were constantly getting through the settlers' fences, rooting up their potatoes, and doing all sorts of damage. "In these cases the settlers always had the worst of the quarrel. They either had no weapons, or, being isolated in the midst of the natives, dared not use them; while the Maoris, well armed and numerous, would come down waving their tomahawks and pointing their guns, and the settlers, however much in the right, were forced to give way. The natural result was that the colonists were continually smarting under a sense of wrong, while the Maoris grew insolent and contemptuous and were filled with an overweening confidence in their own powers, the result of the patience and enforced submis- sion of the settlers. The authority of the queen over the natives had always been a purely nominal one. There was indeed a treaty signed acknowledging her govern- ment, but as none of the chiefs put their name to this, and the men who signed were persons of inferior rank with no authority whatever to speak for the rest, the treaty was not worth the paper on which it was written. "The Maoris from the first exhibited a great desire for education. They established numerous schools in their own districts and villages; in most cases accepted nomi- nally if not really the Christian religion, and studied history with a good deal of intelligence. Some of them read that the Romans conquered England by making MAORI AND SETTLER. U? roads everywhere through the island, and the natives therefore determined that no roads should be constructed through their lands, and every attempt on the part of government to carry roads beyond the lands it had bought from them was resisted so firmly and angrily that the attempt had to be abandoned. The natives were well enough aware that behind the despised settlers was the power of England, and that if necessary a numerous army could be sent over, but they relied absolutely upon their almost impassable swamps, . their rivers, forests, and mountains. "Here they thought they could maintain themselves against any force that might be sent against them, and relying upon this they became more and more insolent and overbearing, and for some time before the outbreak in 1860 everyone saw that sooner or later the storm would burst, and the matter have to be fought out until either we were driven from the island or the natives be- came thoroughly convinced of their inability to oppose us. "At first the natives had sold their land willingly, but as the number of the European settlers increased they became jealous of them, and every obstacle was thrown in the way of land sales by the chiefs. Disputes were constantly arising owing to the fact that the absolute ownership of land was verj- ill defined, and perhaps a dozen or more persons professed to have claims of some sort or other on each piece of land, and had to be in- dividually settled with before the sale could be effected. When as it seemed all was satisfactorily concluded, fresh claimants would arise, and disputes were therefore of constant occurrence, for there were no authorities out- side the principal settlements to enforce obedience to the law. 148 MAORI AJffD SETTLER. "Even in Auckland itself the state of things was al- most unbearable. Drunken Maoris would indulge in insolent and riotious behavior in the street; for no native could be imprisoned without the risk of war, and with the colonists scattered about all over the country the risk was too great to be run. In addition to the want of any rule or authority to regulate the dealings of the natives with the English, there were constant troubles between the native tribes. "Then began what is called the king movement. One of the tribes invited others to join in establishing a cen- tral authority, who would at once put a stop to these tribal feuds and enforce something like law and order, and they thought that having a king of their own would improve their condition would prevent land from being sold to the whites, and be a protection to the people at large, and enable them to hold their own against the set- tlers. Several of the tribes joined in this movement. Meetings were held in various parts in imitation of the colonial assemblies. The fruit of much deliberation was that a chief named Potatau, who was held in the highest esteem not only by the tribes of Waikato, but throughout the whole island, as one of the greatest of their warriors and wisest of their chiefs, was chosen as king. "The movement excited much apprehension in Auck- land and the other settlements, for it was plain that if the Maoris were governed by one man and laid aside their mutual enmities they would become extremely formida- ble. At the great meeting that was held, the bishop of New Zealand, the head of the Wesleyan body, and several other missionaries were present, and warned the Maoris of the dangers that would arise from the course they were taking. "The warning was in vain, and Potatau was chosen MA ORI AND SETTLER. \ 49 king. Mr. Fenton, a government official, went on a tour among the natives. He found that there was still what was called a queen's party, but the king's party was very much the strongest. For two years, however, things went on somewhat as before, and it was not until 1860, when a quarrel arose over some laud in the province of Taranaki, that troubles fairly began. In this district a chief named "Wirernu-Kingi had established a sort of land league, and given notice to the governor that he would not permit any more laud to be sold in the dis- trict. A native named Teira, who owned some land at Waiteira, offered it for sale to the government. After examining his title, and finding that it was a valid one, the land was purchased. "In the spring of 1860 the governor tried to take pos- session. Wiremu-Kingi forcibly resisted, the troops were called out, and war began. Wiremu-Kingi had un- questionably certain rights on Teira's land, for he and his tribe were amicably settled upon it, had built houses, and were making plantations; but of these facts the gov- ernment were ignorant when they bought the land. Wiremu-Kingi at once joined the king movement, from which he had previously stood aloof. A meeting was held at Waikato. Chief Wiremu-Kingi and Mr. McLean the native secretaiT, both addressed the meeting, and Potatau and many of the chiefs were of opinion that the English had acted fairly in the case. Many of the younger chiefs, however, took the part of the Taranaki natives, and marched away and joined them. "Unfortunately, in the first fight that took place, our troops were driven back in an attack upon a pah, and the news of this success so fired the minds of all the fighting men of the Waikato and neighboring tribes that they flocked down to Taranaki and joined in plundering 15(T MAORI AND SETTLER. the deserted homes of the settlers, and in the attacks upon the troops. Potatau and his council did all they could to stop their men from going, but the desire to distinguish themselves and to take part in the victories over the Pakehas, which is what the natives call the whites, were too strong for them. In the midst of all this turmoil Potatau died, and his son Matu-Taera was made king. < In the fighting that went on in Taranaki discipline and training soon began to make themselves felt. The troops in the colony were largely reinforced, and pah after pah were captured. The war went on. But though English regiments with a strong force of artillery were engaged in it, it cannot be said that the natives have been conquered, and General Cameron, who came out and assumed the command, found the task before him a very difficult one. "There was for a time a pause in hostilities when Sir George Grey came out as governor in thei)lace of Gover- nor Brown, but the natives recommenced hostilities by a treacherous massacre near New Plymouth, and fighting began again at once. "The native pah-near the Katikara river was attacked by a column of infantry with artillery, and shelled by the guns of a ship of war, and the Maoris were driven out of a position that they believed impregnable. The Waikatos now rose and murdered and plundered many of the settlers, and a force marched for the first time into their country, carried a formidable pah, at Koheroa, and, although unprovided with artillery, defeated the Maoris in a fight in the thick bush. The very formidable posi- tion at Merimeri, which lay surrounded by swamps near the Waikato river, was next captured, although held by eleven hundred Maoris, led by their great chief "Wiremu- Tamehana, called by the missionaries William Thompson. MAOEI AND SETTLER, 151 "The next attack was upon a strongly fortified posi- tion at Rangiriri, lying between the Waikato river and "Waikare lake. This was successful, and the natives were .next thrashed at Rangiawhia, at Kaitake, on the 25th of last March. Thus, you see, in almost all of these fights we succeeded in capturing the enemy's pah or in defeat- ing them if they fought in the open. Unfortunately, although these engagements showed the natives that in fair fighting they were no match for our troops, they have done little more. When their pahs were captured they almost invariably managed to make their way though the dense bush, and it can scarcely be said that we do more than hold the ground occupied by our soldiers. And so matters still go on. The fighting has been confined to the Taranaki and Auckland provinces, and we may hope that it will go no further." "Well, it is quite evident," Mr. Renshaw said, "that neither the Waikato country nor Taranaki are fit places for. quiet people to settle at the present time, and I sup- pose the northern part of Wellington is not much better?" "No, I cannot say it is," Mr. Jackson said. "The Wanganui tribe, on the river of that name, are in alliance with the Taranaki people, and have joined them in fight- ing against us, and I believe that General Cameron will shortly undertake a campaign against them. I shall strongly advise you to turn your attention to the eastern side of this province, or to the province of Hawke Bay, higher up, where they have had no trouble whatever, and where, as you know, our friends the Mitfords are settled. " "What is this that I have heard about a new religion that has been started among the Maoris?" "There is but little known about it, and if it were not 15 2 MAORI AND SETTLES. that should this religion spread it will add to our diffi- culties, no one would think anything about it one way or the other. There was a fellow named Te TTa, who had always been looked upon as a harmless lunatic. No doubt he is a lunatic still, though whether he will be harmless remains to be seen. However, he some little time ago gave out that the archangel Michael, the angel Gabriel, and hosts of minor spirits visited him and gave him per- mission to preach a new religion, and bestowed on him great power. "The religion was to be called Pai Marire, which in- terpreted literally means good and peaceful ; and it is also called Hau-Hau, the meaning of which is obscure, but it is a special word of power that Te Ua professes to have specially received from the angel Gabriel. As far as we have been able to learn the Hau-Haus have no special belief or creed, except that their leader has a divine mis- sion, and that all he says is to be implicitly obeyed. Certainly the religion has spread quickly among the tribes, and has latterly taken the form of hostility to us. Still, we may hope that it will soon die out. It is said that Te TJa has told his followers that they are invulnera- ble, but if they try conclusions with us they will very speedily find that he has deceived them, and are not likely to continue their belief in him." "Then the colonists themselves, Mr. Jackson, have taken but little share in the fighting so far?" "Oh, yes, they have. There have been several corps of rangers which have done capital service. The corps led by Majors Atkinson, "Von Tempsky, and McDonnell have done great service, and are far more dreaded by the natives than are the slow-moving regular troops. They fight the natives in their own manner make raids into their country and attack their positions at ni&ht, and so MAORI AND SETTLER. Io3 much are they dreaded that the natives in Tillages in their vicinity are in the habit of leaving their huts at night and sleeping in the bush lest they should be sur- prised by their active enemy. The general opinion among us colonists is that ten companies like Von Temp- sky's would do a great deal more than ten British regi- ments toward bringing the matter to a conclusion. "In the first place, the officers and troops of the regu- lar array cannot bring themselves to regard the natives with the respect they deserve as foes. Their movements are hampered by the necessity of a complicated system of transport. Their operations, accompanied as they are by artillery and a wagon train, are slow in the extreme, and do what they will the natives always slip through their hands. The irregular corps, on the other hand, thoroughly appreciate the activity and bravery of the Maoris. They have lived among them, and know their customs and ways. They have suffered from the arro- gance and insolence of the natives before the outbreak of the war, and most of them have been ruined by the destruction of their farms and the loss of years of patient labor. Thus they fight with a personal feeling of enmity against their foes, and neither fatigue nor danger is con- sidered by them if there is a chance of inflicting a blow upon their enemy. I am convinced that at last the im- perial government will be so disgusted at the failure of the troops to bring the war to a conclusion, and at the great expense and loss of life entailed by the operations, that they will recall the regulars and leave the colonists to manage the affair themselves, in which case I have no fear whatever as to their bringing it to a prompt conclu- sion. Looking at the matter from a business point of view, there is no doubt, Mr. Eenshaw, that those who, like yourself, come out at the present time will benefit 154 MAORI AND SETTLER. considerably. You will get land at a quarter the price you would have had to pay for it had it not been for these troubles, and as soon as the war is over the tide of emigration will set in again more strongly than before, and land will go to prices far exceeding those that ruled before the outbreak began." Upon the following morning Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid embarked in the schooner. They had been furnished by Mr. Jackson with a number of letters of introduction to settlers in every district they were to visit. "These will really only be of use to you in the small towns," he said, "for in the country districts every house is open, and you have generally only to ride up to a door, put up your horses, and walk in, and you are almost sure to meet with a hearty welcome. Still, as you are newcomers, and have not rubbed off your old country ideas, it will be more pleasant for you to take letters. At the ports, such as they are, you may really find them useful, for you will not find any inns. You can strike out anywhere into the back country without the least fear of being inconven- ienced by natives." The two friends spent a pleasant fortnight touching at the settlements, situated for the most part at the mouths of the rivers, and spending the time the vessel remained there in short excursions into the interior. They were most pleased with the Wairarapa Valley, running up from Palliser Bay; but this being near Wellington the land was all taken up, and there were many flourishing villages and small towns. "This is very nice," Wilfrid said, "but the price of land is far too high for us, and we might almost as well have taken to farming in England." The eastern coast of the province was dotted by little settlements, lying for the most part at the mouths of MAORI AND SETTLER. 155 email rivers, and several of these offered favorable facili- ties for settlement. Passing on, they found that the coast was bolder along the province of Hawke Bay. They stopped at Clive, at the mouth of the bay, for a day or two, and went up th.e Tukataki river in a canoe to the town of Waipawa. But here they found the farms thick and land comparatively expensive. They left the schooner at Napier, the chief town of the province, and after making several excursions here went up in a coast- ing craft to the mouth of the river Mohaka, which runs into the sea a short distance to the south of the boundary line between Hawke Bay and the province of Auckland. A few miles up this river was the farm of Mr. Mitford. Hiring a boat they proceeded up the river, and landed in front of the comfortable-looking farmhouse of the settler. Mr. Mitford, seeing strangers approaching, at once came down to meet them, and received them with the greatest cordiality as soon as he saw who they were. "I am heartily glad to see you!" he exclaimed, "and the girls will be delighted. They have been wondering ever. since we got here when you would arrive. You have not, I hope, fixed upon any land yet, for they have set their heart upon your settling down as our neighbors. This is as pretty a valley as there is in the island, and you will have no difficulty in getting land at the lowest government price. There being no settlement of any size at the mouth of the river has deterred emigrants from coming here to search for land. But we can talk about that afterward. Come straight up to the house. I will send down one of my native boys to bring up your They spent a very pleasant evening at the farmhouse. Mr. Mitford owned a considerable extent of land, and 156 MAORI AND SETTLER. was doing very well. He reared cattle and horses, which he sent down for sale to "Wellington. The house was large and comfortable, and bore signs of the prosperity of its owner. The girls were delighted at the place. They had been left in care of relatives at home when, their father and mother came out six years before to settle in New Zealand, and everything was as new to them as to Wilfrid. They had taken to riding as soon as they arrived, and had already made excursions far up the valley with their father. "We were at a place yesterday, Wilfrid," the eldest girl said, "that we agreed would suit your father admira- bly. It is about ten miles up the river. It was taken up onlj' last year, father says, by a young Englishman, who is going to make a home for some one he was en- gaged to in England. A few days since he was killed by a tree he was cutting down falling upon him. He lived twenty-four hours after the accident, and father rode out to him when he heard it. He directed him to sell the land for whatever it would fetch, and to send the money over to England. There are two hundred acres on the river and a comfortable log hut, which could of course be enlarged. He had about fifteen acres cleared and cultivated. The scenery is beautiful, much prettier than it is here, with lots of lovely tree-ferns; and there are many open patches, so that more land can be cleared for cultivation easily. Mabel and I agreed when we rode over there two days ago that it would be just the place for you." "It sounds first-rate," Wilfrid said; "just the sort of place that will suit us." "But how about me, Miss Mitford?" Mr. Atherton asked. "Have you had my interest at heart as well as those of Wilfrid and his people?" MAORI AND SETTLER. 157 can take up the next bit of laud above it," Mr. Mitford said. "Langston's was the last settlement on the river, so you can take up any piece of land beyond it at the government upset price, and do as much fishing and shooting as you like, for I heard from my daughters that you are not thinking of permanently settling here, but are only a bird of passage. Anyhow, it would not be a bad investment for you to buy a considerable acreage, for as soon as the troubles are over there is sure to be a rush of emigration ; and there are very few places now where land is to be had on a navigable river, so that when you are tired of the life you will be able to sell out at considerable profit." "It sounds tempting, Mr. Mitford, and I will certainly have a l.ook at the ground. How much would this piece of land be of Mr. Langston's?" "The poor fellow told me to take anything that I could get. He said he knew that at present it was very diffi- cult to sell land, as no new settlers were coming out, and that he should be very glad if I got what he gave for it, which was ten shillings an acre, and to throw in the im- provements he had made; so that a hundred pounds would buy it all. I really don't think that Mr. Renshaw could do better if he looked all through the island. With a cow or two, a pen of pigs, and a score or two of fowls, he would practically be able to live on his land from the hour he settled there." Wilfrid was greatly pleased at the idea. He knew that his father and mother had still eight hundred pounds untouched ; two hundred pounds, together with the pro- ceeds of his mother's trinkets and jewels, and the sale of the ponies and pony carriage, which had been her own property, having sufficed to pay for the passage of them- selves and their two laborers, and for all expenses up to 158 MAORI AND SETTLER. the time of their arrival at Wellington. "If we could get another piece of two hundred acres adjoining it at the same price I think my father would like to take it," he said; "it would give more room for horses and cattle to graze. Of course we should not want it at first ; but if as we got on we wanted more land, and had neighbors all round us and could not get it, it would be a nuisance." "I agree with you," Mr. Mitford said. "Two hun- dred acres is more than you want if you are going to put it under the plow; it is not enough if you are going to raise cattle and horses. I should certainly recommend you to take up another two hundred. The next land on this side is still vacant. Poor Langston chose the spot because it happened to be particularly pretty, with an open glade down to the river, but the land for fully two miles on this side is unoccupied. You can get it at ten shillings an acre at present. I will see about it for you if you make up your mind, after seeing Langston 'sjplace, to take it." "Of course I cannot settle it by myself, sir, not abso- lutely. I can only recommend it to my father as the best place that I have seen. If it is as you describe it they will be delighted." "Well, we will ride over to-morrow and have a look at it. The only possible objection I have is loneliness; but that will improve in time ; the natives here are per- fectly peaceful, and we have never had the slightest trouble with them." "We are a good large party to begin with, you see," Wilfrid said. "Having the two men with us will take away the feeling of loneliness, especially if Mr. Atherton decides upon taking the piece of land next to us. Then there are the two Aliens who came out with us. I prom- ised to write and tell them if I found any nice place; MAORI AND SETTLER. 159 and they said particularly that they wanted ground on a river if they could get it, as they are fond of boating and fishing, and fancied that if there were other farms around that they could, until their own place paid, help to keep themselves by taking their neighbors' crops down to market." "Yes, it might pay if they got a large flatboat capable of carrying cargo ; but as far as light goods, letters, and groceries from town are concerned, the Indians could do it cheaper in their canoes. However, at present there is no market for them to come down to. I keep what I call a grocery store for the benefit of the two or three score of settlers there are on the river. I do not make any profit out of the matter, but each season get a hogshead y water to running the risk of breaking a horse's back and my own neck. If such a thing cannot be obtained I will get you, if you will, to let me have a native as guide, and I will walk, taking with me some small stock of provisions. I can sleep at this hut of Langston's, for I say frankly that I should not care about doing the distance there and back in one day." "I have a boat," Mr. Mitford said, smiling, "and you shall have a couple of natives to paddle you up. I will give orders for them to be ready directly after break- fast. You will scarcely be there as soon as we are, but you will be there long before we leave. Of course we shall spend some time in going over the ground, and we shall take a boy with us with a luncheon basket, so you will find refreshment awaiting you when you get there." "That will suit me admirably," Mr. Atherton said. "A boating excursion up an unknown river is just the thing I like that is, when the boat is a reasonable size. I was once fool enough on the Amazon to allow myself to be persuaded that a canoe at most two feet wide would MAORI AND SETTLER. 163 carry me, and the tortures I suffered during that expedi- tion, wedged in the bottom of that canoe, and holding on to the sides, I shall never forget. The rascally Indians made matters worse by occasionally giving sly lurches to the boat, and being within an ace of capsizing her. I had two days of that work before I got to a vil- lage where I could obtain a craft of reasonable size, and I should think I must have lost two stone in weight dur- ing the time. You think that was rather an advantage I can see, Miss Mitford, " he broke off, seeing a smile upon the girl's face. "Well, yes, I could spare that and more, but I should prefer that it was abstracted by other meana than that of agon}' of mind ; beside, these improvements are not permanent." After a hearty breakfast the party prepared for their start. Mrs. Mitford had already said that she should not accompany them, the distance being longer than she cared to ride ; and four horses were therefore brought round. Mr. Atherton was first seen fairly on his way in a good-sized boat, paddled by two powerful Maoris. Mr. Mitford, his daughters, and "Wilfrid then mounted; the lad had already been asked if he was accustomed to riding. "Not lately," he replied, "but I used to have a pony and rode a good deal when I was a small boy, and I dare say I can stick on." Wilfrid was delighted with his ride through the forest. In his other trips ashore their way had led through an open country with low scrub bush, and this was his first experience of a New Zealand forest. Ferns were growing everywhere. The tree-ferns, coated with scales, rose from thirty to forty feet in the air. Hymenophylla and polypodia, in extraordinary variety, covered the trunks of the forest trees with luxuriant growth. Smaller ferns 164. MAORI AND SETTLER. grew between the branches and twigs, and a thick growth of ferns of many species extended everywhere over the ground. The trees were for the most part pines of different varieties, but differing so widely in appearance from those Wilfrid had seen in England that had not Mr. Mitford assured him that they were really pines he would never have guessed they belonged to that family. Mr. Mitford gave him the native names of many of them. The totara matai were among the largest and most beau- tiful. The rinu was distinguished by its hanging leaves and branches, the tanekaha by its parsley-shaped leaves. Among them towered up the poplar-shaped rewarewa and the hinau, whose fruit Mr. Mitford said was the fav- orite food of the parrots. Among the great forest trees were several belonging to the families of the myrtles and laurels, especially the rata, whose trunk often measured forty feet in circum- ference, and on whose crown were branches of scarlet blossoms. But it was to the ferns, the orchids, and the innumerable creepers, which covered the ground with a natural netting, coiled round every stem, and entwined themselves among the topmost branches, that the forest owed its peculiar features. Outside the narrow cleared track along which they were riding it would have been impossible for a man to make his way unless with the assistance of knife and hatchet, especially as some of the climbers were completely covered with thorns. And yet, although so very beautiful, the appearance of the forest was somber and melancholy. A great propor- tion of the plants of New Zealand bear no flowers, and except high tip among some of the treetops no gay blossoms or color of any kind meet the eye to relieve the monotony of the verdure. A deep silence reigned. MAORI AND SETTLER. 165 Wilfrid did not see a butterfly during his ride, or hear the song or even the chirp of a single bird. It was a wilderness of tangled green, unrelieved by life or color. Mr. Mitford could give him the names of only a few of the principal trees; and seeing the infinite variety of the foliage around him, Wilfrid no longer wondered Mr. Atherton should have made so long a journey in order to study the botany of the island, which is unique, for al- though many of the trees and shrubs can be found else- where, great numbers are entirely peculiar to the island. "Are there any snakes?" Wilfrid asked. "No; you can wander about without fear. There is only one poisonous creature in New Zealand, and that is found north of the port of Tauranga, forty or fifty miles from here. They say it exists only there and round Potaki, near Cook's Strait. It is a small black spider, with a red stripe on its back. The natives all say that its bite is poisonous. It will not, they say, cause death to a healthy person, though it will make him very ill ; but there are instances of sickly persons being killed by it. Anyhow, the natives dread it vary much. However, as the beast is confined to two small localities, you need not trouble about it. The thorns are the only enemies you have to dread as you make your way through the forest." "That is a comfort, anyhow," Wilfrid said; "it would be a great nuisance to have to be always on the watch against snakes." The road they were traversing had been cleared of trees from one settler's holding to another, and they stopped for a few minutes at three or four of the farm- houses. Some of these showed signs of comfort and prosperity, while one or two were mere log cabins. "I suppose the people here have lately arrived?" Wil- 166 MAORI AND SETTLER. frid remarked as they rode by one of these without stopping. "They have been here upward of two years," Mr. Mit- ford replied; "but the place is not likely to improve were they to be here another ten. They are a thriftless, lazy lot, content to raise just sufficient for their actual wants and to pay for whisky. These are the sort of peo- ple who bring discredit on the colony by writing home declaring that there is no getting on here, and that a settler's life is worse than a dog's. "People who come out with an idea that a colony is an easy place to get a living in are completely mistaken. For a man to succeed he must work harder and live harder here than he would do at home. He is up with the sun, and works until it is too dark to work longer. If he employs men he must himself set an example to them. Men will work here for a master who works 'him- self, but one who thinks that he has only to pay his hands and can spend his time in riding about the coun- try making visits, or in sitting quietly by his fire, will find that his hands will soon be as lazy as he is himself. Then the living here is rougher than it is at home for one in the same condition of life. The fare is necessarily monotonous. In hot weather meat will not keep more than a day or two, and a settler cannot afford to kill a sheep every day ; therefore he has to depend either upon bacon or tinned meat, and I can tell yon that a continu- ance of such fare palls upon the appetite, and one's meals cease to be a pleasure. But the curse of the country, as of all our colonies, is whisky. I do think the monotony of the food has something to do with it, and that if men could but get greater variety in their fare they would not have the same craving for drink. It is the ruin of thousands. A young fellow who lands here and deter- MAORI AND SETTLER. 167 mines to work hard and to abstain from liquors I do not mean totally abstain, though if he has any inclina- tion at all toward drink the only safety is total abstinence is sure to get on and" make his way, while the man who gives way to drink is equally certain to remain at the bottom of the tree. Now we are just passing the boundary of the holding you have come to see. You see that piece of bark slashed off the trunk of that tree? That is what we call a blaze, and marks the line of the boundary." After riding a few minutes further the trees opened, and they found themselves in a glade sloping down to the river. A few acres of land haPai Marire or Hau-Hau faith reached the ears of the /settlers, there were few in the western provinces who believed that here was any real danger. The Maoris had always been peaceful and friendly with them, and they could not believe that those with whom they had dwelt so long could suddenly and without any reason become bloodthirsty enemies. Wilfrid said nothing to his parents as to what he had heard from Jack, but he talked it over with Mr. Atherton and the Aliens. The latter were disposed to make light of it, but Mr. Atherton took the matter seriously. "There is never any saying how things will go with the natives," he said. "All savages seem to be alike. Up to a certain point they are intelligent and sensible ; but they are like children; they are easily excited, super- stitious in the extreme, and can be deceived without the slightest difficulty by designing people. Of course to us this story of Te Ua's sounds absolutely absurd, but that is no reason why it should appear absurd to them. These people have embraced a sort of Christianity, and they have read of miracles of all sorts, and will have no more difficulty in believing that the angels could' destroy all the Europeans in their island than that the Assyrian army was miraculously destroyed before Jerusalem. "Without taking too much account of the business, I think, Wilfrid, that it will be just as well if all of us in these outlj'ing settlements take a certain amount of pre- cautions. I shall write down at once to my agent ai 192 MAORI AND SETTLER. Hawke Bay asking him to buy me a couple of dogs and send them up by the next ship. I shall tell him that it does not matter what sort of dogs they are so that they are good watchdogs, though, of course, I should prefer that they should be decent dogs of their sort, dogs one could make companions of. I should advise you to do the same. "I shall ask Mr. Mitford to get me up at once a heavy door and shutters for the window, strong enough to stand an assault. Here again I should advise you to do the same. You can assign any reason you like to your father. With a couple of dogs to give the alarm, with a strong door and shutters, you need not be afraid of being taken by surprise, and it is only a surprise that you have in the first place to fear. Of course if there were to be anything like a general rising we should all have to gather at some central spot agreed upon, or else to quit the settlement altogether until matters settle down. Still, I trust that nothing of that sort will take place. At any rate, all we have to fear and prepare against at present is an attack by small parties of fanatics." Wilfrid had no difficulty in persuading his father to order a strong oak door and shutters for the windows, and to get a couple of dogs. He began the subject by saying: "Mr. Atherton is going to get some strong shut- ters to his window, father. I think it would be a good thing if we were to get the same for our windows. " "What do we want shutters for, Wilfrid?" "For just the same reason that we have been learning to use our firearms, father. We do riot suppose that the natives, who are all friendly with us, are going to turn treacherous. Still, as there is a bare possibility of such a thing, we have taken some pains in learning to shoot straight. In the same way it would be just as well to MAORI AND SETTLER. 193 have strong shutters put up. We don't at all suppose we are going to be attacked, but if we are the shutters would be invaluable, and would effectually prevent any- thing like a night surprise. The expense wouldn't be great, and in the unlikely event of the natives being troublesome in this part of the island we should all sleep much more soundly and comfortably if we knew that there was no fear of our being taken by surprise. Mr. Atherton is sending for a couple of dogs too. I have always thought that it would be jolly to have a dog or two here, and if we do not want them as guards they would be pleasant as companions when one is going about the place. " A few days after the arrival of two large watchdogs and of the heavy shutters and door, Mr. Mitford rode ia to The Glade. He chatted for a few minutes on ordinary subjects, and then Mrs. Renshaw said: "Is anything the matter, Mr. Mitford? you look more serious than usual." "I can hardly say that anything is exactly the matter, Mrs. Eenshaw; but I have a batch of newspapers and letters from Wellington this morning, and they give rather stirring news. The Hau-Haus have come into collision with us again. You know that a fortnight since we had news that they had attacked a party of our men under Captain Lloyd and defeated them, and, contrary to all native traditions, had cut off the heads of the slain, among whom was Captain Lloyd himself. I was afraid that after this we should soon hear more of them, and my opinion has been complete^' justified. On the 1st of May two hundred of the Ngataiwa tribe, and three hundred other natives under Te Ua's prophet Hepanaia and Parengi-Kingi of Taranaki, attacked a strong fort on Sentry Hill, garrisoned by fifty men of the Fifty-second Regiment under Major Short. 194 MAORI AND SETTLER. "Tne Ngataiwa took no part in the action, but the Hau-Haus charged with great bravery. The garrison fortunately being warned by their yells of what was com- ing, received them with such a heavy fire that their lead- ing ranks were swept away, and they fell back in confu- sion. They made a second charge, which was equally unsuccessful, and then fell back with a loss of fifty-two killed, among whom were both the Hau-Hau prophet and Parengi-Kingi. "The other affair has taken place in the Wellington district. Matene, another of the Hau-Hau prophets, came down to Pipiriki, a tribe of the Wanganui. These people were bitterly hostile to us, as they had taken part in some of the former fighting, and their chief and thirty six of his men were killed. The tribe at once accepted the new faith. Mr. Booth, the resident magistrate, who was greatly respected among them, went up to try to smooth matters down, but was seized, and would have been put to death if it had not been for the interference in his favor of a young chief named Hori Patene, who managed to get him and his wife and children safely down in a- canoe to the town of Wagnai. The Hau-Hau8 prepared to move down the river to attack the town, and sent word to the Ngatihau branch of the tribe who lived down the river to join them. They and two other of the Wanganui tribes living on the lower part of the river re- fused to do so, and also refused to let them pass down the river, and sent a challenge for a regular battle to take place on the island of Moutoa in the river. "The challenge was accepted. At dawn on the follow- ing morning our natives, three hundred and fifty strong, proceeded to the appointed ground. A hundred picked men crossed on to the island, and the rest remained on the banks as spectators. Of the hundred, fifty divided MAORI AND SETTLES. 195 into three parties each under a chief, formed the advance guard, "while the other fifty remained in reserve at the end of the island two hundred yards away, and too far to be of much use in the event of the advance guard being defeated. The enemy's party were a hundred and thirty strong,' and it is difficult to understand why a larger body was not sent over to the island to oppose them, especially as the belief in the invulnerability of the Hau- Haus was generally believed in, even by the natives opposed to them. "It was a curious fight, quite in the manner of the traditional warfare between the various tribes before our arrival on the island. The lower tribesmen fought, not for the defense of the town, for they were not very friendly with the Europeans, having been strong sup- porters of the king party, but simply for the prestige of the tribe. No hostile war party had ever forced the river, and none ever should do so. The Hau-Haus came down the river in their canoes and landed without oppo- sition. Then a party of the "Wanganui advance guard fired. Although the Hau-Haus *vere but thirty yards distant none of them fell, and their return volley killed the chiefs of two out of the three sections of the advance guard and many others. "Disheartened by the loss of their chiefs, the two sec- tions gave way, shouting that the Hau-Haus were invul- nerable. The third section, well led by their chief, held their ground, but were driven slowly back by the over- whelming force of the enemy. The battle appeared to be lost, when Tamehana, the sub-chief of one of the fly- ing sections, after vainly trying to rally his men, arrived on the ground, and, refusing to obey the order to take cover from the Hau-Haus' fire, dashed at the enemy and killed two of them with his double-barreled gun. The 196 MAORI AND SETTLER. last of the three leaders was at this moment shot dead. Nearly all his men were more or less severely wounded, but as the Hau-Haus rushed forward they fired a volley into them at close quarters, killing several. But they still came on, when Tamehana again rushed at them. Seizing the spear of a dead man he drove it into the heart of a Hau-Hau. Catching up the gun and toma- hawk of the fallen man, he drove the latter so deeply into the head of another foe that in wrenching it out the handle was broken. Finding that the gun was unloaded, he dashed it in the face of his foes, and snatching up another he was about to fire, when a bullet struck him in the arm. Nevertheless he fired and killed his man, but the next moment was brought to the ground by a bullet that shattered his knee. "At this moment Hainoina, who commanded the re- serve, came up with them, with the fugitives whom he had succeeded in rallying. They fired a volley, and then charged down upon the Hau-Haus with their toma- hawks. After a desperate fight the enemy were driven in confusion to the upper end of the island, where they rushed into the water and attempted to swim to the right bank. The prophet was recognized among the swim- mers. One of the Wangenui plunged in after him, over- took him just as he reached the opposite bank, and in spite of the prophet uttering the magic words that should have paralyzed his assailant, killed him with his toma- hawk and swam back with the body to Hainoma. " "They seem to have been two serious affairs," Mr. Kenshaw said; "but as the Hau-Haus were defeated in each we may hope that we have heard the last of them, for as both the prophets were killed the belief in the invulnerability of Te Ua's followers must be at an end." "I wish I could think so," Mr. Mitford said; "but it MAORI AND SETTLER. 197 is terribly hard to kill a superstition. Te Ua will, of course, say that the two prophets disobeyed his positive instructions and thus brought their fate upon themselves, and the incident may therefore rather strengthen than decrease his influence. The best part of the business in my mind is that some of the tribes have thrown in their lot on our side, or if not actually on our side at any rate against the Hau-Haus. After this we need hardly fear any general action of the natives against us. There are all sorts of obscure alliances between the tribes arising from marriages, or from their having fought on the same side in some far-back struggle. The result is that the tribes who have these alliances with the Wanganui will henceforth range themselves on the same side, or will at any rate hold aloof from this Pai Marire movement. This will also force other tribes, who might have been willing to join in a general movement, to stand neutral, und I think now, that although we may have a great deal of trouble with Te Ua's followers, we may regard any absolute danger to the European population of the island as past. "There may, I fear, be isolated massacres, for the Hau-Haus, with their cutting off of heads and carrying them about, have introduced an entirely new and savage feature into Maori warfare. I was inclined to think the precautions you and Atherton are taking were rather superfluous, but after this I shall certainly adopt them myself. Everything is perfectly quiet here, but when we see how readily a whole tribe embrace the new reli- gion as soon as a prophet arrives, and are ready at once to massacre a man who had long dwelt among them, and for whom they had always evinced the greatest respect and liking, it is impossible any longer to feel confident that the natives in this part of the country are to be relied upon as absolutely friendly and trustworthj". 198 MAORI AND SETTLER. "I am sorry now that I have been to some extent the means of inducing you all to settle here. At the time I gave my advice things seemed settling down at the other end of the island, and this Hau-Hau movement reached us only as a vague rumor, and seemed so absurd in itself that one attached no importance to it." "Pray do not blame yourself, Mr. Mitford; whatever comes of it we are delighted with the choice we have made. We are vastly more comfortable than we had expected to be in so short a time, and things look promis- ing far beyond our expectations. As you say, you could have had no reason to suppose that this absurd movement was going to lead to such serious consequences. Indeed you could have no ground for supposing that it was likely to cause trouble on this side of the island, far re- moved as we are from the scene of the troubles. Even now these are in fact confined to the district where fight- ing has been going on for the last three or four years Taranaki and its neighborhood ; for the Wanganui river, although it flows into the sea in the north of the Welling- ton district, rises in that of Taranaki, and the tribes who became Hau-Haus and came down the river had already taken part in the fighting with our troops. I really see no reason, therefore, for fearing that it will spread in this direction." "There is no reason whatever," Mr. Mitford agreed; "only, unfortunately, the natives seldom behave as we expect them to do, and generally act precisely as we ex- pect they will not act. At any rate I shall set to work at once to construct a strong stockade at the back of my house. I have long been talking of forming a large cattle-yard there, so that it will not in any case be labor thrown away, while if trouble should come it will serve as a rallying place to which all the settlers of the dis- MAORI AND SETTLER. 199 trict can drive in their horses and cattle for shelter, and where they can if attacked hold their own against all the natives of the districts." "I really think you are looking at it in almost too serious a light, Mr. Mitford ; still, the fact that there is such a rallying place in the neighborhood will of course add to our comfort in case we should hear alarming rumors." "Quite so, Mr. Eenshaw. My idea is there is nothing like being 'prepared, and though I agree with you that there is little chance of trouble in this remote settlement, . it is just as well to take precautions against the worst." 800 MAORI AND SETTLED CHAPTER XIL THE FIRST ALARM. ONE morning Mr. and Mrs. Renshaw went down to epend a long day with the Mitfords. The latter had sent up the boat overnight, and they started the first thing in the morning. For the two or three days pre- vious Jack, the young native, had more than once spoken to Wilfrid of the propriety of the hands keeping near the house, but Wilfrid had failed to obtain from him any specific reasons for the warning. "Bad men come down from Waikato," he said. "Much talkee talkee among natives." "But what do they talk about, Jack?" Jack shook his head. "Jack no hear talkee. Men come to hut and talk with father. Other Maoris on land steal in and talk too, but no talk before Jack; always turn him out or send him on errand. But Jack hear sometimes a word, and think that trouble come. Young master better not go far away by himself, and tell two white men to keep close to hut. Perhaps nothing come, but better to be on guard." "Very well, Jack; I am obliged to you for the warn- ing. I will tell the Grimstones not to go out to the out- lying clearings, but to occupy themselves with what they can find to do near home." Jack nodded. -"That best, Master Wilfrid, but no talk too much with me. If my people thought I speak to -you then trouble come to Jack." MAORI AND SETTLER. 201 "Wilfrid nodded, and without saying anything to his father and mother told the Grimstones to keep near the house. "After you have done shooting of a morning," he said, "instead of bringing your guns into the house as usual take them down with you to the place where you are at work, so that they will be handy in case of neces- sity. Most likely there is no danger whatever ; but I have heard a rumor that some people from Waikato have come into this neighborhood, and if so no doubt they are toying to get the tribes here to join the Hau-Haus. I do not think that there is much chance of their succeed- ing, for the natives have always been very friendly, and there has been no dispute about land or any other griev- ance; but when one knows how suddenly they have risen in other places it is better to take precautions." After breakfast on the morning when his father and mother had started, Wilfrid strolled out on to .the ver- anda, and stood for some little time hesitating what he should do. The Grimstones had just started to look up some cattle in one of the distant clearings, one of the native hands having reported the evening before two of the animals were missing. "I will not go far till they come back, he said to him- self. "The garden wants hoeing. Weeds grow as fast here as they do at home. That will be just the job for me." He was about to turn to enter the house when he saw four natives emerge from the trees and make toward him. "Marion," he said through the open door, "get the guns down from the rack, and see that they are capped and ready. There are four natives coming toward the house. I dare say they are friendly, and are probably only on the way down to the river to look for work. Still, as we are alone you cannot be too careful. ' ' 202 MAORI AND SETTLER. Hearing Marion reply "All right, Wilfrid!" the lad leaned against the door in a careless attitude and awaited the coming of the natives. As they approached he saw they were all strangers to him, although he knew most of the natives in the neighborhood by sight, for these not unfrequently came in to barter a pig or a sheep for tobacco, sugar, or other things necessary to them. The natives as they came up gave the usual salutation, of good-day, to which Wilfrid replied. "We are hungry," a tall Maori, who L by his dress ap- peared to be a chief, said. "I will get you something to eat," Wilfrid answered. The Maoris would have followed into the house, but he stopped and said sharply, "We do not allow strangers in the house. Those we know are free to enter and de- part as they choose, but I have not seen any of you be- fore. If you will sit down on that bench outside I will bring you food." He soon reappeared with a dish of maize and boiled pork, for a supply was generally kept in readiness in casi> any of the natives should come in. "Shuffle about and make a noise," he said to Marion as she got the dish from the cupboard. "They cannot know who are inside, and if they mean [mischief and honestly I do not like their looks they will be more likely to try it on if they think that I am alone." The Maoris took the food in silence, and as they ate it Wilfrid was amused to hear Marion stamping heavily about inside, and occasionally speaking as if to her father. He could see that the men were listening, and they exchanged words in a low tone with each other. Presently the leader of the party said, "Drink!" Wilfrid went in and brought out a pitcher of water. "Gin!" the chief said shortly. Maori MARION COVERS THE NATIVE WITH HER RlFLE. Page 203. JfAORI AND SETTLER. 203 "I have no gin to give you," Wilfrid replied; "we do not keep spirits." The natives rose to their feet. "We will come in and see," the leader said. "No, you won't!" Wilfrid said firmly. "I have given you what food there is in the house, and you are welcome to it; but strangers don't come into the house unless they are invited." The native laid his hand on Wilfrid's shoulder to push him aside, but four months of chopping and digging had hardened every muscle in the lad's body. He did not move an inch, but jerked the Maori's hand off his shoulder. With an exclamation of anger the native drew a heavy knobbed stick from the girdle round his waist, but be- fore he could raise it to strike another figure appeared at the door. Marion held a gun in her hand which she raised to her shoulder. "Drop that," she said, in a clear, ringing voice, "or I fire!" Taken by surprise, and seeing the rifle pointed full at his head, the chief instantly dropped his club. At the same instant Wilfrid sprang to the door, exclaiming "Go in, Marion!" and before the natives had recovered from their surprise the door was shut and barred. They had not been deceived by Marion's attempt to personate a man, and their sharp ears had told them while eating their meal that there was but one person in the house, and that it was a girl. They knew that there was no other about, having watched the house for some time, and had therefore anticipated that the work of iQurder and plunder would be accomplished without difficulty. The instant the door was closed they bounded ,way at the top of their speed to the shelter of the bush, expecting every moment to hear the report of a rifle be- hind them ; but the Benshaws had not thought of firing. 204 MAORI AND SETTLES. "Well done, Marion!" Wilfrid exclaimed, as soon as the door was fastened. "I was on the point of spring- ing upon him when I heard your voice behind me ; I think that I could have tripped him backward, but if I had done so the others would have been upon me with their clubs. Now, let us close and fasten the shutters, though I do not think we need have any fear of their coming back. In each case we have heard of they have always fallen on the settlers suddenly and killed them before they had time for resistance, and I do not think there is a chance of their trying to attack UB now that they know we are ready for them. I expect that they were passing down to some of their people below, and seeing, as they thought, a defenseless hut, thought it would be an easy business to plunder it and knock on the head any one they might find here. Ndw that they have failed they will probably go on their journey again. " "I was horribly frightened, Wilfrid," Marion said, when they joined each other in the sitting-aroom after making all the fastenings secure. "You did not look frightened a bit, Marion; and you certainly gave that fellow a tremendous scare. Didn't he drop his club sharp? And now, what do you think \ve had better do ? The first thing is to get the Grim- Btones in. Those fellows may have been watching for some time and saw them go out." "But they have got their guns with them, Wilfrid. The natives would surely not think of attacking two men with guns when they have nothing but their clubs." "No, they certainly would not think of doing that, Marion. But the chances are that they have got guns, and that they left them in the bush when they sallied out, as they wanted to look peaceful and take us by sur- prise. " MAORI AND SETTLER. 205 'I did not think of that, Wilfrid. Yes, perhaps they have guns. Well, you know, it has always been agreed that in case of danger three shots should be fired as a warning to those who might be out. If we fire and they hear it they will hurry back. ' ' "Yes, but they might be shot as they make their way down to the house; that is what I am afraid of." Marion was silent for a minute. "Do you know where they have gone to, Wilfrid?" "They have gone in the first place to the clearing with those two big trees standing in the center, but I cannot say where they may go afterward, for they had to look for four or five of the cattle that had strayed away." "I can slip out from the window in the men's room and get into the bush and work round to the clearing, Wilfrid, alW fire three shots there; that would bring them to me at once. You see, the natives couldn't cross the clearing here without your having them under your gun." "No, Marion," Wilfrid said decidedly; "that is not to be thought of. If they saw you going they could work up through the bush on their side to the top of the clearing, and then follow you. No; I think I will fire the three shots. We have talked it over several times, you know, and the Grimstones have been tofd that if they heard the alarm they must make their way cau- tiously to the top of the clearing and see what is going on before they venture to make for the house. As soon as I see them I can shout to them to keep to the bush on their left till they get opposite the house. Everything is so still that one can hear a shout a long way, and I feel sure I could make them understand as far off as the end of the clearing. It isn't as if we were sure that these fellows were still hanging about ready to attack us; 206 MAORI AND SETTLES. the probabilities are all the other way. They would have murdered us if they could have taken us by sur prise, but that is a different thing altogether to making an attack now they know we are armed and ready." Taking three of the rifles, Wilfrid opened one of the shutters at the back of the house and fired them, with an interval of about five seconds between each shot; then he stood at the window and watched the upper end of the glade. "Dear me!" he exclaimed suddenly, "lam sorry we fired." "Why?" Marion asked in surprise. "Because Mr. Atherton is sure to hear it if he is at home, and will come hurrying over ; and if these fellows are still there he may come right into the middle of them." "I do not think he would do that, Wilfred," Marion said, after thinking for a moment or two. "Mr. Ather- ton is not like the Grimstones. He has been in all sorts of adventures, and though I am sure he will come to our help as soon as he can, I think he would take every pre- caution. He would know that the natives will be likely to come from above, and therefore be between him and us, and would come along carefully so as not to be sur- prised. " "I hope so, I am sure," Wilfrid said; for he is an awfully good fellow. Still, as you say, he is sure to keep his eyes opened, and unless they surprise him I should back him against the four of them." In a quarter of an hour they heard a shout from the edge of the clearing. "There are the Aliens!" Wilfrid exclaimed as he leaped to the door. "I forgot about them, although of course they are nearer than Mr. Ather- ton. Allright!" he shouted; "you can come on. " The two Aliens ran across the open space between the wood and the house. MAORI AND SETTLER. 207 "What is it, "Wilfrid?" they exclaimed as they came up. "You fired the alarm signal, did you not?" Both were breathless with the speed at which they had run. They had been engaged in felling when they heard the shots, and had thrown down their axes, run into the hut for their guns, and made for The Glade at the top of their speed. In a few words Wilfrid explained what had happened, and that there was every reason to believe that four hostile neighbors were lurking in the bush on the opposite side of the glade. The Aliens at once vol- unteered to go up to the head of the clearing to warn the Grimstones. Returning to the point where they had left the forest, they made their way among the trees until they reached the upper end of the clearing ; then sat down and listened. In a few minutes they heard the sound of breaking twigs. "Here come the men, "the elder Allen said ; "the Maoris would come along noise- lessly." Two or three minutes later the Grimstones came up at a run, accompanied by their two dogs. "This way," James Allen said. "What is it, sir?" Bob Grimstone gasped. "We were a long way in the woods when we thought we heard three shots. We were not quite sure about it, but we started back as fast as we could come. There is nothing wrong, I hope?" "Fortunately nothing has happened," James Allen replied; "but four strange Maoris came up to the house and would certainly have murdered Mr. Wilfrid and his sister if they had not been prepared for them. Whether they are in the bush now or not I do not know ; but we have come up to warn you not to go up the clearing, as if they are there they might pick you off as you did so. We must come down under shelter of the trees till we are opposite the house." 208 MAORI AND SETTLER. In ten minutes they reached the house. Just as they did so Mr. Atherton appeared at the edge of the wood which they had just left. "Thank God you are all safe!" he said as he strolled up to the house. "Your three shots gave me a fright; but as I heard no more I was relieved, for the signal told that you had not been taken by surprise, and as there was no more firing it was clear they had drawn off." "But how did you get to that side of the clearing, Mr. Mherion?" "I followed the wood till within a few hundred yards & the clearing, as I made sure if there were hostile A&tives about they would be at the edge of the bush. 'Chen I got down into the river and waded along the fcdge. The bank in front here was not high enough to hide me, though I stooped as much as I could; but I reckoned that all eyes would be fixed on the house, and it was not likely I should be noticed. And now, what is it all about? I am sure you would not have fired the signal unless there had been good cause for the alarm." Wilfrid related what had taken place. "Well done, Miss Marion!" Mr. Atherton said when he had finished. "It was lucky for your brother that you did not go with your father and mother this morn- ing. " "It was lucky," Wilfrid agreed; "but at the same time, if I had been quite alone I should have closed the shutters and door as they came up, and kept indoors. I only ventured to meet them outside because I knew that Marion had a gun ready to hand to me the moment I wanted it." "Yes; but you see there was not time to hand you the gun, Wilfrid, as it turned out, and you would have been knocked on the head to a certainty if your sister had not come to your rescue." MAORI AND SETTLER. 09 "That I certainly should; and I know that I owe Marion my life. What do you think we had better do now?" "I do not think we can do anything, Wilfrid, beyond trying to find out whether the fellows who came here were alone, or were part of larger party. Where are your natives?" "The three men are chopping, and Jack went out with the Grimstones to look for the cattle." "Was he with you when you heard the shots fired, Bob?" "He was with us a minute or two before, and was fol- lowing a track. After we heard the signal we did not think anything more about him, and whether he followed us or went on looking after the cattle I do not know." "If you go to the door, Wilfrid, and give a loud cooey it will bring him in if he is within hearing. You may be sure that he heard the signal, for his ears are keener than those of your men; but he would not rush straight back, but would come cautiously through the woods according to his nature." Wilfrid went to the door and gave a loud cooey. A mimite later the Maori issued from the bush, nearly opposite the house, and ran in. "That's j-ust where the natives took to the bush," Wil- frid said. "Perhaps he will be able to tell us something about them." "I expect he has been scouting," Mr. Atherton said, "and his coming boldly out from that point is a pretty sure proof that the natives have made off. Well, Jack, so you heard our signal?" Jack nodded. "And what kave you been doing since?" Wilfrid asked. 310 MAORI AND SETTLER. "Jack went through the bush fast till he got near house, then, as the guns were not going off, he kne\V there could be no attack; but thought black man might be lying in bush, so he crept and crawled. Presently he heard man talk, and then saw four Maori walking fast away from house. He only heard them say as he passed, 'No use now; too many Pakehas. Come another day and- finish them all.' Jack was coming straight to house when he heard cooey." "You have seen nothing of your father and the other two men, Jack?" The Maori boy shook [his head. "They chop wood; perhaps not heard signal." "More likely they heard, but thought it better to stay away," Wilfrid said. "No got guns; they not fighting men," Jack said, as if in excuse. "There is something in that," Mr. Atherton said. "The Hau-Haus have always proved themselves even more merciless tow r ard the friendly natives than toward the whites; and these men, being unarmed, might even with the best disposition in the world be afraid to come to the house. At any rate, I am glad those fellows have made off. You see, they were in a position to shoot any of us as if they got the chance, while we were scarce in a position to return the compliment." "Why not?" James Allen asked. "Because, although we could have now no doubt what- ever as to their intentions, the have committed no actual assault. They tried their best to push their way into the house, and when Wilfrid opposed them one of them drew his club; but they might say this was only done to frighten him, and that they had no thought of using it. If they had fired a shot, we should of course be justified WAORI AND SETTLER. 2ll an killing them ; but were we to begin the shooting, the whole tribe they belong to would take it up, and there would be a cry for vengeance; and even if nothing were done at once, we should be marked down to be wiped out at the first opportunity. "We shall learn in a day or two whether the matter was serious or not," Mr. Atherton went on. "If there is anything like a general defection of the natives in these parts yours will not have been the only place threatened, and we shall hear of attacks on other settlers. If we do not hear of such attacks we can safely put it down that these four fellows were mere haphazard pass- ers, like tramps at home, who were tempted by the fact that the house contained only two persons. In that case we need feel no further anxiety; for as you would be able to recognize them if you met them anywhere, they would not be likely to come near this part of the district again. At any rate I will set off with the boy here and one of the dogs, and will follow up their tracks and see if they have gone well a \vr.y. I have no doubt they have done so; still, it will be more comfortable to make cer- tain of it. ' ' "By the way, Bob," Wilfrid said, "don't you take those two dogs out again. I don't think they would be any good for hunting cattle, and would be much more likely to frighten and hunt them away than to help you to drive them in. At any rate they were bought as guards, and are to remain about the house. Shall I go with you, Mr. Atherton?" "No, thank you, Wilfrid; Jack will be enough to help me follow the tracks, for what he heard them say is al- most proof that they have gone. I shall go round to my own place when I have followed them fairly off the land, but will come round here to-morrow morning, MAORI AND SETTLER. when we will hold a general council of war. It is no use my coming back again this evening, as your father and the others will not be here before that time. It is possi- ble that they will bring us some news from the Mitfords. If there is any trouble anywhere along the river Mitford is sure to be the first to hear it. I will send a message back by Jack when he has gone as far as necessary for our purpose." Two hours later Jack returned with the news that the Maoris had gone straight on without makiug a stop. Mr. and Mrs. Kenshaw were expected back at about ten o'clock. They were to breakfast early at the Mitfords and to come up with their light canoe. They arrived, however, soon after eight o'clock. "Is all well?" Mr. Renshaw shouted as ke stepped from the boat. "All well, father," Marion replied, running down to meet them. "We had a little unpleasantness yesterday, but nothing of consequence. What brings you back so early? You must have started before daylight." "Bad news came in yesterday evening, and we should have come straight over if it had been possible, but Mr. Mitford would not let us leave till morning. We have been very anxious about you." "What is the news?" Wilfred asked. "The natives murdered two settlers at a farm some four miles from Mr. Mitford 's. Yesterday he received letters both from Poverty Bay and Napier saying that the natives were in a very disturbed state, that Hau-Hau prophets had been going about among them, and that in both districts there had been several murders. Corps of volunteers are being raised at Napier, and they have sent to Wellington for a company of the constabulary. The settlers at Poverty Bay are also making preparations for IfAORI AND SETTLER. 213 defense. Mr. Mitford was asked to get all the colonists on this river to arm and prepare for an attack. Of course this news was very alarming in itself, and when two or three hours later the news came in of the murders in our own settlement we were naturally most anxious about you. However, as we could not come over in the dark through the forest, and as Mitford pointed out that the house was well prepared for defense, and that you would certainly be on the alert and had the dogs, who would give you notice of any body of men coming, we Consented to remain if he would send us home in the canoe at five o'clock in the morning. And now, what is it that happened here yesterday?" "It was nothing very alarming, father. Four natives came up and asked for food, which of course I gave them. Then they wanted gin, and seeing that I was alone tried to push their way into the house. I tried to stop them. The fellow snatched at his club. As he did so Marion appeared at the door with a leveled rifle, and the fellows, who had no guns with them, took to their heels. . We gave the alarm signal, and the Aliens and Mr. Atherton came over at once, and the Grimstones ran in from their work. However, the natives had made their way off, and I do not suppose we shall hear any more of them." "I don't know, Wilffrid, " his father said. "If it had been only this affair I should not have thought much about it. The natives are often rude and insolent, and these men might not have meant to do more than help themselves to a bottle of spirits, but taken with these accounts from Napier and Poverty Bay, and with the murders yesterday, I think it is very serious. ' ' "Mr. Atherton and the Aliens promised to come over at ten o'clock, father, to chat the matter over with you, 214 MAORI AND SETTLER. and hear whether you had brought news of any troubles elsewhere. So we shall have quite a council. And now let us have breakfast. We were just going to sit down when we heard your call, and I am sure you must be as hungry as hunters after your three hours on the water." Breakfast was scarcely finished when Mr. Atherton and the Aliens arrived, and were made acquainted with the news of the murder of the two setttlers on ihe previous day. "It is clear," Mr. Atherton said, "that the affair here yesterday, was not, as I hoped, a mere incident, such as might happen anywhere if a party of ruffianly fellows arrived at a lonely house which they thought they could rob with impunity. This sad business you tell us of shows that there is a general movement among the natives, the result, I suppose, of the arrival of some emis- sary from the Hau-Haus. It is an awkward business. What is Mr. Mitford's opinion on the subject?" "He thinks it will be well that all settlers on the river capable of bearing arms should be enrolled as a volunteer corps, and be in readiness to turn out at a moment's notice. He is of opinion that all those whose farms lie at a distance from the main body should drive in their animals and bring in such goods as they can carry to his station, as one of the most central. Huts could be got up there, and the animals all kept at night in his large stockaded yard. In case the natives seem inclined to make a regular attack the women and children could be sent down the river in boats or put on board a ship and sent to Napier. Fortunately, there is seldom a week without a craft of some sort putting into the river." "There is no doubt that this would be the safest plan," Mr. Atherton said, "but it would be a serious thing for the settlers to abandon their crops and houses to tha MAORI AND SETTLER. 215 natives unless it was certain that the danger was very .great." "That is my opinion," Mr. Renshaw said. "I am certainly not disposed to have the results of our labor destroyed without a struggle." "Wilfrid looked alike surprised and pleased. "I am glad to hear you say so father. It would be an awful nuisance and loss to have all our crops destroyed and our house burned down, and to have to begin the whole thing over again. I don't see what would have been the use of getting everything ready for defense if we are all to run away directly there is danger; but I think it would be a good thing to send the animals down to Mr. Mit- ford's, as he is good enough to offer to take them. We might send down the three natives to look after them, as of course they will have to go out to graze in the day- time, and keep Jack here. I do not know about the other men, and one doesn't seem able to trust the natives in the slightest; but I feel sure of Jack, and he would be useful to us in many ways in the house, beside being able to scout in the woods far better than we could do." "I think that you are right, Mr. Renshaw," Mr. Atherton said. "I should propose as an addition that the Aliens here and I make this our headquarters while the scare lasts. We could run up a light shanty with a few hours' work just behind the house. The Aliens could go over to their work during the day and return here at night, and I should wander about the woods with my gun as usual. I do not think we need fear any attack in the daytime. If it comes at all it will be at night or at early morning. The natives will know from the men who were here that you are well armed, and will try to atch you napping. We won't be any more trouble to you than we can help, and with the addition of our three 1 216 MAORI AND SETTLER. guns I think we could defend ourselves against any number of natives. What do you think of my proposal, lads?" The Aliens said at once that they thought it was an. excellent one, if Mr. and Mrs. Eenshaw were willing to have the trouble of them. "It will be no trouble at all," Mrs. Renshaw said, "and will be a very great comfort. With seven men to protect us Marion and I shall feel perfectly safe, and it will be in all ways pleasant to have you here with us. I do not see that you need build a hut outside at all. There will be no difficulty in making up beds her^ and in the kitchen, and then we shall be all together." "But I do not propose that you should cook for us, Mrs. Renshaw. If we had a hut of our own our boys could do that for us. You see, we are coming up here for our own defense as well as yours. ' ' "I should not think of such a thing," Mrs. Renshaw said decidedly. "There is no more trouble in cooking for nine than there is for six; and, as I have said, it will be a real pleasure to us to have you stopping here." "Very well. Then in that case, Mrs. Renshaw, we will accept your invitation. I will bring over my be- longings to-day and store them in your loft above, and the Aliens had better bring over anything they do not want burned by the natives. I still hope that these out- rages are the work of a few ruffians, and that the natives in general will not allow themselves to be persuaded into hostilities against us; still, if the worst comes to the worst, I am convinced that we can hold this house against quite as strong a force as they are likely to bring to attack it. There is one precaution I should advise you to take at once, and that is to lay in a store of water. I dare gay you have got some empty molasses .and pork casks, MAORI AND SETTLER. 217 tnat it if you not not bum them as soon as you empty them. If not we must set to work and make a strong wooden tank. In case we were really besieged, it would be fatal to us if we were caught without a supply of water. ' ' Fortunately there were three or four empty casks. These were taken down to the river and thoroughly washed, filled with water, and rolled up to the house. "While this was being done, Wilfrid, with the Grimstones and the natives, had gone out and driven in all the animals from the clearings, and as soon as they were brought in Wilfrid with the natives started to drive them to Mr. Mitford's. Mr. Atherton went over to his hut, and before night his two natives had brought over all his most valuable property, and the next day his hut was completely stripped. The Aliens only brought over a few things. Their furniture was rough and heavy, and they contented themselves by carrying it out into the forest near and hiding it in the undergrowth. Wilfrid returned to The Glade in the evening. He said that many of the settlers had come in, and were erecting shelters of hides, canvas, and wood near Mr. Mitford's house. The men were all being enrolled. Officers had been appointed, and the natives were likely to meet with a stout resistance if they ventured on hostilities. Mrs. Mitford had sent an earnest invitation to Mrs. Kenshaw and Marion to take up their abode with her. Mr. Mitford had approved of their intention of holding the house. He knew its capabilities of defense and thought that, unless taken by surprise, they would be able to hold it. "It will be a sort of outpost for the colony," he said, "and will add to our safety; for if any strong body of natives were approaching they would probably attack 218 MAORI AND SETTLER you before coming on here. The instant we hear that you are attacked we will come up to aid you. We shall be able to muster in all something like fifty mounted men a strength sufficient to meet any number of natives likely to assemble in these parts." MAORI AND SETTLER. CHAPTER XIII. THE ATTACK ON THE GLADE. FOB three days things went on quietly at The Glade. The first thing in the morning Jack went out with two of the dogs and scouted in the bush. As soon as he returned with the news that he could find no signs of natives the household broke up. The Aliens went through the bush to their clearing and continued their work of felling trees. Mr. Atherton sauntered off with his two dogs into the forest in search of plants. Wilfrid and the Grimstones pursued their work of digging and planting iu the upper part of the glade. Jack and the two dogs were on watch round the house. Mr. Renshaw worked at his Maori vocabulary, and his wife and daughter carried on the business of the house. At night two of the dogs were chained up outside ; the other two slept in the kitchen, while Jack was allowed to sleep up in the loft. At daybreak on the fourth day the party were awoke by a growl from one of the dogs out- side. Each of the occupants of the house had been allotted his post, and in a minute all were standing rifle in hand, at the windows they were to guard. Mr. Ather- ton opened the front door and went out, followed by Jack. It was just getting light enough to make out objects in the clearing. Everything seemed quiet. "What is it, Ponto?" he said to his dog, who was standing with his eyes fixed upon the bush to the right, 220 MAORI AND SETTLER. his ears pricked and his hair bristling. "What do you hear, old fellow?" The dog uttered another deep growl. A moment later there was a loud yell. A number of dark figures leaped from the edge of the bush and ran toward the house. They had made out Mr. Atherton's figure, and knew that their hope of surprising the place was at an end. Mr. Atherton leveled his rifle and fired, and one of the natives fell dead. Then stooping he quietly unfastened the dog's chain from his collar, telling Jack to do the same to the other dog, "Come into the house, sir," he ordered; "it's no use your being here to be shot." His shot had been answered by a dozen rifles, but fired in haste, as the men were running, none of the bul- lets struck him. Four shots were fired simultaneously from the windows looking toward the bush, and. three more natives fell. This proof of the accuracy of the de- fenders' shooting staggered the Maoris and they paused for a moment, then, moved by the exhortations of their chief, they again rushed forward. The whole of the de- fenders were now gathered at the windows facing them, and seven shots were fired in quick succession. Three natives fell dead. Four others were wounded, two so seriously that they had to be carried off by their com- rades, who at once ran back to the bush, and from ita edge opened a straggling fire against the house. The shutters that had been thrown open at the two windows were at once closed. "This is what I call beating them off handsomely, 1 * Mr. Atherton said. "Now you see the advantage, "Wil- frid, of the pains you have taken to learn to shoot straight. There have been only eleven shots fired, and I fancy there are at least ten casualties among them. X call that a very pretty average for young hands." MAORI AND SETTLER 221 ''What will they do next, do you think?" Mr. Ren- naw asked. "They will not try another open attack, I fancy. We may expect them to try to work round us. Jack, do you go to the other side of the house and keep a sharp look- out on t e bush there. Wilfrid, you take post at the windows we fired from, and peep out from time to time through the loopholes in the shutters. Between times keep yourself out of the line of fire. The betting is a thousand to one against a bullet coming through, still there is no use in running any risk if it can be avoided. Jim Allen, you and I will take up our place at the back of the house ; they may try to work up among the crops. In fact, I expect that is the course they will take unless .they have had enough of it already. Bob Grimstone, you keep watch at one of the front windows. I don'fc think there is much chance of attack from that side, but it is as well to keep a lookout. Some of them may at- tempt to cross to the opposite bush, keeping down by the river. The other three guns will be in reserve." "Don't you think they are likely to go away now that they have suffered so much loss?" Mrs. IJenshaw asked. "No, I cannot say I think so, Mrs. Eenshaw. The Maoris, from what I have heard, always try to get revenge for the death of a kinsman or fellow-tribesman. Of course it depends how many of them there are. I should judge that there were about thirty showed themselves. If that is all there are of them I should say they would not attack again at present. They must know by our firing that there are seven or eight of us here. But I should not rely altogether even upon that, for the natives regard themselves as fully a match, man for man, with the whites, and in their fights with our troops we were often greatly superior in numbers. Still, it is one thing 222 MAORI AND SETTLER. to defend a strong pah and another to attack resoiut* men snugly sheltered behind bullet-proof logs. Thejf may %ry again, but if there are any more of their people within reasonable distance I fancy they will be inora likely to send for them and keep a sharp watch round us until they come up. Now I will go to my post. " For a quarter of an hour the two watchers at the back of the house saw no signs of life. Then Mr. Atherton said: "There is a movement among that corn, Jim. Do you see, there just in a line with that big tree at the other end of the clearing? It is moving in'several places. Call your brother and young Grimstone to this side of the house, and do you all take steady aim at these mov- ing patches. I will fire first. I think I can pretty well mark the spot where one of the fellows is making his wa;/ down. If I hit him the others are likely enough to start up. Then will be your time for taking a shot at them. " As soon as the others were in position and ready Mr. Atherton fired. There was a yell. A dark figure sprang up, stood for an instant-, and then fell back. Almost at the same instant half a dozen others leaped to their feet and dashed away. Three rifles were fired. Two of the natives fell, but one almost immediately rose again and followed the others. "You ought to have done better than that at a hun- dred yards, " Mr. Atherton said. "You two lads ought to have practiced a little more steadily than you have. It was Grimstone brought down that man. His rifle went off a second before yours, and the man was falling when you fired. The great thing in. firing at natives is that every shot should tell. It is the certainty of the thing that scares them. If they hear bullets singing about with only occasionally a man dropping they gain confidence, but a slow, steady fire with every shot telling MAORI AND SETTLER. , 223 shakes their nerves, and makes them very careful of showing themselves. " Half an hour later Jack reported he could see figures moving in the bush on his side, and soon afterward a fire was opened on the hut from that direction. "They have worked round the end of the clearing," Mr. Atherton said. "Now it is our turn to begin to fire. We have let them have their own way long enough, and there is plenty of light now, and I think we shall soon be able to put a stop to this game. Now, Wilfrid, do you with one of the Grimstones take up your place at the loopholes at that end of the house, and I with the others will take up mine on the right. Keep a sharp lookout, and do not throw away a shot if you can help it. As we have not answered their fire they have probably got care- less, and are sure to expose themselves as they stand up to fire. Now, Bob," he went on, as he took his place at the loophole, "I will take the first who shows himself. I do not think you would miss, but I am sure that I shall not, and it is important not to make a mistake the first time." Half a minute later a native showed his head and shoulders over a bush as he rose to fire. Before he could raise his gun to his shoulder he fell with a bullet through his head from Mr. Atherton's unerring rifle. That gen- tleman quietly reloaded. "You had better take the next again, sir," Bob Grim- stone said quietly. "I do not suppose I should miss, but I might do. I do not reckon on hitting a small mark more than eight out of twelve times. " Tt was nearly four minutes before another native howed himself. "I think, sir, there is one standing behind that big tree twenty yards in the bush. I thought I saw some- thing move behind it just now." 224 MAORI AND SETTLER. "I will watch it, Bob," Mr. Atherton said, rmo/ng his rifle to his shoulder and looking along it through the loophole. Two minutes passed, and then a head and shoulder appeared from behind the tree. Instantaneously Mr. Atherton 's rifle cracked, and the native fell forward, his gun going off as he did so. "We need not stand here any longer," Mr. Atherton said quietlj r , "there will be no .more shooting from that Bide for some time." Mr. Atherton went to the other end of the house. "How are you getting on, Wilfrid?" "We have had three shots. I fired twice and Bill once. I think I missed once altogether, the other time the native went down. Bill wounded his man hit him in the shoulder, I think. They haven't fired since." "Then you can put down your guns for the present. Mrs. Eenshaw has just told me that breakfast is ready." Mrs. Renshaw and Marion had indeed gone quietly about the work of preparing breakfast for their defenders. "So you are a noncombatant this morning, Miss Marion?" Mr. Atberton said as he took his place with the rest of the party, with the exception of the Grim- stones, who were placed on the watch, at the table. "Yes," the girl replied; "if I thought there were any danger of the natives fighting their way into the house, of course I should do my best to help to defend it ; but I do not think that there is the least fear of such a thing, so I am quite content to leave it to you. It does not" 4seem to me that a woman has any business to fight unless absolutely driven to do so in defense of her life. If the natives really do come on and get up close to the house I think that I ought to help to keep them out ; but it is a dreadful thing to have to shoot any one at least it seems so to me." MAORI AND SETTLER. 225 "It is not a pleasant thing when considered in cold blood; but when men go out of their way to take one's life, I do not feel the slightest compunction myself in taking theirs. These natives have no cause of complaint against us. They have assembled and attacked the set- tlement in a treacherous manner, and without the slight- est warning of their intentions. Their intention is to slay man, woman and child without mercy, and I there- fore regard them as human tigers, and no more deserv- ing of pity. At the same time I can quite enter into your feelings, and think you are perfectly right not to take any active part in the affair unless we are pressed by the savages. Then, of course, you would be not only justified, but it would, I think, be your absolute duty to do your best to defend the place." "Do you think that it is all over now, Mr. Atherton?" Mrs. Renshaw asked. "We regard you as our command- ing officer, for you are the only one here who ever saw a shot fired in anger before our voyage out, and your ex- perience is invaluable to us now. Indeed, both my hus- band and myself feel that it is to your suggestion that we should put up the strong shutters and doors that we owe the lives of our children ; for had it not been for that, those men who came first might have taken the house when they found them alone in it." "I cannot accept your thanks for that, Mrs. Renshaw. It may be if this goes on that the shutters will be found of the greatest use, and indeed they have probably stopped a good many balls from coming in and so saved some of our lives, but on the first occasion Wilfrid and your daughter owed their lives to their being prepared and armed, while the natives, relying upon surprising them, had left their guns in the wood. The shutters were not closed until after they made off, and had they 226 MAORI AND SETTLER. not been there those four natives could never have passed across the clearing and reached the house under the fire of two cool and steady marksmen. "Aa to your first question, -whether it is all over, it depends entirely upon whether the party who attacked us are the main force of the natives. If so, I do not think they will renew the attack at present. They have suffered terribly, and know now that it is almost certain death for any of them to show themselves 'within range of our guns. They have lost fourteen or fifteen men, and I do not think they numbered above forty at first. But if they are only a detached party, and a main body o< the tribe is making an attack elsewhere, perhaps upon the settlers at Mitford'Sj a messenger will by this time have been dispatched to them, and we" may all have a much more serious attack to encounter to-night or to- morrow morning. "I have no idea what tribe these fellows belong to; but there are few of the tribes that cannot put five hundred men in the field, while some can put five times that num- ber. So, you see, we are entirely in the dark. y Of course things will depend a good deal as to how the main body, if there is a main body, has fared. If they have been, as I feel sure they will be if they venture to attack Mitford's place, roughly handled, the whole body may return home. The natives have proved themselves through the war admirable in defense; but they have by no means distinguished themselves in the attack, and have not so far as I remember, succeeded in a single in- stance in capturing a position stoutly held. "It is one thing to fight behind strong palisades, de- fended by interior works skillfully laid out, and quite another to advance across the open to assault a defended position ; and my belief is that, if they are beaten at MAORI AND SETTLER. %%) Mitford's as well as here, we shall hear no more of them at present. Mind, I do not say that after this I think that it would be safe to continue to live in an outlying station like this until matters have again settled down in this part of the island. No doubt, as soon as the news is known at Napier and Wellington a force will be sent here, or perhaps to Poverty Bay, which is only some twenty miles higher up the coast, and is, I think, from what I hear, better suited as the base of operations than this river would be. "This force will no doubt make an expedition inland to punish the tribes connected with this affair, for it is of course most important to let the natives on this side of the island see that they cannot attack our settlements with impunity. After that is done it will no doubt be safe to recommence operations here; but at present I fear you will find it necessary for a time to abandon the place, and either take up your abode at the Mitford's, or go down to Napier or Wellington. This will, of course, involve the loss of the crops you have planted, and possi- bly of your house; but as you have saved all your animals, the loss will be comparatively small and easily repaired. " "Whether large or small," Mr. Benshaw said, "we cannot hesitate over it. It will, as you say, be out of the question to live here exposed at any instant to attack, and never knowing what the day or night may bring forth. The house has not cost above a hundred pounds, and we must put up with that loss. We are fortunately in a very much better position than most settlers in hav- ing a reserve to fall back upon, so there will be no hesi- tation on my part in taking this step. The furniture is worth more than the hut, but I suppose that must go too." 228 MAORI AND SETTLER. "Not necessarily, Mr. Renshaw. We cannot get away now ; for although we can defend ourselves well enough here, we could not make our way down through the woods to Mitford's without great risks. They are accus- tomed to bush fighting, and as they are still five to one against us, it would be a very serious matter to try to fight our way down. I think that we have no choice but to remain where we are until we are either relieved or are perfectly certain that they have made off. In either case we should then have ample time to make our preparations for retiring, and could strip the house and send everything down in boats or bullock-carts, and might even get up the potatoes, and cut such of the crops as are ripe, or nearly ripe, and send them down also. "The corps that has been got up among the settlers will be sure to join in the expedition for the punishment of these scoundrels, and indeed it is most probable that all able-bodied settlers will be called out. In any case I think I shall 'chip in,' as the Americans say. I shall have an opportunity of going into little explored tracts in the interior and adding to my collections ; and to tell you the truth, I feel anxious to take a part in revenging the massacres that these treacherous natives have com- mitted. Unless they get a sharp lesson the lives of the settlers in all the outlying districts in the colony will be unsafe." Wilfrid glanced at Mr. Atherton and nodded, to inti- mate that he should be willing and ready to join in such an expedition ; but he thought it better to say nothing at present. The two Aliens, however, said at once that if obliged to quit their clearing they would join one of the irregular corps for the defense of the colony. "We shall get pay and rations," James Allen said, "and that will keep us going until things get settled; MAORI AND SETTLER. 229 and I should certainly like to lend a hand in punishing these treacherous natives. It is horrible to think of their stealing upon defenseless people at night and mur- dering men, women, and children. It is as bad as the Sepoy mutiny. And now the troops have been almost all withdrawn, and the colony has been left to shift for itself, I think it is no more than the duty of all who have no special ties to aid in the defense against these fanatical Hau-Haus. " "Very well, then, James; we will march side by side, and when you see me give out you shall carry me." "That would be worse than fighting the natives," James Allen replied with a laugh. "If I were you, Mx\ Atherton, I should engage ten natives to accompany me with poles and a hammock." "That is not a bad idea," Mr. Atherton said calmly, "and possibly I may adopt it; but in that case I shall have to go as a free lance, for I fear it would scarcely be conducive to military discipline to see one of an armed band carried along in the ranks." None would have thought from the cheerful tone of the conversation that the party were beleaguered by a bloodthirsty enemy. But Mr. Atherton purposely gave a lively tone to the conversation to keep up their spirits. He felt, as he expressed himself, perfectly confident that they could beat off any attack in the daytime ; but he knew that if their assailants were largely reinforced, and the place attacked by night, the position would be a very Berious one. He even was convinced that the assailants would not be able to force their way in, but they would assuredly try to fire the house; and although the solid logs would be difficult to ignite, the matchboard cover- ing and the roof would both readily catch fire. How- ever, his hope lay in preventing the natives from firing 230 MAORI AND SETTLER. it, as it would be difficult/ in the extreme to bring ujk burning branches under the fire of the defenders. "It is a pity now, Wilfrid," he said to the lad after breakfast was over, and they had taken up their place together at one of the windows, "that we did not dio- suade your father from putting that boarding to the logs. You did not intend to have it at first, and now it adds a good deal to our danger. The only thing I am afraid of is fire, though I own I do not think that there is much chance of any of them getting up with a lighted brand under the fire of our rifles. If the natives were not in the bush at the present moment, I should say that the best thing by far to do would be for all hands to set to work to tear off the match-boarding, and to get down the whole of the covering of the roof; they could not well hurt us then. " "Shall we do it at once, Mr. Atherton?" "They would shoot us down at their leisure, Wilfrid. No, that is not to be thought of. We must run the risk of fire now; and I feel, as I said, pretty confident that we are too good shots to let men with fire get up to the walls. I wish we could send down word to Mitford's that we are besieged here. Of course, if he is attacked himself he could not help us ; but if he is not, I know he would come out at once with a strong party to our relief. I wonder whether that native boy of yours would try to carry a message. None of us would have a chance of getting through, but these fellows can crawl like snakes, and by working up through the crops to the upper end of the glade he might gain the bush unobserved." "I will ask him anyhow," Wilfrid said. Jack on being promised a new suit of clothes and a present in money if he would carry a note through to Mr. Mitford, at once undertook the mission. Mr. Ken- MAORI AND SETTLER. 23 1 Bhaw on being told what was arranged, wrote a not stating their position, and Jack, divesting himself of th greater portion of his clothes, crept out through the door at the back of the house, and lying down at once be- gan to crawl through the potato patch toward the upper end of the clearing. From the loopholes of the windows the defenders watched his progress. Although aware of his approximate position they were soon unable to trace his progress. "He ^will'do," Mr. Atherton said; "if we, knowing the line he is taking, can see nothing move, you may be sure that those fellows in the bush will not be able to make him out. Well, we shall have assistance in four or five hours if Mitford's hands are free." A quarter of an hour passed and all was still quiet. "He is in the bush by this time," Mr. Atherton said; "now we can take matters easy." An occasional shot was fired from the bush, and shouts raised, which Mr. Renshaw interpreted to be threats of death and extermination. "They say that all the white men are to be driven into the s'ea not one left alive on the island." "Well, we shall see about that," Mr. Atherton said; "they are not getting on very fast at present." As time went on it was only the occasional crack of a gun, accompanied by the thud of a bullet against the logs, that told that the natives were still present. They now never raised themselves to fire, but kept well back in the bush, shifting their position after each shot. Time passed somewhat slowly inside, until about four o'clock in the afternoon the sharp crack of a rifle was heard. "There is Mitford!" Mr. Atherton exclaimed; "that is not a Maori gun. Man the loopholes again! We must prevent any of the fellows on the other side crossing to 232 MAORI AND SETTLER. the assistance of their friends, and give it to the others hot if they are driven out oi the shelter of the bush." The rifle-shpt was speedily followed by others, and then came the deeper report of the Maori muskets. Eng- lish shouts were heard, mingled with the yells of the natives. The fight was evidently sharp, for Jack had led the relieving party down upon the rear of the natives engaged in attacking the house from the left. The latter began to fall back, and the defenders of the house pres- ently caught sight of their figures as they flitted from tree to tree. "We must be careful," Mr. Atherton said, "for every bullet that misses might strike our friends. I think that you had all better reserve your fire till they make a break across the open. You can see by the direction they are firing and the sound of the rifles Mitford is closing in on both their flanks so as to drive them out of the bush. I can trust myself not to miss, and will pick them off when I see any of them sheltering on this side of the trees. There is a fellow there just going to fire." His rifle cracked, and the native fell among the bushes. This completed the scare of the natives, who had al- ready been much disconcerted at the unexpected attack made upon them. The leader of the party shouted an order, and the whole of them made a sudden rush through the bush down toward the river. Three or four fell be- neath the rifles of the whites on that side of them, but the rest burst through and continued their course down to the river, and, plunging in, swam to the other side without once giving the defenders of the house the chance of a shot at them. "Now we can sally out," Mr. Renshaw said. The door was opened, and they hurried out just as a party of whites issued from the wood and ran toward the house. MAORI AND SETTLER. 233 "Thanks for your speedy aid, Mitford!" Mr. Kenshaw exclaimed as he wrung the hand of the settler. "You are heartily welcome, my dear sir, A party was just setting off to see how you had fared when your native boy arrived with your note, and it was a great relief to us to know that you had repulsed their attack with such heavy loss to them ; I am afraid that several others have not fared so well. Two or three native serv- ants have come in this morning with news of massacres of whole families, they themselves having managed to make their escape in the confusion ; and I am afraid that we shall hear of other similar cases. Your gallant de- fense of your station has been of most important service to us all. There is no doubt that it saved us from an attack at our place. There were a good many natives in the bush round us this morning yelling and shouting, but they did not venture on an attack; and I have no doubt they were waiting for the arrival of the party told off to attack your place on their way. Do you think that there are any of them still in the bush on the other Bide?" "I should hardly think so," Mr. Atherton replied. "There must have been fully half of them in the party you attacked, and the others are hardly likely to have waited after they saw you had defeated their friends; but I think that it would be as well for a party of us to ascertain, for if they are still lurking there some of us may be shot down as we move about outside the house. We are quite strong enough now to venture upon such a Btep." "I think so, too," Mr. Mitford agreed. "There are ten men beside m*self and your party. We had better leave four here, the rest of us will make a dash down to the edge of the bush and then skirmish through it." 234 MAORI AND SETTLER. Mr. Renshaw, the two Grimstones, and one of the set- tlers were appointed to remain behind to guard tho house, and the rest of the party then dashed at full speed across the glade to the edge of the bush. Not a shot waa fired as they did so, and having once gained the shelter they advanced through the trees. After pushing for- ward for half a mile they came to the conclusion that the Maoris had retreated. Many signs' were seen of their presence. There were marks of blood here and there, and the bushes were broken down where they had car- ried off those who had fallen killed or wounded in the bush ; the bodies of those who had fallen in the open still remained there. Upon the return of the party Mr. Mitford was informed of the determination that had been arrived at. This met with his cordial approval. "I think, Mrs. Renshaw," he said, "that the best plan will be for you and your husband and daughter to return at once with me. I will leave a couple of my men here with your garrison, and in the morning will come out with a strong party and three or four bullock drays to fetch in all your portable property. They can make another trip for your potatoes and such of your crops aa can be got in. After the sharp lesson the natives have had here they are not likely to venture in this neighbor- hood again for some time ; and, indeed, now that they find that the whole settlement it aroused and on its guard I doubt whether we shall hear anything more of them at present, and possibly you may, when matters settle down again, find your house just as it is left." Mr. and Mrs. Renshaw agreed to the plan proposed, nd in a quarter of an hour the party started, leaving The Glade under the protection of the garrison of eight men. The night passed off quietly, and at daybreak all MAORI AND SETTLER. 235 set to work to get up the potatoes and to cut down the crops that were sufficiently ripe. At nine o'clock the wagons arrived, and the furniture and stores were loaded up. By twelve o'clock next day the work in the fields was completed and the wagons again loaded. The house was then locked up and the whole party proceeded to the settlement. They found on their arrival that a strong stockade had been erected near Mr. Mitford's house, and that rough tents and huts had been got up there for the use of the settlers; the whole of the animals belonging to the various farmers on the river had been driven into the stockaded inclosure behind the house. Here it was decided that all the settlers should remain until help arrived from Wellington or Napier, but in the meantime twenty-five of the younger men were enrolled as a volunteer corps ; a Mr. Purcell, who had served for some years as an officer in the army, being unanimously elected to command. There still remained enough men capable of bearing arms to defend the stockade in case of attack during the absence of the corps. Wilfrid and the two Aliens were among those who enrolled themselves. Mr. Atherton said that he fully intended to accompany them if possible upon any expedition they might make, but that he should not become a member of the corps. "You may have long marches," he said, "through the bush, or may, when the reinforcements arrive, be called upon to make an expedition into the hill country to punish the natives. I could not possibly keep up with you during a heavy day's marching, so I shall, like Hal of the Wynd, fight for my own sword. I dare say I shall be there or thereabout when there is any work to be done, but I must get there in my own way and in my own time. I shall have my own commissariat train. I have had my share of living on next to nothing, and have 236 MAORI AND SETTLER. become somewhat of an epicure, and and I know that the sort of rations you are likely to get on a march though a rough country would not suit my constitution. But, as I said before, I hope if there is any fighting done to be somewhere in the neighborhood." MAORI AND SETTLER. 23? CHAPTER IV. FKESH TROUBLES. THREE days later a small steamer arrived from Napier, bringing a reply to the urgent request that had been sent for the dispatch of a body of constabulary for the protec- tion of the settlers. Sir Donald McLean, the superin- tendent of the province, sent word that this was impossi- ble at present, as the alarming news had just been received that the notorious chief Te Kooti, who had been captured and imprisoned at Chatham Island, had effected his escape with the whole of the natives confined in the island, had captured a schooner, and had, it was re- ported, landed near Poverty Bay. "It is probable," Sir Donald wrote, "that it is the news of his landing which has excited one of the tribes of the neighborhood to make an attack upon ycfu. A strong expedition will be fitted out, and we. shall doubt- less have to supply a contingent. I can only advise you to organize yourselves into a militia, and to stand for the present on the defensive. As soon as operations begin from Poverty Bay you will be relieved from all further danger, as the attention of the hostile tribes will be fully occupied in that direction." Hitherto the province of Hawke Bay had been compara- tively free from the troubles that had so long disturbed Auckland, Taranaki, and the northern portion of Well- ington. Only one xising had taken place, and this had been so promptly crushed that the tribes had since re- 238 MAORI AND SETTLER? mained perfectly quiet. In October, 1866, a party of it hundred fighting men had suddenly appeared near the Meanee village. Their principal chief had hitherto borne a very high character, and had been employed by the government to improve the mail road between Napier and Taupo. Colonel Witmore, who was in command of the colonial forces for the regular troops had now been almost entirely withdrawn from the island had just re- turned from punishing some natives who had committed massacres higher up on the coast, and was, fortunately, at Napier ; he at once dispatched a company of colonists under Major Eraser, with thirty or forty friendly natives, to hold the natives in check. Just as they had been sent off the news came that an- other and more numerous body of Hau-Haus were ad- vancing by way of Petanc to attack Napier. Major Fraser and his company were sent off to check these, while Colonel "Whitmore, with one hundred and eighty of the colonial militia, marched against the smaller force, and McLean, with two hundred friendly natives, established himself in the rear of the village they occupied. An officer was sent in to summon them to surrender, and as no answer could be obtained from them the colonists ad- vanced. The enemy fought with resolution, but the colonists opened a cross-fire upon them, and after fight- ing for some time the natives were driven out of their cover. Finding no mode of retreat open to them they laid down their arms, some who endeavored to escape being cut off and also captured. The native loss was twenty-three killed and twenty eight wounded many of them mortally; forty -four taken prisoners. Only two or three of the whole party escaped. Upon the same day Major Fraser's little force attacked the other party of Hau-Haus, killed their chief with twelve of his followers, and put the rest to flight. MAORI AND SETTLER. 239 From that time peace had been unbroken in Hawke Bay; but there had been several outbreaks at Poverty Bay, which lay just north of the province, and mas- sacres at Opotaki and other places further to the north, and almost continuous fighting in the northern districts of Wellington. The news of Te Kooti's escape and of his landing at Poverty Bay naturally caused considera- ble alarm among the settlers, but hopes were entertained that the whites at Poverty Bay, aided by the friendly natives, would be able to recapture Te Kooti and his fol- lowers before they could do any harm. The next day a small vessel came down from Poverty Bay with a message from Major Biggs, who commanded at that settlement, to ask for assistance if it could be spared him. A consultation was held and it was agreed that the best plan of defending their own settlement was to aid in the recapture of Te Kooti, and that the little force of twenty men should at once go up to aid the set- tlers under Major Biggs. Accordingly they embarked without delay, Mr. Atherton making a separate bargain with the captain of the craft for his passage, and the next morning they arrived in Poverty Bay. Major Biggs had, as soon as the news reached him, raised a force of a hundred Europeans and natives. He found Te Kooti's party, a hundred and ninety strong, holding a very strong position near the sea, and sent a chief to them to say that if they would lay down their arms he would try and smooth matters over with govern- ment. A defiant answer was returned, and Major Biggs gave orders to commence the attack. But the natives, who formed the bulk of his force, -refused to move, say- ing that the Hau-Haus were too numerous and too strongly posted. Under these circumstances an attack was impossible, for had the little body of whites been 240 MAORI AND SETTLER. defeated the whole settlement would have been open to ravage and destruction. During the night Te Kooti and his men started for the interior, carrying with them all the stores and provisions they had taken from the schooner. When it was found they had escaped Major Biggs ordered Mr. Skipwith to follow with some friendly natives, pressing on their rear until he ascertained their line of retreat, when he was to cut across country and join the main body who were to march to Paparatu, a point which Te Kooti would in all probability pass in his retreat. The arrival of the coaster with the little band from the Mohaka River was hailed with joy by the Poverty Bay settlers. They arrived just in time to join Major Biggs and raised his force to fifty white men, who, with thirty Maoris, started for Papa- ratu and arrived there on the following morning. The Europeans were commanded by Captains Westrupp and Wilson. In the afternoon Mr. Atherton arrived with a party of four natives whom he had hired to carry his store of provisions, ammunition and baggage. "So I am in plenty of time, " he said when he came up. "I could not bring myself to undertake a night march, but as those fellows have got to lug all the stores they have captured over the mountains I felt pretty sure that I should be in time." "I am glad you are in time, Mr. Atherton," Wilfrid said. "The assistance of your rifle is not to be despised. The sooner the natives come now the better, for we have only brought four days' provisions in our haversacks. I hear that a reserve force is to come up in two days with rations and ammunition; but one can never calculate upon these natives." The camp was pitched in a hollow to avoid the obser- vation of the enemy, but it was proposed to fight at a MAORI AND SETTLER. 241 point a mile distant, in a position commanding the spur of the hill, up which the natives must advance after crossing a ford on the Arai river. Four days passed and there was no news of the convoy with the provisions, and the supply in camp was almost exhausted. That evening Major Biggs started to bring up the supplies with all speed, as otherwise starvation would compel the force to retreat. The same day Mr. Skipwith had arrived with news that Te Kooti was undoubtedly marching on Paparatu, but was making slow progress, owing to the heavy loads his men were carrying. The fifth day passed slowly. The men being altogether without food Mr. Atherton divided his small stock of provisions and wine among them, and then taking his rifle went out among the hills, accompanied by two of his natives. Late in the evening he returned, the natives bearing an old boar which he had shot. This was a great piece of luck, for the island contained no wild animals fit for eating, and the boar had probably escaped from some settler's farm or native clearing when young and taken, to the woods. It was at once cut up and divided among the hungry men. The next day Mr. Skipwith, with two natives, went out to reconnoiter, and soon returned at full speed, saying that the natives were crossing the river. Captain Wilson, with twenty men, took posses- sion of a hill on the right flank an almost impregnable position, while Captain Westrupp, with the main body, marched to support the picket which had been placed on the position which it had been arranged they should occupy; but before they could arrive there Te Kooti, with overwhelming numbers, had driven the picket from the ground and occupied the hill. "This is going to be an awkward business, Wilfrid," \Ir. Atherton said. "We have only thirty rounds of 242 MAORI AND SETTLER. ammunition a man, and we have had nothing to eat for the last forty-eight hours but a mouthful of meat. We have suffered the natives to take the position we fixed on. "We are outnumbered three to one, and there are not ten men in the force who have had any experience in fight- ing. If the worst comes to the worst, Wilfrid, do you and the Aliens take to the bush. Mind, it is no use try- ing to run from the natives. If the men were all like our party the other day we could keep these fellows at bay for any time; but they are most of them young hands. They will blaze away their ammunition, and may be seized with a panic. I shall keep close to you, and if things do go badly we will keep together and sell our lives dearly." "We must retake that place if possible, lads," Captain Westrupp said at that moment. "Spread out in skir- mishing order and take advantage of any cover you can find, but let there be no stopping or lagging behind. We must all get up there together and carry it with a rush." There was no time lost. The men spread out, and with a cheer started up the hill. They were received with a storm of bullets; but the natives from their emi- nence fired high, and without suffering loss they reached a small ridge near the summit, about twelve yards from the enemy, and separated from them by a narrow gully. Here they threw themselves down, and their fire at once caused the Hau-Haus to throw themselves down among the bushes on their side of the gully. The position of the colonists was a fairly strong one. On their right flank the ground was open, with a few scattered bushes here and there, but the left was covered by a steep ravine, which fell away sharply. The Hau-Haus kept up a heavy fire, to which the colonists replied but seldom, MAORI AND SETTLER. 243 their officer continally impressing upon them the neces- sity for husbanding their ammunition. Mr. Atherton had arrived breathless in the rear of the partj T , and had thrown himself down by "Wilfrid's side, the two Aliens lying next in order. For some minutes Mr. Atherton did not speak, but lay panting heavily. "This is a nice preparation for shooting," he said present^. "However, I suppose my hand will steady itself after a bit I have seen a fellow's head show under that bush there twice, and each time his bullet came just over our heads. I will have a talk with him as soon as I get my wind back again. This is not a bad position after all, providing they don't work round to our right." Ten minutes later Wilfrid, who had his eyes fesed on a bush from which four or five shots had been fired, wait- ing for another puff of smoke to indicate the exact posi- tion in which the man was lying, heard the sharp report of Mr. Atherton 's rifle. "You have got him, I suppose?" "Of course, lad; there is one less of the yelling rascals to deal with. I wish we could see Biggs and his people coming along the road behind. If we could get a square meal all round and a good supply of ammunition I think we should be able to turn the tables on these fellows. The men are all fighting very steadily, and are husband- ing their ammunition better than I expected to see them do." The fight went on for four hours. Then a number of the Hau-Haus leaped to their feet and made a rush toward the settlers, but the volley they received proved too much for them. Several fell, and the rest bolted back into shelter. Again and again this was tried, but each time without success. At three in the afternoon some men were seen coming along the road behind toward the deserted 244 MAORI AND SETTLER. camp. Captain Westrupp at once wrote a note and sent it down by one of the men, but to the disappointment of the settlers he soon returned with the news that the new arrivals consisted of only nine Maoris carrying rations. They had opened the rum bottles on their way, and most of them were excessively drunk. Two of them who were sufficiently sober came up to help in the defense, but one was shot dead almost immediately, one of the settlers being killed and many wounded more or less severely. Just as evening was coining on the force was startled by hearing a Hau-Hau bugle in their rear, and presently made out a party of the enemy moving toward the camp through the broken ground on the left rear. It was now evident that either the enemy must be driven off the hill in front or the party must retire to a position on the hill behind the camp. Captain Westrupp determined to try the former alternative first. Calling upon the men to follow him, he dashed across the gully and up on to the crest held by the Maoris. The men followed him gallantly ; but the fire from the Maoris hidden among the bushes was so heavy that they were forced to fall back again, seven more of their number being wounded. They now retired in good order down to the camp and up the hill behind it, and were here joined by Captain Wilson with his twenty men. It was now determined to throw up a sort of intrench- ment and hold this position until help came; but the settlers, who had hitherto fought well, were dispirited by their want of success, and by the non-arrival of the rein- forcement, and were weak with their long fast. As soon as it became dark thej r began to steal off and to make their way back toward their homes, and in an hour half the force had retreated. The officers held a council. It was evident the position could not long be held, and thai MAORI AND SETTLES. 245 want of food and ammunition would compel a retreat in the morning. It was therefore decided to fall back under cover of the darkness. The chief of the friendly natives, who had behaved admirably through the fight, offered to guide the party across the country. The officers were obliged to leave their horses, and the party of forty half-starved men, of whom a fourth were wounded-^-two so severely that it was necessary to carry them set out. It was a terrible march for the exhausted men, up the bed of a mountain creek, often waist-deep in water, and over steep fern- covered hills, until, just as day was breaking, they reached an out-station. Here they managed to get two sheep, and just as they had cooked and eaten these Colonel Whituaore, the commander of the colonial forces, arrived with thirty volunteers from Napier, who had reached the bay on the previous day. He at once paraded the men, thanked thejn for their behavior on- the previous day, and warned them to be ready to start in pursuit of the enemy at once. One of the settlers, acting as spokesman for the rest, stepped forward, pointed out that they had been fighting with- out intermission for twenty-four hours, that they had been for the last forty-eight hours almost without food, and that it was impossible for them to set out on a fresh march until they had taken some rest. Colonel Whit- more was a hot-tempered man, and expressed himself so strongly that he caused deep offense among the settlers. They remained firm in their determination not to move until the following day, and the forward movement was therefore necessarily abandoned. On the day previous to the fight Lieutenant Gascoigne had been dispatched by Major Biggs to Te Wairoa with dispatches for Mr. Deighton, who commanded at that station, warning him, 246 MAORI AND SETTLER. to muster all the force at his disposal, and prepare to in- tercept Te Kooti at the Waihau Lakes in case he should fight his way through Captain Westrupp's force. Orders were sent to the friendly Mahia tribe to muster, and a hundred men at once assembled ; but as they had only- four rounds of ammunition apiece, nothing could be done until three casks of ammunition were obtained from some of the Wairoa chiefs. Two days were lost in consequence, and this gave time to Te Kooti ; they then started eighteen European vol- unteers and eighty natives; a larger body of natives pre- paring to follow as soon as possible. After being met by messengers with several contradictory orders, they arrived at Waihau, and just before dark Te Kooti was seen crossing the hills toward them with his whole force. Captain Richardson determined to fight them in the position he occupied, but the native chief, with sixty of his followers, at once bolted. Captain Richardson was therefore obliged with the remainder to fall back, and, unfortunately, in the retreat one of the natives fell ; his gun went off and, bursting, injured his hand. This was considered by the natives a most unfortunate omen, and dissipated what little courage remained in the Wairoa tribe. At eleven o'clock next morning the enemy advanced and the action began ; but the Wairoa chief, with fifty of his men, again bolted at the first shot. Captain Richard- Bon with the remainder held the position until four in the afternoon, when the ammunition being almost ex- hausted, he retired quietly. The force fell back to Wairoa, where it was reorganized and increased to two hundred men. In the meantime Colonel Whitmore had been toiling on over a terrible country in Te Kooti 's War, having with him in all about two hundred men, as MAORI AND SETTLER. he had been joined by Major Eraser with fifty of the No. 1 Division Armed Constabulary. But when they arrived at the boundary of the Poverty Bay district the settlers belonging to it, who had not recovered from their indignation at Colonel "Whitmore's unfortunate remarks, refused to go further, saying that the militia regulations only obliged them to defend. their own district. Colonel Whitmore, therefore, with a hun- dred and thirty men of whom but a handful were whites, marched on to attack two hundred and twenty Hau-Haus posted in a very strong positien in the gorge of a river. Twelve of the little party from the Mohaka river still remained with the column, one had been killed, four wounded, while five had remained behind completely knocked up by the fatigues they had encountered. Mr. Atherton had not gone on with them after the arrival of Colonel Whitmore. "It is of no use my dear lad," he said to Wilfrid. "I know Colonel Whitmore well by reputation, and the way in which he blew us up this morning because, exhausted as we were, we were physically unable to set out for a fresh march, confirms what I have heard of him. He is a most gallant officer, and is capable of undergoing the greatest fatigue and hardships, and is of opinion that everyone else is as tire- less and energetic as he is. He will drive you along over mountain, through rivers, with food or without food, until you come up to Te Kooti, and then he will fight, regardless of odds or position, or anything else. It isn't the fighting I object to; but I never could keep up with the column on such a march. It would be a physical impossibility, and I am not going to attempt it. I shall take a week to recover from my fatigues of last night, and shall go down and stay quietly at the settle- ment. If Te Kooti takes it into his head to come down 248' MAORI AND SETTLER. there, I shall have great pleasure in doing my best toward putting a stop to his rampaging over the coun- try- If he does not come down I shall, as they say, await developments, and shall find plenty to do in the way of botanizing." Mr. Atherton had not exaggerated the fatigues and hardships that the force would be called upon to undergo, and they were worn out and exhausted when at last they came upon the track of the Hau-Haus. When they were resting for a short halt, Captain Carr, late K. A., who was with the force as a volunteer, reconnoitered a short dis- tance ahead and found the enemy's fire still burning. The news infused fresh life into the tired and hungry men, and they again went forward. The track led up the bed of a river which ran between low, steep cliffs impossible to climb, and the men had to advance in single file. After marching for some distance they reached a bend in the river where a narrow track ran through a break in the cliff and up the spur of a hill. The advanced guard, consisting of six men, led by Cap- tain Carr, were within fifty yards of this point, when a heavy fire was opened upon them. Just where they were the river bank was sufficiently low to enable them to climb it and take cover in the thick scrub above, whence they replied vigorously to the Hau-Haus, who were within a few yards of them. In the meantime the enemy had opened fire from the base of the hill at the river bend upon the main body, who, standing in single file in the river, where unable to reply or to scale the steep bank and take covering in the scrub. Colonel Whitmore and Captain Tuke tried to lead the men up to charge, but this could only be done in single file, and the fire of the enemy was so hot that those who attempted this were killed or wounded, Captain Tuke being severely hurt. MAORI AND SETTLES. 349 The rest found what shelter they could among the bowl- ders in the river bed, and remained here until the ad- vanced guard fell back, hard pressed by the enemy, and reported the death of Captain Carr and Mr. Canning, another volunteer. The natives now pressed through the scrub above the cliffs to cut off the retreat. The friendly natives, who were well behind, were ordered to scale the. cliff then, and hold the enemy in check. One of them was wounded, and the rest hastily retreated down the river; the constabulary and settlers, altogether about fifty strong, fell back to an island about half a mile to the rear, and here calmly awaited the attack of the enemy. These, however, drew off without disturbing them, dis- heartened by the fact that Te Kooti had received a wound in the foot, and the troops then retired. Only a few of the strongest men reached the camp that night; the rest, knocked up by want of food and fatigue, lay down in the pouring rain and did not get in until the following morning. The .result of this fight was most unfortunate. Even Colonel "Whitmore saw that, with the force at his dis- posal, nothing could be done against Te Kooti, who was daily becoming more powerful, and was being joined by the tribes in the vicinity He believed that Te Kooti would carry out his expressed intention of marching north to Waikato, and after collecting there all the tribes of the island, march against Auckland. Thinking, there- fore, that Poverty Bay was not likely to be disturbed, he left the settlement and went lound by sea to Auckland to confer with government as to the steps to be taken to raise a force capable of coping with what appeared to be the greatest danger that had as yet threatened the island. Te Kooti did not, however, move north, but remained 114 250 MAORI AND SETTLER. his camp near the scene of the fight from the 8th of August to the 28th of October, sending messages all over the island with the news of the defeat he had inflicted upon the whites, and proclaiming himself the savior of the Maori people. From the position he occupied, about equidistant from the settlements at Wairoa and Poverty Bay, he was able to attack either by a sudden march of two or three daj T s, and yet there was no great uneasiness among the settlers. The force that had operated against Te Kooti had been disbanded, the Napier volunteers had returned, the con- stabulary withdrawn, and the party of settlers from the Mohaka river had returned home. Wilfrid Eenshaw had not gone with them. He had been shot through the leg in the fight in the river and had been carried down to the settlement. Here Mr. Atherton, who was lodging in one of the settler's houses, had taken charge of him and nursed him assiduously. Unfortunately the effect of the wound was aggravated by the exhaustion caused by fatigue and insufficient food, and for weeks the lad lay in a state of prostration, wasted by a low fever which at one time seemed as if it would carry him off. It was not until the middle of October that matters took a turn, and he began slowly to mend. For the last three weeks his mother had been by his bedside. For some time Mr. Atherton in his letters had made light of the wound, but when the lad's condi- tion became very serious he had written to Mrs. Ren- shaw saying that he thought she had better come herself to help in the nursing, as Wilfrid was now suffering from a sharp attack of fever brought on by his hardships. Mrs. Renshaw, on her arrival, was dismayed at the state in which she found her son. She agreed, however, that it was best not to alarm them in her letters home. MA OR1 AND SETTLER. 25 1 The events on the attack of the settlement had much shaken Mr. Eenshaw, and he was, when she left him, in a nervous and excited state. She saw that Wilfrid would need every moment of her time, and that were her hus- band to come it would probably do him harm and seri- ously interfere with her own usefulness. He was, when she left, on the point of returning to the farm with Marion, as there had been no further renewal of troubles in the settlement. It had been arranged that the two Aliens should take up their residence at The Glade, and that four men be- longing to a small force that had been raised among the friendly natives should also be stationed there. This would, it was thought, render it quite safe against a sudden attack. Mr. Kenshaw was looking eagerly for- ward to being at home again, and his wife thought that the necessity of superintending the operations at the farm would soothe his nerves and restore him to health. She, therefore, in her letters made the best of things, although admitting that Wilfrid was prostrated by a sort of low fever, and needed care and nursing. At the end of another fortnight Wilfrid was enabled to sit up and take an interest in what was going on around him. The house was the property of a settler named Sampson, and had been erected by a predecessor of the farmer; it was a good deal larger than he required, though its capacity was now taxed to the utmost by the addition of three lodgers to his family. "How are things going on, Mr. Atherton?" Wilfrid asked one day when his mother was not present. "People here seem to think that they are going ou very well, Wilfrid." "But you do not think so, Mr. Atherton?" the lad asked, struck by the dry tone in which the answer was given. 252 MAORI AND SETTLES. "No, Wilfrid, I cannot say I do. It seems to me that the people here are living in a fool's paradise ; and as for Major Biggs I regard him as an obstinate fool." "How is that?" Wilfrid asked, amused at his friend's vehemence. "Well, Wilfrid, as far as I can see there is nothing in the world to prevent Te Kooti coming down and cutting all our throats whenever he pleases." "You don't say so, Mr. Atherton!" "I do, indeed; it is known that he has sent messages down to the natives here to remain apparently loyal, get what arms they can from the whites, and prepare to join him. I will ^say for Biggs that he has repeatedly repre- sented the unprotected position of the bay to govern- ment, and has obtained permission to place an officer and nine men on pay as scouts to watch the roads lead- ing to the settlements. Gascoigne is in charge of them. There are two roads by which the natives can come ; the one a short one, and this is being watched, the other a much longer and more difficult one, and this is entirely open ito them if they choose to use it. "The fact is, Biggs relies on the fact that Colonel Lambert is at Wairoa, and is collecting a force of six hundred men there to attack Te Kooti, and he believes that he shall get information from him and from some spies he has in the neighborhood of Te Kooti 's camp long before any movement is actually made. Of course he maj' do so, but I consider it is a very risky thing to trust the safety of the whole settlement to chance. He ought to station four mounted men on both tracks as near as he dare to Te Kooti 's camp. In that case we should be sure to get news in plenty of time to put all the able-bodied men under arms before the enemy could ireach the settlement. ' ' MAORI AND SETTLER. 353 "Have they got a stockade built?" "No, it was proposed at a meeting of some of the set- tlers that this should be done, but Biggs assured them it was altogeth r unnecessary. I do not know how it is Wilfrid, but take us altogether we Englishmen have fully a fair share of common sense. I have observed over and over again that in the majority of cases when an English- man reaches a certain rank in official life, he seems to become an obstinate blockhead. I have often wondered over it, but cannot account for it. Anyhow the state of affairs here is an excellent example of this. I suppose in the whole settlement there is not, with the exception of the man in authority, a single person who does not per- ceive that the situation is a dangerous one, and that no possible precaution should be omitted; and yet the man who is responsible for the safety of all throws cold water on every proposal, and snubs those who are willing to give up tinle and labor in order to insure the safety of the place. "I suppose he considers that the tone he adopts show.8 him to be a man superior to those around him, possess- ing alike far greater knowledge of the situation, and a total freedom from the cowardly fears of his neighbors. Well, well, I hope that events will justify his coxn-se, but I own that I sleep with my rifle and revolvers loaded and ready to hand. Mind, I do not say that the chances may not be ten to one against Te Kooti's making a raid down here ; but I say if they were a hundred to one it would be the height of folly not to take every possible precau- tion to insure the safety of all here." "Don't you think, Mr. Atherton, that it would be better for mother to go home? I am getting all right now, and can get on very well without her." "I am sure your mother would not leave you at pres- 254 MAORI AND 8ETTL&3. ent, Wilfrid, and I don't think you will be fit to be moved for another fortnight yet. Te Kooti has done nothing for two months, and may not move for as much more. You mother knows nothing of what I have told you, and I should not make her anxious or uncomfortable by giving her even a hint that I considered there is dan- ger in the air." MAORI AND SETTLER. 355 CHAPTER XV. THE MASSACKE AT POVERTY BAT. ANOTHER week passed and Wilfrid was able to walk about the house and garden. A ship was going down in three days, and Mr. Atherton had arranged with the cap- tain to" put into the Mohaka river and land them there. No change had taken place in the situation. There had been a meeting of the settlers and friendly natives. The latter had offered to erect the stockades for a small fort if the settlers would do the earthworks. This they had agreed to, but the project was abandoned, as Major Biggs again declared it to be wholly unnecessary. Some of the set- tlers, dissatisfied with the result, formed themselves into a vigilance committee to watch the ford of the Waipaoa river. This was done for several nights, but Major Biggs again interfered, and told them he considered the act to be absurd. The vigilance committee, therefore, ceased to act. A few nights later Te Kooti's people crossed at this very ford. Late in the evening of the 4th of Novem- ber Mr. Atherton was about to go up to bed when he heard a growl from a dog chained up outside. He lis- tened, and made out the voices of men talking, in. low tones. The lower windows had shutters, and these Mr. Atherton had with some difficulty persuaded Mr. Samp- son, who was himself incredulous as to the possibility of attack, to have fastened up of a night. Mr. Atherton ran upstairs, knocked at the doors of Wilfrid's and the 256 MAORI AND SETTLER. settler 's rooms, and told them to get up instantly, as something was wrong. Then he threw up his window. "Who is there?" he asked. "Open the door," a native replied, "we have a message for you." "You can give me the message here. I shall not come down until I know who you are." "The message is that you are to open the door and come out. Te Kooti wants you." Mr. Atherton could just make out the figure of the speaker in the darkness. "That is my answer," he said as he fired. A fierce yell from twenty throats rose in the air, and there was a rush toward the door, while two or three shots were fired at the window. Mr. Atherton had, how- ever, stepped back the instant he had discharged his rifle, and now, leaning out, discharged the chambers of his revolver in quick succession among the navvies gath- ered round the door. Shrieks and yells arose from them, and they bounded away into the darkness, and again several musket shots were fired at the window. By thia time the settler and Wilfrid had both joined Mr. Ather- ton, having leaped from their beds, seized their arms, and ran out when the first shot was fired. "It is Te Kooti's men," Mr. Atherton said. "They have come at last. I expect there will be a few minutes before they attack again. You had better throw on some clothes at once and tell the ladies to dress instantly. We may have to leave the house and try to escape across country." Wilfrid and the settler gave the messages, and then returned. "How many of them do you think there are?" Wil- frid asked. MAORI AND SETTLER. 357 " About twenty of them I should say, and we could rely upon beating them off; but no doubt there are parties told off to the attack of all the outlying settlers, and when the others have done their work they may gather here." "Where are they now?" Wilfrid asked as he gazed into the darkness. "I fancy they are behind that shed over there. They are no doubt arranging their plan of attack. I expect they will try fire. There! do you see? That is the flash of a match." A minute later a light was seen to rise behind the shed, and there was a sound of breaking wood. The light grew brighter and brighter. "They will be coming soon," Mr. Atherton said. "Do not throw away a shot. The shingles on this roof are as dry as tinder, and if a burning brand falls on them the place will be in a blaze in five minutes. Now!" As he spoke a number of natives, each carrying a flaming brand, appeared from behind the woodshed. Three rifles cracked out, and as many natives fell. The farmer be- gan to reload his rifle, while Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid handed theirs to Mrs. Kenshaw, who at that moment joined them, and opened fire with their revolvers. Only two of Wilfrid's shots told, but Mr. Atherton's aim was as steady as when firing at a mark. Two of the natives fell, and four others, throwing down their brands, ran back wounded to the shelter of the woodshed. Their companions after a moment's hesitation, followed their example. There were now but six unwounded men out of the twenty who attacked the house. "There is one of them off for assistance!" Wilfrid ex- claimed as he caught sight of a figure running at full speed from the shed. In another moment he was lost in the darkness. 358 MAORI AND SETTLER. "Now is the time for us to make our escape, " Mr. Atherton said, turning from the window. "We have succeeded so far, but there may be three times as many next time, and we must be off. We will get out by a window at the back of the house and try and make our way across country to the Mahia tribe. We shall be safe there." "But Wilfrid cannot walk a hundred yards," Mrs. Renshaw said. "Then we must carry him," Mr. Atherton replied cheerfully. "He is no great weight, and we can make a litter when we get far enough away. Take a loaf of bread, Mrs. Sampson, a bottle or two of water, and a flask of spirits. You will find one full on my table. Please hurry up, for there is not a moment to lose. I will stay here to the last moment and fire an occasional shot at the shed to let them know that we are still here." As the course Mr. Atherton advised was evidently the best, the others followed his instructions without dis- cussion, and three minutes later stepped out from the back window into the garden. Mr. Atherton had been told that they were ready, and after firing a last shot from the window and reloading his rifle joined them. Mrs. Sampson had a small basket on one arm, and her child, who was ten years old, grasping her hand. Mrs. Renshaw had taken charge of Wilfrid's rifle, and had offered him her arm, but the excitement had given him his strength for the moment, and he declared himself perfectly capable of walking without assistance. "Go on as quietly as you can," Mr. Atherton said. "I will keep a bit behind first. They may possibly have put somebody on the watch on this side of the house, although I do not expect they have. They have been taken too much by surprise themselves." MAORI AND SETTLER. 259 The little party went on quietly and noiselessly about three hundred yards, and then Mr. Atherton joined them. "Wilfrid was breathing heavily and leaning against a tree. "Now jump up upon my back, Wilfrid," Mr. Ather- ton said; "your weight will not make much difference to me one way or the other. That is right; lend him a hand, Sampson, and get him on to my shoulders. It will be easier for both of us, for I have got no hips for his knees to catch hold of. That is right. Now if you will take my gun we shall get along merrily. ' ' They walked fast for about two miles. "Wilfrid several times offered to get down, saying that he could walk again for a bit, but Mr. Atherton would not hear of it. At the end of two miles they reached the spot where the country was covered with low scrub. "We are pretty safe now," Mr. Atherton said; "we can turn off from the track and take ta the scrub or shelter, and there will be little chance of their finding us. Now, Wilfrid, I will set you down for a bit. This is fine exercise for me, and if I were to carry you a few miles every day I should fine down wonderfully. Ah ! the others have come up. ' ' He broke off as the sound of a native yell sounded on the still night air, and looking round' they saw a bright light rising in the direction from which they had come. "They have set fire to the house," the settler said; "there goes the result of six years' work. However, I need not grumble over that now that we have saved our lives." "We had best be moving on," Mr. Atherton said. "No doubt they opened a heavy fire before they set fire to the shingles with their brands, but the fact that we did not return their fire must have aroused their suspi- 260 MAORI AND SETTLER. cions, and by this time they must have woke up to the fact that we have escaped. They will hunt about for a bit, no doubt, round the house, and may send a few men some distance along the tracks, but they will know there is very little chance of catching us until daylight. Now, Sampson, let us join arms, your right and my left. Wilfrid can sit on them and put his arm round our neck. We carry our rifles on our other shoulders, and that will balance matters. That is right. Now on we go again. " With occasional halts they went on for another four hours. By this time the ladies and the little girl were completely exhausted from stumbling over roots and low shrubs in the darkness, and the two men also were thor- oughly fatigued ; for the night was extremely hot, and the work of carrying Wilfrid in addition to the weight of their ammunition told upon them. They had long since lost the path, but knew by the stars that they were keeping in the right direction. "Now we will have a few hours' halt," Mr. Atherton said. "We may consider ourselves as perfectly safe from pursuit, though we shall have to be cautious, for there may be parties of these scoundrels wandering aboxit the country. We may hope that a good many of the settlers heard the firing and made off in time, but I fear we shall hear some sad stories of this night's work." Lying down the whole party were in a few minutes fast asleep. Wilfrid had offered to keep watch, saying that he had done no walking and could very well keep awake, but Mr. Atherton said that nothing would be gained by it. "You could see nothing, and you would hear nothing until a party of natives were quite close, and unless they happened by sheer accident to stumble upon us they could not find us; beside, though you have done no absolute walking, the exertion of sitting up MAOEI AND SETTLER 261 and holding on has been quite as much for you in your weak state as carrying you has been for us. No, we had best all take a rest so as to start fresh in the morning. ' ' Mr. Atherton woke as soon as daylight broke, and rousing himself cautiously looked round. There was nothing in sight, and he decided to let the party sleep for a few hours longer. It was eight o'clock, and the sun was high before the others opened their eyes. Mr. Atherton was standing up. "There is a horseman coming across the plain," he said; "no doubt he is fol- io-vying the track; by the line he is taking he will pass a little to our right. I will go out to hear the news. I think you had better remain where you are; he may be followed." Mr. Atherton walked through the bush until he reached the track just as the rider came along. "Ah! you have escaped, Mr. Atherton; I am glad of that. Have all your party got away?" "Yes, thank God!" Mr. Atherton said; "and now what is the news?" "I cannot tell all," the settler said, "but there has been a terrible massacre. I was pressing wool for Dodd and Peppard, whose station, you know, lies some dis- tance from any other. I rode up there just as day was breaking and went to the woolshed. Nobody came, and I heard the dog barking angrily ; so I went up to the house to see what was the matter. I found the back- door open and the two men lying dead inside, evidently killed by natives. I then galloped off to the Mission Station and warned them there, and then to the stations of Hawthorne and Strong. I found they had already been warned, and were just about to start; then I rode to Matawhero to warn the settlers there. Most of them had already made off. I passed Bigg's house on the 262 MAORI AND SETTLER. way ; there were ^a number of natives round it evidently in possession, and as I passed Mann's house I saw him and his wife and child lying outside dead. How many more have been murdered I do not know. It is an awful business. Where are your friends?" "They are in the scrub there. We are making our way to the Mahia." "Most of the settlers who have escaped have made for the old redoubt at Taranganui, and I fancy they will be able to beat off any attack made on them. I am riding for Wairoa. I cannot think what they can have been about there to let Te Kooti slip away without sending us a warning. He must have come by the long road and been six or seven days on the march." "Have you seen any natives since you started?" Mr. Atherton asked. "I saw a party of about twenty of them moving across the country about two miles back. They were scattered about in the bush, and were, I expect, in search of fugi- tives. They were moving across the line I was going, and were half a mile away; but when they come on this path they may follow it, knowing that those who made their escape and did not go to the redoubt would be likely to try to reach the Mahia country." "Thank you! then we will be moving on without de- lay, " Mr. Atherton said; and the settler at once rode on with his message to the force at Wairoa. As soon as Mr. Atherton joined the party and told them what he had heard they again set out. After walking for four miles they reached the edge of the plain, and the path here ascended a sharp rise and entered a narrow defile. Wilfrid, who was sitting on Mr. Atherton 's shoulders, looked back for the twentieth time as they ascended the rise. "Thej r are following us!" he exclaimed. "There MAORI AND SETTLER. 263 are a party of fifteen or twenty coming along the path at a run. They are not more than a mile behind at the out- side. " "Then I will put you down, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said quietly; "that will give me time to cool down a bit before they arrive. They could not have come up at a better place for us. It is no use trying to hide, they would track us directly. We must make a stand at the mouth of this defile. It is a good place for defense, and if it were not for this rascally bush we should have no difficulty in keeping them off. Even as it is I think we can make a good fight of it. Now, Mrs. Renshaw, will you and Mrs. Sampson and the child go a little way in and sit down. I have no doubt we shall be able to beat these fellows back, and if we do that we can hope to make the rest of our journey without further molesta- tion." "Could I be of any use in loading the rifles, Mr. Atherton?" "I think not, Mrs. Renshaw; it may be a long skirm- ish, and we shall have plenty of time to load ; and j r our being here with us and running the risk of being hit would make us nervous. I think, if you do not mind, we would much rather know that you are in safety behind us." "Very well," Mrs. Renshaw said quietly; "I will do what you think best. We shall be praying for your suc- cess until it is over." Mr. Atherton looked round after the two ladies had gone on. "There is a bush with a wide ledge of flat ground behind it," he said, pointing to a little clump of underwood some ten feet above them on the side of the ravine. "I think, with my help, you can manage to clamber up there, Wilfrid. Lying down you will Ibe 264 MAORI AND SETTLER. able to fire under the bush and be in fair shelter. Mr. Sampson and I will hold the path here. If they make a rush you will be able to help us with 3 r our revolver. Up there you will have the advantage of being able to see movements among the bushes better than we shall, and can fire down at them; and if it comes to a hand-to-hand fight will be of more use there than down here. " Wilfrid at once assented. "Stand on my hand and I will hoist you up. " Mr. Atherton raised Wilfrid until he was able to get on to the ledge of rock behind the bushes. Wilfrid laid himself down there, and with his knife cut off a few of the lower twigs so that he was able to get a good view ahead. "Keep yourself well back, lad, and do not raise your head except to fire. Do you see anything of them?" "Yes, they are not more than a quarter of a mile away and are scattering among the bushes. No doubt they caught sight of us as we came up here, and think it pos- sible we may intend to defend the defile." "I will let them know we are here;" and Mr. Atherton made two steps forward to the mouth of the defile. Al- most at the same instant he leveled his rifle and fired, and one of the Maoris threw up his arms and fell back, the rest throwing themselves down instantaneously among the bushes, whence a moment later two or three shots were fired. But Mr. Atherton had stepped back, and he and the settler, lying down on the ground, worked themselves forward until by raising their heads they could command a vew of the slope up to the mouth of the ravine. For a time all was silent. Presently Wilfrid's rifle spoke out, and a yell testified to the fact that the quick aim he had taken at a dark figure stealing among the bushes had been true. It was followed quickly by a MAORI AND SETTLER. 265 general discharge of their pieces by the natives. The bullets rattled thickly against the rock, and cut leaves from the bushes behind which Wilfrid was lying, but he had drawn himself back a foot or two the moment he fired, and the balls passed harmlessly over him. Not so the missive dispatched by Mr. Atherton in the direction of a puff of smoke from a bush some forty yards away, for the figure behind it remained still and immovable while the fray went on. For upward of an hour the ex- change of shots continued, and then the assailants were joined by fifteen other natives, who had been attracted to the spot by the sound of firing. "I expect they will pluck up their courage to make a rush now, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said. "If it had not been for these new arrivals I think they would have soon drawn off, for we must have diminished their numbers very considerably. Don't fire again for a bit; we had best keep our rifles loaded so as to be ready for them when they pluck up courage to charge. When they do, be sure you keep your revolver as a reserve for the criti- cal moment." Five minutes later a tremendous yell rose in the air. The natives leaped to their feet from behind the bushes, fired their guns at their hidden foes, and then, toma- hawk in hand, rushed forward. Three shots rang out almost simultaneously from the mouth of the defile and three of the natives dropped dead in their tracks. The rest rushed forward in a body. Mr. Atherton and the settler leaped to their feet, and the former opened a fire with his Colt's revolver when the leading natives were within ten yards of him. His aim was as accurate as when directed against a mark stuck against a tree, and a man fell at each shot. But the natives' blood was thoroughly up now, and in spite of 266 MAORI AND SETTLER. the slaughter they rushed forward. There was no room in the narrow defile for two men to swing their rifles, and Mr. Atherton and the settler stepped forward to meet the foe with their clubbed rifle in their hands. Two crashing blows were delivered with effect, but be- fore the settler could again raise his weapon three Maoris were upon him. One tomahawk struck him in the shoul- der and the rifle fell from his hands. Another raised his tomahawk to brain him, but fell with a bullet from Wil- frid's revolver through his chest; but the third native brought his weapon .down with terrible force upon the settler's head, and he fell in a heap upon the ground. The tremendous strength of Mr. Atherton stood him in good stead now. The first blow he had dealt had smashed the stock of his rifle, but he whirled the iron barrel like a light twig round his head, dealing blows that broke down the defense of the natives as if their tomahawks had been straw, and beating them down as a flail would level a wheat stalk. Those in front of him recoiled from a strength which seemed to them super- human, while whenever one tried to attack him in the rear Wilfrid's revolver came into play with fatal accuracy. At last, with a cry of terror, the surviving natives turned and retreated at the top of their speed. "Hot work, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said as he lowered his terrible weapon and wiped the streaming perspiration from his face; "but we have given the rascals such a lesson that we can journey on at our leisure. This is a bad business of poor Sampson's. I will help you down first and then we will see to him. Eecharge your re- volver, lad," he went on as Wilfrid stood beside him; "some of these fellows may not be dead, and may play us an ugly trick if we are not on the lookout." Wilfrid reloaded his pistol, and Mr. Atherton then stooped over the fallen man. MAORI AND SETTLER. 267 "He is desperately hurt," he said, "but he breathes. Hand me that revolver, Wilfrid, and run back and tell Mrs. Sampson her husband is hurt." Wilfrid had gone but a yard or two when he met his mother and the settler's wife, who, hearing the cessation of the firing, were no longer able to restrain their anxiety as to what was going forward. Mrs. Eenshaw gave a cry of joy at seeing Wilfrid walking toward her. "Is it all over, my boy, and are you unhurt?" "It is all over, mother, and they have bolted. I have not had a scratch, for I have been lying down all the time in shelter; but I am sorry to say, Mrs. Sampson, that your husband is badly hurt. "No, he is not dead," he continued in answer to the agonized expression of inquiry in her eyes. "He has been stunned by the blow of a tomahawk, and is, as I said, badly hurt; but he will, I trust, get over it." Mrs. Sampson ran forward and threw herself on her knees by her husband's side, uttering a suppressed cry as she saw the terrible wound on his head. "Wilfrid, there is a bottle of water untouched in the basket," Mr. Atherton said. "I will fetch it," Mrs. Kenshaw broke in, hurrying away. "No, Milly," she said, as the child who had been ordered to stay with the basket came running to meet her. "You must stay here for a little while. The natives have all run away, but j*our father is hurt and for a time must be kept quite quiet. I will send Wilfrid to sit with you." Taking a bottle of water and a cloth which covered the basket, Mrs. Eenshaw hurried back. "Wilfrid," she said, "do you go and sit with the little one. You can do no good here, and look completely worn out. You will be making yourself useful if you amuse Milly and keep her away from here for the present." 268 MAORI AXD SETTLER. Mr. Atherton poured a little of the water into the cover of his flask, added some brandy, and poured a little of it between the wounded man's lips. Then he saturated the cloth with water and handed it to Mrs. Sampson, who wiped the blood from her husband's head and face, then poured a little water from the bottle on to his forehead. Some more brandy and water was poured between his lips and he uttered a faint groan. "I will examine his wound now, Mrs. Sampson. I have had some experience that way in my journey inga about the world." Kneeling down he carefully exam- ined the wound. "It is better than I hoped, Mrs. Sampson," he said cheerfully. "I expect the thick hat turned the toma- hawk a little and it -fell obliquely on the side of the head. It has carried away a goodish slice of the hair and scalp, and has scraped the bone, but it has not crushed it in, and I think that with care and nursing your husband will not be long before he gets over it. You had better fold up that cloth again, pour some fresh water over it, and then bandage it over the wound with a slip of stuff torn off from the bottom >f your petticoat. You had bet- ter tear off two slips, fo. his arm will require bandaging too. I will look to tnat as soon as you have done his head. No," he wen on, when he saw that Mrs. Samp- son's trembling fin ers were quite incapable of fixing the bandage properly f "I do not think that will do. If you will allow me I ill do it for you. " He took Mi Sampson's place, and while Mrs. Een- shaw supported, the settler's head he wound the bandage tightly and sKllfully round it. "Now for his arm," he said, and drawing out his knife cut the sleeve up the shoulder. 'It has narrowly missed the artery," he went on; ''but though it is an ugly -looking gash it is not seri- MAORI AND SETTLER. 269 ous. I wish we had some more water, but as we haven't we must do without it, and I dare say we shall come across a stream soon." When the operation of banda- ging was complete Mr. Atherton stood up. "What are we to do next?" Mrs. Renshaw asked him. "We must cut a couple of saplings and make a litter," he said. "If one of you ladies can spare a petticoat, please take it off while I cut the poles." He went away and returned in a few minutes with two poles ten or eleven feet long. "Here is the petticoat," Mrs. Renshaw said. The settler's wife was too absorbed by her grief and anxiety to hear Mr. Atherton 's request. "What is to be done with it?" "In the first place it must be taken out of that band, or whatever you call it," Mr. Atherton replied, "and then split right down. Here is my knife." When the garment had been operated upon there re- mained a length of strong calico nearly three feet wide and three yards long. "That will do well," he said. "Now we have to fasten this to the poles. How would you do that? It is more in your way than mine." "I should roll it twice round the pole and then sew it, if I had a needle and thread. If I had not that I should make holes in every six inches and tie it with string; but unfortunately we have no string either." "I think we can manage that," Mr. Atherton said; and he walked rapidly away and returned in a few minutes with some long stalks that looked like coarse grass. "This is the very thing, Mrs. Renshaw," he said; "this is what is called New Zealand flax, and I have no doubt it will be strong enough for our purpose. " In a quarter of an hour the litter was completed. Just as it 270 MAORI AND SETTLER. Tras finished Mrs. Sampson uttered an exclamation of joy, and turning round, they saw that her husband had opened his eyes and was looking round in a dazed, bewil- dered way. "It is all right, Sampson," Mr. Atherton said cheer- fully; "we have thrashed the natives handsomely; they have bolted, and there is no fear of their coming back again. You have had a clip on the head with a toma- hawk, but I do not think that you will be much the worse, for it at the end of a week or two. We have just been manufacturing a litter for you, and now we will lift you on to it. Now, ladies, I will take him by the shoul- ders; will you take him by the feet, Mrs. Eenshaw; and do you, Mrs. Sampson, support his head? That is the waj r . Now, I will just roll up my coat and put it under his head, and then I think he will do; lay our rifles be- side him. Now, I will take the two handles at his head ; do you each take one at his feet. The weight will not be great, and you can change about when your arms get tired. Yes, I see what you are thinking about, Mrs. Kenshaw. We must go along bit by bit. We will carry our patient here for half a mile, then I will come back and fetch Wilfrid up to that point, then we will go on again and so on." "All the hard work falls on you, Mr. Atherton; it is too bad," Mrs. Renshaw said with grateful tears in her eyes. "It will do me a world of good, Mrs. Eenshaw. I must have lost over a stone weight since yesterday. If this sort of thing were to go on for a few weeks I should get into fighting condition. Now, are you both ready? Lift." In a short time they came to the point where Wilfrid and the child were sitting down together. Wilfrid had MAORI AND SETTLER. 271 been impressing upon her that her father was hurt, and that she must be verj-- good and quiet, and walk along quietly by her mother's side. So when they came along she got up and approached them with a subdued and awe-struck air. She took the hand her mother held out to her. "Is father very bad, mother?" she asked in a low tone. "He is better than he was, dear, and we must hope and pray that he will soon be well again ; but at present you must not speak to him. He must be kept very quiet and not allowed to talk." "You sit where you are, Wilfrid, I will come back for you in half an hour," Mr. Atherton said. "That you won't, Mr. Atherton," Wilfrid said, getting up. "I have had a long rest, for, except for pulling my trigger and loading, I have done nothing since the first short walk when we started this morning. All this ex- citement has done me a lot of good, and I feel as if I could walk ever so far. " "Well, put your rifle in the litter, then," Mr. Ather- ton said; "its weight will make no difference to us, and it will" make a lot of difference to you; when you are tired say so. ' ' Wilfrid struggled on resolutely, refusing to stop until they reached a stream two miles from the starting place. Here they rested for an hour. The settler's wounds were washed and rebandaged, the others partook of a meal of bread and water, and they then continued the journey. At the end of another half-mile Wilfrid was obliged to own that his strength could hold out no longer, but he refused positively to accept Mr. Atherton 's proposal to come back for him. "I will not hear of it, Mr. Atherton," he said. "From what Mrs. Sampson says it is another eight or ten miles 272 MAORI AND SETTLER. to the Mahia country. There is not the least fear of any of the Hau-Haus following on our track. The best way by far is this : I will go a hundred yards into the bush and lie down. You push on. It will be dark before you finish your journey as it is; you would not get there till to-morrow morning if you had to keep on coming back for me; beside, you would never get on with the litter after it is dark. Leave me a piece of bread, a bottle of water, my rifle and revolver, and I shall be as comforta- ble among the bushes there as if I were in bed. In the morning you can send out a party of Mahias to fetch me in. If you break down a small bough here by the side of the way, that will be quite sufficient to tell the natives where they are to turn off from the path to look for me." "Well, I really think that is the best plan, Wilfrid. There is, as you say, no real danger in your stopping here alone. It would be a long job coming back for you every time we halt, and it is of importance to get Mr. Sampson laid down and quiet as soon as possible." Mrs. Kenshaw did not like leaving Wilfrid alone ; but she saw that she could be of no real assistance to him, and her aid was absolutely required to carry the wounded man. She therefore offered no objections to the proposal. "Don't look downcast, mother," Wilfrid said as he kissed her. "The weather is fine, and there is no hard- ship whatever in a night in the bush, especially after what we went through when we were following Te Kooti." Wilfrid made his way a hundred yards back into the bush and then threw himself down under a tree fern, and in a very few minutes he was sound asleep. The next time he woke all was dark around him. "I must have slept a good many hours," he said. "I feel precious hungry." He ate a hunch of bread, took MAORI AND SETTLER. 273 a drink of water from the bottle, and soon fell asleep again. The morning was breaking when he again woke. A quarter of an hour later he heard voices, and cocking his rifle and lying down full length on the grass waited. In another minute to his joy he heard Mr. Atherton's voice shouting, "Where are you, Wilfrid? Where have you hidden yourself?" MAORI AND SETTLER, CHAPTER XVI. THE PUBSUIT OF TE KOOTI. HE leaped to his feet and ran forward. Mr. Atherton was approaching, accompanied by a party of six natives. "Why, Mr. Atherton, I was not expecting you for an- other three hours." "Well, you see, Wilfrid, your mother was anxious about you. She did not say anything, for she is a plucky woman, and not given to complaining or grumbling, still I could see she was anxious, so I arranged with these natives to be ready to start three hours before daybreak, so as to get here just as the sun was rising." "It was awfully kind of you, Atherton; but surely the natives would have been able to find me without your troubling yourself to come all this way again. I am sure you must have been dreadfully tired after all your work yesterday. ' ' "Well, Wilfrid, perhaps I was just a little bit anxious myself about you, and should have fussed and fidgeted until you got back; so you see the quickest way to satisfy myself was to come with the natives." "What time did you get in last night?" "About eight o'clock in the evening, I think. We were all pretty well knocked up, but the two ladies bore it bravely, so you see I had no excuse for grumbling." "I am sure you would not have grumbled anyhow, " Wilfrid laughed; "but I know that when one is carrying any one the weight at the head is more than double the MAORI AND SETTLER. 275 weight at the feet, and that was divided between them, while you had the heavy end all to yourself. And how is Sampson?" "I think he will do, Wilfrid. The natives took him in hand as soon as he got there, and put leaf poultices to his wounds. They are very good at that sort of thing, and so they ought to be considering they have been breaking each others' heads almost from the daj's of Adam. Well, let us be off. We have brought the stretcher with us, and shall get you back in no time." Wilfrid lay down upon the stretcher. Four of the natives lifted it and went off at a light swinging pace. From time to time changes were made, the other two natives taking their share. Had they been alone the natives could have made the ten miles' journey under the two hours, but Mr. Atherton reduced their speed directly after they had started. "I have not been killed by the Hau-Haus, Wilfrid, and I do not mean to let myself be killed by friendly natives. Three miles an hour is my pace, and except in a case of extreme emergency I never exceed it. I have no wish, when I get back to England, to be exhibited as a walking skeleton. "It is good to hear you laugh again, lad," he went on as Wilfrid burst into a shout of laughter, to the astonish- ment of his four bearers. "I was afraid six weeks back that we should never hear you laugh again." "Oh, Mr. Atherton!" Wilfrid exclaimed a few minutes later, "were there any other of the Poverty Bay people there last night, and have you heard what took place and whether many beside those we know of have lost their lives?" "Yes; I am sorry to say it has been a very bad busi- ness. As we heard from Butters, Dodd and Eeppart 276 MAORI AND SETTLER. were killed, and there is no doubt that their shepherd was also slaughtered. Major Biggs, poor fellow, has paid for his obstinacy and overconfidence with his life. His wife, baby, and servant were also killed. The news of this was brought by a boy employed in the house, who escaped by the back door and hid in a flax bush. Cap- tain Wilson, his wife, and children have all been mur- dered. McCulloch was killed with his wife and baby ; the little boy managed to escape, and got to the redoubt at Taranganui. Cadel was also killed. Fortunately Firmin heard the sound of musketry in the night. He started at dawn to see what was the matter. He met a native, who told him that the Hau-Haus were massacring the whites, and at once rode off and warned Wylie, Stevenson, Benson, Hawthorne and Strong; and these all escaped with their families, and with Major Westrupp got safely to the Mahia people. "The boy who escaped from Major- Biggs' house reached Bloomfields, and all the women and children there managed to escape. How they did it heaven only knows, for the Hau-Haus were all round. That is all we know at present, and we hope that the rest of the settlers of the outlying stations round Matawhero succeeded in getting into Taranganui. Whether the Hau-Haus will be satisfied with the slaughter* they have effected, or will try to penetrate further into the settlement or attack Taranganui, remains to be seen. Of course the people who have escaped are, like ourselves, ignorant of every- thing that has taken place except what happened in their immediate neighborhood. I should fancy, myself, that however widespread the massacre may have been, the Hau-Haus started last night on their way back. They would know that as soon as the news reached Wairoa the force there will be on the move to cut them off." MAORI AND SETTLER. 277 "Do you think they will succeed?" Wilfrid asked eagerly. "I do not think so, Wilfrid. If Colonel Whitmore were there they would have routed out Te Kooti long ago, but Colonel Lambert seems a man of a different stamp altogether. Why, I heard last night that he marched six days ago to Whataroa, quite close to Te Kooti 's place, and that a prisoner they took gave them positive infor- mation that the Hau-Haus there had all left to assist Te Kooti in a raid upon Poverty Bay. It seems they did not believe the news at any rate, although a mail left for Poverty Bay on the day after they returned to Wairoa, they sent no news whatever of the report they had heard. If they had done so there would have been plenty of time for the settlers to prepare for the attack. "It is one of the most scandalous cases of neglect that I ever heard of, and Lambert ought to be tried by court- martial, though that would not bring all these people to life again. However there is one thing certain the news of this affair will create such a sensation through- out the island that even the incapable government at Auckland, who have disregarded all the urgent requests for aid against Te Kooti, will be forced to do something, - and I sincerely hope they will dispatch Whitmore with a strong force of constabulary to wipe out Te Kooti and his band. It is curious how things come about. Almost all these poor fellows who have been killed belong to the Poverty Bay militta, who refused to press on with Whit- more in pursuit of Te Kooti. Had they done so, the addition of thirty white men to his force might have made all the difference in that fight you had with him, and in that case Te Kooti would have been driven far up the country and this massacre would never have taken place. ' ' 278 MAORI AND SETTLER. It was a great relief to Mrs. Renshaw when Wilfrid reached the village. She was not given to idle fears, and felt convinced that he was running no real danger; for she knew Mr. Atherton would not have left him by himself had he not been perfectly convinced there was no danger of pursuit. Still she felt a weight lifted off her mind when she saw the party entering the village. "Well, mother, you must have had a terrible journey of it yesterday," Wilfrid said, after he had assured her that he felt none the worse for what had passed, and waa indeed stronger and better than he had been two days before. "It was a terrible journey, Wilfrid. Fourteen miles does not seem such a very long distance to walk, though I do not suppose I ever walked as far since I was a girl; but the weight of the stretcher made all the difference. It did not feel much when we started, but it soon gpt heavier as we went on; and though we changed sides every few minutes it seemed at last as if one's arms were being pulled out of their sockets. We could never have done it if it had not been for Mr. Atherton. He kept us cheery the whole time. It seems ridiculous to remember that he has always been representing himself as unequal to any exertion. He was carrying the greater part of the weight, and indeed five miles before we got to the end of our journey, seeing how exhausted we were be- coming, he tied two sticks six feet long to our end of the poles, and in that way made the work a great deal lighter for us, and of course a great deal heavier for himself. He declared he hardly felt it, for by that time I had torn two wide strips from the bottom of my dress, tied them together, and put them over his shoulders and fastened them to the two poles; so that he got the weight on his shoulders instead of his hands. But in addition to Mr. ORI AND SETTLER. 279 Sampson's weight he carried Hilly perched on his shoul- der thejast eight miles. He is a noble fellow." "He did not say anything about carrying Milly, " Wil- frid said, "or of taking all the weight of the litter. He is a splendid fellow, mother." "He was terribly exhausted when he got in," Mrs. Benshaw said; "and was looking almost as pale as death when we went into the light in the hut where the other fugitives had assembled. As soon as the others relieved him of the weight of the litter, and lifted Milly down from his shoulder, he went out of the hut. As soon an I had seen Mr. Sampson well cared for, I went out to look for him, and found he had thrown himself down on the ground outside, and was lying there, I thought at first insensible, but he wasn't. I stooped over him and he said, 'I am all right, Mrs. Benshaw, but I was not up to answering questions. In half an hour I shall be myself again, but I own that I feel washed out at present. ' I took him out a glass of brandy and water, he drank it and said, 'I feel ashamed of being waited on by you, Mrs. Benshaw, when you must be as tired as I am. Please do not bother any more about me, but if you will ask one of the others to get a native blanket to throw over me to keep off the dew I shall be all right in the morning ; but I do not feel that I could get ou my feet again to-night if a fortune depended on it. ' Of course I did as he asked me, and I was perfectly stupefied this morning when I heard that he had been up at two o'clock and had gone off with a party of natives to bring yon in." "It was awfully good of him," Wilfrid said, "and he never said a word to me about it. Where is he?" and he looked round. But Mr. Atherton had disappeared. "Have you seen Mr. Atherton?" they asked Mr. Wylie, 280 MAORI AND SETTLER. as he came out of a large hut that had been given up for the use of the fugitives." "He has just had a glass of spirits and water unfor- tunately we had no tea to offer him and a piece of bread, and has taken a blanket and has gone off to an empty hut; he said he intended to sleep until to-morrow morning," and indeed it was not until next day that Mr. Atherton again appeared. Several friendly natives arrived one after another at the village. They brought the news that the Hau-Haus had attacked only the colonists round Matawairo, and that all the rest of the settlers were gathered at Taran- ganui; but the Hau-Haus were plundering all the de- serted houses, and were shooting down all the natives who refused to join them. It was afterward found in- deed that the natives had suffered even more severely than the whites, for while thirty-three of the latter were murdered thirty-seven of the natives were killed. Major Westrupp had left by ship for Napier to obtain assist- ance, Lieutenant Gascoigne had made his way safely through the Hau-Haus to Taranganui, and had sent a whaleboat out to a schooner that was seen passing down the coast. She at once came into the port, and the women and children were sent off to Napier. The garri- son of the fort had been reinforced by the friendly natives under their chief Henare Potare, and were await- ing the expected attack by Te Kooti. A week later news came that Major Westrupp and Captain Tuke had arrived from Napier with three hun- dred natives, and that the Hau-Haus had retired with their plunder. The party at Te Mahia at once started for the coast accompanied by some thirty men of the Mahia tribe. A wagon had been procured for the trans- port of the women and children, and a march of twenty- MAORI AND SETTLER. 281 four milea took them to Taranganui. They found that parties had been out the day before to bury the dead, and had brought in two persons who were supposed to have been murdered. As one of the parties were going along they saw a small poodle dog run into a bush, and recognized it as having belonged to Captain Wilson. They called and whistled to it in vain, and came to the conclusion that some one must be in hiding there. After half an hour's search they discovered little James Wilson with the dog tightly held in his arms ; the boy was too frightened to distinguish friend from foe, and was greatly delighted when he recognized one of the party. He told them that his mother was alive, and was lying wounded in an outhouse at their place. He had lost his way while trying to reach Taranagnui to bring help to her. Captain Wilson had defended his house with a revolver until the natives brought fire to burn him out. As they offered to spare the lives of all within if they surren- dered, Captain Wilson, thinking that there was a possi- bility of their keeping their word while those within would certainly be burned if they resisted, surrendered. The prisoners were being led along by their captors, Captain Wilson carrying the little boy, when the natives fell upon them. Captain Wilson was shot through the back, his servant, Morau, tomahawked, and Mrs. Wilson and the other children bayoneted. Captain Wilson, when shot, fell into a bush, and the little boy in the con- fusion crawled away unnoticed into the scrub. He had"v wandered about sleeping in outhouses for several nights, often close to the enemy, and at last found his way back to what had been his home, and found the bodies of his father, brothers, and sisters, and on going into an out- house for shelter found his mother alive there. She had been bayoneted in several places and beaten MAORI AND SETTLER. on the head with the butt of a rifle until they thought her dead. Later in the day she had recovered conscio'us- ness and crawled back to the house, where she got some water and then took refuge in the outhouse, where two or three days later she was found by her son. She had since been kept alive by eggs and other things the child found by foraging round ; but he had at last started to try to get assistance for her. After hearing the child's story the party had galloped on to Captain Wilson's, and the poor lady had been lound and carried to Taranganui. A few days later she was sent down to Napier by ship, but expired shortly after from the effects of her wounds. In the week that elapsed between the date of the mas- sacre and their return to the settlement Wilfrid had regained his strength wonderfully, and the bracing air of the hills and the excitement of the events through which he passed had acted as a complete restorative. Mr. Atherton too had completely recovered from his fatigue, and indeed, professed himself to have benefited greatly by them, as he maintained that in three days he had lost as many stone of flesh. The morning after their return to Taranganui they had a long talk about their plans. It was settled that Mrs. Renshaw should at once return home. She was most anxious that Wilfrid should accompany her; but this he would not consent to. "No, mother," he said; "it is my duty, and every one's duty, to aid in hunting down these murderous scoundrels. They have massacred a number of people who were very kind to me when I first became ill, and I will do my best to punish them ; besides, until Te Kooti's band is destroyed there will be no peace or safety for any of the outlying settlements, and they are j ust as MAORI AND SETTLER. 283 likely to make an attack on our settlement as any other; indeed, we are the nearest to them, therefore in fighting here I am fighting for the protection of our home." Mr. Atherton also announced his intention of accom- panying the column in pursuit of Te Kooti. "I dislike fatigue amazingly, " he said, "but for sev- eral reasons I feel myself bound to see this affair through to the end. In the first place they have attacked me and caused me to undergo great fatigue ; in the second, they have murdered a number of my acquaintances; in the third place I have to look after this boy and see that he gets into no mischief; and lastly, it really seems to me that a month or two of this sort of thing will absolutely reduce me to ordinary dimensions, a thing which I have for years given up even hoping for. " "Well, Wilfrid," Mrs. Kenshaw said at last, "I sup- pose you must have your way. I do think that, as you say, it is the duty of everyone to do all that he can to punish the people who have committed these massacres upon defenseless people, and it is necessary for the safety of the settlement that Te Kooti 's band shall be destroyed. It is very hard on us to know that our only son is fight- ing; but other men as well have to leave perhaps wives and children behind, and if only those without ties were to go the force would be a small one indeed. It is a comfort to me, Mr. Atherton, that you have made up your mind to go too. It sounds selfish of me to say so; but I suppose all mothers are selfish when their sons are concerned." "I understand your feeling, Mrs. Kenshaw, and it is quite natural. I do think that everyone who can carry a musket ought to join in this expedition, and I flatter myself that Wilfrid's rifle and mine are allies not to be despised. Anyhow, Mrs. Renshaw, I promise you that 284 MAORI AND SETTLER. we will not do what are called rash things. We won't try to capture Te Kooti single-handed, and I think that we can be much more useful covering an attack than leading an assault." Accordingly, two days later Mrs. Renshaw embarked on a coaster for the Mohaka river, and Mr. Atherton and "Wilfrid announced to Lieutenant Gascoigne that they would accompany his force as volunteers. "I am heartily glad to hear it, " that officer replied. "I have heard from Wylie of your defense of that pass against the Hau-Haus, and yesterday I had a talk with Sampson, who is getting round now, and he gave me the history of the affair, and from what he says you and Renshaw must have killed at least twenty Hau-Haus, for Sampson admits that he is not much of a shot and had a very small share in the total. : ' "Yes; we can both shoot indifferently well," Mr. Atherton said carelessly, "and can both be trusted to hit a Maori if we see him within about four hundred yards of us. I fancy that we may be of serivee to you in keeping down the fire of the enemy if you are attacking a pah. There is nothing cows fellows so much as find- ing that it is certain death to raise their heads from be-, hind shelter to take aim. Of coarse we shall be ready generally to obey orders, but that is the special work we join for. You see, Renshaw is but just recovering from illness, and my build unsuits me for violent exertion. So if you want to storm a steep hill you must not count on us being with you except so far as shooting goes." "Well, I will take you on your own terms," Lieuten- ant Gascoigne said, smiling. "Mrs. Sampson told me yesterday how disinclined you were for violent exertion, ami how she had to help you along on that journey to Te Mahia." MA ORI AND SETTLER. 285 Mr. Atherton laughed. "There are exceptions to all rules," he said. "I am a peaceful botanist, but 1 had to fight. I hate exertion, but on that occasion I was forced to make an effort, and terribly knocked up I was over it. If it becomes absolutely necessary I may have to make an effort again, but I consider it altogether outside my province." The expedition started on the following morning, the 20th of November. It consisted of nearly six hundred natives belonging to the Napier tribes, the Mahia, and Marsuwai tribes. The next day they came upon the rearguard of the Hau-Hau tribes of Patutahi and shot two of them. Great quantities of booty which the Hau- Haus were unable to carry away were found there, to- gether with the bodies of several friendly natives. The next day another encampment was come upon, and here the carts taken from the plundered farms were found. At dusk on the 23d the column came up with the main body of the enemy, who were encamped on the Te Karetua creek. A heavy fire was opened on both sides, and the natives then charged, but were driven back with a loss of five killed and twelve wounded.- Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid, who were walking leisurely in the rear of the column when it came on the enemy, arrived too late to take any part in the fight. After the repulse the friendly natives took up a position on a ridge overlooking the Hau-Hau positions and distant twelve hundred yards from it. Rifle-pits were dug, and for the next week firing was kept up by both sides, with occasional skirmishes as one party or the other tried to take the offensive, but neither cared to try a determined attack on the other. The Hau-Haus had lost twenty men during the first day's fighting, and suffered more in the distant firing, 286 especially whenever they gathered as if for an attack, than did the friendlies. Thia was owing in no small degree to the accuracy of Mr. Atherton's fire. He had got some of the natives to dig a rifle-pit three or four hundred yards down the hill in front of their position, and here he and Wilfrid ensconced themselves every morning before daybreak, taking down with them their provisions for the day, and from this point they galled the Hau-Haus greatly with their fire. Wilfrid knew that his shooting could not be depended upon at this distance; but Mr. Atherton had been accustomed to fire at long ranges, and although at eight hundred yards his rifle was not accurate he did considerable execution, and so alarmed the Hau-Haus that they scarcely dared to move by daylight from one part of their intrenchment to the other. The friends always left their shelter and re- tired to camp as soon as the sun set. The Hau-Haus were not, however, idle. A party of sixty men made a long circuit and came down in rear of the column, captured the depot at Patutahi with eight kegs of ammunition and a great quantity of provisions, and also seized a number of pack animals on the way up. On the 3d of December the force was strengthened by the arrival of the chiefs Eapata and Hotene, with three hundred and seventy men from Te Wairoa. These chiefly belonged to the Ngatiporou tribe, who were fa* better fighters than the Napier or Mahia men. As soon as the reinforcements had arrived it was de~ cided at once to dislodge the enemy from a hill of which they had possession and then to make a general attack on the intrenchments. Forty men of the Wairoa tribe under Mr. Preece made a dashing attack on the hill, and just as they carried it Eapata sent a message to him to say that his tribesmen were annoyed by the enemy's shot MAORI AND SETTLER. 287 falling into their camp, and were therefore determined to attack at once. That tribe, sallying out, carried two of the enemy's outworks with a rush, and drove the Hau- Haus back to their last line of rifle-pits near the river. Here they were attacked by the Wairoa men on the left, Kapata in the center, and the tribesmen from Napier on the right. The assailants carried the intrenchment and drove the Hau-Haus across the river, these suffering heavy loss from the firing of the left column, who from their position commanded the course of the stream. Unfortunately this fire, though destructive to the enemy, was to a certain extent in their favor, for it pre- vented the close pursuit of Rapata's men. Thirty-four Hau-Haus, including three of their fighting chiefs, were found dead. Te Kooti himself had a narrow escape. He was still suffering from his wound in the ankle, and was carried up the bed of the creek on a woman's back. A great quantity of the loot taken from the settlers was 'recaptured, and many of the friendly natives held pris- oners by the Hau-Haus escaped during the fight. Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid had joined Rapata's men in their charge, and after the fight was over the former said : "Well, Wilfrid, it is a satisfaction to have got some natives with us at last who will fight. It seemed at first as if all the plucky natives had joined the enemy ; but Rapata's men . are first-rate fellows, though I wish that they had rather an easier name, for Ngatiporou is a crack-jaw word to pronounce." " Unfortunately a quarrel arose after the battle between Rapata's men and the Napier tribesmen, and three hun- dred of the latter went off. The next morning Rapata and his tribe, with the remaining Wairoa men, marched out to attack the position the enemy occupied on the top of a hill two miles away. Mr. Preece led the ad- 288 MAORI AND SETTLER. vanced party, and found the defenses consisted of two lines of strong earthworks extending across a flat shoul- der, either end resting on a cliff. Mr. Preece halted his men until Eapata came up with the main body. "Wilfrid and Mr. Atherton had attached themselves to the Ngatiporou. Just as they joined Mr. Preece one of the men fired off a gun, and the enemy answered with a heavy volley. Instantly a panic set in, and the whole force, with the exception of some sixteen or eighteen men, bolted. One of the chiefs under Mr. Preece followed and managed to stop them, and persuaded them to wait until Eapata could return to them. This they agreed to do, but refused positively to return to the attack. Mr. Preece returned to Eapata, who was in a state of fury at the defection of his tribe. "We will go on and attack the place by ourselves," he said. "Perhaps the cowards will come up when they hear we are fighting. " Mr. Preece at once agreed, and the party, consisting of the two leaders, Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid, and fourteen of Eapata 's men, worked back through the low scrub until within twenty -five yards of the first line of earth- works, when they opened fire upon the enemy. "This is rather close work, "Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said. ""We have the best of it in some respects, because they cannot make out our position among the bushes, and they are obliged to stand up and show their heads above the parapet when they fire. We ought never to miss them at this distance, and we will soon teach them that it is fatal to pause a moment to take aim, so at the worst they will only blaze away at random." For some time the fight continued, and then Eapata requested Mr. Preece to go down the hill and bring up some more men. Only nine men would follow Mr. Preece, and Eapata was so disgusted that he himself went MAORI AND SETTLER, 289 down for some distance and managed to get thirty more. One of the men had brought a bill up with him, and with this shallow rifle-pits were dug among the bushes, afford- ing a shelter to the men as they lay flat while loading. At three o'clock in the afternoon the chief called on his tribesmen to follow him, and, leaping up, they dashed at one of the outposts and carried it. A man took the news down the hill, and a chief and thirty more men came up and joined in the fight. At dusk Eapata requested Mr. Preece to return to camp and try to get the main body back with ammuni- tion, as their own was almost exhausted. Mr. Preece could not induce the natives to start, but they said they would go in the morning. All night the fight went on, but before dawn Eapata, having expended his last round of ammunition, retired, having lost six men killed and four wounded. As he and his men came down they strode through the camp in single file, not deigning to take the slightest notice of the fugitives, and passing on, camped apart half a mile further on. The main body, ashamed of their cowardly conduct, were afraid to go near the chief. As it was necessary to ascertain what he meant to do, one of the white officers went to see him. For some time the chief would make no reply. At last he said, "My men have betrayed me, and I will have nothing further to do with them. I intend to return home and get other men, and when I get back I will at- tack the Napier tribe who deserted me." The same day he marched for the coast, followed at a distance by the abashed fugitives. On the way down they met Colonel "Whitmore, who with three hundred con- stabulary had just arrived by ship from the scene of operations on the other side of the island. The colonel begged Kapata to return with him, but 290 MAORI AND SETTLER. the chief said, "I never break my word. I have said I will go home, and I will; but I will return with other men and attack the Napier tribes." After much persuasion Colonel Whitmore got him to promise that he would not interfere with the Napier men ; but nothing could persuade him to fight again with those men of his own tribe who had deserted him. Such being the case, a steamer was placed at his disposal in order that he might make the voyage and return as soon as possible. After Eapata had left Colonel Whitnaore sent out a skirmishing party to ascertain whether the enemy re- tained their position. The scouts returned with the news that there were great fires on the crest of the hill, and they believed that the Hau-Haus were burning their huts preparatory to returning into the interior. Colonel Whitmore believed the report, and considering that the Hau-Haus would leave the neighborhood of the settle- ment altogether, he ordered the constabulary to march down to the coast again as soon as possible and re-embark there, as their presence was urgently required in the north of the province of Wellington, which had been left open to the attack of->the enemy there by their with- drawal. Fortunately before they re-embarked Te Kooti showed his hand. He had no idea of retreating from his posi- tion, and the fires were caused by the clearing off of the scrub which had afforded shelter to Eapata's force. No sooner did he hear that Colonel Whitmore had marched away than he sent a party down against one of the out- lying settlements, where they murdered Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Wylie's son,_and a friendly native. Colonel Whit- more, on receiving news of the raid, marched rapidly to cut off the retreat of the Hau-Haus; but they managed to evade him and to retire to their main body. MAORI AND 8ETTLSR. 291 On the 27th of December Colonel "Whitmore's force occupied a high ridge a mile distant from Te Kooti's position. Here the colonel received news that Rapata had just landed with three hundred and seventy men, and messenger after messenger was sent down urging him to hurry up. The chief, who was .seriously ill, was much annoyed by these messages, especially by the last, that if he did not come soon Whitmore would take the place without him. Rapata replied: "Very well, I have tried and failed ; it is his turn now, " and immediately ordered his men to camp for the day. The next morning Colonel Whitmore came down him- self, Laving been advised that the only way to succeed with Rapata was to treat him in a conciliatory way. The chief's first words were, "Have you taken the place?" "No," Colonel Whitmore replied. "I am waiting for you, Rapata." "Very good," Rapata said; "I will be with you to- morrow morning. " The Ngatiporou performed a great war-dance, and as no one stumbled or fell they consid- ered the omen to be good one, and marched on and joined Colonel Whitmore's force that night. 292 MAORI AND SETTLER, CHAPTER XVII. BACK AT THE FABM. THE position of the Hau-Haus was naturally a very strong one, being at the top of a high conical peak rising abruptly from low bush-covered hills to a height of two thousand feet. On the face, which had been before at- tacked, the ground sloped gradually up to the summit, but on the right and left the slope was very steep, and at one point there had been a landslip leaving a perpendic- ular face twenty feet high, and below that, for fifty feet, it was so steep that it was difficult to get a footing. The ground in rear of the position narrowed into a razor- backed ridge down which a track led, with rope ladders to aid the descent of the rock terraces. The position in front, where alone it could be attacked was defended by three lines of earthworks with high parapets, and with ditches in front abutting at either end on the steep slopes. The two lower works were seven feet high, the upper work was nearly fourteen feet high, with sandbag loopholes to enable the defenders to fire through. Each line was connected with the one above it by covered ways. Operations commenced by the ad- vance of the Arawa division of the constabulary, and a portion of the Ngatiporou under Kapata. Advancing quietly and cautiously they came upon a party of the enemy engaged in carrying up water. They drove them up to the pah and took possession of the only water available. MAOttT AND SETTLER. 293 Bifle-pits were now dug and pushed forward gradually until within a hundred yards of the enemy's first lines of defense. Number seven division of the constabulary were now sent up, and these threw up a long line of trenches parallel to the enemy's works; and the artillery- men having with great exertion brought up a mortar, a vertical shell-fire was opened upon the enemy's position with great effect ; although to get them to the spot these shells had to be carried on the men's backs for three miles over some terrific ravines. A hundred constabulary tinder Colonel Fraser and a hundred Ngatiporou were sent round to cut off the enemy's retreat in rear. An- other division of constabulary under Major Roberts con- nected the two parties, and thus all escape of the enemy was cut off, with the exception of the small piece of cliff, seventy yards in length, which was believed impossible to descend, and was moreover exposed to a flanking fire from Rapata's force in front and that of Colonel Fraser in the rear. For some days heavy firing went on, and the hardships suffered by the force were great, for the rain fell without intermission. There were many casualties on both sides. Captain Brown of the constabulary was killed, and Cap- tain Cabel of the same corps severely wounded. Colonel Fraser 's men pushed up the ridge in the enemy's rear, and formed rifle-pits near the summit from which the Hau-Haus made desperate but vain attempts to repel them. On the 4th of January Rapata, after consultation with Colonel "Whitmore, determined to storm the lower line of earthworks. He told off fifty picked men, and sent them round with instructions to scale the cliffs at the point where the parapet ended. The work was a dangerous and difficult one, for the cliff was very steep and gravelly, and the Hau-Haus crowded to the end of 294 MAORI AND SETTLER. the trench and fired down, wounding five of the stormers. But to do this they had to expose themselves, and suffered severely from the fire of the men told off to cover the at- tack. Finally the Ngatiporou succeeded in climbing up under the outer face of the parapet, which they cut through with their spades, and opening a raking fire upon the Hau-Haus drove them out and took possession of the first line of defense. All night a sap was carried upward toward the second line, with the intention of blowing up the earthworks and storming the main works next morning, and two hundred picked men were assembled in the trenches ready to attack at daybreak. But at two o'clock in the morning a woman cried out from within the pah that the Hau-Haus had all left, leaving only some wounded men and women and children. Her words were not at first believed, and they were considered to be only a ruse to induce the assailants to advance up the hill under the enemy's fire But at daybreak it was found that the news was true, that the whole of the Hau-Haus had es- caped, by means of ropes, down the face of the perpendic- ular cliff. Kapata with his men started in pursuit. He followed the Hau-Hau trail for some distance, and then scattered his men in small parties as he guessed that the enemy would scatter in search of food. A hundred and twenty of the Hau-Haus were overtaken and killed, and Bapata returned after an absence of two days. By this time the whites and constabulary had left, as the work had now been done and the constabulary were urgently needed elsewhere. Bapata marched back by a circuitous way, captured eighty more prisoners, men, women and chil- dren, whom he brought alive down into the settlement. Te Kooti had lost altogether during the siege and pursuit MAORI AND SETTLER. 295 a hundred and fifty of his men, but he was still believed in by the natives, three tribes joining him at once, more than making up for the loss he had suffered. Mr. Atherton and the other volunteers with Colonel Whitmore's force had taken but small share in the second attack upon Te Kooti's position, not being attached to any regular force. Rapata had been greatly struck with the coolness of Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid in his first at- tack, and astonished at the accuracy of their shooting, and had greeted them very heartily on his return, and invited them to act with his force. They had, therefore, during the siege taken up their position in some rifle-pits in the rear of his party, and from here had done great service to the Ngatiporou by covering them from the enemy's fire, for the Hau-Haus soon learned that it was almost certain death to stand up to take a steady aim above the parapet. After the defeat of the Hau-Haus many of the natives of Poverty Bay who had joined Te Kooti, and taken a prominent part in the massacres, deserted him, and calmly returned to the settlement as if nothing had taken place", and the authorities allowed them to remain unmo- lested. The settlers, justly indignant that men who had BO lately murdered women and children should be allowed to come down among them with impunity, formed them- selves into a vigilance committee, and some of them who had lost relatives in the massacre bound themselves by oath to shoot the next party of ruffians who made their appearance. An opportunity soon offered. A native who had as- sisted in murdering Mr. Wylie's son came in, and was shot by Mr. Benson. The following morning, to his as- tonishment, Benson was warned to attend as juryman at the inquest of his victim. In vain he assured the native 296 MAORI AND hETTLER. constable that he was the man who had done the deed, and that he ought not therefore to sit. The constable refused to entertain the excuse, and so Benson not only sat on his own trial, but gave evidence against himself, and the jury, among whom was Mr. Atherton, having heard his statement, brought in the following verdict: "We find that the deceased was shot by some person un- known, and served him right." The day after this verdict was returned Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid, who had been waiting ten days for a coast- ing craft, sailed for the Mohaka river, and, landing at Mr. Mitford's, borrowed two horses from him, and were soon at The Glade. "lam afraid I am heavy on a horse still, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said as they started, "but this animal may be thankful that I did not ride him the last time I was here. I calculate I must be at least four stone lighter than I was. ' ' " You certainly have lost a good deal of flesh, Mr. Atherton. I almost wonder that you did not continue with our friend Eapata. He declares that, he will follow up Te Kooti till he catches him if it takes him a couple of years." "No, no, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton laughed, "it is pos- sible to have too much of a good thing. I might jog along with a colonial force well enough and benefit by it, but Bapata and his men would kill me in a week. I do not think those fellows know what it is to be tired. No, I am very well contented, and I intend to do no end of work in the woods and keep myself down to my present weight. There is an immense deal to be done in the way of botanizing. I have already found twelve new sorts of ferns, and I have only just begun, and have not even looked at the orchids yet or the mosses." Maori. " I AM AFRAID I AM HEAVY ON A HORSE STILL, WILFRID." Page 296. 297 "I should have thought, Mr. Atherton, that it would have been well worth your while to go in for collecting and sending home rare and new plants, instead of merely drying specimens for your herbarium. I know new orchids fetch a tremendous price, because a gentleman near us at home had a large house full of them, and I know he used to pay what seemed to me prodigious prices for little scraps of plants not a bit more beautiful than the others, simply because they were rare." "The idea is a very good one, Wilfrid, and I will think it over. I have never gone in for collecting in that way, for my income has been amply sufficient for my wants, but there can be no doubt that in these days, when peo- ple are ready to give such large sums for rare plants, a botanist like myself might make a really good thing of it out here. The woods are literally crowded with rare plants, and it would add to the interest of my excursions. As it is now I simply look for new species, and even here these are hard to discover; but if I took to getting rare specimens for sending home, there would be an unlimited field of work for me. Of course the difficulty is getting them home alive, for in a country like this, where there is practically no winter, they are never in an entirely quiescent state, and would require the most careful pack- ing in cases specially constructed for them, and would need attention on the voyage. Still all this might be managed, and a steward might be paid well to take them under his charge. "Well, I will think jit over, Wilfrid. Your idea cer- tainly seems a good one, and if it pays the great horticul- turalists to send out skilled men to collect plants for them from all parts of the world, it should certainly pay me, who am living in the center of one of the most varied groups of vegetation in the world, to send home con- signments. ' ' 298 MAORI AND SETTLER. Ten minutes later they rode into the clearing. A loud . whoop of welcome was heard as they appeared, and Jack came tearing down from the house to meet them. A moment later Marion appeared at the door, and she too came flying toward them. Mr. and Mrs. Eenshaw also appeared on the veranda. "I need not ask you how you are, my boy," Mr. Een- shaw said as Wilfrid, who had leaped from his horse as Marion ran up, hastened forward with her to the house. "Your mother has told us so much about your illness that I hardly anticipated seeing you looking a picture of health. Mr. Atherton, I am delighted to see you. My wife has told me how much we all owe to you both for your care of Wilfrid and for having brought him and my wife safely out of tho hands of the natives." "I am very glad that I was able to be of some little service, Mr. Renshaw. It is quite as pleasant, you know, to be able to aid as it is to be aided, so w r e will look upon the obligation as mutual. Wilfrid has invited me to take up my quarters here for a day or two until my shanty is put in order again." "It would be a pleasure to us if you would take up your abode here permanently," Mr. Eenshaw said as Mr. Atherton dismounted from his horse and the two men wrung each other's hands warmly. "Jack, take the two horses round to the shed. And now come in. Fortu- nately dinner is just ready, and I have no doubt you are ready too." Wilfrid was struck with the change that had come over his father sinse he had been away. He looked bet- ter and stronger than he had ever seen him before, and spoke with a firmness and decision quite new to him. Mr. Eenshaw, finding the whole responsibility of the farm upon his shoulders, had been obliged to put aside MAORI AND SETTLER. 399 his books and to throw himself into the business with vigor. At first the unusual exertion involved by being out all day looking after things had tried him a good deal, but he had gained strength as h* went on, and had even come to like the work. The thought that his wife and Wilfrid would be pleased to find everything going on well had strengthened Ljm in his determination to stick to it, and Marion had, as far as the housework allowed her, been his companion when about the farm, and had done her best to make the evenings cheerful and pleasant. They had had a terribly anxious time of it during the week between the arrival of the news of the massacre at Poverty Bay and Mrs. Eenshaw's return; but after that their life had gone on quietly, although until the news of the capture of Te Kooti's fortress had arrived, they had naturally been anxious about Wilfrid's safety. "You are looking wonderfully well and sunburned, father," the lad said as they sat at dinner. "Your father has been out from morning until night, Wilfrid, managing the farm," Mr. Renshaw said with a glad smile, "and I do think the exercise has done him a great deal of good. " "I am sure it has, mother," Wilfrid agreed. "I am afraid the book has not made much progress, father, since I have been awaj\ " "It has made no progress at all, Wilfrid, and I do not suppose it ever will. Science is all very well when a man can afford to make it his hobby, but I have come to the concluson that a man has no right to ride a hobby while his family have to work to make a living." "But we were all glad to work, father," Wilfrid said. "And now I am back again there is no reason why you should not return to your work. " 300 MAORI AND SETTLER. "No, "Wilfrid. I have been selfish a great deal too long, and indeed, now that I have broken myself into an active life out of doors, I have at present, at any rate, no inclination to take to the pen again. I feel better than I have done for years, and am astonished myself at the work I can get through. As to my appetite, I eat twice as much as I used to, and really enjoy my food. Since the day we heard of the failure of the bank the burden has all been on your shoulders, Wilfrid and your mother's. I am going to take my share of it in the future. As to the book, some one else must write it. I do not suppose it would ever have really paid. I almost wonder now how I could have thought that I out here could have derived any satisfaction from knowing that my work was praised by scientific men at home ; beside, to do it properly a man must live among the natives, must travel all over the island and gather the traditions current in every tribe. That I could not do, and if I could have no inclination for it. I have been thinking that I shall ask Mr. Atherton to teach me a little botany, so that I can enjoy a little more intelligently than I can now do the wonders of our forests " "That I will gladly do, Mr. Renshaw. I am sure it would add greatly to the enjoyment of your life here to become acquainted with the secrets of the marvelous vegetation around. It is extraordinary to me that men should be content to remain in ignorance of the names of even the principal trees and shrubs that meet their eye at every turn. There is not one settler in a hundred can tell you the names of a score of trees in the island. While I have been away I have tried to get the native names of many of the trees that are mostly to be met with, and only in one or two cases could I get any infor- mation, although some of the settlers have been living for years among them. ' ' MAORI AND SETTLER. 301 "And now, Mr. Atherton, about what I was saying just now, do not you think it would be more pleasant for you to erect a fresh hut close to ours instead of living by yourself away in the woods? It would be a great pleas- ure to all of us to have you with us. Your society would brighten our life here. We should have the assistance of your rifle in case the natives broke out again. You would, of course, live with us, but you would have your own hut to retire to when you liked to be alone. What do you say?" "I say that it is a very kind offer, Mr. Renshaw, and it would certainly be very much more pleasant for me than living out there by myself at the mercy of a native cook. On the condition that you will allow me to pay my share of the expenses of housekeeping I will gladly accept your offer." "The expenses of housekeeping are next to nothing, Mr. Atherton," Mrs. Renshaw laughed; "but if you make it a condition we must of course agree to your terms, and you shall be permitted to pay your quota to the expenses of the establishment ; but I warn you that the amount will not be a heavy one." "Heavy or light, I shall be glad to pay it, Mrs. Ren- shaw. The arrangement would be a delightful one for me, for although as a traveler I have necessarily been much alone, I am a gregarious animal, and fond of the company of mankind." And so tw# days later a party of natives were set to work, and a hut was erected for Mr. Atherton twenty yards away from the house, and was soon fitted up as his other had been. Wilfrid had at once taken up his own work at the farm, but was now his father's right hand, instead of having as before everything on his shoulders. The natives in the neighborhood had now settled down 302 MAORI AND SETTLER. again. From time to time news came that showed that the Hau-Hau rebellion was almost crushed. Colonel Whitmore, having finally completely subdued the Hau- Hau tribes in the north of Wellington and Taranaki, had marched with a strong force divided into four columns and severely punished all the tribes that had joined Te Kooti in the northeastern part of the island. Te Kooti himself, after perpetrating several other massacres of settlers, was a fugitive, hotly hunted by Rapata, who gave him no rest, surprising him several times, and ex- terminating the last remnants of the band who had escaped with him from the Chatham Islands. Te Kooti himself was now believed to be hiding somewhere in the Waikato country; but he was no longer dangerous, his schemes had utterly failed, his pretensions had even in the native eyes been altogether discredited, and all who had adhered to him had either been killed or punished by the destruction of their villages and clearings.. There was not the slightest chance that he would ever again trouble the community. The settlement on the Mohaka river had grown, and in six months after Wilfrid's return the whole of the land lying between the Allen farm and Mr. Mitford's was taken up, and two or three families had settled beyond Mr. Atherton's holding. At The Glade everything went on prosperously the animals multiplied, the crops w.ere excellent, and, owing to the many settlers arriving and requiring food until they could raise it for themselves, much better prices were obtained for the produce, and it was no longer necessary to ship it to Napier or Welling- ton. Although Mr. Atherton had not gone through any such fatigues as those that he had endured at Poverty Bay he had continued steadily to decrease in weight. MAORI AND SETTLER. 303 Feeling nimself so much lighter and more aoiive on the return from the expedition, he had continued to stick to long and regular exercise, and was out every day, with a native to carry his tin collecting boxes, his presses, ax, and trowel, from breakfast-time until dark. As he stead- ily refused to take any food with him, and fasted from breakfast-time till supper, the prolonged exercise in the close heat of the woods did its work rapidly, and at the end of a year from the date of his taking up his abode at The Glade he could no longer be called a stout man, and newcomers looked with admiration at his broad shoulders and powerful figure. "When I first came to New Zealand," he said, "I thought it probable that I should only stay here a few weeks, or at most a few months, and I had a strong doubt whether it would repay my trouble in coming out here. Now I am sure that it was the very best step I ever took. I weighed the other day at Mitford's, and I did not turn eighteen stone, which is nothing out of the way for a man of my height and size. Last time I weighed I pulled down twenty-six. When I go back to England I shall stick to my two meals a day, and go in regularly for racquets and horse exercise." "And when is that going to be, Mr. Atherton?" Wil- frid asked. "I have not settled yet, Wilfrid. I have been longer stationary here than I have been in any place since I left college. Occasionally I get a fit of longing to be back in London again, but it seldom lasts long. How- ever, I suppose I shall yield to it one of these days." ''You are doing very well here, Mr. Atherton. You said only the other day that your consignment of plants had sold wonderfully, and that you expected to make nearly a thousand pounds this year." 304 MAORI AND SETTLES. "That is true enough, Wilfrid; but you see, unfor- tunately or fortunately, whichever way you like to put it, the thousand pounds are of no importance to me one way or the other. I am really what is generally considered to be a rich man, and from the day I left England, now just two years ago, my income has been simply accumu- lating, for bevond the two or three pounds a month your mother lets me pay her I spend absolutely nothing." "It must be very dull for yoi; here, Mr. Atherton, accustomed as you have been to be always either travel- ing or in London, to be cut off from the world with only just our society, and that of the Aliens and Mitfords, and two or three neighbors." "I do not look dull, do I, Mrs. Benshaw?" Mr. Ather- ton laughed. "No; I have never seen you dull since I knew you, Mr. Atherton, not even when you were toiling, exhausted and worn out with that child on your shoulders and the weight of the helpless man on your arms. We shall miss you awfully when you do go; shall we not Marion?" Marion was now nineteen, and had developed, as Wilfrid told her in some surprise for brothers seldom think their sisters good-looking into a very pretty girl. "It is not coming just yet," Mr. Atherton said; "but I have, I think, pretty well exhausted the forest for a distance of fifty miles round, and now that things are settling down I shall take more extensive trips to the mountains in the northeast and the Waikato country, and the strip of land lying north of Auckland. I have toever been absent above two or three days at a time; but in future I may be away for weeks. But this will always be my headquarters, Mrs. Benshaw. You see, your hus- band is becoming a formidable rival of mine here, so I must be off to pastures new." MAORI AND SETTLER. 305 "You know he did not want to send things home, Mr. Atherton. It was only because you insisted that he did so." "I am very glad that I did insist, Mrs. Renshaw. As you know, I only went into the trade of plants to give me something to do on my rambles beside looking for new species; but I am sure it has been a capital thing for him. He has always been accustomed to use his brain, and although he now takes a lively interest in farm work, he would in time have found a certain void if he had not taken up this new hobby. As it is, it gives him plenty of outdoor work, and is not only interesting, but pays well; and now that he is thoroughly acquainted with the botany of this part of the island, and knows which things are worth sending home, and the price he can depend upon getting for them he will make a far larger income out of it than he could do from farming. Wilfrid will be quite capable of looking after the interests of the farm." Another year passed. The clearings at The Glade had been greatly enlarged; but clumps of bush had been judiciously left so as to preserve its sylvan appearance, the long operation of fencing in the whole property had been accomplished, and the number of horses, cattle, and sheep had so increased that the greater part were now sent to graze on Maori land, a small rate per head being paid to the natives. Mr. Atherton had come and gone many times, and had now almost completed his study of the botany of the island. Mr. Renshaw had altogether abandoned the management of the farm to Wilfrid, and devoted himself entirely to the collection of ferns, orchids, and other plants, receiving handsome checks in return for the consignment sent to England by each vessel that sailed from Wellington or Napier. He had 306 MAORI AND SETTLER. agents at each of these towns, who made arrangements with the stewards of the ships for taking care of the plants on their way home, their remuneration being de- pendent upon the state in which the consignment arrived in England. Settlers were now established on both sides of the river for miles above The Glade, and as among these weie sev- eral who had been officers in the army, or professional men who had come out for the benefit of their families, there was now" much cheerful society, and The Glade occupied the same leading position in that part of the settlement that Mr. Mitford's had done on the lower river when they first arrived. James Allen had now been a year married to the eldest of the Miss Mitfords. His brother had been decidedly refused by Marion when he proposed to her, much to the surprise of her father and mother, who had seen from the frequent visits of their neighbor during the past year how things were going with him, while Wilfrid had been quite indignant at her rejection of his friend. " Girls ere extraordinary creatures," he said to his Bister. "I had quite made up my mind for the last six months that you and Bob were going to make a match of it, and thought w y hat a jolly thing it would be to have you settled next to us. I am sure I do not know what you want more. You have known him for three years. He is as steady as possible, and safe to get on well, and as nice a fellow as I know." "He is all that, Wilfrid, but you see I don't want to marry him. I like him very much in the same way you like him, but I don't like him well enough for that." "Oh, I suppose you want a wandering prince in dis- guise," Wilfrid grumbled. "That is the way with girls; they always want something that they cannot get." MAORI AND SETTLER 307 "My dear Wilfrid/' Marion said with spirit, "when I take to lecturing you as to whom you are to marry it will be quite time for you take to lecturing ine ; but until I do I cannot allow that you have any right in the matter." It was seldom indeed that brother and sister differed in opinion about anything, and seeing a tear in Marion's eye Wilfrid at once gave in and admitted himself to be wrong. "Of course it is no business of mine, Marion, and I beg your pardon. I am sure I shall not wish for a mo- ment that you should marry any one but the man that you choose for yourself. I should certainly have liked you to have married Bob Allen, but if you do not fancy him of course there is an end of it. ' ' This was not the only offer that Marion had received during the year, for there were several young settlers who would have been glad to have installed her as the mis- tress of their homesteads ; but they had each met with the same fate that had now befallen Bob Allen. The next time Mr. Atherton came back he said, "I have taken my last ramble and gathered my last plant." "What! are you going home?" Mrs. Renshaw ex- claimed. "Yes, I am going home," he said more seriously than he usually spoke. "I have been away three years now, and have pretty thoroughly ransacked the island. I have discovered nearly eighty new species of plants and two or three entirely new families, so I have done enough for honor ; beside, I am wanted at home. An old aunt has died and left me a considerable sum of money, just be- cause I had plenty of my own before, I suppose. It is another instance of female perversity. So I have had a letter from my solicitor saying that I am really wanted ; but in any case I should have gone now or in another 308 MAORI AND SETTLER. month or two. I begin to feel that I have had enough of wandering, and at thirty~eight it is time to settle down if you are ever going to do so." There was a silence round the table as he ceased speak- ing, for all felt that the loss would be a serious one, and although Mr. Atherton had tried to speak lightly they could see that he too felt the approaching end of their close friendship. "Are you going to start at once?" Mr. Eenshaw asked. "No, I shall give myself a fortnight or three weeks before I sail. I have all the plants I gathered this time to dry and prepare properly; beside, I should like a quiet stay with you before I say good-by. You see, I have not seen much of you during the last year." Nothing further was said on the subject, which none of them liked to touch on. For the next two days the house seemed strangely quiet. "By the way, what has become of young Allen?" Mr. Atherton said at dinner on the third day. "You told me every one was well, so I suppose he is away from home, as I have not seen him since I came, and he used to be a very regular visitor." There was a momentary silence and then Mrs. Renshaw said : "I do not think he is away from home, though he may be, for he was talking the other day of looking out for a fresh piece of land for himself. Now that his brother is married I suppose it is only natural that he should think of setting up for himself. The farm is of course their joint property, but I suppose they will make some arrangement for his brother to take over his share." "Naturally," Mr. Atherton agreed, "young Allen would not care about remaining now that his brother is married. When one of two partners marries it generally breaks up the partnership, and beside, he will of course MAORI AND BETTLER. 309 1)8 "wanting to have a place of his own, and the holding is not large enough to divide." After dinner Wilfrid strolled out with Mr. Atherton. "I dare say you saw, Mr. Atherton, that your question about Bob Allen fell rather as a bombshell among us. There is no reason why you, who are a great friend, should not know the truth. Th fact is, to my astonish- ment, Marion has thought proper to refuse Bob Allen. I was never more surprised in my life. I had always looked upon it as certain that she would accept him, especially as she has refused three or four good offers this year. One never can understand girls." Mr. Atherton was silent for a minute or two. Then he said : "I thought too, Wilfrid, that it would have come off. I have always thought so. Well, well." Then after a pause he went on: "I had intended to go over in the morning to see him. I like the lad, and had an idea of offering to advance him a sum of money to set up in a place of his own without loss of time. Then the young couple would have had a fair start in life without having to wait two or three years or to go through the rough work at the first start in a settler's life. The money would of course have been nothing to me, and it would have been satisfactory to have lent a helping hand toward seeing your sister married and happy. And so she has refused him. Well, I will take a turn by myself, Wilfrid." And to the young fellows surprise Mr. Atherton turned off and started at a brisk pace up the glade. "He is evidently as vexed at Marion's throwing over Bob Allen as I am," Wilfrid said to himself, as he looked after him. "I wish he would give her a good talking to, she would think more of his opinion than she does of mine. 310 MAORI AND SETTLER. CHAPTEE XVIII. IN ENGLAND. "I SUPPOSE you have not settled yet as to what ship you will return by, Atherton?" Mr. Eenshaw asked as the party were gathered in the veranda in the evening. "No, " Mr. Atherton replied, absently watching the smoke of his cigar as it curled up, "nothing is at all set- tled; nay plans seem to be quite vague now." "What do you mean, Mr. Atherton?" Mrs. Renshaw asked in surprise, for Mr. Atherton's plans were gener- ally mapped out very decidedly. "How is it that your plans are vague? I thought you said two days ago that you should go down to Wellington about the 20th." "I did not mean to say that they were vague, Mrs. Renshaw; did I really say so?" "Why, of course you did," Mrs. Renshaw said; "and it is not often that you are vague about anything." "That shows that you do not understand my character, Mrs. Renshaw," Mr. Atherton said in his usual careless manner. "I am the vaguest of men a child of chance, a leaf blown before the wind." Wilfrid laughed. "It would have taken a very strong wind when we first knew you." "I am speaking metaphorically, Wilfrid. I am at London, and the idea occurs to me to start for the Amazon and botanize there for a few months. I pack up and start the next morning. I get there and do not like the place, and say to myself it is too hot here, let me MAORI AND SETTLER. 311 Study the Arctic flora at Spitzbergen. If I act upon an idea promptly, well and good, but if I allow any time to elapse between the idea striking me and my carrying the thing into execution, there is never any saying whether I may not go off in an entirely different groove during the interval." "And is there any chance of your going off in any other groove now, Atherton?" Mr. Renshaw asked. "No, I think not; just a Jemote possibility perhaps, but not more than that. It is so indefinitely small, in- deed, that you may yes, I think you may safely calcu- late upon my starting on the day I said, or if I find a ship at Wellington going on a trading excursion among the islands, or up to the strait, or to Japau, I may likely enough take a passage in her." "But I thought you said that your business required you to be at home, Mr. Atherton?" "Yes, I suppose that is so, "Wilfrid ; but I dare say my solicitor would manage it just as well if I did not turn up. Solicitors are people who, as far as I can see, con- sider it their duty to bother you, but if they find that you pay no attention to their letters they manage some- how or other to get on very well without you. I believe they go into a court and make affidavits, and get an order authorizing them to sign for you. I do not know how it generally is done, but that is my experience of them so far." Marion had said little that evening, and had indeed been very quiet for the last few days. She was some- what indignant at Wilfrid's interference in what she con- sidered her affairs, and felt that although her father and mother had said nothing, they too were somewhat disap- pointed, and would have been glad had she accepted Bob Allen. Beside she had reasons of her own for being out 312 MAORI AND SETTLER of spirits. After breakfast the next morning Mr. Ather* ton said: "Marion, when you have finished your domes- tic duties and can be spared, suppose you put on your hat and come for a ramble \vith me." There was nothing unusual in the request, for the girl often accompanied him in his rambles when he was not going far into the forest. "I shall be ready in half an hour, if your highness can wait so long." "I am in no hurry, child, and will smoke a pipe on the veranda until you are ready. ' ' Marion always enjoyed these walks with Mr. Atherton. He was at all times a pleasant companion, and when alone with her always exerted himself to amuse her, though he sometimes vexed her by talking to her as if she were a child. To-day he was muoh more silent than usual, and more than once she looked up in wonder at his face as he walked along puffing at his pipe, with his hands deep in his jacket pockets and his eyes bent on the ground. "A penny for your thoughts, Mr. Atherton," she said at last with a laugh. "It seems to me that you would have got on just as well without me." "Well, I was just thinking that I was a fool to ask you to come with me, child." Marion opened her eyes in surprise. "You see, my dear," he went on, "we all make fools of ourselves sometimes. I started in life by making a fool of myself. I fell in love with a woman whom I thought perfection. She was an arrant flirt, and was only amusing herself with me till she hooked a young lord for whom she was angling. That was what sent me roaming for the first time; and, as you know, having once started I have kept it up ever since, that is till I came out here, I had intended to stay six months; MAORI AND SETTLER. 313 t have been here three years. Why have I stopped so long ? Simply, child, because I have again made a fool of myself. I do not think I was conscious of it for the first two years, and it was only when I saw, as I thought, that young Allen would win you, that I recognized that a man of thirty-seven was fool enough to love a child just eighteen years younger than myself. At the same time I was not fool enough to think that I had the small- est chance. I could not stop here and watch another winning you, and at the same time I was so weak that I could not go away altogether ; and so you see I compro- mised matters by going away for weeks and sometimes months at a time, returning with the expectation each time of hearing that it was settled. Now I hear that you have refused him, and just as a drowning man grasps at a straw, I resolved to have my fate absolutely settled be- fore I sail. Don't be afraid of saying 'no,' dear. I have never for a moment looked for any other answer, but I think that I would rather have the 'no' than go away without it, for in after years I might be fool enough to come to think that possibly, just possibly, the answer, had Tasked the question, might have been 'yes.' " He had stopped in his walk when he began to speak, and stood facing Marion, who had not raised her eyas while he was speaking. Then she looked frankly up in his face. "Do you think I did not know," she said softly, "and didn 't you really know too ? You are not so wise a man as I thought you. Why, ever since I have known you it seems to me that that " "That you have loved me, Marion; is it possible?" he said, taking her hand. "Of course it is possible," she said almost pettishly; "how could I help it, I should like to know?" 314 MAORI AND SETTLER. Dinner had been waiting for some time before Mr. Atherton and his companion returned from their ramble. "Twenty minutes late !" Wilfrid shouted as they ap- proached the house; "have you been losing yourselves in the bush?" "I think that it has been just the other way, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said as he came up to the group gathered in the veranda. "How do you mean?" Wilfrid asked. "I mean we have been finding each other." "Finding each other," Wilfrid repeated vaguely. "Why, were you both lost?" "I was, Wilfrid. Mrs. Benshaw, I have found your daughter, and am going, with your permission and that of her father, to keep her. I am a good bit older than she is, but as she says she does not mind that, I hope that you will not, and at least I can promise to do all in my power to make her happy." "I am surprised, Mr. Atherton; surprised and glad too," Mrs. Benshaw said, while Mr. Benshaw grasped Mr. Atherton's hand and shook it heartily. "My dear sir, there is no one in the world to whom I could intrust Marion's happiness so gladly and heartily. I own that it is a surprise to me, as well as to her mother, but we are both delighted at the choice she has made." By this time Marion and her mother had gone indoors together. W T ilfrid had not yet spoken; his surprise was still too great for words. "Well, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said, turning to him, "I hope your disapproval of Marion's conduct on this occasion is not so great as it was when you were talking to me yesterday." "I hardly know what to say yet, you have taken me so MAORI AND SETTLER. 315 by surprise; but I am awfuly glad you know that don't you? There is no one in the world I should like Marion to marry so much, only somehow it never occurred to me." "That is natural enough, Wilfrid. However, now that it has occurred to you, and you approve of it, we must hope that Marion will be restored to your good graces again." "I have been making an ass of myself," Wilfrid said penitently; "but you believe that I am awfully glad, don't you? I was disappointed about Bob, but then, you see, I never thought about you. Why, you must know, Mr. Atherton, what I think of you and how I care for you, and how I look up to you. Somehow it never seemed possible to me that a man like you could fall in love." "And much more improbable still, Wilfrid, that your sister would fall in love with me. I understand you, lad. We have been very close friends for the last three years, haven't we? I have been something like a very big and very old brother to you, and now we are going to be "brothers in earnest;" and their hands closed in a grip that spoke volumes for the sincerity and depth of their feelings. Then Wilfrid ran into the house and threw his arms round his sister. "I have been an awful fool, Marion," he said; "but you see, I never dreamed of this." "And are you really pleased, Wilfrid?" "Pleased! I am delighted. Why, you know, I think he is the finest fellow in the world; and has he not done everything for us, and stood by me and nursed me, and carried me for miles, and saved mother's life and mine? But it never entered my mind that you had fallen in love with each other, ' ' - 316 MAORI AND SETTLER. "I do not know why it shouldn't, Wilfrid. Why shouldn't I think as much of him as you do?" "I do not know, I am sure, Marion; but I confess I never did think of it. Did you, mother?" "Once or twice, "Wilfrid. About a year ago it did cross my mind once or twice, but that was all. They say mothers are keen-sighted as far as their daughters are concerned; but either I am less keen-sighted than mothers in general, or Marion is deeper than other girls." "Well, mother, we shall have lots of time to talk this over, " Wilfrid said. "Dinner has been waiting nearly an hour, and even this wonderful business cannot have taken away all our appetites. Everything is ready; shall'I call them in?" Wilfrid had, however, still a few minutes to wait, for the two men were engaged in earnest conversation outside. When they came in at last Mr. Renshaw kissed his daughter fondly. "God bless you, my child!" he said. "You have made a wise choice indeed, and I am sure that you will be very happy woman." It was a quiet meal, for all were too happy to talk much. After it was over the two men strolled out to- gether and renewed their conversation, and Mr. Eenshaw presently called to his wife to join them. Marion had gone to her room, and Wilfrid was about to start to the other end of the farm when Mr. Atherton called him. "Come and join our consultation, Wilfrid. You are as much concerned in it as any of us, and I rely upon your assistance to bring round these two very obstinate people to my side of the question. I should say our side, for of course Marion is one with me in the matter. You see, I am a rich man, Wilfrid really a rich man, and I natur- ally wish that Marion should be made as happy as possi- ble. I do not think she would be as happy as possible if MAORI AND SETTLER. 317 she were in England with me, with a nice place in the country, and a town-house, and most things that money could bring her, if she knew that her father and mother were out here living a life which, although they have admirably adapted themselves to it, is yet very different to that to which they have been all their lives accustomed. "Now, owing to this absurd freak of my aunt in mak- ing me her heir when my income was already five times as much as I could spend, I have the nuisance of a large landed estate on my hands. There is a large house upon it which I suppose Marion and I will have to occupy occasionally; and there is another house, which is known as the dower house, arid which is a very snug and com- fortable abode. Now, it is quite clear that I am the last sort of a man to look after an estate. It would worry me most out of my mind, and would be a perpetual annoy- ance. "What I propose is that your father and mother shall come home and take possession of the dower house, and that your father should act as my agent. Living on the spot, he would be able to keep an eye on the tenants, receive rents, and that sort of thing, and still be able to devote a considerable portion of his time to his favorite pursuits. I should have the advantage of having an agent I could absolutely rely upon, and Marion and I would have the comfort of having her father and mother close at hand. It would be a little lonely for you for a bit, Wilfrid; but you are nearly nineteen now, and will, unless I am mistaken, ere many years have passed, be bringing a mistress to The Glade. I fancy you go over to Mitford's a good deal oftener than there is any abso- lute occasion for, and although Kate is only sixteen yet, I have a shrewd suspicion that you have both pretty well made up your minds about the future." 318 MAORI AND SETTLER. "Wilfrid colored and laughed. "I don't know that we are as far advanced as that; but I do hope that some day it may be as you say. But about this other affair. "What do my father and mother say? It seems to me it would be a splendid arrangement." "Of course it would, "Wilfrid; a splendid arrangement, for Marion and me especially. That is what I am trying to persuade them ; but your mother has developed quite a new line of obstinacy, and your father is just as bad." "Don't you see, "Wilfrid," Mrs. Renshaw said with tears in her eyes, "it is only an excuse or Mr. Ather- ton's " "Harry, my dear madam, Harry," Mr. Atherton inter- rupted. "We have arranged it is to be Harry in future. " "On Harry's part, " Mrs. Eenshaw went on, "to pro- vide an income for us." "But I have got to provide an income for some one," Mr. Atherton said. "There must be an agent to look after the property for me ; necessarily that agent must have a salary ; and why in the name of good sense should not your husband be that agent as well as any one else?" "But you are offering a great deal too high a salary," Mr. Renshaw urged. "You could get an excellent agent for less than half the sum you are talking about." "Not at all," Mr. Atherton replied; "I must have a gentleman, both for my own sake and that of the ten- ants, and to get a gentleman of high character and per- fectly trustworthy, I must necessarily pay him a good salary- I shall be a good deal in town, and my repre- sentative must therefore be able to occupy a good posi- tion in the county; besides, as I have told you, my in- come now, with this absurd addition, amounts to some- thing like six thousand a year. Why, in the name of goodness, should I not be allowed, if I choose, to pay MAORI ANb SETTLER. 319 two or three hundred a year over market price to my agent -when it will afford my wife the gratification of having her parents near her, and me the pleasure of hav- ing two dear friends as my next neighbors. Beside, The Glade will not be a bit too large for you when you marry, "Wilfrid, and in that case either you will have to start in a fresh place and begin all your work over again, or your father would have to turn out to make room for you. I consider it preposterous. What do you say, "Wilfrid?" "I do think it would be a splendid arrangement, mother," Wilfrid answered. "You know well enough that I shall be very sorry to lose you and father ; but it would be awfully nice for Marion, and I do think that though, as Mr. Athertou says, you and father have fallen in splendidly with your life here, the other would be in every way better suited to you. I can understand your feelings in the matter; but the same time I think that after Mr. Atherton having saved your life and mine, his feelings and wishes should influence you very much." "If you hesitate any longer," Mr. Atherton said, "I shall go in and fetch Marion out. I have not told her about my plan yet, for in fact we had other things to talk about ; but when I tell her, and she adds hei voice to ours, I am sure you will not be able to refuse any longer. ' ' "Mrs. Renshaw exchanged a look with her husband. "It is not necessary," she said in a broken voice. "We accept, Harry." "That is right," Mr. Atherton said as he wrung Mr. Renshaw 's hand warmly, and then affectionately kissed Mrs. Renshaw. "Now we are going to be a very happy and united family. Now, go in and tell Marion." "Tell her yourself," Mrs. Renshaw smiled, wiping her eyes ; and Mr. Atherton took his way to the house. 320 MAORI AND SETTLER. Marion was indeed delighted with the news. The' thought of leaving ber mother and father behind had been the one drawback to her happiness. She had been her mother's right -hand and her father's companion. She had thought how terribly they would miss her, and how, as years went on, they would, far more than now, feel the difference between their present life and that they had formerly led. The news that they would be always near her and settled in a comfortable home filled her with delight. A few minutes after Mr. Atherton entered the house she ran out to her father and mother and threw her arms fondly around them. "Is it not happiness, mother," she cried, "to think that we shall still be together?" "If you are not a happy woman, child, it will be your own fault," her father said. "I consider you a marvel- ously lucky girl." "As if I 'did not know that!" she replied, laughing through her tears. Mr. Atherton did not sail quite as soon as he had in- tended. A church had recently been erected at the cen- tral settlement, and a clergyman established there, and a month after matters were settled between him and Marion their wedding was celebrated, almost every set- tler on the Mohaka being present. The newly-married couple returned to The Glade for a week, Mr. and Mrs. Benshaw and Wilfrid remaining as the guests of Mr. Mitford. At the end of that time they returned, and with Mr. and Mrs. Renshaw sailed for Napier, where they took ship for England. "What would you have done if I had sailed away for England without ever mustering up courage to speak to you, Marion?" Mr. Atherton said as he stood by the bul- wark with her that evening taking their last look at New Zealand. MAORI AND SETTLER. 321 "I should not have let you go, sir," his wife said eaucily ; "didn't I know that you cared for me, and had I not refused all sorts of offers for your sake? I don't know what I should have done, or what I should have said, but I am quite sure I should not have let you go unless I found that I had been making a mistake all along. It would have been ridiculous indeed to have sacrificed the happiness of two lives merely because you had some absurd ideas about your age." "I never thought you cared for me, Marion, never." "That is because you never took the trouble to find out," his wife retorted. "Men are foolish creatures sometimes, even the wisest of them." Marion Atherton's life was one of almost perfect hap- piness. Mr. Atherton entirely gave up his wanderings abroad, and by dint of devotion to racquets and tennis in summer, and of hunting and shooting in winter, he kept down his tendency toward corpulence. He was an ener- getic magistrate, and one of the most popular men in the country- Mr. Eenshaw resumed his former studies in archaeology, but they were now the amusement instead of being the object of his life, and he made an excellent agent to his son-in-law. Standing in the relation he did to Mr. and ^Mrs. Atherton, he and Mrs. Renshaw shared in their popularity, and occupied a good position in the county. Three years after their return to England they re- ceived the news that Kate Mitford had changed her name, and was installed as mistress at The Glade. Every five years Wilfrid and his wife, and as time went on his family, paid a visit to England. He became one of the leading men of the colony. A few years after his mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Mitford had returned to England for good, and James Allen and "Wilfrid succeeded to his 322 MAORI AND SETTLER. business as a trader, and carried it on with energy and success, Mr. Atherton advancing Wilfrid sufficient capi- tal to enable them to extend their business largely. In time The Glade became Wilfrid's summer residence only, the headquarters of the firm being established at Napier. It is now conducted by his sons, he himself having re- turned home with his wife and daughters with a fortune amply sufficient to enable them to live at ease. Marion was pleased when, two years after her arrival in England, she heard from Wilfrid that Bob Allen had married the daughter of an officer settled on the Mohaka. The Grim- stones both did well, and became prosperous farmers. Jack remained in Wilfrid's service until he left the colony, and is now a trusted agent of his sons in their dealings with the natives. TBB Boys' Own Library. BOUND IN CLOTH. A selection of the best books written by the most popular authors for boys. The titles in this splendid series have been selected with care, and as a result all the stories can be relied upon for their excel- lence. They are bright and sparkling, not overburdened with lengthy descriptions, but brimful of adventure from the first page to the last in fact, they are just the kind of stories that appeal strongly to the healthy boy who is fond of thrilling exploits and deeds of heroism. Large Type, Fine Book Paper. Illustrated. Printed Wrappers. Handsome Cloth Binding. Covers stamped in Inks and Gold. These Books are nearly all copyrighted. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. Boys' Own Library. BOUND IN CLOTH. Large Type, Fine Book Paper. Illustrated. Printed Wrappers. A selection of the Best Books for Boys, by the most popular Authors. Handsome Cloth Binding. Covers Stamped in Inks and Gold. THESE BOOKS ABE NEARLY ALL COPYRIGHTED. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. HORATIO ALGER, JR. One of the best known and most popular writers of stories for boys. The following titles are copyrighted and cannot be had in any other cloth edition. Adventures of a Telegraph Boy. Dean Dunham. Five Hundred Dollar Check. From Canal Boy to President. Mark Stan ton. Ned Newton. New York Boy. Tom Brace. Tom Tracy. Walter Griffith. Young Acrobat. C. B ASHLEY. One of the best stories ever written on hunting, trapping and adventure in the West, after the Custer massacre. Gilbert, the Trapper. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Bound lu Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. ANNIE ASHMORE. A splendid story, recording the adventures of a boy with smugglers. Smuggler's Cave, The. CAPT. RALPH BONEHILL. No better stories for boys have ever been written than these two books. Capt. Bone- hill is in the very front rank as an author of boys' stories, and these are two of his best works. Neka, the Boy Conjurer. Tour -of the Zero Club. WALTER F. BURNS. An excellent story of adven- ture in the celebrated Sunk Lauds of Missouri and Arkan- sas. In the Sunk Lands. FRANK H. CONVERSE. Frank H. Converse has es- tablished a splendid reputation as a boys' author. His books are usually published at 51.25 and $1.50. We offer the fol- lowing list, the most complete of any publisher, at the right price. Gold of Flat Top Mountain. Happy-Go-Lucky Jack. Heir to a Million. In Search of an Unknown Race. In Southern Seas. Mystery of a Diamond. That Treasure. Voyage to the Gold Coast. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Bound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. HARRY COLLINGWOOD. An English writer, whose books are usually published in this country at $1.50. He is a very successful writer of boys' stories. This is one of his best works. Pirate Island. GEORGE H. COOMER. Two books that everybody should read. One is a splendid story of adventure at sea, when American ships were in every port in the world, and the other tell a of adventures while the first railway in the Andes Mountains was being built. Boys in the Forecastle. Old Man of the Mountain. WILLIAM DALTON. Three stories by one of the very greatest writers for boys. The stories deal with boys' ad- ventures in India, China and Abyssinia. These books are strongly recommended for boys' reading, as they contain a large amount of historical informa- tion. Tiger Prince. War Tiger. White Elephant. EDWARD S. ELLIS. These books are considered the best works this well-known writer ever produced. The sale is very large and they are al- ways in demand. Arthur Helmuth. Check Number 2134. From Tent to White House. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. i V OWN LIBRARY Continued. liound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. Golden Rock. Land of Mystery. On the Trail of Geronimo. Perils of the Jungle. White Mustang. GEORGE MANVILLE FENN The boys' books by this well- known English author are al- most as popular as Henty's. For the past fifty years Mr. Fenn has been writing books for boys and popular fiction. His books are in demand throughout the English-speak- ing world. We publish the following select list of his boys' books, as we consider them the best he ever wrote. Commodore Junk. Dingo Boys. Golden Magnet. Grand Chaco. In the Wilds of New Mexico. Weathercock. ENSIGN CLARK FITCH, U. S. N. A graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and thoroughly familiar with all naval matters, Mr. Fitch has devoted himself to literature and has written a series of books for boys that every young American should read. His stories are full of very in- teresting information about the Navy, training ships, etc. Bound for Annapolis. Cliff, the Naval Cadet. Cruise of the Training Ship. From Port to Port. Strange Cruise, A. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Bound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. WILLIAM MURRAY GRAY- DON. An author of world-wide popularity, Mr. Graydon is essentially a friend of young people, and we offer herewith eleven of his best works, wherein he relates a great diversity of interesting adven- tures in various parts of the world, combined with accurate historical data. Butcher of Cawnpore, The. Camp in the Snow, The. Campaigning with Braddock. Cryptogram, The. From Lake to Wilderness. In Barracks and Wigwam. In Fort and Prison. Jungles and Traitors. Rajah's Fortress, The. White King of Africa, The. With Boer and Britisher. LIEUT. FREDERICK GAR- RISON, U.S.A. Every American boy takes a keen interest in the affairs of West Point. No more capable writer on this popular subject could be found than Lieut. Garrison, who vividly describes the life, adventures and unique incidents that have occurred in that great institution in these famous West Point stories. Cadet's Honor, A. Off for West Point. On Guard. West Point Treasure, The. West Point Rivals, The. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS* OWN LIBRARY-Continued. Bound In Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. HEADON HILL. The hunt for gold has always been a popular subject for con- sideration, and Mr. Hill has added a splendid story on the subject in this romance of the Klondyke. Spectre Gold. W. H. G. KINGSTON. An extremely popular writer of sea stories for boys, with an occasional ' ' land " story of equal interest. These four books are probably his most entertaining and instructive works. Hendricks, the Hunter. Mark Seaworth's Voyage on the Indian Ocean. Peter Trawl, The Midshipman^ Marmaduke Merry. HENRY HARRISON LEWIS Mr. Lewis is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annap- olis, and has written a great many books for boys. Among his best works are the follow- ing titles. The subjects in- clude a vast series of adven- tures in all parts of the world. The historical data is correct, and these books should be read by all boys, for the excellent information they contain. Centerboard Jim. Ensign Merrill. King of the Island. Midshipman Merrill. Sword and Pen. Valley of Mystery, The. Yankee Boys in Japan. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Hound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. LIEUT. LIONEL LOUNS- BERRY. A series of books embracing many adventures under our famous naval commanders, and with our army during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Founded on sound history, these books are written for boys, with the idea of com- bining pleasure with profit ; to cultivate a fondness for study especially of what has been accomplished by our army and navy. Cadet Kit Carey. Capt. Carey. Kit Carey's Protege. Lieut. Carey's Luck. Out with Commodore Decatur. Randy, the Pilot. Tom Truxton's Ocean Trip, Tom Truxton's School Days. Treasure of the Golden Crater. Won at West Point. BROOKS McCORMICK. Four splendid books of ad- venture on sea and land, by this well-known English writer for boys. Originally published about fifteen years ago, these books are in steady demand to- day. Giant Islanders, The. How He Won. Nature's Young Noblemen. Rival Battalions. WALTER MORRIS. This charming story contains thirty-two chapters of just the sort of school-life that charms the boy readers. Bob Porter at Lakeview Acad- emy. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Bound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. STANLEY NORRIS. Mr. Norris is without a rival as a writer of "Circus Stories " for boys. These four books are full of thrilling ad- ventures, but such as any boy may read of to advantage. Phil, the Showman. Young Showman's Rivals, The . Young Showman's Pluck, The. Young Showman's Triumph, The. OLIVER OPTIC. William Taylor Adams (Oliver Optic) has devoted a lifetime to writing literature for young people and requires no introduction to the reading public. Of the hundred or more stories from his pen, we offer six of the best. All Aboard (Sequel to Club.") ; Boat Boat Club, The. Little by Little. Now or Never. Poor and Proud. Try Again. LIEUT. JAMES K. ORION. When a boy has read one of Lieut. Orton's thrilling books, it requires no urging to induce him to read the others. They are all very interesting stories. Not a dull page in any of them. Beach Boy Joe. Last Chance Mine. Secret Chart, The. Tom Havens with the White Squadron. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York. BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Bound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. JAMES OTIS. Mr. James Otis Kaler is one of the best known American writers of stories for boys. His works are in great de- mand and are issued by a num- ber of publishers. "W e control the following titles. They are the best stories he has written for boys. Chased Through Norway. Inland Waterways. Reuben Green's Adventures at Yale. Unprovoked Mutiny, An. "Wheeling for Fortune. GILBERT PATTEN. The works of Mr. Patten are usuall y published at $ 1 . 50. He has had the distinction of hav- ing his books adopted by the U. S. Government for all naval libraries on board our war ships. We publish what are justly considered his best books for boys. Boy Boomers. Boy Cattle King. Boy from the West. Don Kirk's Mine. Jud and Joe. ST. GEORGE RATHBORNE. Mr. Rathborne's stories for boys have the peculiar charm of dealing with localities and conditions with which he is thoroughly familiar. The scenes of these excellent stories are along the Florida coast and on the western prairies. Canoe and Camp Fire. Chums of the Prairie. Gulf Cruisers, The. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by the publishers, The Federal Book Company, New York, BOYS' OWN LIBRARY Continued. Bound in Cloth. Price, 75 Cents Each, Postpaid. Paddling Under Palmettos. Rival Canoe Boys. Shifting Winds. Sunset Ranch. Young Range Riders. CAPT. MAYNE REID. A good list of boys' books would hardly seem complete vdthont some works of Capt. J.Iayne Reid. We offer here- with one each of his best land and sea stories. Lone Ranch, The. Ran Away to Sea, ARTHUR SEWELL, An American story by an American author. It relates how a Yankee boy overcame many obstacles in school and out. There is nothing of school routine work in this book. It is an entertaining story throughout. Gay Dashleigh's Academy Days CAPT. DAVID SOUTHWICK An exceptionally good story of frontier life among the In- dians in the Far West, during the early settlement period. Jack Wheeler. GORDON STABLES. Mr. Stables has written a number of excellent sea stories for boys, which are replete with interesting incidents and useful information, especially the two offered here. Life at Sea. Young Explorer, The. For sale by aU booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on rpceipt of price i-Sj The Federal Book Company, New York. UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES A 000 1 24 860