War to the Knife 29

War to the Knife 29

Mannering looked with approval at the animated countenance of the

speaker as he said--

 

"Waka Nene and I would have been only too glad to recruit you and a few

more of the same stamp. It was very good fun while it lasted. My friend

Waterton came on as soon as he could get across from Hokianga, and was

in the thick of it. His right-hand man was shot dead within a foot of

him."

 

* * * * *

 

Though ordinarily reserved, Massinger, when abroad, made a point

of conversing with strangers of all callings and both sexes, in an

unstudied fashion, which often produced unexpected gains.

 

He was wont to tell himself that this careless comradeship was like

turning over the leaves of a new book. For is not the mind of any human

creature, could one but catch sight of certain cabalistic characters,

traced deep in the tablets of the inner soul, more exciting, more

amazing, more comic, more terrible, more instructive than any book

that ever left printer's hands? Yet never, at home or abroad, had he

encountered a companion like to this one. A wonderful admixture of the

heroic and social attributes! The reckless courage of a Berserker;

the air of born command which showed itself in every instinctive

motion; the love of danger for its own sake, as yet unslaked by time,

by dangerous adventures over land and sea; the iron constitution which

could endure, even enjoy, the privations of savage life, joined to an

intellect of the highest order; speculative, daring, fully instructed

in the latest results of science and sociology, yet capable of

presenting every subject upon which he touched in a new and original

light; while around the most grave issues and important questions

played a vein of humour, comic or cynical, but irresistibly attractive.

 

Massinger had heard of such personages, but had assuredly never met

one in the flesh before. What might such a man not have become, with

the favouring conditions which encircle some men's lives? A great

general, an admiral, for he was equally at home on land or sea; a

prime minister; an explorer; a pastoral magnate in the wide areas and

desolate waste kingdoms of Australia, where a thousand square miles

wave with luxuriant vegetation during one year, and in the second

following are dust and ashes! To any eminence in the wide realms of

Greater Britain might he not have ascended, surrounded by staunch

friends and devoted admirers, had he chosen to select a career and

follow it up with the unflinching determination for which he was

proverbial! And, thought this Englishman, what had he done? what was

he? A leader of men, certainly--a chief in a savage tribe in a scarce

known island, at the very end of the world, content to live and die far

from the centres of civilization, the home of his race, the refinements

of art, and intellectual contact with his peers. What an existence,

what an end, for one who had doubtless started in life with high hopes

of success and distinction in the full acceptation of the word, of

honourable command and acknowledged eminence!

 

And what had been the clog upon the wheel, the fateful temptation,

the enthralling lure potent to sway so strong, so swift a champion

from the path sacred to his race, leaving him towards the close of

life among shallows and quicksands? What, indeed? mused he, looking

up. And, even as he turned, Erena, fresh from an exploration to

the fords of a flooded stream which barred their path, presented a

living answer to the query. As she stood in the uncertain light which

struggled through the forest glades, her eyes bright with triumph and

her form transfigured with the momentary gleam of the sun-rays, he

could have imagined her a naiad of old Arcadian days, prompt to warn

the hero of the approach of danger. Such must have been her mother

in the springtime of her beauty, in the year when her father, a

youthful Ulysses, appeared as a god newly arisen from the sea before

the Nausicaa of the tribe. It was not given to man to resist the

o'ermastering spell of such a maiden's love. "The oracle has spoken,"

he thought. "Is it a warning, or the knell of fate?"

 

"I have found the bridge," she said, her clear tones ringing out

through the silent woods, joyous with girlish triumph. "It was made in

the old wars, but is still strong. Westward lies the Hokianga."

 

She led the way by a well-worn path which turned at an angle from the

ordinary track.

 

"Here is the bridge!" she said at length, pausing at the bank of a

rushing stream, which, swollen by rain in the mountain ranges, had in

twenty-four hours risen many feet above the ordinary ford. "It is old,

as you can see, but strong and unbroken still. Over this passed the

great tribe of the Ngatimaru when they were fleeing with their women

and children in Hougi's time. I could almost fancy that I see traces of

blood on these great beams still. But it will serve us as well as it

served them. And now we have but to cross these wooded hills and we are

at Maru-noki, my father's home. I welcome you to it in advance."

 

Here they were joined by Mr. Mannering and Warwick, who had been

talking earnestly for some time, probably about the war, and the more

pressing and now inevitable consequences.

 

"I could wish that you had made your appearance last year," said the

former, "when I could have acted as cicerone with leisure and effect.

After being a foe to hurry and bustle all my life, I think it most

unkind of fate to let me in for what I plainly foresee will be a period

of disturbance most unsatisfactory to all concerned."

 

"There is nothing which I should have enjoyed so much," replied

Massinger; "but you will agree with me that this is no time for

_dilettante_ work. I shall always be thankful for the experience I have

had so far, with its unfading memories."

 

"And may I ask what you propose to do when you reach Auckland?"

 

"They were talking of raising a volunteer corps when I left, and----"

 

"They have already raised one," interposed Mannering. "More than that,

the militia have been called out, and proclamation of martial law

made. Te Rangitake's pah was burnt on the 6th; the boundaries of the

Waitara block were surveyed the week after under military protection.

Te Rangitake built another pah on the disputed land, and pulled up

the surveyors' pegs. On the 17th, Colonel Gold attacked the pah with

howitzers, after sending a note by Parris, which the Maoris refused to

read. They returned fire, and wounded three men. Next morning a breach

was made, by which the troops entered, to find the pah empty. They were

two days destroying a fortification put up in one night, and garrisoned

by seventy Maoris!"

 

"A bad start, surely?"

 

"Yes, as tending to give the tribes confidence in their ability to

fight white troops--a dangerous lesson, as the Governor and his

advisers will find out."

 

"Has further fighting followed?"

 

"Unfortunately, yes. Two pahs have been built at Omata, and three

settlers killed south of Taranaki. Te Rangitaka, to do him justice,

warned his men not to make war on unarmed people. A combined force of

militia volunteers, soldiers, and sailors stormed the pah at Omatu. So

it is a very pretty quarrel as it stands."

 

"You have heard this 'from a sure hand,' as they used to say before

post-offices were invented?"

 

"My tidings are only too true, I am sorry to say. And, in spite of the

success of the troops, my opinion is that the war has only commenced.

If the Waikato tribes join, others will be drawn in. It will take

years to subdue them thoroughly--years of vast expenditure of blood

and treasure."

 

"Speaking from your experience of both sides, what would you suggest as

an alternative policy?"

 

"Withdrawing from Waitara promptly. Justice would be done, and a

lasting peace might be secured. The Maoris are now the Queen's

subjects, and should be treated as such. Just now each side has

secured a temporary advantage. With a consistent and impartial policy,

disaffection would cease. By-and-by the natives will sell their land

readily enough; with a minimum price established by the Crown and

proper titles decided by a Land Court, all things would find their

level. No one will object except land speculators and their allies."

 

"Would not the Government act even now upon your representations?"

 

"Hardly. I am afraid that I am in the position of Wisdom crying in the

streets. But, to quit 'the arts of war and peace,' wildly exciting

as the subject is becoming, here is Maru-noki, our lodge in the

wilderness, to which I beg to welcome you heartily."

 

They had been pursuing a winding woodland path, which at last conducted

them to an eminence below which the view, opening out, disclosed a

noble river. Immediately below where they stood, and near a rude but

massive wharf, was a cottage, built bungalow-fashion, with broad

verandahs, surrounded by a palisaded garden, and shaded by those

typically British trees, the "oak, the ash, and the bonny elm tree."

Leafy memorials of the fatherland, they are rarely absent from the

humblest cottage, the lordliest mansion, in Britain's colonies, and

in none do they flourish more luxuriantly than in these isles of the

farthest South.

 

The present home of the Hokianga tribe was on the lower levels,

which, since the cessation of the chronic warfare which desolated

each district from time to time, they had adopted as more convenient.

None the less, however, on a lofty hill-top within easy reach was the

primeval fortress, to which for generations they had been wont nightly

to repair for security, and from which issued to their daily duties the

long trains of chiefs, warriors, women, and slaves. On the opposite

bank of the river were low hills and dunes of drifted sand, while to

the eastward rose two promontories, cloud-like in the misty azure,

between which rose and fell the tides of the unbounded main.

 

Warwick and Erena had gone forward to the cottage, whence a hospitable

smoke presently ascended. Willing handmaids from the kainga were also

in evidence. No time was wasted. The keen air, the day's march, all

tended to superior appetites. In half an hour after Massinger had

been refreshed with a glass of excellent Hollands, and inducted into

a bedroom, furnished chiefly with books, he found himself in the

dining-room before a luncheon-table exceedingly well appointed. The

fish and game, with vegetables and corned pork, were truly excellent.

The bread was extemporized, but, in the shape of hot griddle cakes, was