War to the Knife 44

War to the Knife 44

In the garrison fought all day Henare Taratoa, educated under Bishop

Selwyn at St. John's College before 1853. He tended one of the wounded,

who in his dying agonies thirsted for a drop of water. The Maoris had

none. Taratoa threaded his way through the English sentries in the

darkness, and returned with a calabash of water to slake his enemy's

thirst. More than that. By the side of each wounded Englishman was

found in the morning some small water-vessel, placed there by the

Maoris before they deserted the fort.

 

Colonel Booth was carried out of the pah in the morning. The general

went to him, but the gallant soldier felt the repulse so deeply that he

turned away his face, saying, "General, I can't look at you. I tried to

carry out your orders, but we failed." He died that evening.

 

The tameless islanders were not minded to give up all for lost, even

now. By one great effort they might force back the invader, or possibly

combine the tribes against him. At any rate, in the quasi-victory of

the Gate Pah they had obtained _utu_ for the death of many a warrior,

many a chief. But, even now, the tribes were unbeaten. News came to

Colonel Greer from the Maori allies that yet another pah at Te Ranga

was rising, a few miles from the scene of the recent conflict.

 

Slyde and Warwick, severely though not dangerously wounded, were both

in hospital, precluded from participation in the closing engagement,

which they deeply regretted. Lieutenant Massinger reported missing.

 

"Hard lines," said the former, raising himself with difficulty from his

stretcher, "not to have a throw in at the finish. I feel convinced this

must snuff the beggars out. The colonel will at them before they have

time to do much. Friendlies in great heart. The 43rd die to a man or

wipe out their defeat."

 

"Yes," said Warwick, "I believe their hour is come. How grieved

Massinger will be that he is out of it! However, he may think himself

lucky to escape with his life."

 

"You think he has, then?" said Slyde.

 

"He was all right when I saw him last, waving his sword, shoulder to

shoulder with Von Tempsky, who was doing his best to rally the troops.

Then I went down. Saw nothing more. I had a crack with the butt end of

a tomahawk also. I have no doubt that he is with Mannering's _hapu_,

most likely with Erena looking after him."

 

"In that case he's all right," said Slyde. "Maori women great nurses,

always heard."

 

"They've got a _tohunga_ in the tribe," continued Warwick, "the natives

say, can cure any man that's not actually buried--bring him to life,

they believe. Between him and Erena we'll see him back in Auckland all

right."

 

* * * * *

 

Colonel Greer made no delay at Te Ranga. He marched at once with six

hundred men, enfiladed the enemy from a spur which commanded their

right; drove in their skirmishers and kept up a sharp fire for two

hours. Then, reinforced by a gun and two hundred additional men, the

advance was sounded.

 

Short work was made of the assault. The 43rd and 68th, with the 1st

Waikato, carried the rifle-pits with a rush. For a short space the

natives fought desperately, then turned and fled, leaving sixty-eight

men dead in the rifle-pits. The pursuit was keen. The 43rd avenged

their losses at the Gate Pah. One hundred and ten Maoris were killed,

twenty wounded, and ten made prisoners. Henare Taratoa lay among the

dead. On his body was found a written order of the day. It began with

prayer, and ended with the words, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if

he thirst, give him drink."

 

Three stubbornly contested engagements had broken the Maori power. In

them they lost their bravest warriors and nearly all their leading

chiefs. They had no option but to yield. On the 5th of August the

Governor, Sir George Grey, with General Cameron, met the assembled

tribes. They had previously surrendered their arms to Colonel Greer,

they now surrendered their lands; upon which the Governor promised to

care for them as the Queen's subjects. He would retain _one-fourth_

of their lands as atonement for the rebellion, but would return the

remainder in recognition of their humanity throughout the war.

 

The Waikato tribes had sustained a final and crushing defeat. The

flower of their race lay low, were wounded or in prison. They had

forfeited their port at Tauranga, their most available outlet for

produce. The war was ended.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XIV

 

 

Miss Tollemache had settled down at Oropi to the performance of her

daily duties, and, like Massinger, commenced to discover that New

Zealand was a most interesting, not to say exciting, place of abode.

After completing her portion of the household work, which she gladly

took upon herself in order to spare her friend's failing strength,

she applied herself diligently to the study of the Maori tongue and

the historical records of this newer Britain. The genial climate and

regular exercise acted upon her constitution so favourably that she

soon attained the fullest measure of health and spirits. Never yet had

she felt stronger in mind and body, never yet so eager for opportunity

to devote herself to the good work spread so abundantly before her.

She was rewarded primarily by noting the gradual improvement of Mrs.

Summers' health, and receiving the heartfelt thanks of the Reverend

Cyril, who, between domestic troubles, parochial duties, and a natural

apprehension of danger to his defenceless household, sorely needed aid

and support. Such he found, in addition to intellectual companionship,

in the presence of this high-souled, devoted maiden, whom he did

not hesitate to say the providence of God had sent to them in their

distress. As a school-friend of his wife's, a closer companionship and

more sympathetic intimacy was established than could have been possible

with any other inmate. Would but this wretched war end, and a lasting

peace be established, he felt as if their future lot might be one of

almost unalloyed happiness.

 

As for Hypatia, her fearless, eager spirit, scornful of obstacles and

inglorious ease, rejoiced in the difficulties of the position. After a

laborious day's work, during which she astonished the Maori handmaids

by the energy which she threw into her household tasks, working in

common with them, and eagerly possessing herself of the vernacular, she

pored over Maori grammars and dictionaries with an ardour not inferior

to that which had secured her the unique academical distinctions of her

year. She learned the history, the language, the manners and customs

of the singular people among whom she dwelt, with a rapidity which

astonished Mr. Summers, and caused him to remark to his wife that

he had been wont to consider the scholastic triumphs of her friend

somewhat exaggerated, but was happy now to recant and apologize. Never

before had he seen a woman in whom were allied extraordinary mental

powers with such unflagging industry, steady application with such

brilliant conceptions. Sufficiently rare among men, the combination was

almost unknown, in his experience, among women students.

 

"You have left out her beauty and her simplicity of manner, my dear,"

said his wife, as she smiled up at her husband's earnest face. "You

generally remark these attributes first, you know."

 

"True--most true," he said, relaxing his countenance. "These I had

forgotten. They make the sum-total of high gifts in her case still

more surprising. For the most part beauties are neither clever nor

studious. Nor are the studious women beautiful. Nature, in a fit

of absence of mind, has split the ingredients while fashioning her

favourites, and given Miss Tollemache a double allowance of good looks

with all the talents."

 

"Leaving some poor girl high and dry with neither," said Mrs. Summers.

"You do see that occasionally. Watch her there; she does not look like

the top mathematician of her year."

 

Nor did she, perhaps, to a superficial eye, as she sat outside the

detached building which served as a kitchen, peeling potatoes, or

rather scraping them, native fashion, with a shell; afterwards

placing them in a wooden vessel shaped like a canoe for future

culinary treatment, the while in animated conversation with Miru, a

good-humoured, round-faced native girl, whose peals of laughter were

evoked from time to time by her wonderful Maori sentences.

 

"Yes," said Cyril Summers, "there she sits, suitably dressed, yet

looking like a society girl at a South Kensington cookery class,

perfectly at her ease with Miru, who worships her, and yet doing the

work that is set before her thoroughly and efficiently."

 

"She takes the deepest interest in our converts, too," said Mrs.

Summers. "'One ought to prefer our white heathen, of course,' she said

to me the other day, 'but I must confess they seem to me unutterably

inferior in manners, dignity, and truthfulness to this race. Their

ingrained selfishness and coarseness always revolted me, in spite of my

sense of duty. Now, these people have all the simplicity and directness

of nature. Such courage, too! What tales we hear from the front of

their contempt of danger! They are, or rather have been, cruel; but so

have all nations in the barbaric stage. We don't hear of anything but

straightforward fighting now, and that is easy to understand when one

looks around on this beautiful country.'"

 

"Yes, indeed. I suppose it must have come sooner or later. Yet when you

contrast the old peaceful mode of living--which I used to admire when

we first came here, and were not afraid to visit their kaingas--with

the present, one cannot but grieve. It was the most perfect embodiment

of the fabled Arcadian life that could be imagined. The palisaded

pah, at once a fortress and a town, serving the purpose of the feudal

castle of the Middle Ages, to which the inhabitants retreated in time

of war; the fields and gardens so neatly cultivated, the groups of

women and children, the young men and girls of the tribe, the gossip,

the laughter, the games and exercises, of which they had a great

variety; then our canoe trips on the broad Waikato, or short boat

excursions from the coast settlements;--such pictures of natural rural

contentment, as superior to the ordinary life of common Europeans as can be conceived."