ad eaten dozens of men, and
so many presents were given him that when he came back to Sydney he was
a rich man. He sold everything, however, except his suit of armour, and
with the money he bought 300 muskets and plenty of powder, which he took
with him to New Zealand. Having reached his home he informed his tribe
of the career of conquest he proposed; with these muskets he was going
to destroy every enemy. "There is but one king in England," he said;
"there shall be only one among the Maoris." He soon had a force of a
thousand warriors, whom he embarked on board a fleet of canoes, and took
to the southern shores of the Hauraki Gulf, where the Ngatimaru lived,
ancient enemies of the Ngapuhi, who, however, felt secure in their
numbers and in the strength of their great pah Totara. But Hongi
captured the pah, and slew five hundred of the unfortunate inmates. The
Ngatimaru tribe then retreated south into the valley of the Waikato
River, and summoned their men and all their friends; a total of over
three thousand were arrayed on that fatal battle-field. Hongi with his
muskets gained a complete victory. He shot the hostile chief with his
own gun, and tearing out his eyes, swallowed them on the field of
battle. Over a thousand were killed, and Hongi and his men feasted on
the spot for some days till three hundred bodies had been eaten. The
victors then returned, bearing in their canoes another thousand
captives, of whom many were slain and cooked to provide a share of the
horrid feast to the women of the tribe.

In his bloodthirsty wars Hongi showed great skill and energy. During the
two following years he defeated, slaughtered, and ate large numbers of
the surrounding tribes, and when a number of these unfortunate people
withdrew to a pah of enormous strength, nearly surrounded by a bend of
the Waikato River, he dragged his canoes over to that river, ascended
it, dashed at the steep cliffs, the ditches and palisades, and once more
the muskets won the day. A thousand fell in the fight; then the women
and children were slaughtered in heaps. The strong tribe of the Arawa
further south had their chief pah on an island in the middle of Lake
Rotorua. Hongi with great labour carried his canoes over to the lake.
The spear-armed Maoris could do nothing in defence while he shot at them
from the lake; and when he assaulted the island, though they came down
to the water's edge to repel him, again there was victory for the
muskets. Thus