coast, with a force of 400 men; these were joined by 400
friendly allies under Waka-Nene, whose wife led the tribe in a diabolic
war dance, not a little startling to the British soldiers. The road that
was to lead them to Honi Heke was only a track through a dense forest.
Carts could not be taken, but each man carried biscuits for five days
and thirty rounds of ammunition. Under four days of heavy rain they
trudged along in the dripping pathway, all their biscuits wet and much
of their powder ruined. At last on a little plain, between a lake and a
wooded hill, they saw before them the pah of Honi Heke. Two great rows
of tree trunks stuck upright formed a palisade round it. They were more
than a foot thick, and twelve feet high, and they were so close that
only a gun could be thrust between them. Behind these there was a ditch
in which stood 250 Maoris, who could shoot through the palisades in
security.

The British slept that night without tents round fires of kauri gum, but
next morning all was astir for the attack. A rocket was sent whizzing
over the palisades. It fell and burst among the Maoris, frightening
them greatly, but succeeding discharges were failures, and the Maoris
gathered courage to such an extent that a number under Kawiti came out
to fight. The soldiers lowered their bayonets and charged, driving them
back into the pah. During the night while the white men were smoking
round their fires, the sound of the plaintive evening hymn rising in the
still air from the pah suggested how strong was the hold that the new
faith now had on the Maori mind. Next day Colonel Hulme, seeing that a
place defended on all sides by such a strong palisade could not be
captured without artillery, dug the graves of the fourteen soldiers
killed, and marched back carrying with him thirty-nine wounded men.

[Illustration: STRONGHOLD OF THE MAORIS AT RANGIRIRI.]

There was dismay in Auckland when this news arrived. What could be said
when 400 English soldiers retreated from 250 savages? But, on the other
hand, the Maoris had learnt a lesson. They could not fight against
English bayonets in the open, but while taking aim from behind
palisades they were safe. Therefore they began in different places to
strengthen their fortresses, and Honi Heke added new defences to his pah
of Oheawai, which stood in the forest nineteen miles from the coast.

#7. Oheawai.#--More soldiers were sent from Sydney, and with them, to take
the chief c