on both sides was kept up for a
week, after which two small breaches appeared near one of the corners of
the palisades. The next day was Sunday, which the Maoris thought would
be observed as a day of rest, but the soldiers, creeping cautiously up,
pushed their way through the breaches; a number of the Maoris ran to
arms and fired a volley or two, but before the main body could do
anything several hundred soldiers were in the place. A stout fight took
place, during which thirteen white men were killed. The Maoris, now no
longer under cover, were no match for the soldiers, and they fled,
leaving behind them all the provisions that were to have kept them for
a whole season. This discouraged them, and Heke and Kawiti saw their men
scatter out and join themselves to the quieter tribes for the sake of
food. They therefore wrote to Grey asking peace, and promising to give
no further trouble. Grey agreed, but left 200 soldiers at Kororarika in
order to keep the Maoris of the district in check.

#10. Rauparaha.#--During the eighteen months while Heke's war was going
on, troubles had been brewing at Wellington, where Rauparaha and
Rangihaeata kept up an agitation. The latter declared his enmity; he
plundered and sometimes killed the settlers; and when soldiers were sent
round to keep him in order he surprised and killed some of them. But
Rauparaha pretended to be friendly, though the Governor well knew he was
the ringleader in the mischief. Grey quietly sent a ship, which by night
landed 130 soldiers just in front of Rauparaha's house on the shore.
They seized him sleeping in bed, and he was carried round to Auckland,
where for some months he was kept a prisoner, though allowed to go
about. Rangihaeata fled into the wildly wooded mountain ranges of the
interior. Once or twice he made a stand, but was driven from his rocky
positions, with the slaughter of men on both sides. At last he and his
followers scattered out as fugitives into lonely and savage regions into
which they could not be followed.

Thinking that good roads would do much to keep the country quiet, Grey
offered half a crown a day to Maoris who would work at making roads.
Quite a crowd gathered to the task, and for a while white men and Maoris
toiled happily together, making good carriage roads into the heart of
the country. But at Wanganui, in May, 1847, land disputes roused a tribe
to bloodshed. They killed a white woman and her four little children;
they attac