he Governor's mildness arose from weakness. They resolved to fight. The
Governor sent soldiers to take possession of the land at Taranaki. Te
Waharoa sent word to the Taranaki Maoris to begin shooting, and he would
soon be with them. He was as good as his word, and laid a trap for a
body of English soldiers and killed ten of them.

The Waikatos sent an embassy to all the other tribes, urging them to
join and drive the white men out of the country. Te Waharoa was chosen
to command in a grand attack at Auckland, and for that purpose the
Maoris in two columns moved stealthily through the forest down the
Waikato valley towards the town, threatening to massacre every white man
in it. But General Cameron was there in time to meet them. They fell
back to a line of rifle pits they had formed, and from that shelter did
much damage to the British troops. But at last the Maoris were dislodged
and chased with bayonets up the Waikato, losing fifty of their men. They
had stronger entrenchments farther up, where a thousand men were
encamped with women to cook for them and to make cartridges. So strongly
were they posted that Cameron waited for four months whilst guns and
supplies were being brought up along the roads, which were now good and
well made. By getting round to the side of their camp, and behind it, he
made it necessary for them to fall back again, which they did.

#7. Rangiriri.#--They now made themselves very secure at a place called
Rangiriri, where a narrow road was left between the Waikato River and a
boggy lake. This space they had blocked with a fence of thick trees
twenty feet high, and with two ditches running across the whole length.
In the midst of this strong line they had set up a redoubt, a sort of
square fortress, from the walls of which they could fire down upon the
attackers in any direction. About 500 Maoris well armed took up their
position in this stronghold. Cameron advanced against them with 770 men
and two guns, each throwing shot of forty pounds weight. At the same
time four gunboats with 500 soldiers were sent up the river to take the
Maori position in flank. At half-past four on a July morning the British
bugles sounded the attack, and the fight lasted until the darkness of
night put an end to it. During that fierce day the British charged again
and again, to be met by a murderous fire from behind the palisades and
from the walls of the redoubt. Forty-one soldiers had been killed and
ninety-one w