se wild mountain
regions, and the provisions they had taken from the _Rifleman_ were used
in a few months.

#15. Poverty Bay Massacre.#--Then, roused to madness by hunger, of which
some of them had died, they crept cautiously back to the Poverty Bay
district. Falling at night upon the little village, they slaughtered
men, women, and children, as well as all the quiet Maoris they could
catch. The dawn woke coldly on a silent village, wherein fifty or sixty
bodies lay gashed and mangled in their beds, or at their doors, or upon
their garden paths. An old man and a boy escaped by hiding. After taking
all the provisions out of the place, Te Kooti set fire to the houses and
retreated to the hills, where, on the top of a peak 2,000 feet high, he
had made a pah called Ngatapa, which was defended on every side by
precipices and deep gorges. There was only one narrow approach, and that
had been fortified with immense care. The colonial troops under Colonel
Whitmore, and bodies of friendly Maoris under Ropata, attacked him here.
The work was very difficult, for after climbing those precipitous hills
there were two palisades to be carried, one seven feet high and the
other twelve. But science prevailed. After great exertions and appalling
dangers the place was captured by Ropata, who climbed the cliffs and
gained a corner of the palisades, killing a great number of Te Kooti's
men in the action. During the night the rest escaped from the pah,
sliding from the cliffs by means of ropes. But in the morning they were
chased, and for two days the fugitives were brought back to the pah in
twos and threes. Ropata took it for granted that they were all concerned
in the massacre at Poverty Bay. Each of the captives as he arrived was
stripped, taken to the edge of the cliff, shot dead, and his body thrown
over. About a hundred and twenty were thus slaughtered. But Te Kooti
himself escaped, and for the next two years he lived the life of a
hunted animal, chased through the gloomy forests by the relentless
Ropata. He fought many fights; his twenty Hau Hau followers were often
near to death from starvation; but at length wearied out he threw
himself on the mercy of the white men, was pardoned, sunk into
obscurity, and died in peace.

War was not really at an end till 1871; as up to that date occasional
skirmishes took place. But there never was any fear of a general rising
of the Maoris after 1866.

#16. Progress of New Zealand.#--These