marching, so I shall, like Hal of the Wynd,
fight for my own sword. I daresay I shall be there or there about when
there is any work to be done, but I must get there in my own way and in
my own time. I shall have my own commissariat train. I have had my share
of living on next to nothing, and have become somewhat of an epicure,
and I know that the sort of rations you are likely to get on a march
through a rough country would not suit my constitution. But, as I said
before, I hope if there is any fighting done to be somewhere in the
neighbourhood."

CHAPTER XIV.

FRESH TROUBLES.

Three days later a small steamer arrived from Napier, bringing a reply
to the urgent request that had been sent for the despatch of a body of
constabulary for the protection of the settlers. Sir Donald M'Lean, the
superintendent of the province, sent word that this was impossible at
present, as the alarming news had just been received that the notorious
chief Te Kooti, who had been captured and imprisoned at Chatham Island,
had effected his escape with the whole of the natives confined in the
island, had captured a schooner, and had, it was reported, landed near
Poverty Bay.

"It is probable," Sir Donald wrote, "that it is the news of his landing
which has excited one of the tribes of the neighbourhood to make an
attack upon you. A strong expedition will be fitted out, and we shall
doubtless have to supply a contingent I can only advise you to organize
yourselves into a militia, and to stand for the present on the
defensive. As soon as operations begin from Poverty Bay you will be
relieved from all further danger, as the attention of the hostile
tribes will be fully occupied in that direction."

Hitherto the province of Hawke Bay had been comparatively free from the
troubles that had so long disturbed Auckland, Taranaki, and the northern
portion of Wellington. Only one rising had taken place, and this had
been so promptly crushed that the tribes had since remained perfectly
quiet. In October 1866 a party of a hundred fighting men had suddenly
appeared near the Meanee village. Their principal chief had hitherto
borne a very high character, and had been employed by the government to
improve the mail road between Napier and Taupo. Colonel Whitmore, who
was in command of the colonial forces--for the regular troops had now
been almost entirely withdrawn from the island--had just returned from
punishing some natives who had committed ma