The country round the middle and lower Waikato was now in our hands, and the King natives were driven to the country about its upper waters.  They were not followed.  It was decided to attack the Tauranga tribe, which had been aiding them.  Tauranga lies on the Bay of Plenty, about forty miles to the east of the Waikato.  It was in the campaign which now took place there that there occurred the noted repulse at the Gate Pa.  The Maoris, entrenched on a narrow neck of land between two swamps, were invested by our forces both in the front and rear We were, as usual, immensely the stronger in numbers.  Our officers, non-commissioned officers and drummers by themselves almost equalled the garrison.  After a heavy though not always very accurate bombardment, General Cameron decided to storm the works.  The attacking parties of soldiers and sailors charged well enough and entered the front of the defences, and the Maoris, hopeless and endeavouring to escape, found themselves shut in by the troops in their rear.  Turning, however, with the courage of despair, they flung themselves on the assailants of their front.  These, seized with an extraordinary panic, ran in confusion, breaking from their officers and sweeping away their supports.  The assault was completely repulsed, and was not renewed.  In the night the defenders escaped through the swamps, leaving us the empty pa.  Their loss was slight.  Ours was one hundred and eleven, and amongst the killed were ten good officers.  As a defeat it was worse than Ohaeawai, for that had been solely due to a commander’s error of judgment.

The blow stung the English officers and men deeply, and they speedily avenged it.  Hearing that the Tauranga warriors were entrenching themselves at Te Rangi, Colonel Greer promptly marched thither, caught them before they had completed their works, and charging into the rifle-pits with the bayonet, completely routed the Maoris.  The temper of the attacking force may be judged from the fact that out of the Maori loss of one hundred and forty-five no less than one hundred and twenty-three were killed or died of wounds.  The blow was decisive, and the Tauranga tribe at once submitted.

[Illustration]

Chapter XVII

THE FIRE IN THE FERN

  “But War, of its majestic mask laid bare,
   The face of naked Murder seemed to wear.”

From the middle of 1864, to January, 1865, there was so little fighting that it might have been thought that the war was nearing its end.  The Waikato had been cleared, and the Tauranga tribes crushed.  Thompson, hopeless of further struggling ceased to resist the irresistible, made his peace with us and during the short remainder of his life was treated as became an honourable foe.  Nevertheless, nearly two years of harassing guerilla warfare were in store for the Colony.  Then there was to be another imperfect period of peace, or rather exhaustion, between