Kimble [Kimball] Bent An Unusual European Who Deserted The British Army And Joined The Hau Hau #31
Two of our men that we have been following, young Tutange and the warrior Katene Tu-Whakaruru, who were out scouting on horseback, discovered the troops lying in ambush just outside, waiting to attack the village.
They turned and galloped back to us, Tutange waving his sword and whacking his horse along with the flat of the blade.
“So off we went again, running for our lives, with Whitmore's troops close behind us, firing as they ran.
Titokowaru and all his men fled, after a very short fight.
We took to the bush just like wild pigs racing before the hunters.
I and a few others kept together, running for all we were worth, half-naked, foodless, tumbling over logs, scrambling in and out of creeks, and made no halt until we found ourselves once more at Rimatoto, my old home of 1866.”
From Whakamara village the Maoris fell back on a little fortified pa [fortifird village] in the rear of the camp.
This position they abandoned after a brief skirmish, and then the forest chase began.
Whitmore ordered an immediate pursuit, and a flying column of sixty white Armed Constabulary, under Captains Northcroft and Watt, and about one hundred and forty Maori Kupapas, under Major Kepa and Captain Thomas Porter, all in light marching order, took to the bush after the retreating enemy.
The advance-guard of the pursuing force numbered twenty-five Maoris, about equally divided between the Whanganui and Arawa tribes.
Captain Porter was the only European officer with them, but one or two white scouts and bushmen accompanied the Maoris.
As the column's march was necessarily in single file through the thick and tangled bush, it was difficult to bring a large number of men into action when any skirmish or ambuscade occurred, and the consequence was that practically all the fighting was done by the advance-guard.
It was a picturesquely savage chapter of the war, that chase of Titokowaru and his scattered Hauhaus.
There was more than a touch of the barbaric in it, for some of the Government forces reverted to the primitive war-methods of the Maori himself.
Between the moccasined hero of the war-trail in Fenimore Cooper's and Captain Mayne Reid's romances of Red Indian days, and Kepa's Maori guerilla and some of his white comrades, there was, after all, only this difference: one took the trail hunting for scalps, the other for heads.
As mentioned in a previous chapter, Colonel Whitmore had agreed to a request made by Major Kepa after the fighting on the Waitotara and had offered rewards of £10 a head for Hauhau chiefs killed and £5 for ordinary men.
Kepa's Kupapa Maoris, recruited from the Whanganui, Ngati-Apa, Ngati-Raukawa, and other “friendly” tribes, only friendly to the pakeha by reason of their deadly animosity to the Taranaki tribes, were little less savage than the Hauhaus themselves, and this manhunt under the mana of the Government was just the work that delighted them.
They were “stripped to a gantlin'” for the bush chase, simply a waist mat or shawl and cartridge-belts and a pouch for their percussion-caps.
Some of the white bushmen-scouts were just as eager on the head-hunting trail and added to their service arms a tomahawk.
With the Whanganui men marched a European scout and bushman about whom some remarkable stories are told.
This was Tom Adamson, Kepa's pakeha-Maori, a big, powerful fellow who surpassed the Maoris themselves in bushcraft and endurance.
He marched barefooted, like his Maori comrades.
Another of the white scouts and Hauhau-hunters was a man who, in after years, became celebrated for his pioneer exploration work in the vast wilderness of Milford Sound, an old John-o'-Groat's sailor and soldier named Donald Sutherland, whose name has been given to the immense waterfall that is one of New Zealand's natural wonders.
It was a wild, picturesquely unkempt column, that little armed force of pakehas and Maoris, as it filed off under its active and daring young officers into the gloomy, danger-haunted woods, the unknown and trackless forest through which the Patea and its tributaries flowed.
The bush-fighting costume of many of the whites as well as Maoris was simple, not to say brigand-like.
Officers and men of the Constabulary and other corps who had to do much bush-marching discarded the trousers of civilisation and took to the “garb of old Gaul,” worn alike by the Scottish Highlander and the Maori, this kilt was usually a coloured shawl, strapped around the waist and falling to the knee.
Through the huge and tangled woods, they scrambled, hunters and hunted.
Now along some narrow trail, hardly discernible to the untrained eye, now crawling through networks of supplejacks and brambly shrubs and great snaky lianes that looped tree to tree in bewildering coiled intricacies.
Down into steep and narrow watercourses, swinging down one after another by the hanging vines and tough tree-creepers, up rocky gorges and jungle-clad cliffs.
For endless miles upon miles, the great solemn woods covered the face of the rugged land, beneath the shadows of the thick, dark foliage loped the blood-avengers.
In the afternoon of the first day of the chase, the column descended into a deep, thickly wooded gorge.
Suddenly from both sides, a fire was opened upon the centre of the force, the main body of the A.C.'s. [Armed Constabulary] “Clear the bush” was the order.
The advance-guard and A.C.'s quickly circled around and enfiladed the enemy, who bolted like Red Indians through the thickets; and the chase went on.
Three Hauhaus were shot and decapitated on the first day of the chase.
Every man killed, in fact, on this and the succeeding days of the pursuit had his head cut off.
The first Maori decapitated was a young chief, who was shot while in the act of climbing a steep cliff in the bush.
Being a rangatira, his was a £10 head.
This man was a prominent Hauhau named Matangi-o-Rupe.
He belonged to Titokowaru's own immediate clan, or hapu, Ngati-Manuhiakai, “The Tribe of the Hungry Bird.”
It was a Ngati-Raukawa soldier in Kepa's contingent who took off the Hauhau's head with his tomahawk;, later he duly delivered it at the pakeha camp.
Matangi's son, Kuku, now living at the village of Taiporohenui, on learning of his father's fate, swore to have utu, revenge, and vowed to Bent that if he ever encountered the man who beheaded his parent, he would “slice him to pieces like a piece of beef.”
Some years after the war, Bent, while on a visit to a Maori settlement at Oroua, in the Manawatu district, met this Ngati-Raukawa head-hunter, “an ugly, tattooed old villain,” as he describes him.
The pakeha, by way of imparting an interesting bit of news, informed the old warrior of Kuku's threat, but the tattooed veteran only smiled.
The days of the lex talionis were over.
That utu account has not been squared, but only because of the inconveniently peaceful rule of the pakeha.
Kuku has by no means forgotten or forgiven the man who sold his father's head to the white man.
Later on, in the bush chase the advance-guard, hurrying along at the double, came upon a Hauhau family, a grey-haired, middle-aged man, his wife, and two or three children.
They had not been able to travel so fast as their friends, on account of the tired children, and so had been left behind.
The old warrior was fired on by one of the Arawa Maoris and was severely wounded.
He fell, but struggled to a squatting position, with his empty gun across his knees.
The Arawa rushed at him, with tomahawk raised, to finish him off.
The old Hauhau sprang up with a great effort, gripping his tomahawk.
He was too badly wounded, however, to strike a blow, and the Arawa seized him and his tomahawk.
Just at that moment a white man, dressed like a Maori in a waist-shawl, and barefooted, rushed up, tomahawk in hand.
He seized the Hauhau by the hair, and, with a couple of furious strokes, chopped off his Head, and dropped it, all bloody as it was, into the flax kit he carried slung at his back, and in which there were already other heads.
The Arawa by no means liked being done out of what he considered was his head, seeing that he had captured the Hauhau, and there was a savage squabble between the two as to its ownership.
The white man “bluffed” the Maori out of it, however, and prepared to add the heads of the rest of the family to his collection.
He rushed at the weeping wahine and her children, and their heads would have come off also had not Captain Porter, fortunately for them, just come up.
The poor, terrified woman clung to his knees, beseeching him to save her and her children.
He told them they would be safe, and ordered the white scout forward.
The Arawas took charge of the widow and her children, and she was sent to Rotorua when the campaign was over.
The first of the below posts has a list of the previous posts of Maori Myths and Legends
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-war-was-declared-between-tainui-and-arawa
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-1
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-2
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-hatupatu-and-his-brothers
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hatupatu-and-his-brothers-part-2
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-the-emigration-of-turi-an-ancestor-of-wanganui
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-continuing-legend-of-turi
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/turi-seeks-patea
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-manaia-and-why-he-emigrated-to-new-zealand
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-love-story-of-hine-moa-the-maiden-of-rotorua
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-te-kahureremoa-found-her-husband
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-magical-wooden-head
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-art-of-netting-learned-from-the-fairies
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-kanawa-s-adventure-with-a-troop-of-fairies
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-loves-of-takarangi-and-rau-mahora
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/puhihuia-s-elopement-with-te-ponga
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-story-of-te-huhuti
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-trilogy-of-wahine-toa-woman-heroes
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-modern-maori-story
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hine-whaitiri
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/whaitere-the-enchanted-stingray
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/turehu-the-fairy-people
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kawariki-and-the-shark-man
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/awarua-the-taniwha-of-porirua
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hami-s-lot-a-modern-story
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-unseen-a-modern-haunting
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-death-leap-of-tikawe-a-story-of-the-lakes-country
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/paepipi-s-stranger
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-story-of-maori-gratitude
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/by-the-waters-of-rakaunui-1
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/by-the-waters-of-rakaunui-2
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/bt-the-waters-of-rakaunui-3
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/bt-the-waters-of-rakaunui-4
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-1
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-2
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-3
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-4
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/some-of-the-caves-in-the-centre-of-the-north-island
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-man-eating-dog-of-the-ngamoko-mountain
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-story-from-mokau-in-the-early-1800s
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/new-zealand-s-atlantis
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-cave-dwellers-of-rotorua
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kawa-mountain-and-tarao-the-tunneller
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-fragrant-leaf-s-rock
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-the-waikato-river
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/uneuku-s-judgment
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/at-the-rising-of-kopu-venus
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/harehare-s-story-from-the-rangitaiki
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/another-way-of-passing-power-to-the-successor
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-cave-of-wairaka
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-of-how-mount-tauhara-got-to-where-it-is-now
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ana-o-tuno-hopu-s-cave
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/stories-of-an-enchanted-valley-near-rotorua
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/utu-a-maori-s-revenge
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/where-tangihia-sailed-away-to
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-on-te-waru-s-new-house
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-fall-of-the-virgin-s-island
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-first-day-of-removing-the-tapu-on-te-waru-s-new-house
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-maori-detective-story
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-second-day-of-removing-the-tapu-on-te-waru-s-new-house
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-story-of-a-maori-heroine
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-old-kawhia
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-stealing-of-an-atua-god
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/maungaroa-and-some-of-its-legends
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-mokia-tarapunga
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-memory-of-maketu
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-the-taupo-region
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-of-the-taniwha-slayers
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https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/there-were-giants-in-that-land
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-old-rotoiti
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-lagoons-of-the-tuna-eels
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https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-white-chief-of-the-oouai-tribe
https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/tane-mahuta-the-soul-of-the-forest
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