Note 207 — Chapter IX · 1858-1882. RAISING OF THE SECOND BATTALION: THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

Two anecdotes will show how stern was the courage of the Maori warriors. General Alexander describes how an officer was standing at the head of the sap, watching his opportunity to enter the pah. The head of a fierce-looking Maori appeared above the parapet, but the Englishman was a quick shot and the head disappeared. When the troops got into the works the officer looked for the man he had hit. The Maori had dropped with a bullet through his brain, but this death-wound was not his only injury. Some time during the siege his leg had been broken and roughly bound up with flax and a tent-peg, to enable him to go on fighting. In the retreat a native for some time escorted a party of women and children. “As his pursuers approached,” says Mr Rusden, “he turned and knelt down to take deliberate aim. Time after time, without firing a shot, he thus arrested the pursuit while the women fled. At last he himself was shot, and it was found that his gun was not loaded.”