eka, or the Bats'
Nest. The name was only too appropriate at this period, for the place
seemed to abound with creatures of darkness. Who does not know that the
_pa_ was captured by the governor on a Sunday morning (Jan. 11, 1846),
while the defenders were engaged in worship in the bush outside?[8] This
was bad enough, for now the Maoris had been taught how little Christian
England regarded either their sacred places or their sacred day. But out
of the Bats' Nest came a second charge against Henry Williams. The
governor averred that letters had been found in the captured _pa_ which
amounted to a positive proof of the missionary's treason. As the troops
marched back to the Bay of Islands, a common topic of their conversation
was the arrest of the "traitor," whom they expected to see carried off
in handcuffs to Auckland for his trial. The letter which had been found
was really one that Williams had written to the Maori leader, urging
him to submit himself to the government; but, by burning the letter, the
governor was able to base upon it a charge which was dangerous from its
very vagueness. Conscious of his innocence, the missionary remained at
his post, and at last saw the police boat depart without him on a Sunday
afternoon, and was able to go in peace to his evening service.

[8] It is strange to find the good Lady Martin recording this action
without a word of disapproval. Carleton's defence of it is
extraordinary. If the Maoris had been given the Apocrypha (which they
had not) they might have read of Jonathan the Maccabee fighting a
defensive battle on the Sabbath. The amusing part is that Carleton
himself could not at the moment lay his hand on a copy of the
Apocrypha, and had to fall back on Josephus! A more consoling comment
is given by Lieut.-Col. Mundy: "Who shall say that this neglect of
man's ordinances and observance of God's in the time of their trouble,
did not bring with them a providential and merciful result? It led,
doubtless, to their almost instantaneous defeat; but it saved them and
the English from the tenfold carnage which a more vigilant and
disciplined resistance, from within their walls, would have infallibly
caused."

The prospect of a trial was indeed less welcome to the governor himself
than to the archdeacon, for throughout the long conflict which followed,
a public enquiry was the one thing which Henry Williams consistently
claimed, and which the governor as con