their beds by the yells of Ngapuhi warriors. Our loss had been
thirty-one killed and wounded, and it was small consolation to know
that, thanks to the ship's guns, the Maoris' had been three times as
great. The disaster was a greater blow to the English _Mana_ than even
the Wairau Massacre. But the settlements showed spirit everywhere,
and under the stress of the time the Governor forgot some of his
prejudices. Even those much-suspected people, the Wellington settlers,
were allowed to form themselves into a militia at last.

Thanks to the divisions among the Ngapuhi, Heke did not follow up his
victory. Troops were procured from Sydney, but they had no artillery.
The natives relied on their _pas_ or stockades. These, skilfully
constructed by means of double or triple rows of heavy palisades,
masked by flax and divided by shallow ditches which did duty for
rifle-pits, could not be carried without being breached by cannon. A
fruitless attack upon one of them soon demonstrated this. The _pa_,
called Okaihau, though strong in front, was weak in the rear. Four
hundred soldiers, supported by as many Ngapuhi friendlies under Waka
Nene, marched against it. Fruitlessly Nene advised the English Colonel
to assail the place from behind. The Colonel, who had seen Nene
yelling in a war-dance, and looked upon him as a degraded savage,
approached the front, where Okaihau was really strong. As he had no
guns he tried the effect of rockets, but though terrified by the
strange fire, the defenders gained heart when they found that the
rockets hit nothing. They even charged the English in the open with
long-handled tomahawks, and only fell back before a bayonet charge
in regular form. After skirmishing all day and losing fifty-four in
killed and wounded with but negative results, the English retreated to
Auckland to request artillery. Waka Nene carried on the fighting on
his own account, and in a skirmish with him Heke was badly wounded.
Guns were fetched from Australia, and Heke's men were brought to bay
at their principal _pa_, Ohaeawai. Colonel Despard commanded the
besiegers, who outnumbered the defenders by more than three to one.
After bombarding the palisades for some days, the colonel, in defiance
of the advice of his artillery officer--who declared there was no
practicable breach--ordered an assault. Two hundred soldiers and
sailors were told off for the duty, and at four o'clock on a
pleasant, sunny afternoon they charged up a gen