t them scampering thence to be pursued for
three miles. They lost over 100, amongst whom were several chiefs.
Our killed and wounded were but 22. Here again Captain Atkinson
distinguished himself. Not only did he handle his men well, but a
prominent warrior fell by his hand.

This was in November, 1860. For five months General Pratt, in the face
of much grumbling, went slowly on sapping and building redoubts. He
always reached his empty goal; but the spectacle of British forces
worming their way underground and sheltering themselves behind
earthworks against the fire of a few score or hundred invisible
savages who had neither artillery nor long-range rifles was not
calculated to impress the public imagination.

On the 23rd January, 1861, our respectful prudence again tempted
the Maoris to rashness. They tried a daybreak attack on one of the
General's redoubts. But, though they had crept into the ditch without
discovery, and, scrambling thence, swarmed over the parapet with such
resolution that they even gripped the bayonets of the soldiers with
their hands, they were attacked, in the flank and rear, by parties
running up to the rescue from neighbouring redoubts, and fled
headlong, leaving fifty killed and wounded behind. In March
hostilities were stopped after a not too brilliant year, in which our
casualties in fighting had been 228, beside certain settlers cut off
by marauders. Thompson, the king-maker, coming down from the Waikato,
negotiated a truce. There seemed yet a fair hope of peace. Governor
Browne had indeed issued a bellicose manifesto proclaiming his
intention of stamping out the King Movement. But before this could
provoke a general war, Governor Browne was recalled and Sir George
Grey sent back from the Cape to save the position. Moreover, the
Stafford Ministry, which headed the war party amongst colonists, fell
in 1862, and Sir William Fox, the friend of peace, became Premier.

For eighteen months Grey and his Premier laboured for peace. They
tried to conciliate the Kingite chiefs, who would not, for a long
time, meet the Governor. They withdrew Governor Browne's manifesto.
They offered the natives local self-government. At length the Governor
even made up his mind to give back the Waitara land. But a curse
seemed to cling to those unlucky acres. The proclamation of
restitution was somehow delayed, and meanwhile Grey sent troops to
resume possession of another Taranaki block, that of Tataramaika,
whi