led in
Auckland, which was only forty miles from the frontier and exposed to
attack both from sea and land. Moreover, some hundreds of natives,
living quite close to the town, had arms, and were ascertained to be
in communication with the Waikatos. The Governor attempted to disarm
them, but the plan was not well carried out, and most of them escaped
with their weapons to the King Country. The choice of the Government
then lay between attacking and being attacked. They learned, beyond a
doubt, that the Waikatos were planning a march on Auckland, and in a
letter written by Thompson about this time he not only stated this,
but said that in the event of an assault the unarmed people would not
be spared. By the middle of the year 1863, however, a strong force was
concentrated on the border, just where the Waikato River, turning from
its long northward course, abruptly bends westward towards the sea. No
less than twelve Imperial Regiments were now in New Zealand, and their
commander, General Sir Duncan Cameron, a Crimean veteran, gained a
success of some note in Taranaki. He was a brave, methodical soldier,
destitute of originality, nimbleness or knowledge of the country or of
savage warfare. In July, the invasion of the Waikato was ordered. On
the very day before our men advanced, the Maoris had begun what they
meant to be their march to Auckland, and the two forces at once came
into collision. In a sharp fight at Koheroa the natives were driven
from their entrenchments with some loss, and any forward movement on
their part was effectually stopped. But, thanks to what seemed to the
colonists infuriating slowness, the advance up the Waikato was not
begun until the latter part of October, and the conquest of the
country not completed until February.

To understand the cause of this impatience on the part of the
onlookers, it should be mentioned that our forces were now, as usual
in the Maori wars, altogether overwhelming. The highest estimate of
the fighting men of the King tribes is two thousand. As against this,
General Cameron had ultimately rather more than ten thousand Imperial
troops in the Colony to draw upon. In addition to that, the colonial
militia and volunteers were gradually recruited until they numbered
nearly as many. About half of these were, at any rate after a short
time, quite as effectual as the regulars for the peculiar guerilla war
which was being waged. In armament there was no comparison between
the tw