o sides. The _Pakeha_ had Enfield rifles and a good supply of
artillery. The Maoris were armed with old Tower muskets and shot-guns,
and were badly off both for powder and bullets, while, as already
said, they were not very good marksmen. Their artillery consisted of
two or three old ship's guns, from which salutes might have been fired
without extreme danger to their gunners. If the war in the Waikato,
and its off-shoot the fighting in the Bay of Plenty, had been in
thick forest and a mountainous country, the disparity of numbers and
equipment might have been counterbalanced. But the Waikato country was
flat or undulating, clothed in fern and with only patches of forest.
A first-class high road--the river--ran right through it. The sturdy
resistance of the natives was due first to their splendid courage and
skilful use of rifle-pits and earthworks, and in the second place to
our want of dash and tactical resource. Clever as the Maori engineers
were, bravely as the brown warriors defended their entrenchments,
their positions ought to have been nothing more than traps for them,
seeing how overwhelming was the white force. The explanation of this
lies in the Maori habit of taking up their positions without either
provisions or water. A greatly superior enemy, therefore, had only to
surround them. They then, in the course of two or three days at the
outside, had either to surrender at discretion or try the desperate
course of breaking through the hostile lines.

[Illustration: War Map]

General Cameron preferred the more slap-dash course of taking
entrenchments by assault. A stubborn fight took place at Rangiriri,
where the Maoris made a stand on a neck of land between the lake and
the Waikato River. Assaulted on two sides, they were quickly driven
from all their pits and earthworks except one large central redoubt.
Three times our men were sent at this, and three times, despite a
fine display of courage, they were flung back with loss. The bravest
soldier cannot--without wings--surmount a bank which rises eighteen
feet sheer from the bottom of a broad ditch. This was seen next day.
The attack ceased at nightfall. During the dark hours the redoubt's
defenders yelled defiance, but next morning they surrendered, and,
marching out, a hundred and eighty-three laid down their arms. Our
loss was one hundred and thirty-two killed and wounded; the Maori loss
was fifty killed, wounded unknown. By January, General Cameron had
pass