[199] Captain Kemp and Captain Briggs have supplied the author with valuable information—the former by sending extracts from his diary, the latter by recording his reminiscences of the campaign.
[200] The strength on December 1, 1863, of the ten companies of the second battalion of the XVIIIth was 2 field officers, 9 captains, 20 subalterns, 5 staff, 47 sergeants, 22 drummers, 763 rank and file fit for duty, and 24 sick, or a total of 892 of all ranks.
[201] Alexander, p. 129.
[202] This column was composed of 728 of all ranks; among them was a detachment of the Royal Irish—1 captain, 3 subalterns, 1 staff, 5 sergeants, 3 drummers, and 140 rank and file. The smaller columns were 250 and 100 strong.
[203] Carey’s despatch.
[204] Rusden, vol. ii. p. 205.
[205] Some of the historians of the New Zealand War assert that these assaults were ordered by General Carey: others hold that they were unauthorised: the balance of evidence is in favour of the latter opinion.
[206] Rusden, vol. ii. pp. 207, 208.
[207] Two anecdotes will show how stern was the courage of the Maori warriors. General Alexander describes how an officer was standing at the head of the sap, watching his opportunity to enter the pah. The head of a fierce-looking Maori appeared above the parapet, but the Englishman was a quick shot and the head disappeared. When the troops got into the works the officer looked for the man he had hit. The Maori had dropped with a bullet through his brain, but this death-wound was not his only injury. Some time during the siege his leg had been broken and roughly bound up with flax and a tent-peg, to enable him to go on fighting. In the retreat a native for some time escorted a party of women and children. “As his pursuers approached,” says Mr Rusden, “he turned and knelt down to take deliberate aim. Time after time, without firing a shot, he thus arrested the pursuit while the women fled. At last he himself was shot, and it was found that his gun was not loaded.”
[208] See [Appendix 2 (K)].