"THE CANOES ADVANCED IN LINE—A THOUSAND PADDLES, STRIKING AS ONE, BEATING THE WATER TO FOAM."
In twenty great canoes, each carrying a hundred men, they came. Parema had, with promises of slaves and plunder, enlisted the tribes of the Hakerau to his cause.
Who shall tell the fury of that oncoming? The canoes advanced in line—a thousand paddles, striking as one, beating the water to foam. The rowers, straining every muscle, panted on their stroke. The grinning figure-heads hissed through the foam of their coming, and in the centre of each canoe, aloft on a platform, stood a chief who chanted his "waiata" (war song), swaying his body as he beat time with his spear above his head.
The canoes raced for the beach. The speed of their onset carried them high upon the sand, and the warriors leapt to shore. Parema moved at once to the assault. The Ngatahi warriors and the wild men of the Hakerau swarmed into the ditch. On them rained a hail of spears and stones from the defenders of the "pah." They fell by scores, and were trampled, shrieking, underfoot by their onrushing comrades. Like the sea beneath the breath of the tempest, to and fro in the ditch surged the heaving, struggling mass of men under that pitiless shower.
With ladders and logs of wood, some mounted the wall to hurl themselves against the gate, attacking the stockade with axes in a vain endeavour to tear it down. The gate opened, and, Taurau at their head, out poured two hundred chosen Ngatitoa in a splendid sally. Shouting their war-cry, "Hai-o! Hai-o!" they swept the assailants from the wall and across the ditch. Naught remained in the ditch but the dying and the dead.
Then Parema changed his tactics. With trunks of trees, bags of earth, and the bodies of the dead the ditch was filled. Over these, piled pell-mell on their shrieking, wounded comrades, the Ngatahi rushed again to the assault. Then, whilst some engaged the defenders, others carried brushwood and dry fern, piling it in a great mound against the stockade. Fire was put to it, and soon the whole face of the "pah" was ablaze.
THE HEADLAND, SHOWING ENTRANCE TO THE SEA CAVE—THE CAVE'S MOUTH IS BEHIND THE INTERVENING ROCK MARKED WITH A BLACK CROSS. THE WHITE CROSS HALF-WAY UP THE CLIFF SHOWS THE ENTRANCE TO THE UPPER CAVE AND THE LEDGE FROM WHICH TAURAU FELL. From a Photograph.
Then, when the fire had done its work, came the final assault. The weakened stockade fell before the rush, and the weary defenders found the enemy amongst them, hacking and hewing. Out-numbered, out-matched, out-generalled, Ngatitoa was broken and driven back.