RANGIHAIETA DEFEATED. 337 shredded by the rough underwood, and their persons so besmirched with rain, mud, and the smoke of bivouac fires, as to be in but little better condition than Rangihaieta's hunted and ragged regiment of the Horokiwi. This turbulent chief was much humbled by the foregoing events, and he never again appeared openly in arms against the British Government. CHAPTER XII. [1848.] TRIP TO THE WANGANUI DISTRICT-MANA AND KAPITI-SUNRISE ON MOUNT EGMONT-WANGANUI BAR AND RIVER-WANGANUI SETTLED, BELEAGUERED, DESERTED, GARRISONED-MASSACRE OF THE GILFINNANS-MURDERERS CAPTURED, AND HANGED UNDER MARTIAL LAW-THE POST STRENGTHENED -A CHIEF KILLED AFFAIR OF ST. JOHN'S WOOD-KORIROS AND WARDANCES-MAORI SOOTHSAYERS-CLOSE OF THE WAR. . WELLINGTON, 13th January. A “ Taua," or warparty, said to consist of some six hundred well-armed men, having assembled in the passes of the Wanganui River, demanding a conference with the English authorities, and refusing, as I understand, to confer with the Lieut.-Governor and the senior officer in the southern district, who had proceeded to Wanganui in H.M. S. Racehorse, or indeed with any one but the Governor-inChief, when they heard of his arrival in the south; his Excellency was not the man to disappoint them. In order, therefore, that the matter should not cool, he reembarked this day in the Inflexible, and set sail for the above-named settlement, situated about 130 miles north of Wellington, on the western coast. The Major-General commanding the forces also took the opportunity of MANA AND KAPITI. 339 visiting this important military post, and I was fortunate enough to accompany him. As it was the purpose of his Excellency to meet the overtures of the Taua with certain stringent if not humiliating conditions, there were not wanting, among the large party, naval and military, on board, some few sanguine enough to expect a fresh rupture of these martial and unruly tribes-an expectation which I may at once take occasion to say was not realized. In some of the cabins of H.M.'s steam sloop I noticed several very truculent-looking weapons-swords evidently sharpened with the intent to split Maori skulls, and rifles that would pick off a rebel at any reasonable distance. They were bloodless this bout;-for the matter was settled by diplomacy without appeal to the "ultima ratio vice-regum." The first notable object passed by the Inflexible, in her course up the Straits, was the little table island of Mana, which looks as if it had been shot out of the mouth of Porirua Harbour, and acts as a sort of screen to its entrance. Rangihaieta has one of his numerous lairs on this islet; and, indeed, it is just the spot for a buccaneering dépôt. Soon afterwards we ran past the fine, high peaked, and wooded island of Kapiti, chiefly valuable as furnishing the only tolerable roadstead along this exposed and harbourless coast. Kapiti, in common with too many portions of this country, enjoys the dignity of having been purchased some scores of times, by different European speculators, from the natives. This island has also peculiar charms for Rangihaieta as a place of occasional resort. Nearly opposite-on the mainland, the channel not being more than four or five miles wide-was visible the Missionary station of Waikanai, the Christian church looming in the distance like a huge barn. There appears round about it much level land between the sea and the mountains, and, winding down a wooded hill, could be distinguished a portion of the great military road, which is being gradually carried along the coast. This road, like all roads through countries under process of conquest, has been, and will be, one of the most potent instruments of the subjugation of New Zealand. The native chiefs most impatient of British domination, are perfectly awake, as old Rauperaha admitted, to this feature in road making; but they find these thoroughfares so useful to themselves that not only do the most mischievous abstain from breaking them up, but, even during warfare, they have seldom opposed any well-sustained obstruction to their formation. With a fair wind and plenty of steam we shortly came in sight of the Racehorse, riding-or rather kicking and plunging at anchor in the open and insecure roads of Wanganui, three or four miles from the mouth of the river. Though the breeze was light there was a heavy sea, and the surf was thundering upon the bar so as to preclude all communication with the shore except by means of the telegraph which, with the aid of Marryat's signals, the officer commanding at the post has esta SUNRISE ON MOUNT EGMONT. 341 blished. Through this medium we received the information "all quiet," and then stood off for the night into deeper water. In the morning we found the ship anchored in a calmer sea. The sunrise-a spectacle which, while admitting its beauty and sublimity as well as the healthfulness of its enjoyment, few of the richer classes have witnessed a dozen times in their lives;-the sunrise was truly magnificent on this fine summer morning. While the ocean was yet dark under our feet, and the shore was dim and indistinct in the mist of dawn, his earliest ray-like a flaming sword from its scabbard-flashed across the great island upon the snowy scalp of Tongariro, seventy miles distant inland and 10,000 feet above the level of the sea; and, in a few seconds later, upon the hardly less elevated peak of Mount Egmont, which though considerably to the northward of Wanganui is not more than fifteen miles from the shore. The effect of Sol's first greeting to this latter mountain-in shape and colour the most perfect sugarloaf I ever saw-was both singular and beautiful. Some one who knew the locality was trying to make me see the white pic which was visible to him above a bank of cloud. While straining my vision with this object, a spot became suddenly illumined so infinitely higher than where my eyes were fixed, that I had some difficulty in believing that it was a point on the earth's surface. The light had leapt from the first named mountain to the second, like beacon answering beacon! Soon afterwards the entire apex of the conc |