How The Pa Maori was Attacked and Defended

In troubled times the natives passed the night in their fortified places, with closed gates and a watchman (kai mataara) stationed on a platform or some other prominent place. This lone watcher of the night often passed much of his time in chanting watch songs, occasionally beating a suspended wooden gong (pahu), or sounding a trumpet (pukaea and pu moana). There were two forms of gong; one being a carefully made and hollowed-out block of wood in form of a canoe, with a narrow aperture widening out in its interior. The late Mr. C. E. Nelson of Whakarewarewa possessed one made by a member of the Tuhoe tribe. The other form was simply a flat hewn slab of wood, sometimes many feet in length. Both forms were suspended at both ends, and struck with a wooden mallet. The timber used was usually that of the matai tree (Podocarpus spicatus). Of the trumpets, one was formed of a large shell with a wooden mouthpiece affixed to its smaller end; this is the pu moana. The other was a long wooden trumpet made by carefully hollowing out two pieces of wood and then lashing them together; this is called a pu kaea.

The task of the watchman was not so much to patrol the defences as to acquaint enemies with the fact that the place was on the alert. In his Travels in New Zealand, Dieffenbach remarks:—"How far the fear of their being surprised by their enemies was carried will be proved by the custom, very common in a pa, of beating the pahu, a canoe shaped piece of wood about twelve feet long, and suspended by two strings, the hollow din of which sounded far and wide through the stillness of night, and was intended to let an approaching party know that they were on the alert. But many a pa has been taken by surprise."

The following notes on the attack and defence of native forts, contributed by Tuta Nihoniho, of the East Coast, are inserted here in their entirety:—

In very few cases, says my informant, was a well constructed pa taken by direct assault in former times. The usual cause of the fall of such strongholds in pre-gun days was, he states he moe po, that is-the pa would be caught napping and entered under cover of page 155night. An attacking force always endeavoured to advance unseen, camp at some distance from the pa, and send forward scouts (kiore) to reconnoitre the fort. These kiore would approach the fort under cover of darkness, and endeavour to find some place by which an entry could be made. The Maori people do not seem to have had any system of regular patrols to go the rounds of the defences periodically during the night, or any system of sentries with definite beats. No strict discipline obtained in Maoriland, and, on a cold night, such a watchman was liable to make periodical visits to a fire in some hut, in order to warm himself, or he might go to sleep on his aerial perch. There are cases on record showing that a pa was sometimes quietly entered by an enemy who had taken advantage of such lapses. When the Tuhoe warriors advanced against a pa at Orona, Taupo, they did so at night, then waited until the watchman's song ceased, when one of their number quietly entered the place, ascended the stage to find the watchman asleep, slew him with promptitude and without noise, then descended and opened the gateway to let his friends in. Then things happened at Orona.

In some cases the scouts might discover a place that could be scaled by means of a ladder, whereupon they would return to the main body, rude ladders would be made and taken to the place, and put in position, then the force would, if not detected, quietly enter the defences, after which their aim often was to secure the doors of the houses in which the people were sleeping, which rendered subsequent proceedings much easier.

In some cases, when a pa had been besieged for some time, food and water, or perhaps water only, had to be guarded and rationed out, thus such supplies were treated as public property at such times. If water was very short it might be served out at the rate of a shell full (the paua or Haliotis shell) per day to each person.

Occasionally a pa was besieged for a long period, as much as a year, but such could only be done in exceptional cases, as where a large supply of food was stored, and a water supply existed within the defences. Cases have been known where the inmates of a pa long besieged have slain and eaten their children. When such a practice was resorted to, the wretched people swapped children, so as not to be compelled to kill and eat their own offspring. This was done at the siege of Te Whetu-matarau, on the East Coast, ere it fell. This siege is said to have lasted for nine months. The place was not taken by assault; the northern raider, even with the assistance of guns being quite unequal to the task.

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When an attacking force gained access to a pa, its first action, in many cases, was to fire the houses within it. In most cases this would render the place untenable and assure the defeat of the garrison.

An investing force would occasionally set to work to construct a kopani, that is to pile up earth or timber near a pa, so as to form a mound or raised place to service as a place of vantage from which to hurl stones, or manipulate spears.

A pa might be evacuated on account of an insufficient water supply, or lack of food supplies, or because its inmates considered that it was not strong enough to withstand an expected assault.

Sometimes an enemy found the inmates of a pa asleep, and simply opened up the entrance and walked in. Often the gateway was tied up with an aka vine so that any persons wishing to open it up from the outside had to cut the tough vine ere they could remove the timbers. The sound of such cutting might be heard and the attempt to enter frustrated by the inmates of the fort.

At times when no danger was suspected, no watch was kept in a pa at night, the only precaution taken being the closing of the gateway, or gateways. A watchman sometimes took his stand on an earthwork instead of a stage.

When investing a fortified place, a force sometimes separated into several parties, and camped in as many different places, in some cases erecting small stockades wherein to dwell. These places served as refuges and rallying places when the investing force was worsted, or a sortie from the pa occurred. Again, a small stockade might be erected and manned from which to run a sap toward the pa defences. Through this sap, zig-zagged if necessary, dry brush and wood were carried and piled up against the stockade, and fired, if not prevented by the garrison. At such a time wind-raising charms were repeated by the priestly adept of the attacking party in order to call up a wind of the right brand. If a strong wind was blowing on to the defences, such a fire might burn a passage through the different stockades, and also kindle the thatched houses within the fort, in which case the place was doomed to fall. During such sapping and fire raising operations, fighting was practically continuous, the garrison recognising the fact that it was now a case of life or death. It sometimes occurred that an enemy would get close enough to hurl fire-brands, or burning torches of resinous wood on to the thatched huts. Again, burning pieces of wood were sometimes slung into a pa by means of a cord and stick, or whip. In some cases the garrison would succeed in extinguishing the fires, in others they could not, and, as the huts were fairly close together as a rule, destruction page 157would result; this matter often hinged upon the condition of the water supply. A plentiful supply of water, stored handily in troughs, etc., has saved many a pa. When such a fire obtained the mastery, most pa would become untenable, and the inmates thereof would break out and endeavour to fight their way through the investing force.

Some of the houses in a pa might be subterranean places, curious pit dwellings, like potato pits. These places were excavated until the walls of the rectangular pit were about four feet high, then a roof was erected over it, and the whole covered with earth, hence such places could never be fired from without the defences. The walls of these pit dwellings were lined with raupo bulrush lashed on to a framework. Such habitations, however, were not numerous in pregun days.

(Mr. T. W. Downes informs us that, in old fortified villages up the Wai-totara river, are seen many pits hewn out of the limestone formation, with steps leading down into them. The middle of the floor area seems to be the lowest part, and in the centre is a small hole. Tiny runlets radiating from this seem to show that floor drainage was the object. The remains of trunks of mamaku (Cyathea medullaris), a very durable material, may represent a former roof, and quite possibly these were old food storage pits.)

In suitable ground, sapping was occasionally resorted to in order to undermine and make a breach in the defences. Tunnels were sometimes made to enable this to be done, the tunnel directed page 158towards the position of one of the large posts of the fort; when the base of this was reached, then the tunnel would be run along the face of the stockade, so that the stockade might be pulled down with a koromahanga or rou. This latter engine consisted of nothing more than a short stout wooden bar with a long and strong rope attached to the centre of it. The bar was thrown over the top of the stockade, and, on the rope being pulled taut, the bar would usually catch against the inner sides of the stockade timbers, in a more or less horizontal position, at the top of the upper rail. See Fig. 43 on p. 157. Then, while a number of the assailants endeavoured, with long spears or stones, to prevent the garrison cutting the rope, a large number of men 'tailed on' to it, and, hauling vigorously to a chanted time song, they tried to pull down the stockade. If successful, then an attempt would be made to pull down the other fence, or fences, in a similar manner. In some cases the garrison would make a sortie in order to stop sapping or tunnelling operations, or the destruction of the stockades by the rou method.

The Titirangi pa at Uawa had within its defences the entrance to a cave named Te Kotore o te whenua which extended out to the ocean beach. At one time this pa fell to an enemy, but the people thereof escaped through the cave, or natural tunnel, to the beach, where they launched their canoes and put to sea. The sea being rough, however, some of the canoes capsized and a good many persons were drowned.

This cave seems to be the one mentioned in Cook's Voyages. See Transactions of the N.Z. Institute, vol. 21, p. 396, In vol. 35, p. 40, a cave is shown on the island known as Sporing's Isle.

In former times, when a raiding party was expected, the more valuable canoes were, when feasible, hauled into the pa, lest they be destroyed by the enemy. This is said to have been done at the Kokai pa on the East Coast, and Tuta Nihoniho informs us that, in his youthful days, he saw the deep grooves in the bark of rata trees at that place caused by the ropes when canoes were formerly hauled up into the fort. When looking at the precipitous approaches to that old stronghold it is difficult to see how ocean going canoes could be hauled into it; they may have been hauled into another fortified place in the vicinity.

The notes given by Tuta hinge upon the type of fort having outer defences of two or three stockades, with an earthen wall or rampart as an innermost defence, the stockades being fairly close together and not enclosing any residential area between them. All the huts of this type of fortified village were within the inner defence, the most massive of the defences, and the space enclosed by it was deemed the page 159haven of refuge of the people. Hence it was that a pa was often alluded to as a kowhanga, or 'nest'; it protected and sheltered the people even as a nest shelters the young bird. This is the reason why, on the East Coast, a fortified village was often compared with the rainbow, for both represent safety and the preservation of life. The god Kahukura, whose aria or visible form is the rainbow, is the protector and saviour of man, as he warns him of unseen dangers. The pa maori is, as my informant put it, the equal of Kahukura-awhitia, the bow; the token of life and safety is with Kahukura, as also with the pa, (Ko te pa e rite ana ki a Kahukura-awhitia, ara ki te tiwhana; ko te tohu o te ora kai a Kahukura, a pera hoki te pa.)

When an enemy succeeded in entering a pa and endeavoured to take the last defence thereof, represented by the rampart, it was then that the fiercest fighting occurred. Many of the women would now join in the defence, and, mounting the wall, hurl down stones on the enemy in the moat below. It is said that many a fort has been saved to its defenders by means of the desperate defence made by women at the critical time of the fight.

If the enemy succeeded in passing the earthwork, then the inmates of the place might surrender, whereupon the survivors would be enslaved, or perhaps some killed and some enslaved. The enemy might call upon them to submit. In some cases fighting would still be continued among the houses until most of the garrison were slain.

In the defence of gateways, entrance passages and weak places in the defensive works, the puwhara or stages were of great advantage. From such a superior position defenders used long spears, stones and darts with much effect.

In the above remarks made by Tuta Nihoniho, formerly well known as an officer of the Native Contingent, he mentions one of the most serious dangers pertaining to the defence of native forts, owing to the inflammable nature of the thatch employed in hut building, and to their close proximity to each other. Once a fire got a good hold, in few cases would disaster be averted.

When efforts were made to destroy the defences of a pa by fire, the garrison experienced a very anxious time, and often endeavoured to burn such material as was thrown near the stockade, ere much was accumulated, or while a certain favourable wind was blowing, that kept the flames from reaching the stockade. When such a fire was burning, an attack was often delivered by the besieging force, which meant a severe trial to the garrison, the members of which might have to stand in dense smoke to wield their long spears in repelling such attack. When the Matai pa at Waihora, Poverty Bay, was attacked by Rongo-whakaata, the garrison thus burned the dry manu-page 160ka as it was brought by the attackers, and manned the fighting platforms, armed with long spears, to prevent the fire being extinguished. So irksome a task had they in the irritating smoke that one of their number acquired the name of Kapo-auahi, or the Smoke Catcher.

The Rev. Mr. Stack mentions a case in which a pa was set fire to by means of throwing a red hot stone on to a thatched house roof. The stone was a long one, round one end of which the operator tied a piece of flax, then heated the other end of the stone in a fire, and slung it into the pa by means of the cord.

Polack states that, on the alarm being given that a hostile force was approaching, the people of a pa busied themselves in shovelling earth against and over their thatch built houses 'to prevent the fires and torches thrown by the besiegers from taking effect.' Also they 'run to their plantations, dig up their crops, ripe or otherwise, and carry them into the pa.' Several writers speak of the practice of covering the thatched huts near the stockades with earth. Green flax (Phormium) was sometimes used for the purpose.

Mr. Colenso gives an account of an old pa at Tapatahi, East Coast, seen by him in 1838, which had been taken by Ngati-Maru, and of how it fell:—"At last the besiegers hit upon a mode of attack and assault which proved successful; they prepared sticks with dry combustibles fastened to one of their ends, while to the other was tied a strip of flax leaf, and the wind being favourable, they set fire to them, and then whirled and flung those flaming darts across the ditch into the pa, where, alighting on the dry thatch roofs of the houses and sheds, the whole was soon on fire; then, in the confusion, the assault was made."

The pa on the island in Roto-a-Tara (lake), when taken by northern raiders, was reached by means of crossing the lake on rafts. Again, in 1820, it was besieged for three months, and, this time, the besiegers built a causeway out from the mainland to the island, though whether in the form of a mole or floating platform we know not. The garrison erected a high platform on their side to command the bridge, to enable them to cast stones and spears down upon an enemy crossing by it. The besiegers at length managed to set fire to the huts in the pa by throwing fire from the causeway, but were attacked and driven back, many being slain in the waters of the lake. The garrison abandoned the pa that night, and escaped.

The Pakake pa, an island in Ahuriri Harbour, was attacked and taken, in 1824, by a northern force that reached the island on rafts made of the raupo bulrush.

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When a pa was defended by numerous earthworks, it was almost impossible to gain an entrance thereto by burning the stockades. Hardwoods were preferred to totara in the erection of stockades on account of their resisting fire better.

When endeavouring to destroy a pa by means of fire, a windy night was the favoured time for such attempts. In throwing fire-brands, a piece of flax was tied to one end, and the operator, grasping this, whirled the brand round for a time, until it burst into a flame, and then hurled it into the pa. It is said that chiefs in command of attacking forces sometimes objected to such practices, saying to their followers: "Such modes are only worthy of a low caste folk. Do not pursue such methods. If you cannot defeat the enemy in fair fight, then withdraw. Let your enemy be defeated in action, such is a manly course, the destruction of the place by fire is childish." (Kaua e mahi tutua; kaore e mate i a koe i nga kakari totika, kati, me mutu. Kaua e tahu ki te ahi, he mahi ware; ma te pakanga e hinga ai te hoariri, ko te tahu ki te ahi he mahi tamariki.)

When Ngati-Porou were attacking the Puke-maire pa, in 1865, they gained entrance thereto by means of pulling down a portion of the stockade. A rope was secured by one end to a stout bar, which was thrown over the palisades; the rope slipped down between two of the upright timbers of the stockade until arrested by the horizontal rail. On being pulled taut, the bar was brought up against the palisades, then many men hauled on the rope and so pulled down a certain length of the fence.

The Tuatini pa at Tokomaru was taken by Ngapuhi by pulling down a part of the stockade, to which they had managed to fasten some ropes.

A Wairarapa native contributes the following notes:—A fortified village was often attacked just about daybreak, as soon as 'the knees of man could be seen.' A favoured plan was to make false attacks at several places simultaneously in order to draw the bulk of the defenders to such places, then another force would endeavour to force an entrance elsewhere. In this movement a weak spot would be sought, and in some cases the aim was to draw the defenders away from the waha ngutu, or entrance.

If the outer line of defensive works was taken, then the defenders fell back behind the second line. Some of them would be stationed on the top of the maioro or earthen walls, while others were in the trenches. In some of the old fortified places a stockade was the outermost defensive work, in others it was an earthwork. These latter were wide enough on the tops for men to stand or walk on. The innermost earthwork was wider on the top than the others. There page 162were no stockades or any form of palisading on or in the earthworks in the Wai-rarapa district. The stockades were a separate defence.

Breaching and the undermining of defences were sometimes practised, and cases are known in which tunnelling operations were stopped by the defenders adopting a similar method to frustrate them. A tunnel whereby to pass under defences and so gain access to a place has been rendered useless by it being intercepted by a deep ditch excavated by the defenders. These methods do not, however, appear to have been often employed; it can only be said that they were occasionally resorted to.

In some cases a party besieged in a pa would remain shut up therein until the siege was raised, in others they would make sorties therefrom and attack the investing force. The actions of a people so situated would depend on a variety of circumstances, not only on such as would present themselves to us, but also to a considerable extent on such as were produced by their superstitious beliefs.

Of the actions of the chief Waharoa, when attacked by Ngapuhi, Mr. J. A. Wilson writes:—"He shut himself up in the pa, and kept so close that the enemy, probably imputing his non-appearance to fear, became careless; then, watching his opportunity, he suddenly made a sortie, and in hand-to-hand conflict used them very roughly. He also made four or five prisoners, whom he crucified on the tall posts of his pa, in the sight of their astonished comrades."

When a pa was attacked, should the inmates thereof succeed in obtaining any heads of slain enemies, these were stuck on the top of the palisades of the fort in full view of the enemy. When Waikato attacked the Waimate pa the inmates of that place slew a member of the raiding force ere any serious fighting occurred, cut off his head and stuck it on the stockade of the fort, to dismay the enemy, while the heart of the slain man was utilised as an offering to the gods in the rite known as whangai hau. When Waikato came to know of these happenings, they said: "It is Mata-katea and his people who will prevail in this war, since the heart of this man has been offered to the god. We shall not be able to take the pa." See Maori History of the Taranaki Coast, p. 512.

In vol. 21 of the Transactions of the N.Z. Institute, Captain Mair gives some account of a siege of a pa at Te Karamea Bluff, ten miles south of Cape Kidnappers, about the year 1828:—"The besieged were unable to lay in a store of food or water, and sustained themselves for a considerable time by occasionally lowering the most venture-some of their number into the sea at the outer end, who would collect limpets and seaweed from the rocks, and be drawn up the cliffs by ropes." This place eventually fell, with much loss to the garrison.

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When the Puke-karoro pa at Te Mahia was besieged, the numerous garrison thereof was reduced to deplorable straits for want of food. Hence the people eked out their scant supplies by eating clay (uku), and the siege is often alluded to by the natives as Kai-uku, or 'Clay eating.' There are also accounts of some children being killed and eaten.

In an account of the siege and fall of the Puke-rangiora pa, at Taranaki, published in McNab's work, The Old Whaling Days, is a description of the sufferings of the besieged from want of food:— "Those who had plenty of provisions would not divide with the starving, and not even with the distant tribes who voluntarily went into their part to their assistance, and had not time to procure a sufficiency." In vol. 12 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society we find the following:—"When Wai-kato attacked the pa known as Te Ruaki, on the west coast of the North Island, they delivered an assault that was repelled by the garrison. Then they closely invested the fort by erecting right round it a strong stockade so as to prevent the garrison breaking out, or escaping, and then, for three months, they sat down before the doomed fort, until it fell. Many of its inmates were slain, many enslaved."

In his account of the siege of the Puke-rangiora pa when occupied by Waikato natives, Mr Skinner remarks:—"The besieging Ati-Awa now set to work and built an outer palisading and earthworks around Puke-rangiora, and closely pressed the inmates, besides cutting off all communications and food supplies. This shutting up the garrison within the pa gave rise to the name the siege is generally known by, Raihe poaka, or the 'pig-sty'; this was adding insult to injury." This siege lasted for seven months.

When the Ngati-Porou and other tribes attacked the Toka-a-kuku pa at Te Kaha in 1836, they erected other pa around it in order to invest it. It was in this fighting that the attacking force elected Christ as their war god, after the manner of the old time Jews, and other savages. Not that they made a wise selection, for they did not succeed in taking the place. Mr. Smith writes:—"The reason why this pa did not fall was due to the fact that it was so large that the people had cultivations inside, and plenty of food supplies stored."

In his Maori History of the Taranaki Coast, Mr. Percy Smith gives some account of preparations for attack made by the occupants of a pa called Te Taniwha, situated on a bluff four miles north of Waitara: "…They set to work to strengthen the defences of Te Taniwha pa. This place is situated at the mouth of the Waihi stream, which runs along under one side of the pa. In order to strengthen the defences, the people set to work and dammed up the stream, so as to make a lake on one side of the pa."

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The principal aim of an enemy was to invest a pa so closely as to prevent the inmates getting out for the purpose of obtaining fresh supplies of food and water. They would also use every endeavour to destroy the defences by fire, or other means.

It sometimes occurred that, after a pa had been besieged for some time, the attacking force would take a quantity of food near the defences and offer to exchange it for some of the children of the besieged, to serve as food for themselves. If this offer was accepted, then it was known that the besieged folk were very short of food. Whenever such an exchange of food supplies was made, the members of the garrison made a curious arrangement, it is said, so that they would not actually sell their own children for food. They swapped children, so that each seller sold another person's child, and handed over his own child to be sold by another, a singular way of salving the conscience. As a rule only female children were so exchanged for food, they being less valued than male offspring; save in cases where the supply of girls ran short, in which case, of course, the boys were used as a medium of exchange. "Male children would develop into fighting men, hence their greater value; a girl would never bear arms, and so become a protector for you in your later years. There is also another reason; girls may marry into another tribe, and hence their offspring go to strengthen such tribes, and are lost to you. A third reason for selling female children only is that men often take a fancy to them and so spare their lives, thus saving them from the oven."

In the time of Pehi Turoa, a party of Ngati-Raukawa raided the Whanga-nui valley, attacking and taking the Ma-kokoti pa, belonging to the Ngati-Rangi clan. The victors took possession of the pa and lived there for some time. In the meantime the local natives had assembled and invested the place closely until the invaders were starved into selling their children for food. These children were lowered down the cliff on which the pa stood, in baskets, to the enemy below. At length all the female children were disposed of, and but few male ones remained; these were gradually disposed of, until a boy named Apanui, of high rank, was put in a basket and lowered for sale. The investing force was informed of his rank, and, when Pehi Turoa and Hori Te Anaua saw that the besieged invaders were so hard pressed as to sell their young boys of high rank, they raised the siege and made peace.

In vol. 13 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, p. 163, is some account of an attack made on a pa near Flat Point at a time when the men were out at sea fishing:—"There were none left behind in the pa but the women of those who were out fishing. Knowing the page 165 fate that awaited them if the pa was captured, they determined to defend it. To this end they secured their husbands' weapons, and after placing bandages round their breasts so that their sex should not be discovered, proceeded to repulse Rangitane, in which they succeeded for some time. At this juncture the men out at sea, observing what was going on, hastened ashore, and landed in the rear of the Rangitane force. Rangitane were now between two parties of their enemies, and on a sortie being made by the women from the pa, fled away inland."

In his account of the fighting between the Ngati-Manawa and Ngati-Pukeko tribes at Te Whaiti and adjacent places, Judge Wilson says of the action at Mangatara:—"It was a very peculiar battle because it was fought by women. There were only 37 Ngati-Pukeko men engaged, all the rest who fought were women, and the odds against them were fearful. But first I should say that Ngati-Pukeko had been outgeneralled. They were scattered in pursuit of small parties, when suddenly Ngati-Manawa fell, with concentrated force, upon their headquarters, where their families were. The women were equal to the occasion. They rigged up guys so well that the enemy was deceived, and in forming for attack laid himself open to an irresistible onset on the flank. The Amazons displayed a wonderful courage and knowledge of the art of war. With hair cropped short and bodies nude, they charged into the undefended side of the enemy with such force as to throw him into confusion. page 166Moenga was the distinguished Amazon of the day; she fought with a paiaka, and hewed the enemy down on every side. On all sides the enemy fell, until he broke and fled."

The Maori woman could undoubtedly hold her own when necessity arose. During the fighting on the East Coast in the 'sixties', the Mawhai pa at Tokomaru was successfully defended by women against a vigorous attack by Hauhau hostiles. There were only five guns in the place; two of these were used by the only two able men in the place, the other three by young women. Other women cast stones on the enemy ascending the bluff, while a girl shot the leader, They killed thirteen of the enemy and wounded many others, eventually driving off the attacking force.

Escalading was sometimes practised. In some cases long poles were procured, to be used as rude ladders whereby to ascend a rampart or scarp. If these were not procurable, or not handy, wooden pegs were driven into the scarp as a means of ascent. This might be done by several parties at different parts of the defences, so as to confuse and distract the defenders.

The Awa-toto pa, at Heretaunga, which is said to have included some stone walls, or stone-faced walls, in its defences, was situated on a flat. Several attacks on this place failed, and then the following reckless scheme was adopted:—Four stout maori or swings were erected, one outside each of the four faces of the pa. These maori are long poles set upright in the earth, to the top of which are attached long ropes for the purpose of performing what we term 'giant strides.' Some of the most reckless of the fighting men volunteered to swing themselves over the defences by means of this apparatus, and it was arranged that the supply of aerial assaulters should be kept up until the gateway or defences could be forced. The first batch, foredoomed to dogs and vultures, swung over the defences until over the inner area, when they let go and dropped to the ground, where they were at once attacked and slain, fighting desperately to the grim last in obeyance to the old war man's maxim—"Me mate a ururoa te tangatd"—man should die like the uruoa shark, fighting to the last.

While this exciting scene was in progress other warriors had swung themselves into the fort and taken part in the desperate affray, but all were killed, and the venture failed. Kahutia and Turongo-tua were two of the slain. The place did not fall.

Judge Maning gives us in Old New Zealand a good picture of the energetic way in which a pa was prepared for an expected attack when a sudden alarm was given, and the accompanying excitement:—"All now was uproar and confusion; messengers were running like mad, in all directions, to call in stragglers; the women were carrying page 167fuel and provisions into the pa or fortress of the tribe. This pa was a very well built and strong stockade, composed of three lines of strong fence and ditch, very ingeniously and artificially planned; and indeed, as good a defence as well could be imagined against an enemy armed only with musketry.

"All the men were now working like furies, putting this fort to rights, getting it into fighting order, mending the fences, clearing out the ditches, knocking down houses inside the place, clearing away brushwood and fern all around the outside within musket shot. I was in the thick of it, and worked all day lashing the fence; the fence being of course not nailed, but lashed with torotoro, a kind of tough creeping plant, like a small rope, which was very strong and well adapted for the purpose. This lashing was about ten or twelve feet from the ground, and a stage had to be erected for the men to stand on. To accomplish this lashing or fastening of the fence well and with expedition required two men, one inside the fence and another outside; all the men therefore worked in pairs, passing the end of the torotoro from one to the other through the fence of large upright stakes and round a cross piece which went all along the fence, by which means the whole was connected into one strong wall. … The repairing of the stockade went on all one day and all one night by torchlight and by the light of huge fires lit in the inside. No one thought of sleep. Dogs barking, men shouting, children crying, women screaming, pigs squealing, muskets firing (to see if they were fit for active service and would go off), and above all the doleful tetere sounding. This was a huge wooden trumpet six feet long, which gave forth a groaning moaning sound, like the voice of a dying wild bull. Babel, with a dash of Pandemonium, will give a faint idea of the uproar….

"I learned something that day; and I, though pretty well 'up' in the noble science of fortification, ancient and modern, was obliged to confess to myself that a savage who could neither read nor write, who had never heard of Cohorn or Vauban, could teach me certain practical 'dodges' in the defensive art quite well worth knowing."

The Rev. J. A. Wilson, in describing a pa on Mayor Isle, states that, when Tautari of Ngati-Pukeko attacked it, his force was put to flight by a huge stone that was rolled down from the pa heights upon the attacking party:—"The stone, already arranged with levers beneath, was weighed out of its place over the edge of the rocky battlement, and let loose on the advancing mass. The thundering noise of the block, as in the stillness of night it passed through the severed files of the enemy, joined with the war yell of Ngai-Tai-whao, and all their musketry from the crest of the pa, made those page 168deep valleys resound and echo with revenge, driving back in confusion the assailants, who in haste gathered up their slain and wounded and retreated to their canoes."

In The Peopling of the North is given an account of how the occupants of the Mangere pa covered the land round their fort with shells, so that any enemies approaching it might be heard as they walked on the dried and fragile shells. The purpose of the shells was, however, divined by an attacking force, the members of which muffled the sound of their approach by spreading their garments over the shells. In the same work is an account of how the island pa of Motu-karaka was taken by means of placing long spars against the cliff and so constructing a rude ladder.

Colonel McDonnell gives some account of a pa known as Ka-rewa-ki-runga, situated on the left bank of the Hokianga, about twenty miles from the Heads:—"A high hill, the summit of which had, after great labour and skill, been fashioned by many hundreds of pairs of hands into a formidable pa, hewn out of the solid earth. It was the principal stronghold of the settlement, and even to the present day, though most of the outer lines have been filled up with dry leaves and rubbish, and the outer and deep ditch is now less than half its original depth, enough remains to form a good idea of what this fighting pa once was. It would probably have taken five hundred navvies, working with pick, shovel and barrow, twelve months hard work to cut down and form this work; but when one knows that all the tools with which this work was undertaken, and accomplished, were only bits of hard wood, pointed and burnt hard in a fire, and the only means of carrying away the thousands of tons of earth, stones and gravel, were small buckets made of flax, one is forced to admire the courage and perseverance of the Maori of those days….

"Ka-rewa-ki-runga was the fighting pa of the Popoto tribe, at the time I speak of, and they numbered over one thousand warriors. … The villages under Ka-rewa-ki-runga were Otaihau, Te Horeke, Parepare, Manga-tete, Manga-raupo and Wai-kahanganui. The pa frowned aloft some 700 feet above the villages, and commanded the whole, but about a mile from this hill were two other pa, which had also been cut out of a solid hilltop….

"Each of the three pa, even when no war party was expected, was held by an efficient garrison, and the tribe took turn and turn about, naturally and by instinct, to guard them. Hundreds of short darts, so pointed at the ends that, on striking an object, the point would remain in the wound, and, being barbed, prove difficult to get out, were kept in covered pits. Heaps of round iron stones, weighing from one to five pounds each, were collected from the beach and page 169piled up for the use of the slingers' kotaha; and heavy logs and boulders were kept in place on the outer ditch to use in case of an assault, and ready to launch over the precipitous sides of the pa, in case such a defence was required. Before early dawn, which the tui and bell bird heralded each morn, the war note of the watchers in the pa proclaimed all was well, and a good watch kept."

The above writer makes the following remarks concerning these forts at a time when enemies were expected:—"Each pa had its usual garrison doubled, and an extra row of manuka stakes was shown to have been placed round the already double palisaded pa. The green boughs and leaves were left on each stout stake, as a hint that any attempt to surprise the garrison would be vain, and without hope of success."

Later on, he again refers to the main pa:—"The top of Ka-rewa-ki-runga was oblong in shape, about eighty feet long by about fifty feet broad, about thirty-five feet above the rest of the hill from which it had been formed, and the sides were steeper than an angle of 45 degrees. A deep ditch surrounded this fortified mound, which was six feet deep and twelve feet wide, and the earth taken out of it, and from the cutting away to form the pa itself, was used to make outer lines of breast works, and make the rest of the hill steeper and smoother in doubtful places. A double palisade had stood on the outer edge of the ditch, and I remember several of the old puriri posts that had formed part of it, as sound in their positions as if freshly placed there, but I believe puriri will last as long as iron.

"During the war with Hone Heke in 1845-46, my father, Captain McDonnell, R.N., fortified Te Horeke, then our homestead, and had two 32-pounders dragged up to the top of Ka-rewa-ki-runga, and placed in position there, and at one time we had a garrison of 300 river natives, whom he partly armed with flint lock Tower muskets, and no end of ball cartridge; and there is no doubt the news of our garrison, and one upper and lower battery of two 32-pounders, seventeen pieces of cannon lower down, consisting of 18-pound carronades and long sixes, had a grand moral effect on those natives who were hesitating which side to join."

Again, we quote from the above writer an account of an attack on the three above mentioned pa made by Ngati-Whatua some years prior to the arrival of Captain Cook. The story is of interest as illustrating the treacherous side of the Maori character:—

The Popoto tribe of the three pa had given a feast to the Ngati-Whatua clan, over 2000 of whom attended. At the reception 1,500 fighting men of Whatua, and about an equal number of the Popoto performed the war dance, until, as the Maori narrator put it, the page 170Ka-rewa-ki-runga hill reeled again. So fine a feast was provided that the Whatua folk determined, when they left, to proceed but a little way on the homeward road, then to double back, approach the three pa under cover of night, and surprise them at dawn, wipe out the Popoto clan, and seize their fine food producing country; an excellent plan, but it did not work out right. When the visitors returned home, about twenty of the Popoto folk, including a girl named Ponaiti, accompanied them as an escort as far as the tribal bounds. When traversing the forest, the escort was attacked and slaughtered, except the girl, who was detained as a slave wife for a chief named Te Koukou.

Meanwhile the Popoto of the three forts were ignorant of all this:—"When Ponaiti, the girl, stood in their midst, nearly dead from fatigue and running, but she managed to tell her people of the slaughter of her father and other relatives, ending her horrible tale by saying that Te Koukou was on his way to surprise the three pa and kill everyone. Ponaiti said that she had so deceived Te Koukou as to lead him to think she would remain at Mangakahia till he returned, but she had fled through the forest after they left, to reach home ere they could attempt a surprise.

"Get ready for them"—was the only sentence that fell from Muriwai, the Popoto chief. And then—the tribe was like a flock of birds all at once. Men with tapu backs, and still more tapu heads, seized huge baskets of kumara, bundles of dried fish, gourds of water, and streamed up the hill sides to the three pa. In less than the roasting of a small kumara in the ashes, the villages were deserted, and all was quiet in three fortresses,—and ready.

"They will not go to the villages," said the leading warriors, "but will attack us at dawn; they think they are sure to surprise us, when the destruction of the settlements would follow."

"Scouts were sent down the hills to give notice of their approach. They soon returned and reported the advanced guard of the enemy creeping up the hills, followed by the main body. "Let them come close, and be ready with the logs and boulders, with slings and spears. I will give the charge"; such were the words of Muriwai. Several messengers were despatched, by the rear of the pa adjoining the bush, to warn the river natives at Opara, at Taheke, at Wairua, to warn them to attend to closing all the tracks, so that not one ol Ngati-Whatua should escape, after they were defeated, for that result was looked upon as a certainty, as the tohunga had foretold it.

"Silence now reigned in the three forts, as the occupants awaited the coming storm; but as objects began to form out of the darkness, page 171the enemy were seen within a few fathoms of the pa, preparing for the final rush up the steep slope in overwhelming numbers.

"The chief passed the word, and then one wild, horrible yell burst from Ka-rewa, quickly followed by two more frantic war cries from the two other pa. These were returned by the enemy, who had now to win or be eaten. It was a case of your head or mine, and the attacking force rushed up the slope to the assault; but the avalanche of rocks and logs, the showers of slung iron stones, the well aimed darts, met them and beat them down. The enemy fought with determination, well knowing the terrible result of defeat in a case like theirs. The three forts were attacked simultaneously, but heavy logs rolling down the steep side of the hills bore down tens of warriors, and many jaws were broken and skulls cracked by the slingers. At last, seeing that their attempt was hopeless, the enemy broke and fled in every direction. At once the pursuit was called by Muriwai:—"Show no quarter. Kill all; and the empty calabushes will be filled ere night. We will have enough dried heads to adorn every post in the fort and village, and our women shall sing to them with the flutes we will make out of their bones."

"The garrisons of the three forts streamed forth in pursuit, while old and infirm priests, who viewed the battle, cursed them in their flight. One such effusion was curious, 'Haere! Haere! Ka tahuna e au nga hinu o to tuaroa hei turama haere i to wairua ki Te Reinga. Haere! Haere! Tenei au te haere nei!" (Run! Fly! I will melt the marrow of your back-bones whereby to light your spirits to Hades. Run! Run! I am in pursuit.)

"And they ran. Many brave deeds were done, but what was the use of defeated men fighting? Many of them never warded off the death blow, lest they be made prisoners and tortured. Very few escaped. Many fell into the hands of those guarding the tracks, and their varied tortures afterwards amused the people for several days, until, finally, they were eaten.

"As for Ka-rewa, the hill side, from summit to base, smelled of the blood and flesh of men, for the slaughter had been great, but the tattooed heads of the slain enemies were dried and stuck upon the stockades of the forts, and on every carved post in the villages beneath."

With the curious fatalism of his race, the Maori at times persisted in defending positions that were emphatically weak, and seemed to engage in such foolhardy enterprises with a singular calmness.

In his account of the taking of Te Tumu pa in the thirties of last century, J. A. Wilson tells us that it was not a strong place, and that it contained only 100 men:—"The garrison was too weak to hold the page 172position against the large odds to be opposed to them, and too proud to desert it." The attitude adopted by Kiharoa, one of the principal chiefs of the pa, was apparently that of a fatalist:—"When asked if the enemy had not arrived at Maketu in great force, he replied by taking up a handful of sand, and saying, 'Yes, there is a man there for every grain of sand here.' Then, suffering the wind to blow the escaping sand away, he exclaimed, 'Hei aha!' (what of it!)" This pa was assulted by 1600 men; of the 100 men of the garrison, 67 were killed, also 180 out of 200 women and children in the pa were killed or enslaved.

Mr. Wilson relates a curious incident that occurred the night before the attack:—"And now, as morning approached, a young man volunteered to reconnoitre the pa, to ascertain whether the garrison was on the alert, and though several endeavoured to dissuade him from the rash attempt, he went. Passing in the shade along the river bank, he entered the pa as an inmate returning within its precincts, a not uncommon occurrence, and made his rounds without attracting attention, farther than that one man seemed to eye him for a while; then making his exit in the manner he had entered, he reported that the people had evidently been at their posts all night, but had gone to bed, leaving only a few sentinels on duty."

The introduction of firearms came as a great shock to the Maori, and rendered some of his defences utterly useless. Their keen minds, however, trained by many centuries of warfare and self-preservation, quickly grasped the new position and, by rejecting a few methods and modifying others, the Maori soon evolved a new form of redoubt superior to any constructed here by either Imperial or colonial troops.

Dr. Thomson, of the Imperial service, in writing of the pa maori, or native forts, remarks:—"Firearms have completely changed the construction of the above strongholds. Formerly the ditch, twenty-four feet deep, was dug to obstruct the enemy; now ditches are only five feet deep, and are used as rifle pits to fire out from. Loopholes and flanking angles have been introduced, and bells supply the place of gongs.

"In besieging fortifications New Zealanders held that wisdom was better than weapons of war; and never attempted open assaults. Occasionally red hot stones were thrown from slings, in the hope of setting a pa on fire, and advances were made close up to the walls by underground approaches, or by parties protected from the enemies' spears by shields of flax and reeds. But a pa was seldom page 173taken by such means, although sieges occasionally lasted six months. Treachery, stratagem, starvation, and panic were the chief instruments besiegers trusted in for success….

"In besieging a pa, the besieged were occasionally drawn out into ambushes by an apparent retreat. In such ambushes the parties were not crowded together, but stood some distance apart, as the proverb says, "About the distance of the taniwha's teeth."

"Forts have been captured by starvation. In such cases they were regularly invested by encircling them with stockades.

"Panics occasionally led to victory. … Night attacks were never made. The early dawn was the favourite hour for a surprise."

The depth of the fosse given above is excessive, and was but seldom seen, though when the scarp brows carried heavy ramparts the total depth of the inner scarp was in some cases 18 ft. to 25 ft. An excavation 24 ft. deep was certainly unusual, though occasionally seen. It also seems probable that forts were reduced by means of fire more frequently that the above writer implies. His remarks anent luring a garrison out of their fort by means of a feigned retreat are correct. Such a stratagem was often employed, and is termed manukawhaki. As to circumvallation, we have already seen that it was not a common occurrence. The great aim was to surprise an enemy.

The effect of firearms is well illustrated in an account of an expedition of northern natives to Taranaki and Port Nicholson, as related by one of the party, and translated by Mr. Percy Smith:—"We had with us four guns. When we arrived before a pa, our marksmen went in front of the party, and as soon as the enemy saw us, they would recognise us as a hostile party, and their warriors would ascend to the puwhara (fighting stages) so that they might be the better able to throw down stones at us. Those braves did not know of the gun, nor of its deadly effects. When they got up to the platforms, they would grimace and put out their tongues at us, and dare us to come to attack them. They thought that some of us would be killed by their stones. Whilst they grimaced away, we used to fire at them. It was just like a pigeon falling out of a tree. When the others heard the noise, saw the smoke and the flash, and the death of their braves, they thought it must be the god Maru that accompanied us, and that it was by his power that their men were slain by the thunder of that god Maru. Then the whole pa would feel dispirited, and stand without sense, so that we had only to assault the pa, without any defence from the people. The people of the pa would have all the lamenting and we all the cheers. Those that we killed, we ate; those saved we made slaves of."

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Both Imperial and Colonial troops have good cause to remember the pa maori When the British troops charged the redoubt or inner defence at Rangiriri, they encountered an unscaleable earthwork that effectively stopped them. At Orakau, a rough defence hastily thrown up by the natives, was assaulted twice ineffectually, and the troops were compelled to take to sapping and big gun fire for three days ere they could dislodge the defenders.