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With the Lost Legion in New Zealand

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With the Lost Legion in New Zealand iviittuuaimaatiuitiuiruuutmaam WITH THE LOST LEGION IN NEW ZEALAND COL G. HAMILTON' BROWNE (MAORI BROWNE) ifwWMMri*wMww>wiM»KiititiaaMtw»vtwtMw»Mtfiniwwiti*8Mw .it Mf t-Tii "rmfi''' 2)// WITH THE LOST LEGION IN NEW ZEALAND NEW ZEALAND By Dr Max Herz. With 60 Illustra- tions and a Map. I2s. 6d. net. THE AEROPLANE -PAST, PRE- SENT, AND FUTURE By Claude Grahame - White and Harry Harper. Medium 8vo. Very Fully Illustrated. 15s. net. THE MYSTIC BRIDE: A Study of the Life of Catherine of Siena By Mrs Aubrey Richardson. Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 12s. 6d. net. FAMOUS CASTLES AND PALACES OF ITALY By E. B. d'AUVERGNE. Medium 8vo. Illustrated with Colour and Half-tone Plates. 15s. net. OFF THE MAIN TRACK By Stanley Portal Hyatt. Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 12s. 6d. net. WERNER LAURIE, Cli«ord'B Inn, London G. HAMILTON-BROWNE. WITH THE LOST LEGION IN NEW ZEALAND BY Colonel Q. HAMILTON-BROWNE "MAORI BROWNE" Late Commandant in Colonial Forces ILLUSTRATED BY S. VALDA LONDON T. WERNER LAURIE CLIFFORD'S INN THIS WORK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR TO THE MEMORY OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE LOST LEGION WHOSE BONES LIE BURIED IN FORGOTTEN GRAVES ON THE WILD FERN RANGES AND IN THE DENSE BUSH OF NEW ZEALAND WHERE THEY FELL FIGHTING FOR QUEEN AND FLAG CONTENTS PAGE Preface I PART I CHAPTER I. Why I JOINED THE Lost Legion 5 IL The Hau Haus 14 in. I START TO JOIN THE LoST LeGION . 28 IV. I JOIN THE Lost Legion 54 V. My Baptism of Fire. Otapawa 74 VI. A Frolic with the Kupapas 95 VII. Bush-whacking 109 VIII. "And we die, and none can tell them " WHERE we died . 130 IX. I JOIN THE Troopers. 151 X. How Maoris should be fought 170 XI. Sport X la Lost Legion 183 XII. The Year of the Lamb 200 XIII. Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu . 223 XIV. Moturoa .... 239 PART II I. Yarn of the Gate Pah 251 II. Te Kooti .... 276 III. Ngatapa .... 286 I CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IV. Back to the West Coast 306 V. The Uriwera Campaign VI. The Taupo Campaign 345 VII. The Taupo Campaign—continued 359 VIII. Hide-and-Seek with Te Kooti 380 IX. The End of New Zealand Wars 389 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS G. Hamilton-Browne . Pve had my share of pastime^ and Pxie done my share of toil^ Aftd life is short—the lotigest life a span ; I care not now to tarry for the corn or for the oil. Or for the wine that maketh glad the heart of man. For good undo7ie and gifts misspent and resolutiotis vain, 'Tis somewhat late to trouble. This I know— / should live the same life over, if I had to live again j And the chances are I go where most men go. A. LINDSA V GORDON. PREFACE Every Johnny not a professional novelist has, I suppose, some reason besides making money when he sits down to write a book, for, as far as I can see, there is deuced httle pleasure to be gained by the author while occupied in doing so, especially if, like myself, he should have passed some forty years of his life on the frontiers of the Empire, and, with the exception of writing an occasional letter, has never, during that time, taken a pen in his hand. My reason is that during the last three or four years, since broken health and bad luck drove me back to civilisation, such as it is in England, I have frequently been knocked end-ways by the woeful ignorance of all classes of Englishmen, not only of the history of the various colonies that form the Empire, but also of the struggles of the men in acquiring and holding the same. Again I have noticed no one ever gives the colonial irregular troops the least credit of having fought and suffered in the Imperial cause, nor does anyone in this country seem to be aware of the debt the Empire owes to the men of the Lost Legion. Not long ago I dined at the same table with a big city pot, who after dinner gassed inordinately about OUR Empire, laying a great stress on the " our," as if he had been a prime mover in the settle- ment of every country contained in it. New Zealand was the country under discussion, and amongst 2 PREFACE other twaddle he discoursed on the wonderful progress WE (a very big '' we ") had made in those islands. During a pause in the conversation I " humbly asked him : How did England acquire " this fruitful country ? With a disdainful smile he condescended to inform me Captain Cook found " " it and gave it to England. But/' said I, surely in my young days I remember a lot of fighting going on there." " Oh yes," he replied, " there " was some trouble out there, but WE " (a big " we again) "sent out our soldiers, who soon put a stop to that, and then WE" (a huge ''we" this time) " developed the country until it is one of the gardens of the world." Still with due humility I asked if he were a New Zealand colonist, and was " not astonished when he repUed : Good gracious me, no ; 1 have never been in the country, and except to occasionally visit the Continent, I never leave England." This and many other instances determined me to jump into the breach, and try if a yarn, even written by such a duffer as myself, can educate some few of my countrymen, and let them know what sort of a life the men of the Lost Legion led during the wars that took place in New Zealand from 1866 to 1871, which wars eventually pacified the North Island, and were fought without the assistance of a single Imperial soldier. Moreover thousands of novels have been written with plots founded on the splendid achievements of our gaUant army and navy, then why should not one be penned about the deeds of the Lost Legion, the men who have not only rolled out the map of the Empire, as the deft hand of a cook rolls out PREFACE 8 a lump of dough, but who have also held that ground until properly settled by their own country- men. Innumerable and unknown are the graves of the Lost Legionaries, slain as they have been by the bullet, tomahawk and assagai of their savage opponents, or cut down by hunger, thirst and the malarial fevers of the lands into which they have penetrated. And now if I need any further excuse for in- flicting this badly written (for I claim no preten- sions to literary skill) yarn upon you, let me inform you that in the main the facts are all strictly true, and that the men I have tried to depict lived, starved, fought and died in the very manner de- scribed in this volume. So now that we are inspanned let's trek. THE LOST LEGION Thcre^s a Legion that never wtis Histed^ That carries no colours or crest But split in a thousand detachments Is breaking the road for the rest. We preach in advance of the army., We skirmish ahead of the Church, With never a gunboat to help us, When wdre scuppered and left in the lurch. But we know as the cartridges finish. And we're piled on our last little shelves. That the Legio7i that never was Histed Will send us as good as ourselves. RUDYARD KIPLING. WITH THE LOST LEGION IN NEW ZEALAND PART I CHAPTER I WHY I JOINED THE LOST LEGION I, Richard Burke, at least so I am told, for although present myself I cannot claim a vivid recollection of the fact, was born shortly before the middle of the last century. My father was a major in H.M. army, having the reputation of being a very smart soldier, and was also looked upon as being one of the best sportsmen in the service, as he was justly famous, not only in the saddle, but also as a shot, a fisherman and a general good all-round man. This, together with being descended from a very ancient Irish family, made him popular both in the service and in society. My mother was a member of an old Lancashire county family, most of whose men - folk had for generations worn the Queen's scarlet, so that from both sword and distaff side I inherited the longing to be a soldier. My paternal grandfather, who had been a distinguished cavalry officer during the Peninsular War, was a big county magnate, and on his death left two large estates, my father inheriting the old family demesne and mansion situated in 5 6 \VITH THE LOST LEGION the north of Ireland ; and now I think I have told you quite enough about my family belongings. I was the fourth son, and from my earliest youth was looked upon as the unlucky member of the family, being always in hot water. At a very tender age I took a delight in watching my father's regiment at drill, and the first licking I ever got was for a breach of military discipline, the crime being that while under lawful control of my nurse I had committed mutiny by direct disobedience of orders, and had aggravated that crime by con- duct unbecoming a soldier, insomuch as by crawUng through a drain I had broken away from my escort, who, being portly, not to say fat, was quite unable to follow me, and in direct defiance of her repeated orders had betaken myself to the barracks, where I was subsequently discovered and arrested while plajang at soldiers with the barrack children.
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