CHAPTER II.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 237, 14 January 1888, Page 2

CHAPTER 11.

11 A detachment of us were shortly, de« to the seat of war, and assisted in the construction of GeneralPratt's wonderful 1 sap, and in the endless digging and, the aimless shooting of the queer little campaign. , " At first when we used to.parad© at two o'clock in the morning, and go plodding in the darkness and dreary silence through the tangled fern to some distant rendezvous, Bob would surmise that we were going to do a little moonlighting, or to drop on them as they came in to water, taking, an Australian backbloeks' view of the sifcua : ° tiori. He soon, however, began to understand that dropping on them did not constitute any part of the programme—that the mode of conducting the war was by burrowing, and by taking-long shots ab a perfectly covered enemy from behind masses cf earth. In this mode of fighting the expenditure of ammunition was enormous and the daily loss of life nominal, as also was the progress made ; the enemy had the initiative all the way, and used it with very fair judgment, and in the end the daily losses during the making of the sap would have been found to far exceed the- cost in life of seizing the position attained by it (the sap) by one bold dash. ' Day by day we ground through the daily routine of four hours' work at the sap, and four hours' - firing afc a belt of bush> and four hours in reserve. Bob Gray would impatiently ask of some of the older soldiers 'when was the fighting to begin,' or was war always like this, and it was sometimes very difficult foi? him to restrain himself from giving expression to his ideas about the way things were managed. ; However, we gob very well used' to the ping of, - the bullets as they dropped, harmlessly in n^ost cases, about us, and we had two or three little skirmishes to break the monotony, in - some of which the Maoris certainly gave us as good as they got,; .and in all cases showed good judgment as well as great pluck in their movements. They were ever on tlie alert to make the most of any chance that circumstances might fchnow in their way, and very seldom indeed did they give away a chance. On one occasion, however, I remember a party qf the Maoris, anxious to cub off some fern-gatherers, had crept along under the cover of a thin belt of timber, until, whilst being in a good position themselves for the accomplishment, of their own object, they were at' the same time exposed to be cut off by a counter movement from the head of the sap. Major Nelson, of the 40th Regiment, commonly known as ' Taipo, 1 from the reckless way in which he used to expose himself to_ the enemy's, A firej' wishing to ascertain exactly their position,»and also to draw attention in that direction, so that the chance might riot be los ,' gajloped right to the head of the' belt of timber, and, as I suppose he cxi pected to do 1 , drew'the Maoris fire. They gave him. a yolleyaba distance otperhaps. ten or fifteen yards, and, strange to say, not one shot hit him. The Major remained there for ', three or four minutes,^beckoning wildly in the direction in which, the, party should have been sent out to cut them, off. Meantime the Maoris becoming alitfe "to the danger that; ought to have threatened them, stole quietly back to a .position of safety, and the 'Major, galloped back,fuming. ' 4 u • " When ' Bob Gray saw the volley fired at, .the Major,, he saidj 'Nosy there'll bea,mdb from the head of our lot jerked out to cut off the tail of that lot.' He couldn't get out' of the habit of looking at things from a cattle 3 camp point of View. J : TO > £ 1/ f ' " Bfitf M<? ni'ob' wasVt < jerked-" 6\i6 'to cub them off, ,and t although the Maoris failed to effect fclieir object -they niusb have laughed in their sleeves at the ease of their escape from what' -should have been a very ugly fix. „»,,,. < ■ ■> - uV' - '! And 1 by-ahcUby* that Htfcle war cams to ; aii end, an t d rio fine, was* M> ajtf &6i?ryy \yhenx ,^e f goi .back' "to settled quarters in £he, per.-.^ narietttrciamp' which' had' been' established ab A^h r isu,,.a? village j&bbftt titin.e, milea\from Auckland/ % *• '-it „-; ,«•*«, ' w Min,/a:;Vei>y sWor^^ime^ hb%evef; u tfte trodps, wer^tag i aii|,,OTd^d f 3Kf l <?oJintjg l yfe 4 bheicbnftrtfeti6n of thermmfcary road across 1 the Hunu&\Rattges4i6 *jbhe WUikatOtCOuntrys, >4\ p»isVioc^sid%sihMev%^'te m^ml i^ssgsm^ fUM iQbif) M tK^ihtenim/aeiS h'^a plMnl^ «b|lbeen idle, as .^^e^Mb»MN^

i J^he|^Sg| had met me in camp ab Ata1 ftuhuTafwi 4 return of the regiment; from the Waikato, he had proposed a walk to the village, and I, nothing loth, had at once consented, thinking that he wanted to have what he would term a good pitch. ! "We dressed and wont away across the paddocks and over the little footbridge that spanned the creek, and up into the village, and Bob brought me>jts the door of onqlbf*the pensioners' cottages^, and lifting ifi*? Jatcji wilhf.th^Mvmtf, proprietor phtered Wd invited 'mePto follow; him. * Ididsp, and ■'foShc^mysolf iha^maUjroom, scantily and po^ly furnished, in' which were seated an pieman and .woman. \ 4 *• 'My wife and child, her mother and her father, John Dent, formerly of the 10th Foot. What do you think of the youngster?' It's a girl, and don't you think it'sjiko its mother V „ And Bob took the infant from its mother's arms and placed it'in mine, and there I stood with it looking, as you may imagine, somewhat -foolish-' and feeling a bit puzzled, whilst Bob continued, 'and tins, Nell, is my comrade Jack Hill ; you hoard mo speak of him often.' . , " 'I, think I know him almost as well, although we have never met, as you do yourself. And I am very glad indeed now to meet him.' said Mrs Gray, as she, rose with the grace, of a lady, and offered her hand with unaffected cordiality. I passed the infant over to my left arm, | somewhat ' after the' manner of ' support arms' with a cavalry carbine, and then | shook' hands with Mrs Gray. j * " l And now,' said Bob, ' Jack's a bit i astonished at what he's heard, and it's made him thirst}'. Get out the bottle, mother, and take a seat, Jack. We're ' going to have a little house-warming tonight. [ "I surrended the infant to Mrs Gray, and found a seat. The .old lady produced the I bottle" and glasses, and the old man in a quiet way stole about and replenished' the fire and put on a kettle of water, and brought out from some. obscure corner some sugar and a lemon. And then the punch was brewed and the glasses were filled, and -Mrs Grny was induced t<3 take a little sip, and her mother to take a scries of little sips, which speedily emptied her glass^ And old John Dent insisted upon drinking my health, and his son-in-law's health, and his granddaughter's health, and then he became garrulous, and, after the manner of the old soldier, he fought his battles o'er again, and told how bravely the old Tenth had borne itself at ' Sobraon ' and 'Googerat,' of how the withering fire of the splendidly disciplined, Sikh infantry had decimated the fine old regiment, whilst they had still pressed on, conquering and to conquer ; of how they had still maintained their ancient character through the troubled times of the 'mutiny; of how, in abort, afc any rate from his (John J)ent's) point of view, the old Tenth was second to none in the British or any other service ; and of how that he, John Dent, had been in his time one of the smartest men in the blessedregiment. "The gray and shrivelled old- man did not look like even the remains of the man he professed.to haye been, but ho no doubt believed it himself, and it was well that it should be so. When the' British soldier ceases to have faith, in himself and faith in and veneration for his regiment, it will be a ; sorry time for the British army. "And then Bob Gray told the story of his courtship and his wedding, and Mrs Gray smiled and blushed and caressed her infant, and her mother sipped her punch, [ with increased vigour, and John Dent I showed his medals and his wounds, and gaid he'd like to hear somebody say something, agajnst the Tenth ;• but nobody was | disposed to gratify him in this respect, and : as tajbtoo was at hand we left, under, the 1 impression that we had spent a pleasant evening, as I suppose in a mariner we had. I "Gray, with his usuUi thoughtlessness, had married and trusted to luck to furnish him with all the ireans of keeping a wife, and luck had in a manner served him*. He had obtained, shortly after his marriage, an : appointment as clerk in the Brigade Office, this appointment carrying with it a very ac ceptable addition to his pay ; his skill in the use of the small sword also enabled him occasionally to earn a little money by giving lesson 8 in fencing to the young officers. His wife was an expert needlewoman, and, having won by her pleasant manners and good looks the good will of the ladies of the regiment, was frequently able to earn some money by doing fine needlework, aud, as Bob's uniform good conduct had secured for him some small privileges not usually granted to soldiers, all went well with them for a time very smoothly and happily. " Suddenly, however, in the winter of 1863, came the order for the despatch of troops to the Waikato. Gray, throwing up his clerkship, rejoined his regiment, and after bidding a hurried farewell to the young wife and to the child that' he was doomed never to see again,, marched with his regiment and the other troops to the. front, and together we took part— he and I— in the marches arid skirmishes and other operations in. the campaign in the Waikato, and its alternations of good and bad times, mostly, however, bad. . Wo bathed in the beautiful river, and, when we got the chance, we climbed the forest-clad hills, and descended the precipitous gullies, with their sides clothed in magnificent masses of tangled and varied foliage. We f rejoiced ' in the beauty that shonetonius'from the face of jiature, for we were in *a land that was very fair to look upon," and, for. the rest ,we took the occasional*; hard knocks incidental to the life of, a soldier in the field ; as our barrack-room training of years gone by had taught us that a man should take his knocks, without 'making ay noise about them ; and, by the way, \ve, also took - any stray pigs,' cattle,- or provender of the Maoris, when we could lay 3 hands on them, and; just to gratify our Saxon instinct of , destructivenes?iv we' always burned a village or knocked a^mjll to pieces when 1 we could. It was so easy? to, put a lighted match in a whare, 'and the/ Vaupo was .such capital blazing stuff. ' I am' speaking now of damage, doije by- Tommy, I Atkins in ' purely j wanton thoughtlessness,' arid l not of ' destruction by authority for military- purposes/* ' , ! ' ',' By-an4-Byo fifty men of our regiment, Bob and I >o bein,g of^.th.'e number, , /were detailed, together^ with similar detachmenps of cither regiments, to'forin a flying column* for jthe* purp6se T of s'douririg the' b~usli, ' ah'd -ftghting.Maoris, as it were with fcheiif wri we&ponsj /indjj after* a-.gopd ,deal ? ofdesjaltory matching and ( Qounterjna>\cl)ing, t we,' that is ?the" flying 'column,' found our-, selves,,, together] with> asbrongNaval Brigade'aridj Jfie^rci^nd 6>Bth, regiments tight ' ' "arid some other detachments^ before a strong position held by* the Maoris 'atf-pe QkW'PahV' near* Taufanga. Some had been landed, <and the xipsitjpn , %&? SbettiJ» TOerk G Wtil'k ft bleWtviae;' |enoJgJj & ?forsfScomte^fi HfteW3PsS? ■ thHuj^thfcJ : made/J^nH> iter-had'itfe&tf 'Htf MBaulc, the 43rd Jorming^he.stormingn ip«rjy, whilst the ri *6BM s werVplSs^ea~!o as i to' f: off t^© enje,my/s 4 retteafci'ih the £venfc of ft^|[a|tejnjtijji&|fe3t/g4<?ltt>vay^'fi|ndliltli^ 4#d ; fwe-the" m^im^i&i^M

tended and opened fire on the Maoris— & steady, deliberate fire, never discharging: a shot unless afc a definite mark, and evercreeping a little forward from time to time as a lull in the enemies' fire, or bit of cover, gave us the chance, until at last we succeeded in establishing oursnlves ia murderously close proximity to the Pah* and the fire of the Maoris was reduced to fifeblo, aimless, harmless sputtelj^There s \ grand spirit -pf limufaijion^amqngsb r dfetnchmefttsf and- we made I , '»bat day, a' masterly display of scientific skinmishingc" Meantime, the' 43rd Regimoiit^and the Naval Brigade was /ormed, upJjeady for the assault, and impatiently Svaibitig fox' the 1 word to advance. Ab this "time, the firing was very slack indeed, and Bob Gray (he and I made a file 'that day, as we always did when there was fighting going: on) placed his hand on my arm, and* said, 'Jack, if anything happens to me to-day promise that you'll look after Mabel for me.' The words were said with simple earnestness, and when I looked" in Bob's face, although I saw there no evidence^of feav — he was incapable of feeling that-^-I saw presentiment or foi eboding, and his eyeswere full of unshed tears. I answered briefly — it wasn't a time for many words — 'Yes, depend on me.' And at thab moment the stormers swept past us. "The grand old regiment, proud "of itsancient historic name, proud of itself and of tho gallant men- who were leading it, dashed, together with the Naval Brigade, into the breach, confident of victory.; and,, as they did s>o, up rose the fiend-like } yetl' r from friend and foe, that 'told that' thebloocl thirst was aroused— that the frienzied rapburo, the savage intoxicaton of battle was changing men into very demons ; andi we— we, too, caught the infeption", and ran, racing like schoolboys, into the breach — alas ! only to be too late. "The 43rd had received a check. The Maoris finding themselves unable any longer; to defend the bveach, had taken shelter inu their, rifle pits, from whence, at ranges of from 10 to 30 yards, 4 they were pouring a' continuous and deadly tire into the '43rd and Naval Brigade, who were fairly pinned in the breach. Their officers lay dead in front of them. The flying column, trying to get in, blocked their i*ear, and prevented their retirement. They were without), leaders, und wero facing a danger of a novel character, and they were puzzled and helpless. Could the flying column have gob i» they would have knowi\, from past experience, how to deal with the Maoris in the pits ; but the press of men in theirfront prevented this. " And then .came the reinforcements to the enemy— men who earlier had striven to make their escape, but had found their retreat cut off by the 68th, now returned to the pah, the defenders of which, thus strengthened, fairly drove the stoVmers oub of the breach. " V There was no resisting the downward pressure of that wave of disheartened and leaderless'Boldier3. Equally there was^no r resisting the frenzied rush of the horde of exultant savages who folio ;ved, leaping, yelling, chopping, and slashing, with tamahawk and meri-meri. "I was borne to the ground, bruised, # bleeding, and, as I thought, badly wounded, ' in tho backward rush ; and thrse or four men, soldiers and Maoris, falling dead. on top of me, fairly, in a manner, pinned me tv the earth. t As I foil, I saw Bob Gray, surrounded by several Maories, fighting like a dcvil — saw the gleaming blade of a longhandled tomahawk, wielded by a huge chief with a horribly-tatooed face descend on his scull, and saw him drop '— dead. "It's now twenty-one years gone since the affair at' the Gate Pah, and yet, Jack, ' the memory of those last few, minutes in, . that breach 'is as fresh as if it all occurred yesterday, and sometimes" a look of Mabel's . or a tone will bring back the memory of poor old Bob — pass the punch, Jack, gob something the matter with my' throat— oh J better now — yes, bring back the memory of > Bob in such wise as makes me fanoy that his spirit must know how I hope and long to r rojoin him in the Hereafter. He was ariC ideal soldier, and to me he was a true and faithful comrade — a tried and trusted' friend. " Well, during the night the Maoris stole away from the position they had defended so stoutly through the day, and nexfe morning General Camerons men occupied the place, collected' their wounded, and • buried their dead. And in due course a redoubt was built upon the site of the Maori pah ; some troops were left to garrison it, and the remainder of the force withdrawn for service elsewhere. "I managed to get about after two or three weeks, and was able to rejoin the ' column before it left .Tauranga for the Waikrtto, and shortly afterwards, when the flying column was broken up, rejoined .my company.