,o 3 2 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



posted Kawiti, with some two hundred men, on the road leading into the settlement from 

 Matauhi Bay, so as to cope with Commander Robertson and his detachment of Marines ; 

 and then, climbing the Hill, he lay down in ambush with about twenty men, only one 

 hundred yards distant from the Hag-staff. Before daylight on the iith, Kawiti attacked 

 Commander Robertson's position, and the noise of the firing having drawn Ensign 

 Campbell and his men outside the block-house to ascertain what was going on, Heke 

 and his braves bounded into the stronghold, shot the only soldier, who had remained 

 behind, and drove Campbell and the others in disorder down the Hill. Heke then 

 proceeded to cut down the flag-staff. In the meantime, Robertson had been defending 

 his position with great stubbornness, but when he saw the soldiers scampering down the 

 Hill, he spiked his gun and also fell back to Mr. Polack's house on the beach, where 

 the whole defensive force was now collected. Re-inforced by a party of sailors from the 

 Hazard, which was keeping up an active cannonade, the settlers and troops defended 

 themselves for three hours from the rebels, while the women and children were embarking 

 on the vessels in harbour. After they had got safely off, the powder-magazine on shore 

 exploded ; and, the strength of the enemy being evidently overestimated, it was then 

 decided to abandon the settlement. In astonishment at a contingency they had never 

 anticipated, the insurgent natives saw the whole of the troops and inhabitants betaking 

 themselves to Her Majesty's ship Hazard, the United States corvette St. Louis, the 

 whale-ship Matilda and the schooner Dolphin. They offered no molestation, but. when 

 the settlement was quite deserted they began to pillage. Some of the settlers ventured 

 on shore again to secure valuables, and the natives, instead of exhibiting any blood- 

 thirstiness, actually assisted them to remove articles to the beach. Children left behind 

 in the confusion of flight were sent uninjured to their parents ; and, earlier in the fight, 

 the wife of the signal-man having been taken prisoner, she was forwarded by Heke under 

 a flag of truce to the nearest British post. In fact, this chief, throughout the troubles, 

 excited a sentiment of admiration by his chivalry and magnanimity. After the town had 

 been looted, the greater part of it was given to the flames ; but, by the order of Heke, 

 the buildings at the southern end, comprising the English Church, the Roman Catholic 

 Bishop's house and printing office, several warehouses (the property of Americans), and 

 the Roman Catholic Chapel to the north, were preserved. During the engagement, 

 Bishop Selwyn (Anglican), and Bishop Pompallier (Roman Catholic), succoured the 

 wounded, and while the looting and burning were going on several of the missionaries 

 visited the settlement with perfect freedom. One of them, the Rev. R. Burrowes, relates 

 that he met one Maori with a bottle of lollies, from which he was regaling himself with 

 great gusto, and that " the noble savage " offered him some of the sweetmeats. 



In this affair at Kororareka, six seamen, four soldiers and one half-caste child were 

 slain ; and twenty settlers, soldiers and seamen were wounded. Amongst the latter were 

 numbered Commander Robertson, whose thigh had been shattered by a bullet, and Lieu- 

 tenant Morgan, both of the Hazard. It was computed that about thirty-four of the 

 natives fell, and that between fifty and sixty thousand pounds' worth of property was 

 destroyed. On the 131)1 of March, the vessels sailed with the soldiers and inhabitants for 

 Auckland, where their arrival with the news of the evacuation of Kororareka created 

 quite a panic. Barracks were built, block-houses hastily constructed, the settlers called 



