HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1035 



1 2th, Waka had engaged the enemy at rather close quarters and had repulsed them, 

 Heke being wounded in the thigh while endeavouring to carry off his friend Kahakaha, 

 and several other chiefs being placed hors dc combat. The expeditionary force reached 

 Ohaeawai on the 23rd. This stronghold stood in a clearing of the forest about five 

 hundred yards square, and was very skilfully fortified. A square flank projected on each 

 side, it was surrounded with three rows of palisades, between the inner and middle 

 fences there was a ditch with traverses furnished with loop-holes, and inside the pah 

 there were huts with bomb-proof excavations. Heke's forces numbered about two hundred 



A MAORI CANOE RACE. 



and fifty men, and were armed with single and double-barrelled guns, besides having 

 two ships' guns. Active operations were commenced on the morning of the 24th with 

 a cannonade from Major Wilmot's battery, but it seemed to make very little impression 

 upon the pah. The three following days were uneventful. Colonel Despard wished to 

 storm the pah, but was dissuaded by the strong representations of Waka and others. 

 On Monday, the 3Oth, a thirty-two pound gun from HM.S. North Star was placed in 

 position and fired with some effect. Next day an unexpected sortie was made from the 

 pah upon a breastwork held by Waka; a soldier in charge of the thirty-two pounder 

 was shot at his post ; and a British flag having been captured, it was hoisted underneath 

 Heke's flag within the pah. This appears to have decided Colonel Despard to storm 

 the pah the same afternoon, although Waka and other friendly chiefs urged that the 

 attempt would be foolish until the thirty-two pounder had made a sufficient breach. 

 Captain Marlow, senior engineer officer, was of the like opinion. At 3 p.m., one 

 hundred and sixty men under Majors Macpherson and Bridge, and forty seamen and 

 volunteers under Lieutenant Philpott, R.N. (a son of the Bishop of Exeter), paraded for 

 this forlorn hope. They rushed on the pah at eighty yards, and amidst a deadly and 

 continuous fire laboured with dauntless courage for fully ten minutes to make a breach 



