, 66 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



word " ffau," accompanied by mesmeric passes of the hand. Finally, its priests and 

 prophets were endowed with superhuman powers. Part of its ritual consisted in dancing 

 round a lofty pole called a " AY;/," chanting gibberish, interspersed with the names of 

 Jehovah, the Virgin Mary, Gabriel and Joshua, whose spirit led them in battle. Their 

 enemies were decapitated in order that their heads might be hung upon the " Niu." 

 Captain Lloyd's head was embalmed and carried about as an oracle or medium of 

 communication with Jehovah. On Saturday, the 3Oth of April, 1864, the Hauhaus tested 

 their boasted invulnerability by attacking the Sentry Hill Redoubt, six miles north of 

 New Plymouth. They advanced in a close column, four deep, throwing their arms 

 about, and yelling the word "Han" with an effect which resembled the barking of 

 dogs. The garrison seventy-five men of the Fifty-seventh, under Captain Short 

 received them with a destructive volley, backed up by a discharge of grape. For some 

 time the enemy stood this deadly fire, but at last they turned and fled, leaving thirty- 

 four killed and wounded. 



Despite this check, the singular frenzy spread. Fortunately for the settlers of 

 Wanganui, the friendly Maoris in that district resisted the progress of the Hanhaus 

 down the River, and invited them to a pitched battle on the island of Moutua. The 

 Hauhaiis, to the number of three hundred, accepted the challenge, and the fanatics were 

 cut to pieces, losing, among others, the prophet Matene. The Provincial Government of 

 Wellington raised a monument to the memory of its allies who had fallen in this 

 encounter. For the rest of the year the colony enjoyed repose, which was not even 

 interrupted by the escape of two hundred and fourteen Rangiriri and other prisoners 

 from the island of Kawau, near Auckland, in September. With the opening of 1865, 

 operations were resumed on the west coast, the disaffected natives having opposed the 

 construction of a road between \Vanganui and New Plymouth, and closed the Waitotara 

 block. In January, General Cameron set out with a force of two thousand men from 

 Wanganui, and marched along the coast-line to the Waingongoro, to the derision of 

 the enemy, who attacked him boldly at Nukumaru, on the south bank of the Waito- 

 tara, where he would have been defeated with loss but for the timely arrival of a 

 reserve of friendly natives. He declined to penetrate inland, owing to the refusal of the 

 Governor to apply for re-inforcements of two thousand men, without which the General 

 maintained it was impossible to open up communication, or to reduce a strong native 

 pah at Wereroa. In consequence of his strained relations with the Governor, which were 

 marked by a very acrimonious correspondence, the General went into winter quarters in 

 April. Thus thrown upon his own resources, Sir George Grey collected a force of 

 three hundred and nine friendly natives under Major McDonnell, and one hundred and 

 sixty-four Forest Rangers and Wanganui Cavalry under Major Rookes, and accompanied 

 them to the dreaded Wereroa Pah, which fell into their hands on the 2ist of July without 

 a struggle, fifty Hauhans being taken prisoners. After this, Major Brassey was relieved 

 at Pipiriki, where he had been beleagured. The line of coast from Wanganui to New 

 Plymouth had also been opened from end to end after Cameron's departure from 

 Auckland, and, as early as February, the Wanganui friendlies, under Hoani Wiremu 

 Hipango, had defeated the Hauhaus severely at Okotahi, but the brave chief himself fell. 



On the ist of August, General Cameron resigned command of the troops, and was 



