82 Transactions. 



but were repulsed with some slaughter ; and after renewing the attempt and 

 finding them too strong to be thus overcome, they determined to commence a 

 regular siege. For that purpose they intrenched themselves on the ground in 

 front of the pa, at the same time occupying some sand-hills which commanded 

 it on the eastern side, but from which it is separated by a branch of the great 

 swamp before referred to. In the meantime, some of the Ngaitahu who had 

 escaped from the first attack, favoured in so doing by their intimate 

 knowledge of the line of swamps which occupies the intervals between the 

 sand-dunes and the sea coast as far as Banks Peninsula, managed to reach. 

 Port Cooper, where they informed their people of the attack upon the pa, 

 arriving there in time to stop Taiaroa and those who were about to accompany 

 him to Otago. After collecting reinforcements from the villages on the 

 peninsula, Taiaroa and his forces made their way along the coast line as far as 

 the Waimakariri, availing themselves of the swamps above referred to, for the 

 purpose of concealing their march from any detached parties of the Ngatitoa. 

 On reaching the Waimakariri they crossed it on rafts (commonly called 

 mokihi by the natives) made of dried stalks of the Phormium tenax, and 

 concealed themselves until dark. Finding the hostile forces encamped along 

 the front of the pa, and warned by their watch-fires that they were on the 

 alert, they determined to ford the swamp at a narrow point on its western 

 side, and to enter it through an outwork erected there, that being the only 

 point along the line of the swamp which was at all weak. Using the utmost 

 caution in their approach to this point they succeeded in reaching it without 

 having attracted the notice of the besiegers, and at once plunged into the 

 swamp, trusting to be able to struggle through it and to enter the pa without 

 being attacked by the Ngatitoa. Knowing, however, that the defenders 

 would also be on the alert, they shouted the name of Taiaroa as they plunged 

 into the water, in the hope that their friends would recognise their voices and 

 take the necessary steps to admit them ; but the latter, believing it to be a 

 ruse of the Ngatitoa, opened fire upon them, which was kept up vigorously for 

 some time. The error having at last been discovered, and little damage 

 having fortunately been done, the main body of the warriors were admitted 

 into the pa, to the great joy of the handful of people by whom, up to that 

 time, the defence had been maintained. The siege operations were, however, 

 in but a slight degree afiected by this accession of strength to the besieged, for 

 although they made frequent sorties against the works of the Ngatitoa these 

 experienced warriors held them without difficulty, and repulsed them all with 

 loss to the assailants. The Ngaitahu, dispirited by their failures, soon 

 abandoned these tactics, and, trusting in the impregnable nature of the pa, 

 confined themselves to purely defensive operations. I ought to mention that 

 at the time the siege commenced the pa was well provisioned, besides which 



