554 
MAMAKU. 
two young men, and bid them go and murder some 
European ; they obeyed, and killed a poor fellow named 
Gillespie and his son, who were quietly at work when 
surprised, such was the native custom ; before dawn on the 
16th May 1846, an attack was made on a party stationed at 
Boulcott’s Farm ; the bugler, quite a lad, was struck by a 
tomahawk on the right arm, whilst sounding an alarm ; the 
brave youth immediately took the bugle in his left hand, and 
continued blowing, until a second stroke cleft his skull in 
two ; the men rushed from their sleeping quarters, and made 
a gallant stand, drove back the enemy, and maintained their 
post, with the loss of six killed and four severely wounded ; 
the officer in command, Lieutenant Page, showed great 
courage and self-possession on the occasion, otherwise he 
and the little band must have been cut off; such was the 
beginning of the war. Mamaku, a Chief of the Nga-ti- 
rangi, on the Upper Wanganui, was then on a visit to 
Wellington ; being importuned by Kangihaeata, he joined 
the hostile natives, and virtually became their leader ; they 
constructed a strong pa at Pauatahanui, near the furthest 
extremity of Porirua Harbour, and against that point the 
efforts of the military were next directed ; the hostile natives, 
however, finding it was commanded by the cannon, abandoned 
it on their approach, and selected a more tenable spot in the 
Horokiri Valley; there the next fight took place on the 13 th 
August 1846 ; several of our men fell in gallantly storming 
the heights on which it stood. 
The Chiefs then conducted their men along the mountain 
ranges to Waikanae, and after several skirmishes, in which a 
few prisoners were taken by our Maori allies, and one, to our 
disgrace, hung for defending his native land, the enemy 
reached Poroutawhao, where Eangihaeata remained secure 
amidst the swamps which surrounded the place. Mamaku 
there left him, and returned to Wanganui, where he tried to 
raise a force to aid his former ally ; he came down upon the 
town with about eighty men, but the Uga ti Kuaka and 
Putiki natives came forward and defended it ; the inhabit- 
ants, to mark their gratitude for this seasonable protection. 
