112 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. V. 
contest ensued, ending in the retreat of the invaders, 
and their total rout along the sandy beach. 
Rauperaha, who had failed to bring the assistance 
of men and ammunition which he had promised to 
IVatanui, landed from his canoe late in the skirmish, 
but swam through the surf to it on the first symptoms 
of defeat, the Ngatiraukawa losing many men in a 
vigorous rally made to cover his escape. 
The numbers engaged had been, from all that we 
could gather, about equal on both sides, to the amount 
of 400 or 500 men each ; but the defeated had left 
fifty dead on the field, and the conquerors only eigh- 
teen. The beaten party had managed to carry off their 
wounded, of whom there were a much larger number 
on both sides. 
We had just made up a boat's crew from the cabin 
party, to go over and see the field of battle, the sur- 
geons taking their instruments with them, when a 
message arrived from Rauperaha. He was on Evans's 
Island, the nearest to the ship of the three islets, and 
expressed a desire to see Colonel Wakefield. We 
therefore pulled round and went to see him. 
He had just returned from the scene of bloodshed, 
whither he asserted that he had gone to restore peace ; 
and, seeing the arrival of our ship, which was taken 
for a man-of-war by many even of the Europeans, he 
had l^etaken himself with all his goods to the residence 
of an English whaler named Thomas Evans, on 
whom he relied for protection from some imaginary 
danger. 
We had heard, while in Cloudy Bay, that Rau- 
peraha had expressed himself in somewhat violent 
terms towards us for purchasing Port Nicholson without 
his sanction ; and he was described by the whalers as 
giving way to great alarm when told what the ship 
