256 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VIII. 
the /)«, and is defended by native fences and trenches of 
the strongest kind. A double row of stockades is tilled 
in with earth to the height of a man, leaving small 
holes level with the ground. A trench inside the 
stockade is dug to the depth of a man's body ; and 
spears and muskets are thrust by the defenders through 
the small holes. A second bank is raised inside the 
trench, from behind which a second row could ply 
their weapons against the stormers of the palisadoes ; 
and high fighting stages, protected by fences stuffed 
with turf, also afford commanding stations for de- 
fenders to fire over the outer fence. The entrance, 
through which only one man can pass at once, is so 
twisted as to be exposed to the enfilading fire of the 
whole line of defenders. 
There were signs, outside the stockade, of two outer 
rows of defences in former times ; as artificial banks 
reached from cliff to cliff across the neck. Thus three 
strong stockades, one commanding the other, must 
have made this side impregnable to Maori warfare; 
and an assault, except by stealth, on the other faces, 
would have been sheer madness. It was here that 
Rauperaha paused for some months during his inva- 
sion of Cook's Strait. The security of the position had 
been well appreciated by that clever general. 
Descending on the other side of the pa, we passed 
round the foot of one of the bluffs which we had seen 
the day before, and found ourselv^es at the mouth of 
another and larger river, called the Patea, which takes 
its source in the eastern side of Mount Egmont. 
About a mile up the south bank, a pa, called Haere 
hau, or " I go," was perched on a cliff. I was persuaded 
to go there and stop another night, as the natives 
wished to show me the same hospitality as those of the 
neighbouring village. We therefore ascended the cliff. 
