"A Frenchman named Jancey and I went to the major and lifted him up and laid him on his back, and just as we did so a bullet struck Jancey on the side and travelled across his breastbone, and another struck the cartridge-box he had on his back. I left von Tempsky and picked up Jancey, carrying him out across the clearing. I then met Lieutenant Hunter (of the Wellington Rangers), and when we were about ten paces from von Tempsky's body Hunter was shot dead. I got hold of him and started to pull him back. Then I said to one of our men, 'Come along for Major von Tempsky's body.' This man refused, but Captain Buck (Wellington Rifles) came up and asked if I knew where von Tempsky was. I said, 'Yes,' and he said, 'Come along, lad, let's get him out.' When we came to the body I was hit by a bullet on the left thumb, which was shot nearly off. Just as I changed the carbine to my other hand a bullet went through my left hand and struck the carbine-stock, knocking me backwards. Then Buck was shot dead, and as I got up a bullet took my cap off. I got away from the clearing, leaving von Tempsky and Buck dead together. There were four of us who went for von Tempsky's body; Jancey and I were wounded, and Hunter and Buck were killed." 9 "_Ko koe te kai mau!_" 10 This name Papa-tihakehake was given to the place after the fight, in commemoration of the defeat of the troops. _Papa_ means a battle-ground; _tihakehake_ refers to the dead bodies of the whites which strewed the ground. 11 Colonel W. E. Gudgeon writes me: "For the number engaged Moturoa was the most desperate engagement fought in the Maori War. Whitmore's return did not give nearly our losses. I made it at the time fifty-two out of less than two hundred actually engaged. At Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu all did not behave well, but at Moturoa any one might have been proud of the men. No force in the world could have behaved better." 12 Kereopa, in the days before the war, had been a pupil at the Kai-iwi mission school. 13 The Taranaki Maoris used to cultivate the _mamaku_ fern-tree for the sake of the edible pith. The natives point out one of the olden _mamaku_ grounds just to the north of Keteonetea (near the present township of Normanby), where the old Whakaahurangi track went in towards Mount Egmont. Here there were two or three miles of _mamaku_ forest. The Maoris used to cut off the upper parts of the trees and plant them in the ground, thus making two _mamaku_ grow where only one grew before. The old tree so decapitated always sent out a new head.