“Our chief and relative Rewi was with us in the retreat through the swamp, and several of us formed a bodyguard to fight a way through for him. When we had crossed the swamp to the Ngamako side, where the hills go steeply up, we saw soldiers, mounted and foot, in front of us, and we fired at them, and one or two dropped. At last we reached the Puniu River; we crossed it and travelled through the Moerika swamp, and presently halted at Tokanui. Next morning we went across to Ohinekura (near Wharepapa). Some of those who escaped from Orakau retreated to Korakonui and Wharepapa; some crossed to Kauaeroa; and others went to Hanga­tiki. When we crossed the Puniu the old Urewera chief Paerau, who was following us, called out to us from the Orakau side of the river, ‘Friends, Te Whenuanui is missing.’ However, Te Whenuanui (the chief of Ruatahuna) appeared safely, and we continued our retreat together. “Rewi Maniapoto had gone to the Urewera Country before Paterangi was built, in order to enlist assistance in the war. There were old ties of friendship with the Urewera dating back to the time of the battle of Orona, at Lake Taupo, in the ancient days. The Warahoe section of the Urewera had a pa there then, and there were Ngati-Maniapoto living with them. Some of Warahoe later came and lived in the Ngati-Maniapoto country. Two casks of gunpowder were given to Rewi for the war; one of these was paid for in this way: Takurua, elder brother of Harehare, of the Ngati-Manawa tribe, came back with Rewi, and Raureti gave him £30 to pay for the gunpowder.” CHAPTER XI. CAMP LIFE AT TE AWAMUTU. The close of the Waikato War saw some four thousand Imperial and Colonial troops in quarters at Te Awamutu, which remained a large military cantonment for over a year. Surveyors were busy cutting up blocks of confiscated land in the Waikato-Waipa delta for the military settlers, three regiments of Waikato Militia—one regiment was allotted land at Tauranga—and the two companies of Forest Rangers. An excellent description of military life in Te Awamutu at this period is contained in a narrative written by an Army chaplain (name not given) which appeared in “Fraser’s Magazine,” London, in 1864. The writer narrates the trials and humours of the journey by river and road from Auckland to Te Awamutu in March, and gives an account of the soldiers’ town as he saw it.