The attack was checked at first with heavy loss, and the enemy escaped during the night. On the field were left 14 officers killed and wounded, and 97 non-commissioned officers and men. For when the stormers entered the work, the enemy had concealed themselves in subterranean hollows or casemates, which both protected them from the artillery fire and hid them from view, and from this cover close and heavy volleys were fired by a concealed adversary at a range where every shot told. The sudden panic so created spread to the supports, and hence the disaster which fell so heavily on the gallant “fighting 43rd.” The desultory fighting continued until the Maoris were exhausted, and a better understanding between native customs and European methods has led to prolonged peace. * * * * * Many improvements had been made in the army during the years comprising the period under review. Rifled artillery had entirely superseded smooth-bores after the Franco-Austrian campaign of 1859. The Enfield rifle was converted into the breech-loading “Snider” soon after the value of the new mechanism had been proved in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866; but even as late as the China War many of the Indian regiments were still armed with the old flint “firelock” or “Brown Bess.” The Act of 1867 had been passed, making the length of army service twelve years, with power of re-engaging for twenty-one years for pension. An effort was made to create a reserve. The system of payment, too, was altered in 1824, and men were paid daily. Previous to that time a certain amount of petty cash was issued weekly, and the balance at the end of the month. CHAPTER XVIII THE ARMY IN SOUTH AND WEST AFRICA--1834-86 Omitting such small “affairs” as were consequent on the extension and for long purely coastal expansion of our Empire in Africa after the long war, there is little to record until 1834. The conquest of the Dark Continent had been gradual, and practically commercial. It had been largely based on geographical discoveries. War and political occupation followed missionary enterprise here as elsewhere. Nothing is more curious to watch than how often the proselyte is followed by the soldier and the sword. The colonist and trade follow the first, and with him or them come trade-rum, trade-firearms, and all the so-called blessings of civilisation. After both comes first friction, then fighting, and finally conquest. These are usually the phases of Anglo-Saxon colonial expansion, unless we add to them the last end of all, the practical extermination of the native races.