“Here I might have gained the mastery, for he was quite a youth, but before my strength could prevail or my friends help me, his men poured in on us, they likewise coming unceremoniously, for with many curses one drove his long knife through my breast while another struck me on the head with the butt of his musket, which made me see many stars, and I fell in a corner of the trench with my head swimming and unable to move hand or foot but still conscious, though the soldiers thinking I was dead left me alone, and turned to kill my friends in the pit. This they did very expeditiously, for although the Maoris fought with the greatest courage still they could not withstand the anger of the soldiers who had come to take utu for their past defeat. Again, circumstanced as we were, we could not retreat, for as our men tried to scramble out of the pits, which were deep, those soldiers who had not jumped in on top of us slew them, and the slaughter was very great, while those soldiers, being placed opposite to the open spaces between the pits, finding no Maoris to kill there, rushed on without a pause and threw themselves into the second line of trenches, where they slew and slew, for, although the Maoris who held the trenches did all that brave warriors could do, still none of us on that day could withstand the impetuous rush of the white men, who did not pause to fire but just charged on with their long knives. “Augh! I grow thirsty again talking of that disastrous day. The bottle, friend; perchance the rum may lighten my heart. Now I will finish my long story. “Soon the fight was over and the few Maoris who escaped the fury of the soldiers had fled away into the swamp and bush. Now the white men had time to come back to examine the dead and assist the wounded Maoris, for it is the custom of the soldiers, fighting being over, to try and cure the men whom just previously they had been doing their best to kill. This, my sons, is a right and wise thing for them to do, for the Great White Queen has so many soldiers that should all of them fighting in this country be killed, still she has plenty more to send, whereas we Maoris are so few that we miss sadly every man lost, so that unless the wounded be made whole and the women and children protected it would soon come to pass that there would be no more Maoris left to fight, nor anyone to take their place to test the soldiers’ courage and train them for war. This being so the white officers are very careful to repair the hurts of wounded Maoris.