bruised, still no one had received sufficient injury to render him unfit for further exertions. On reaching the valley the Colonel, taking myself and scouts with him, moved forward to reconnoitre, while the main body rested, and as best they could repaired damages. We had, however, barely time to make certain that the aforementioned spurs were practicable when from the kainga on the plateau above out rang the report of a gun that, being multiplied by the echoes of the mountains and valleys, rumbled like thunder. Of course we thought we had been spotted, and cursing our bad luck we fell back to the main body as rapidly as we could. As there was nothing to be gained by delay the Colonel determined to attack immediately, so throwing off our packs fifty of the most bruised men were rapidly told out to remain in charge of them, then, the remainder of the force being divided into two parties, we started off to force our way up the spurs. Fortunately these, though steep and serrated, were not covered with thick scrub, so that the men relieved of their packs mounted rapidly, and as both parties were in sight of one another we could regulate our pace so as to arrive simultaneously at the top. Of course after we had heard the shot we had thought that it had been fired to give the alarm, and that the Maoris, resenting our intrusion, would do their best to obstruct our arrival; in fact we had made up our minds we should have to fight every yard of the way up the spurs. We however were agreeably disappointed, the shot not having been fired to give the alarm, but, as we were subsequently informed, it was fired to execute a mighty big pig. The Uriwera were in blissful ignorance of our proximity. They had never fancied for a moment that white men would ever dare to enter their inaccessible country, and had therefore kept no lookout whatever, so that instead of meeting with a determined resistance, while mounting the narrow spurs, we reached the plateau, formed line, extended, and had advanced close to the kainga before they spotted us. Whoop, then there was a deuce of a commotion, women and children running and screaming, men yelling, pigs grunting and singing hymns, while above all this turmoil out rang our bugles, which, together with our cheering, added to the din that was in a moment multiplied a thousandfold by the crash of firearms, while the echoes of all these noises combined were so extraordinary that anyone might have thought thousands of men were engaged, or that all the fiends in Hades were holding their annual beanfeast, and were all drunk at that.