VI. THE TAUPO CAMPAIGN 345 VII. THE TAUPO CAMPAIGN--_continued_ 359 VIII. HIDE-AND-SEEK WITH TE KOOTI 380 IX. THE END OF NEW ZEALAND WARS 389 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS G. HAMILTON-BROWNE _Frontispiece_ COLONEL MCDONNELL _To face page_ 42 TE KEPA ” 82 EVERY BULLET HAS ITS BILLET ” 128 FIELDING UNDER DIFFICULTIES ” 152 TITOKOWARU ” 186 OBSTRUCTING H.M. MAIL ” 198 COLONEL WHITMORE ” 226 KEREOPA ” 274 TE KOOTI ” 280 AMBUSCADE: DEATH OF LIEUTENANT WHITE ” 336 MAZEPPA REPRODUCED ” 354 _I’ve had my share of pastime, and I’ve done my share of toil, And life is short--the longest life a span; I care not now to tarry for the corn or for the oil, Or for the wine that maketh glad the heart of man. For good undone and gifts misspent and resolutions vain, ’Tis somewhat late to trouble. This I know-- I should live the same life over, if I had to live again; And the chances are I go where most men go._ _A. LINDSAY GORDON._ PREFACE Every Johnny not a professional novelist has, I suppose, some reason besides making money when he sits down to write a book, for, as far as I can see, there is deuced little pleasure to be gained by the author while occupied in doing so, especially if, like myself, he should have passed some forty years of his life on the frontiers of the Empire, and, with the exception of writing an occasional letter, has never, during that time, taken a pen in his hand. My reason is that during the last three or four years, since broken health and bad luck drove me back to civilisation, such as it is in England, I have frequently been knocked end-ways by the woeful ignorance of all classes of Englishmen, not only of the history of the various colonies that form the Empire, but also of the struggles of the men in acquiring and holding the same. Again I have noticed no one ever gives the colonial irregular troops the least credit of having fought and suffered in the Imperial cause, nor does anyone in this country seem to be aware of the debt the Empire owes to the men of the Lost Legion.