In a few minutes three more turned up, with words of salutations on their lips and murder in their hearts; and this goes on until at last the infatuated volunteers grow suspicious and try to get hold of their arms; but it is too late. They are already outnumbered. A signal is given and the tomahawk does its work. Some two or three, however, escape, and reach Galatea, but nine of them lie butchered in cold blood. The Colonel also had a most wonderful escape, as the Hau Haus, ignorant of his vicinity, moved off the ground immediately the slaughter was ended and continued their march towards the lake. Of course directly we got the news at Galatea we were quickly on Te Kooti’s spoor, but by the time we reached Opepe the Hau Haus had retired to the other end of the huge lake, where Te Kooti was immediately joined by the majority of the Taupo tribes. He was therefore again a leader of some six hundred desperate fanatics, and there was also every possibility of his being joined by the Upper Wanganui and the powerful tribe of Waikato. Had the above coalition taken place it would have been a most disastrous affair for the colony, as Te Kooti would then have had nearly three thousand men at his disposal, but fortunately, just at the critical moment, his men chanced to murder an old and seemingly insignificant Maori, who nevertheless turned out to be a close blood relation of the most powerful chiefs of the Upper Wanganui tribes. These at once demanded utu, and became his bitterest enemies. Then with three hundred men he pays a visit of ceremony to the Waikatos, whom he insults, and whose country he is forced to leave, and so once more falls back to the Taupo country, where he locates himself south of the great lake and close to the volcanoes Tongariro and Ruapehu. Of course at that time we knew but little of his movements, but it would have been bad policy on our part to have attacked him in the Taupo country immediately after the slaughter of the volunteers at Opepe. In the first place the country was quite unknown to us, while the scarcity of rations, the severity of the weather, the desertion of our allies, the Arawas, and the certainty that the smallest reverse we might receive would immediately bring to his banner all the wavering tribes, forced our O.C. to mark time till the weather improved and the big gaps in our ranks could be filled up by fresh men. Colonel Whitmore took advantage of this pause to make a trip to Wellington to interview the Government, an interview that caused great changes in the plan of campaign, it being decided to mass every available man on the Taupo plateau, to build a chain of forts from Napier to Tauranga, so as to cut off all communications between the Uriwera and the Waikato, and at the same time to ensure safe storage for a sufficient supply of rations for what was evidently going to be a most arduous campaign.