The day dragged on and I was only able to get a few moments’ broken sleep, as I was not yet sufficiently broken in to be able to sleep under such disadvantageous circumstances, and envied old Jack, who snored away on the soaked ground as if he had been on a feather bed. Nor can I truthfully say I enjoyed my dinner, composed as it was of sodden, rancid salt pork and a handful of wet mouldy biscuits. As I said before, we had our scouts out, and we learned during the afternoon that the enemy had theirs out also, for one of our fellows came into camp with a gaping tomahawk wound in his shoulder, while his own weapon, and in fact his whole person, looked as if he had indulged in a blood bath. His yarn was short. He had met a Hau Hau scout face to face; neither of them could get away nor hide, so they turned to and had it out with tomahawks. Our man had the best of the argument, which he proved by producing not only the tupara (double-barrelled gun) and tomahawk of his opponent as a _spolia opima_, but also certain portions of the enemy himself, so that no doubt could exist in the most sceptical of his encounter or victory. He received great kudos, and submitted, without a tremor or complaint, to having the gap in his shoulder sewn up in the roughest possible manner. Nor did it seem to interfere with his appetite, as, noticing his eyes glued on my mass of putrid pork, I handed it to him, and he devoured it with a gusto I quite envied. This little contretemps showed Te Kepa that the Hau Haus must be well aware of our presence, though perhaps not of our exact locality, and as he became extremely desirous of ascertaining theirs more scouts were detached for that purpose. The trap was no longer to be thought of, as the enemy were far too astute to allow themselves to be shut in, especially as they must now be fully aware of the advance of the column, which in fact shortly arrived, heralded, as usual, by Pierre and George. These two beauties we found out afterwards had smelt out our lurking-place early in the day, but, not being able to decide whether we were friends or enemies, had sat tight and waited for the main body to close up. They had, however, managed to get into the pah before the soldiers, where they discovered a hidden stock of potatoes, with which they joined us, so we had a feed of spuds that night. As Colonel McDonnell still wished Mr Roach to remain with the Kupapas we camped with them. Te Kepa receiving orders to advance next morning and reconnoitre the country for another day’s march ahead, his remaining men also joining us made up our party to over three hundred men. We had now every prospect of a fight, as our scouts came in with information that large numbers of the Hau Haus were in our vicinity though they were so skilfully protected by their scouts it was impossible to locate them to a certainty, but still they were convinced they were mighty adjacent and hungry for a fight.