Kimble [Kimball] Bent An Unusual European Who Deserted The British Army And Joined The Hau Hau #14

One biting cold evening in July 1868, the whole population of the “Bird's-Beak” pa [fortifird village] gathered on the marae to watch the departure of a fighting-column launched by Titokowaru against the whites.

It was a night that was better for the snug whare than for the war-path, but the omens were propitious for the expedition, and the war-god's sacred breeze, the whakarua, breathed of Uenuku, blew across the forest.

The sixty warriors of the Tekau-ma-rua took the trail with the lilt of the dance-girls' poi-chant in their ears,

Image Source

and the war-choruses yelled by their comrades in the village gritted their battle-spirit.

They were fittingly and thickly tapu'd [made sacred] for the night's work, karakia'd [song or chant] over with many hardening and bullet-averting karakias, and thoroughly Hauhau-be devilled for the fight.

Some of the warriors, belted and painted, carried long Enfield muzzle-loaders,

Image Source

some double-barrelled guns, some stolen or captured carbines, and a variety of other firearms.

Each rifleman's equipment included a short tomahawk

Image Source

thrust through his flax girdle, a few, the storming-party, were armed with long-handled tomahawks,

Image Source

murderously effective weapons in hand-to-hand combat.

Though a winter's night, most of them were scantily clad, as befitted a war-party.

Some wore shirts and other part-European dress, some only flax mats and waist-shawls.

Up and down the village square, as the Hauhau captain, Hauwhenua, led his band out into the forest, strode Titokowaru, in a blaze of fanatic exaltation, crying his commands to the warriors.

Waving his plumed taiaha,

Image Source

he shouted,

“Kill them, Eat them, Let them not escape you”

And as they disappeared in the darkness he returned to his place in the great council-house, where on his sacred mat he spent the night in commune with his ancestral spirits and in reciting incantations for the success of his men-at-arms.

In single file, the Hauhau soldiers struck into the black woods.

As they entered the deeper thicknesses of the forest, where not a star could be seen for the density and unbroken continuity of the roof of foliage above them, they chanted this brief karakia, a charm invoking supernatural aid to clear their forest-path of obstructions and smooth their way,

“Wahi taratara e—i,
Me tuku ki te Ariki
Kia taoro atu e—i,
Nga pukepuke i noa.”

Away through the bush, they tramped, lightening the march with Hauhau chants, until their objective was neared, the little redoubt of Turuturu-Mokai.

One word of warning Titokowaru had given the Tekau-ma-rua when he chose them for this expedition.

Kimble Bent, squatting with his fellows in the big house, had watched the divination-by-taiaha and the demon-like red tongue of the high priest's sacred weapon turning now to one silent warrior, now to another.

He heard Titokowaru's injunction to the chosen of the war-god,

“Kaua e haere ki te kuwaha o te pa, kei reira te raiana e tu ana, Ka pokanoa koutou, ka ngaua te raiana ia koutou”

(“Do not charge at the gateway of the fort, there stands the lion, Should you disregard this command, the lion will devour you”)

This caution was designed to restrain the more impetuous of the young warriors, for Titokowaru was a crafty general, and did not believe in wasting good fighting-men.

He had learned by dear experience at Sentry Hill in 1864 that to dash straight and blindly at the foe, though valiant enough, was not always sound tactics.

The leader of the taua, old Hauwhenua, must have been nearly seventy, but he was as active and agile and keen-witted as any young man of his fighting band.

He was a product of the ferocious old cannibal times when every tribe's hand was against its neighbour's, and when year after year Waikato armies besieged the stockaded holds of Taranaki.

In person, he was not the ideal of a Maori warrior, for he was short of stature, a stoutly built man, with short grey beard and no tattoo-marks on his face.

But he had fought against Maoris and against whites for many years of his life, and no war-captain surpassed him in the many stratagems of bush-warfare, and particularly in the artful laying of ambuscades.

Marching with the savages of the Tekau-ma-rua was the white man. Charles Kane, or King, called by the Maoris “Kingi,” the deserter from the 18th Royal Irish.

He was armed with a gun, intending to assist his Hauhau friends in their attack on his fellow-whites.

Kimble Bent, it was reported afterwards in the pakeha camps, also accompanied the warriors, but he denies this, asserting that he did not stir from the pa all night, this is confirmed by the Maoris.

“Kingi,” he says, was a fiercely vindictive man, and swore to have a shot at the white men from whom he had cut himself off forever.

Info From

The first of the below posts has a list of the previous posts of Maori Myths and Legends

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-war-was-declared-between-tainui-and-arawa

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-of-manaia-part-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-hatupatu-and-his-brothers

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hatupatu-and-his-brothers-part-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-the-emigration-of-turi-an-ancestor-of-wanganui

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-continuing-legend-of-turi

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/turi-seeks-patea

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-manaia-and-why-he-emigrated-to-new-zealand

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-love-story-of-hine-moa-the-maiden-of-rotorua

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-te-kahureremoa-found-her-husband

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-continuing-story-of-te-kahureremoa-s-search-for-a-husband

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-magical-wooden-head

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-art-of-netting-learned-from-the-fairies

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-kanawa-s-adventure-with-a-troop-of-fairies

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-loves-of-takarangi-and-rau-mahora

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/puhihuia-s-elopement-with-te-ponga

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-story-of-te-huhuti

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-trilogy-of-wahine-toa-woman-heroes

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-modern-maori-story

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hine-whaitiri

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/whaitere-the-enchanted-stingray

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/turehu-the-fairy-people

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kawariki-and-the-shark-man

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/awarua-the-taniwha-of-porirua

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/hami-s-lot-a-modern-story

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-unseen-a-modern-haunting

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-death-leap-of-tikawe-a-story-of-the-lakes-country

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/paepipi-s-stranger

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-story-of-maori-gratitude

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/by-the-waters-of-rakaunui-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/by-the-waters-of-rakaunui-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/bt-the-waters-of-rakaunui-3

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/bt-the-waters-of-rakaunui-4

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-3

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ake-s-revenge-4

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/some-of-the-caves-in-the-centre-of-the-north-island

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-man-eating-dog-of-the-ngamoko-mountain

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-story-from-mokau-in-the-early-1800s

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/new-zealand-s-atlantis

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-cave-dwellers-of-rotorua

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kawa-mountain-and-tarao-the-tunneller

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-fragrant-leaf-s-rock

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-the-waikato-river

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/uneuku-s-judgment

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/at-the-rising-of-kopu-venus

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/harehare-s-story-from-the-rangitaiki

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/how-the-art-of-wood-carving-was-passed-from-te-apanui-to-wepiha

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/another-way-of-passing-power-to-the-successor

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/matakite-the-gift-of-second-sight-and-some-of-the-recorded-times-it-has-been-used

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-cave-of-wairaka

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-of-how-mount-tauhara-got-to-where-it-is-now

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/te-ana-o-tuno-hopu-s-cave

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/stories-of-an-enchanted-valley-near-rotorua

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/utu-a-maori-s-revenge

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/where-tangihia-sailed-away-to

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-curse-on-te-waru-s-new-house

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-fall-of-the-virgin-s-island

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-first-day-of-removing-the-tapu-on-te-waru-s-new-house

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-maori-detective-story

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-second-day-of-removing-the-tapu-on-te-waru-s-new-house

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-story-of-a-maori-heroine

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-old-kawhia

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-stealing-of-an-atua-god

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/maungaroa-and-some-of-its-legends

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-mokia-tarapunga

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-memory-of-maketu

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-the-taupo-region

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-of-the-taniwha-slayers

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-witch-trees-of-the-kaingaroa

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/there-were-giants-in-that-land

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-from-old-rotoiti

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-lagoons-of-the-tuna-eels

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-legend-of-takitimu

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/the-white-chief-of-the-oouai-tribe

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/tane-mahuta-the-soul-of-the-forest

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/a-tale-of-maori-magic

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-s-1

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-s-2

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-s-3

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-4

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-5

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-6

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-7

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-8

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-9

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-10

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-11

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-12

https://steemit.com/history/@len.george/kimble-kimball-bent-an-unusual-european-who-deserted-the-british-army-and-joined-the-hau-hau-13

with thanks to son-of-satire for the banner

Emerging from the forest, the warriors stole quietly down over the fern-slopes, and crossing the Tawhiti creek, which wound down through a valley close to the present town of Hawera, they worked round to the front of the little parapeted fort that stood in a singularly unstrategic position on a gently rising hillside, close to the celebrated ancient pa, Turuturu-Mokai.
Hauwhenua passed round the word to hide in the fern and remain in cover there as close up to the redoubt as possible, until he yelled the “Kokiri!” cry—the signal for the charge.
The Turuturu-Mokai redoubt was but a tiny work, so small that the officer in charge, Captain Ross, had to live in a raupo hut built outside the walls.
The entrenchment, consisting of earth-parapet and a surrounding trench, was being strengthened by its garrison of twenty-five Armed Constabulary, and the work was not quite finished when the Maori attack was delivered.
The night dragged on too slowly for the impatient and shivering warriors.
Some wished to rush the white men's pa at once, but Hauwhenua and his sub-chiefs forbade it till there was a little more light.
Several of the younger men began to crawl up through the fern towards the wall of the little fort.
The form of a solitary sentry was seen, pacing up and down outside the walls.
He could easily have been shot, but the Hauhaus waited.