# The Adventures of Kimble Bent

THE ADVENTURES OF
KIMBLE BENT
MAP OF TARANAKI, NEW ZEALAND
(Showing engagements in the Maori War)
THE ADVENTURES
OF KIMBLE BENT
A STORY OF WILD LIFE IN THE NEW ZEALAND BUSH
BY
JAMES COWAN
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
WHITCOMBE AND TOMBS, LIMITED
LONDONMELBOURNE
CHRISTCHURCH, WELLINGTON AND DUNEDIN, N.Z.
1911
PRINTED AND BOUND BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
PREFACE
This book is not a work of fiction. It is a plain narrative of real life in the New Zealand bush, a true story of adventure in a day not yet remote, when adventure in abundance was still to be had in the land of the Maori. Every name used is a real one, every character who appears in these pages had existence in those war days of forty years ago. Every incident described here is a faithful record of actual happenings; some of them may convince the reader that truth can be stranger than fiction.
Numerous instances are recorded of white deserters from civilisation who have allied themselves with savages, adopting barbarous practices, and forgetting even their mother-tongue. In the old convict days of New South Wales escapees from the fetters of a more than rigorous "system" now and again cast in their lot with the blacks. Renegades of every European nationality have been found living with and fighting for native tribes in Africa ​and America and the Islands of Polynesia. But none of them had a wilder story to tell than has the man whose narrative is here presented—Kimble Bent, the pakeha-Maori. Ever since 1865—when he first "took to the blanket"—he has lived with the New Zealand Maoris. For thirteen years he was completely estranged from his fellow-whites; he had deserted from a British regiment and a price was on his head. British troops and Colonial irregulars alike hunted him and his fanatical Hauhau companions. His hairbreadth escapes were many; he had to risk death not only from British bullet and bayonet, but from the savage brown men of the forest with whom he lived. When at last he came out of hiding, and dared once more to face those of his own colour, he had almost forgotten the English language, and could speak it but with difficulty and hesitation. He has been out of his bush exile many years, but is still living with his Maori friends, and is still known by the Maori name, "Tu-nui-a-moa," which his chief Titokowaru gave him in 1868. When he writes to me, he usually writes in Maori, and he is practically a Maori himself, for he has lived the greater part of his life as a Maori, and he has assimilated the peculiar modes of thought and some of the ancient beliefs of the natives, as well as their tongue and customs.
​One of the most remarkable portions of Bent's narrative is his account of the revival of cannibalism by the Hauhaus in 1868. Vague stories have been heard concerning the eating of soldiers' bodies by the bushmen of Ngati-Ruanui and Nga-Rauru and of rites of human sacrifices performed in the woods of Taranaki, but this account of Bent's is the first detailed description from an eye-witness of the man-eating practices in Titokowaru's camps. Many of Tito's Hauhaus are still alive; but they are very reticent on the subject of "long-pig."
I first met Kimble Bent in 1903. In that year Mr. T. E. Donne, now the New Zealand Government Trade Commissioner in London, had induced the old man to come to Wellington for the purpose of being interviewed and photographed; and it is these interviews, very considerably expanded during a seven years' acquaintance with Bent, and carefully checked by independent Maori testimony, that are now embodied in this book.
In confirmation and extension of Bent's story, I have gathered data at first-hand both from Taranaki Maoris who fought under Titokowaru, and from soldiers and settlers who fought against him, and these particulars are incorporated with the old pakeha-Maori's narrative.
The 1868–9 portion of the book is, therefore, practically a history of the Titokowaru war in ​Taranaki; and it embraces a great deal of matter not hitherto recorded.
Many of the settler-soldiers who survive from those wild forest days now farm their peaceful lands within sight of the battle-fields of Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, and Pungarehu, and Moturoa, and Otapawa. With them the recollections of bush-marches and ambuscades and storming of Hauhau stockades are still fresh and vivid. But the younger generation know little of the dangers and troubles through which the pioneers passed. The available histories deal very meagrely and often very inaccurately with the story of the Ten-Years' Maori War, even from the white side, while the Maori view-point is absolutely unknown to all but a few colonists. Therefore it is fortunate, perhaps, that one has been enabled to gather before it is too late from the old Hauhau warriors themselves the tale of their ferociously patriotic past, and to place on record this true story of wild forest life from the lips of one of the last of that nearly extinct type of decivilised outlander, the pakeha-Maori.
For information and assistance in regard to various engagements in Titokowaru's war I am indebted to Colonel W. E. Gudgeon, C.M.G., Colonel T. Porter, C.B., and other old Colonial soldiers. Tutangé Waionui, of Patea, who was one of Titokowaru's most active scouts and warriors, has given ​me many details concerning the campaign from the Maori side; and the Rev. T. G. Hammond, Wesleyan Missionary to the Taranaki Maoris, has also furnished assistance on the same subject. To Mrs. Kettle, of Napier, daughter of Major von Tempsky, I owe my thanks for permission to reproduce three of the illustrations in this book, copies of water-colour sketches by her celebrated father, representing scenes in the Taranaki campaign of 1865–6. The picture of the fight at Moturoa in 1868 is from a black-and-white sketch by a soldier-artist who took part in the engagement; the original was in the possession of the late Dr. T. M. Hocken, of Dunedin, who allowed me to have it photographed for this book.
J. C.
Wellington, N.Z., Feb. 1, 1911.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE DESERTER
pp. 1–6
CHAPTER II
KIMBLE BENT, SAILOR AND SOLDIER
pp. 7–21
CHAPTER III
THE CAMP OF THE HAUHAUS
pp. 22–33
CHAPTER IV
IN THE OTAPAWA STOCKADE
pp. 34–42
CHAPTER V
TE UA, PRIEST AND PROPHET
pp. 43–54
CHAPTER VI
THE STORMING OF OTAPAWA
pp 55–65
CHAPTER VII
BUSH LIFE WITH THE HAUHAUS
pp. 66–77
CHAPTER VIII
THE HAUHAU COUNCIL-TOWN
pp. 78–91
CHAPTER IX
A FOREST ADVENTURE
pp. 92–101
CHAPTER X
THE WAR-CHIEF AND HIS GODS
pp. 102–107
CHAPTER XI
"THE BEAK-OF-THE-BIRD"
pp. 108–118
CHAPTER XII
THE ATTACK ON TURUTURU-MOKAI REDOUBT
pp. 119–133
CHAPTER XIII
THE KILLING OF KANE
pp. 134–138
CHAPTER XIV
ADVENTURES AT TE NGUTU-O-TE-MANU
pp. 139–144
CHAPTER XV
A BATTLE IN THE FOREST; AND THE DEATH OF VON TEMPSKY
pp. 145–179
CHAPTER XVI
THE CANNIBALS OF THE BUSH
pp. 180–194
CHAPTER XVII
SKIRMISHING AND FORT-BUILDING
pp. 195–200
CHAPTER XVIII
THE FIGHT AT MOTUROA STOCKADE
pp. 201–225
CHAPTER XIX
THE TAURANGA-IKA STOCKADE
pp. 226–239
CHAPTER XX
A SCOUTING ADVENTURE
pp. 240–254
CHAPTER XXI
THE FALL OF TAURANGA-IKA
pp. 255–261
CHAPTER XXII
THE FOREST-FORAGERS
pp. 262–269
CHAPTER XXIII
A BATTLE IN THE FOG
pp. 270–276
CHAPTER XXIV
THE HEAD-HUNTERS
pp. 277–292
CHAPTER XXV
THE LAND OF REFUGE
pp. 293–305
CHAPTER XXVI
BUSH LIFE ON THE PATEA
pp. 306–310
CHAPTER XXVII
HIROKI: THE STORY OF A FUGITIVE
pp. 311–320
CHAPTER XXVIII
OUT OF EXILE
pp. 321–332
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Sketch Map of Taranaki | Frontispiece |
| | PAGE |
| Mount Egmont, Taranaki | 15 |
| A Taranaki Frontier Fort | 17 |
| Patara, a Hauhau Prophet | 47 |
| A British Column on the March | 69 |
| The Scout | 85 |
| The Ambuscade | 113 |
| Tutangé Waionui, a Hauhau Warrior | 151 |
| Major von Tempsky | 159 |
| Major von Tempsky | 173 |
| Major Kemp (Kepa te Rangihiwinui) | 211 |
| The Fight at Moturoa | 218, 219 |
| A Hauhau Scout | 235 |
| A Constabulary Officer in Bush-fighting Costume | 279 |
| Kimble Bent, the Pakeha-Maori | 325 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1943, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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