Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-05


like q fash.
LIFE WAS AT STAKE.
He caught the tomahawk in full descent
The edge grazed his hand; but his arm, stiff
fened like bar of iron, arrested the blow
The savage made one frantic but ineffectua
attempt to tear the tomahawk from his grasp
and then they seized one another round thu
middle, and struggled like maniacs in thu
endeavor to dash one another against thu
floor. Naming holding on for deal
life to the tomahawk and making
desperate efforts to get it from hi
assailant, but without a chance of sue
cess, as it was fastened to his wrist by 8
throng of hide. The Maori was th,
stronger and heavier of the two; but
Naming was as active as a cat and az
longwinded as an emu and very far from
weak. At last, the Maori got wiri
round Maning's leg and had it not been
for the table on which they both fell and
which, in smashing to pieces, broke then
fall, he must have been disabled and, in
that case, instantly tomahawked. They
now rolled over and over on the floor
like two mad bulldogs, the Maori trying
to bite and the Pakeha trying to stun
him by hammering his bullet head on the
floor. Up againI-both still holding on to
the tomahawk. Another furious struggle,
in the course of which both their heads and
half their bodies were dashed through the
two glass windows, and every article OF
furniture in the room was reduced to frag-
ments. Down again!-tumbling like mad
amid the wreck, both mass of blood from
head to foot. Up again!-another terrific
tussle for the tomahawk. Down again with
a crash; and so this battle for life
and death went on, down and up, up and
down, for fully an hour. At last, after a
desperate wrestling match, in which the
Maori tore mouthfuls of flesh from Naming
with his tigerish teeth, the latter suddenly
felt his enemy showing signs of weakness.
With one thrilling effort of strength and
hope he lifted him high in his arms and
dashed him painting, raving, bleeding,
foaming at the mouth, but beaten and help
less, on the ground.
1t was at this point that Naming failed to
discern the character of the man he had to
deal with, and it almost cost him his life.
He was unfastening the tomahawk from the
PROSTATE Maori's wrist, when the latter
spoke for the first time.
Enough" he said. 'I am conquered.
Let me rise.
A TREACHERoUS FOE.
Naming had often experienced the
chivalrous way in which Maoris take defeat
when fairly beaten, and being anxious to
part from this man on good terms, in order
to avoid further trouble with his relatives,
since there were no witnesses to the affair,
he incautiously let go his left arm. Like
lightning, he snatched at q large carving
knife which was lying on the floor among
the debris. Naming kicked it beyond his
reach, but before he could save himself, the
Maori caught him blow on the side of the
head that filed his mouth with blood. The
two men closed again and Naming soon had
his enemy at his mercy. He unwound the
from his wrist and told him to
get up and die standing.
At this moment-so Naming said, but
always rather doubted this part Of the story
the fishing party returned and rushing in,
spared him the necessity for dispatching
his foe. Selling the bully by the heels, they
dragged him down to the beach, stamped on
him, kicked him, mashed him with stones,
and so broke him up that by the time when
they threw him into his canoe, he was Just
as dead as if Naming had buried the toma-
hawk in his head before they arrived.
The result of the victory was that the
bully's mana pas!el to Naming, who
was Acknowledged as a ran
yatira in his own right and with whom no
Maori ever dreamt of interfering
again. He married the daughter of the fore
most war chief of his tribe, the famous lizard
kin, renowned in legend and song, and took
IN active part in those terrible intertribal
struggles which Immediately preceded the
European occupation of the country. Car
,ied away by the excitement OF war,
powerfully Influenced, through his SYM
pathetic nature, by his domestic surround
ngs and filled with sincere admiration and
liking for the brave and talented people he
lad attached himself to, he became Maori
If the Maoris, excelling them in all their
highest qualities, distinguishing him sci
lmong them by feats of vaIor and endur-
lnce, while preserving intact his intel
ectual refinement and delicacy of feeling
mid scenes of horror and superstition which
must have degraded weaker or q coarser
nature.
CIvILIzING THE NATIVES.
Naming undoubtedly used his immense
influence among the Maoris for their i'm
as far as he saw his way to do
10. He taught great numbers of them to
ead and write, and gave them some idea of
higher delights than revenge or plunder.
BE made no attempt to convert them to
Christianity, because he was firmly of the
)eliet that good pagan is better than bad
Christian; but he never lost an opportunity
If exposing or discrediting the tohunga,
lalf priests, half necromancers, whose mys-,
erious terrors exercised so baneful an in
luence on the impressionable mind of the
Iaoris, and to whose evil counsels their
rightful barbarities were largely due.
When the war broke out between the
Maoris and the British Government Man
ng's patriotism and loyalty to the Queen
mpelled him to leave the Maoris and estab-
ish home with his wife and children in a
European settlement He took no part
Igainst his old allies, however, though he
night easily have obtained high and lu-
,rative command.
After the war was over he was appointed
Judge af the Native Ian Court, with the
warm approval of both races, and remained |
or many years an ornament alike to the |
,ench and to society. Having at length |
,een stricken by terrible disease, he was
ent to London for surgical treatment, and |
here he died not long ago, surrounded by !
owing friends, and bearing his sufferings |
With the same indomitable courage and |
ight-hearted cheerfulness which, through
ut his checkered and stormy career, never |
eserted the Pakeha-Maor the fair-haired |
hiet. EDWARD WAKEFIELD