G. Hamilton-Browne - Camp Fire Yarns of the Lost Legion

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CAMP FIRE YARNS
OF
THE LOST LEGION

---

T. F. KYNNERSLEY. T. F. KYNNERSLEY, ESQ., OF LEIGHTON, SALOP, D.L., J.P., AND LATE CAPTAIN AND S.O. LONSDALES HORSE.

---

CAMP FIRE YARNS
OF THE LOST LEGION

BY
Colonel G. HAMILTON-BROWNE
MAORI BROWNE
Late Commandant in Colonial Forces

Author of
With the Lost Legion in New Zealand
A Lost Legionary in South Africa

LONDON
T. WERNER LAURIE LTD.
CLIFFORDS INN

---

THIS SKEIN OF YARNS
IS DEDICATED TO
MY OLD FRIEND AND COMRADE IN ARMS
DURING 1877-78-79
THOMAS F. KYNNERSLEY of Leighton, Co. Salop
D.L., J.P. and Late Capt. and Staff Officer
in Lonsdales Horse
WHOSE FONDNESS FOR A GOOD STORY IS AS
KEEN NOW AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS
OF YORE WHEN IN BIVOUAC OR
CAMP WE USED TO
SPIN THEM

---

PREFACE

In introducing these yarns let me state that now I am laid up on the shelf my thoughts go back to those days and nights of the veld and bush, and I frequently feel I would give all the rest of the map if I could again find myself on the open lands of the frontier with a good horse between my knees and a few score of the old boys behind me. Now I hold pen instead of carbine and revolver, but why should memories of the old days pass away? Let me fancy I sit by the camp fire again, telling yarns as we used to under the dark blue skies and blazing stars of South Africa.

Let me spin you some yarns of the Lost Legion.

---

CONTENTS

CHAPTER	PAGE
I.	The Maori as I knew him
II.	How Matene failed to convert the Lower Wanganui
III.	How a Scout won the New Zealand Cross
IV.	A Hau Hau Martyr
V.	A Brush with Bushrangers
VI.	The Scout that failed
VII.	Some Miraculous Escapes I have known
VIII.	A Tough Swim in Bad Company
IX.	Held up by a Bushranger
X.	On the Scout in New Zealand
XI.	The Colonels Fiery Tot
XII.	Lost in the New Zealand Bush
XIII.	The Troopers Regard for his Trust and Horse
XIV.	A Gruesome Flute
XV.	The Doctor and the Sentry
XVI.	How Kiwi saved his Clothes and the Governor lost his Dinner
XVII.	A South Sea Bubble
I.	The Dbut of the Lost Legion in Natal
II.	A Queer Card
III.	A Conversion that failed
IV.	Jack Ashore in 1871
V.	The Conversion of Mike OLeary
VI.	Bushed
VII.	The Non-Com.s Revenge

---

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

T. F. Kynnersley of Leighton Salop, Capt. and S.O. of L.H. , 1879
Rewi fighting Chief of the Waikatos	to face page
Gateway to Maori Kianga
A Maori Girl
Yarn Spinning in South Africa
Te Tarata, The White Terrace, Rotomahana
The Conversion of Mike OLeary

---

THE NEGLECTED SOLDIER

Fame is but a fleeting shadow,
Glory but an empty name;
Spite of all that I have gone through,
Tis, I find, a losing game:
Without interest, without money,
Nothing can a soldier gain;
Though he be the sole survivor
Of a host of comrades slain:
What avail these glittring honours,
Which a queen laid on my breast;
Though Ive sought them from my childhood,
Would Id fallen with the rest:
Then my heart had not been broken
Life had fled without a sigh;
Hunger pressesI am fainting
Ought a soldier thus to die?
The Old Shekarry.

---

CAMP-FIRE YARNS OF
THE LOST LEGION

PART I

---

CHAPTER I
THE MAORI AS I KNEW HIM

Camped in a London flat, sick of the turmoil, rows and worries of the big city, with its pushing, hurrying and ill-mannered crowds, can it be wondered at that I let my thoughts often wander far away to the days of my early manhood, when I passed over ten years in the dense and silent, though beautiful, bush of New Zealand, or rode across the wild, open and breezy plains of its inland plateaus? During this time I had ample opportunities for observing and studying the natives, both in war and peace: in the former especially, as I not only fought against them, but I also fought side by side with the brothers, cousins and quondam friends of the very men we were engaged against.

Queer, very queer, people they were, and, to describe them in a few words, I should pronounce them to be bundles of contradictions, whose faults made them hateful, but whose many good qualities rendered them one of the most charming race of people it has ever been my lot to meet. They have been described by numerous writers far more capable than myself, and whose pens are far more graphic than my own, but yet perhaps a few traits in their many-sided characters, that I have experienced myself, may interest you.

To begin with, let me speak of their courage, which was displayed in such a marked degree during the long wars that lasted from 1860 to 1871, for the whole of which period the Maoris were hopelessly outnumbered and, as far as armament went, were equally outclassed. Yet these brave fellows fought on and on, and even when the end came, and the shattered remnants of the so-called rebels took refuge in the King Country, the New Zealand Government, fearing to risk further war with the powerful Waikato tribes, resorted to what was called the blanket-and-sugar policy, rather than follow Te Kooti or demand his extradition from King Tawhiao, who at that time was just as independent of English rule as France was.

The first fighting took place in 1860, and soon General Sir Duncan Cameron had over 1000 Imperial troops under his command, as well as an equal number of Colonial Militia and Irregulars, and also a powerful Naval Brigade. He had also a strong force of Artillery, and was well supplied with ammunition and stores of all kinds. Yet perhaps you will scarcely credit me when I tell you that never at any single moment had he more than 2000 natives in arms against him, and that he was never opposed in any single action by even 1000 men.

It must be borne in mind that Sir Duncans force was one of the most powerful that England, up to that time, without the assistance of allies, had ever put into the field; that the men who composed it were all of them good, seasoned men, many of them being veterans of the Crimea and Mutiny; that the Militia were highly trained, most of them old soldiers, under the command of ex-Imperial officers; that the Irregulars proved themselves to be second to none in the field, and that the natives only possessed old muskets and fowling-pieces.

Now these numbers are staggering, but absolutely correct, as it is also that the above force made but small headway against this handful of savages; for although Sir Duncan forced his way into the Waikato and held a chain of forts there, yet on the west coast, especially in the districts of Taranaki and Wanganui, the settlers had to abandon their homesteads, the women and children being sent for safety to the South Island, and no mans life was safe beyond rifle range of the forts. This was the state of New Zealand in 1866, after six years of incessant war, and it can only be accounted for in the following way:

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