3-012-013 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in New Zealand: the gun-boat Pioneer at anchor off Meremere, on the Waikato River, reconnoitring the native position, 1864. Engraving of a sketch by '...Mr. Messer, assistant surgeon of the Curoçoa...General Cameron has succeeded...in forcing the Maoris out of their chosen post of vantage...The arrival of the Pioneer, an iron steamer built at Sydney, enabled him to ascend the stream and more thoroughly to survey the position...A cloud of white smoke burst from the bank at the landing. The Maoris had fired their lower gun...Another puff of smoke sprung up...the shot fell miserably short, endangering their own people more than those in the steamer...The gun at the landing belched out again, and a jet of water spouted up alongside the gun-boat. She was at last hit...The appearance of the steamer-as she lay for half an hour quietly reconnoitring the position, without deigning to fire a shot or to return the Maori cannonade-was grand, and suggestive of the idea of the overpowering strength of science when in contact with barbarism...taking to their canoes, the Maoris rowed away...General Cameron embarked 250 men in the Pioneer, and hurried to Meremere. He found that the enemy had departed, and at once occupied the position'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.