It was crowded with women and children: ten thousand people were in it, says one account.

When the spear-men broke before the terrible musket-fire, the mass of the despairing on-lookers choked the ways of escape.

In their mad panic hundreds of the flying Waikatos were forced headlong over a cliff by the rush of their fellow-fugitives.

Hundreds more were smothered in one of the deep ditches of the defences, or were shot by the merciless Ngapuhi, who fired down upon the writhing mass till tired of reloading.

It was the greatest of Hongi's victories, though not bloodless for the conquerors, like that of Totara, where only one Ngapuhi had been killed.