They decided to make a fight of it for their women and children and their trade.

They got their carronades ready, and laboured to infuse a little order and system into the excitable mob around them.
So when the alarm-cry, _E! Taua! Taua!_ rang out from the watchmen of the _pa_, the inmates were found resolute and even prepared.

In vain the invaders tried all their wiles.

Their rushes were repulsed, the firebrands they showered over the palisades were met by wet clay banking, and their treacherous offers of peace and good-will declined.
Though one of the carronades burst, the others did good execution, and when shot and scrap-iron failed, the artillerymen used pebbles.

Dicky Barrett, already mentioned, was the life and soul of the defence.