Men of the Bowie Knife.

The Rangers became for all the purposes of bush-scouting and skirmishing a perfect little corps. They were armed with the best weapons procurable in those times, a Terry breechloading carbine and a revolver, to which Von Tempsky's Company added a bowie-knife, after the pattern of the famous American knife; Von Tempsky had learned its usefulness in California and Mexico.

“Von Tempsky taught us a regular drill with the bowie-knife (he had them made by a blacksmith in Auckland from his pattern),” said Roberts. “As it happened, we did not make much use of it in actual fighting in the Waikato, but it was very handy in bush work, and at Orakau we scooped out shallow shelter trenches with it, when we lay under fire before the pa.”

Countless bush adventures and much hard marching fell to the Rangers. Roberts soon became Sergeant-Major of No. 2 Company, and then Lieutenant; his fellow-subaltern under Von Tempsky was Westrupp, afterwards Major in an East Coast Corps. The tide of war passed on southward, Cameron's invading army pressed the Maori back and back, and presently Roberts and his comrades were scouting in advance of the Imperial forces round about Te Awamutu, the army field base in 1864.