The captured Hauhau position at Matuahu was described as follows in an account written by Dr. Scott shortly after the war:—

“Matuahu, Te Kooti's so-called impregnable fortress, did not by any means sustain its formidable reputation. The bold promontory, jutting out precipitously into the lake, surmounted landward by a lofty bush-clad hill, constituted a natural defensive position of great strength, which, with a few artificial adjuncts, might have been rendered really impregnable to ordinary means of assault from the lake, while a few rifle-pits, barricades, or stockades of fallen trees on the steep of the wooded hill would have effectually protected the rear. The Hauhaus had commenced the formation of an earthwork on the crest of the hill and on each flank of the ascent, but, cowed and apparently demoralized by the certainly remarkable failure of their ambuscades and volleys at short range, together with the loss of one of their most determined leaders (Enoka), they evacuated them on our advance, without a show of resistance, as also the adjacent pa, and retreated in boats and canoes to the opposite headland and settlement, Tikitiki.

“The Matuahu Village, including Te Kooti's runanga house, a large and spacious building elaborately carved and embellished, consisted of from fifteen to twenty houses of various kinds, mostly of the wharepuni type, but in many instances of a kind peculiar to the lake denizens and the inhabitants of the cold mountainous Urewera Country. These subterranean abodes were usually built under a projective bank in the side of a declivity, or were otherwise heavily earthed over, and possessed no means of ventilation other than that afforded by a sliding door of small dimensions, impossible to enter except in a stooping position. No windows, of course, enlightened these troglodytic dwellings, to which the Urewera resort during the stormy winter months. The much-vaunted fortifications—so formidable in aspect from the other side of the lake—simply did not exist in their apparently efficient defensive completeness, resolving themselves mostly into the natural sharply defined contour of the edge of the rocky cape, or, at most, hollow-ways, banks, and rudimentary earthworks evidently thrown up by the wily Urewera more with a view to affect the vision of spectators from the other side than for actual military use.

“Snugly ensconced in one of these recesses hollowed out in the bank, and affording from the parapet formed by the excavations a wide view of the opposing pa of Tikitiki and of the neighbouring arms and inlets. I found the officers of the expedition and the Armed Constabulary orderlies. They had rigged a tent, consisting of the united oil-sheets of the party (seven in number), fastened securely to the parapet and stretching to a sapling of corresponding length secured to two stout uprights in front, thus forming a tolerably comfortable domicile and defensive earthwork combined. In front blazed a large fire of logs, while scattered over the peninsula burned numerous other fires indicating the bivouacs of the many sections of tribes and hapus of which the field force was composed. The page 408 glare of so many large fires within so circumscribed an area shone refulgently in the dark starless night clouds, and Tikitiki, Matakitaki, and Onepoto, where the enemy, our rearguard, and Sergeant Monahan's party lay respectively, all contributed their lesser blazes to the stupendous veil of billowy, vaporous crimson which floated heavily over the lake.

“Morning dawned, and with it broke upon us one of those violent winter storms for which Waikare-moana is notorious, the sleet and rainladen gusts of wind rushing down the ravines of the mountain-ranges with tremendous force and literally tearing up the surging lake-waters, hurling them against the cliffs and high into the air, while the whole surface of the moana was whitened with foam. Under such circumstances marine communication with Onepoto and Sergeant Monahan (in charge of supplies) was quite impossible, and as overland communication was equally out of the question, I speedily obtained some enlightenment as to the ways and means of our officer's mess. The fare was ample, though without much variety, and the cuisine an unvarying success, inasmuch as it was impossible for it to be otherwise. The rations consisted of potatoes (ex preterea nihil), or, as Mr. James Carroll, sen., the facetious one of the party, observed: ‘Potatoes for breakfast, spuds for dinner, and Paddy's apples for tea.’ And when it was considered that among the two or three hundred men encamped within the narrow confines of the peninsula not a grain of salt was to be had, and that they had all subsisted on the like fare since the occupation of the lake, some idea may be formed of this not very agreeable phase of our expeditionary experiences.

“But fortunately the storms of mountainous regions, though extremely violent, are usually of short duration. We were not long in relieving Sergeant Monahan and Messrs. Davis and Banks of their charge—three hundred sheep and other provisions for the force. The Maoris, after refreshing the inner man after their manner for a day or two, began to think (stimulated as usual by their European leaders) of further aggressive movements. An assault by lake and land on Tikitiki was being organized, when the display of a flag of truce on that promontory signified a desire on the part of the Urewera to treat for peace. Consequently, on the 16th June, 1870, while two heavily armed canoes were kept under the shadow of our headland, fully on the alert and prepared to dart out and across the lake if any treachery was manifested, Mr. Hamlin crossed over to Tikitiki, meeting there the three Urewera chiefs Te Makarini, Moko-nui-a Rangi, and Hori Wharerangi. After an amicable conference the chiefs departed for Ruatahuna bearing the Government ultimatum of unconditional surrender to Paerau, Te Whenuanui, and the Urewera there assembled.”

While the negotiations were going on, the Government force explored all the arms and inlets of the lake by boat and canoe, and the various overland tracks were noted for future use if necessary. Immense quantities of potatoes—one estimate was a sufficient amount to sustain a thousand men for fifteen months or more—were destroyed by the native parties. More than a hundred cultivations were destroyed by process of breaking down the fences and turning up the potatoes to the frost. The whares in all the villages were looted and burned; indeed, the whole lake-shore was devastated.

It was towards the end of June that Mr. Large's secret expedition to Mahungarerewai and Hereheretaua, at the head of the northern outlet of the lake, revealed the fact that the enemy had all gone inland to Ruatahuna, leaving their large canoes and whaleboat at the landing-place at Hereheretaua.

Colonel Herrick's futile expedition to Waikare-moana is 1869 cost £42,000. Hamlin and Witty's native force, which subjugated the Hauhaus of the lake district, incurred an expense of only £3,000.