THE ATTACK ON CAMERONTOWN

We have been kindly furnished with the following extracts from a letter to a friend. They detail more fnlly the circumstances connected with the recent f'eatb of Mr Armitage nt Camerontowa. From the same source we nho learn that tho body of Mr Armitage was taken to Kohanga and buried th»re.

_„ , September 11. This has been a week of great danger, but I will give you an account in full. Poor Armitage left this on Wednesday (9&b), very depressed at the bad prospacts from hw land transports corps, and I left same day for Waiuku by Otaua, not by Awara, ns he (Armitage) had just heard ofa warning to the Ngatitipa to cease going to Waiuku. On going to the Pa on Satuiday, for Sunday services at the military poita, a wry strong wind on Sunday deterred me from going to Tunkau for afternoon service ; Armitase was at the Bluff, a"d feared the wind. I took advantage of a lull, andsiaited, and to th"i 3 under God, I a,seribe my life. He (Armitage) came on early next • moraine to Cameron town, to see the goo'is about to be conveyed up the river by the Bluff natives.

Now change ths scene. On Friday ICO Maoris came to Onewhero, an 1 found a King native inland at Takahikahi; he told them about the goods at Cameron, offered canoes, and brought them to the Kakenga, two miles from the mission statior. On Sunday evening thry crossed below Cameron, and crept up through the wood, and huaki'd (showed tlieroselvc) just as Aimitaga had landed. He and Strand, and the blacksmith ran to the canoe ; his people, who had Dot their guns with them, ran into tbe wool. Armitage wns phot through the heart, the other two European* fell into the river, and have not beei found. Ngatiwharon, twenty in number, come in her.'. We, and all the European?, iinmediat'-ly came here for safety. Next day, N^atimaniopoto returned, having had a skirmish with the soldiers— only two of them slightly wounded— boastirjg of sixty soldiers slain. You may imagine now our anxiety— in all sixteen paKehas, They soon set to work at tho pks. oxen, and potatoes, not a see.l potatoe left. Next day their numbers swelled to three or four hundred, and not knowing what they intended to do, Waata c ent tbern^ a message to go, but they only laughed at him ; we had only fifty on our side, and two sides of the pah finished, the other two sides untouched. At la«t an invitation came from them to Waata to go and see them. They strongly urged him to join as a " pc-t for to strengthen Waikato," He replied, " I will die first." They said that if I had been there, i. c., with Mr Armitage, they would have killed me. They left thi3 morning for Tuakau A party is said to have been on their way to attack Waiuku, but when their chief, who is a relation of Armifa-ie's wife, heard of his death, they turned back. Wellington Advertiser, Ist October.