"MARTIN OF NITENDI"; and THE RIVER OF DREAMS By Louis Becke T. Fisher Unwin, 1901 "MARTIN OF NITENDI" Half-way up the side of the mountain which overlooked the waters ofthe little land-locked harbour there was a space clear of timber. Huge, jagged rocks, whose surfaces were covered with creepers and grey moss, protruded from the soil, and on the highest of these a man was lying atfull length, looking at the gunboat anchored half a mile away. He wasclothed in a girdle of _ti_ leaves only; his feet were bare, cut, andbleeding; round his waist was strapped a leather belt with an emptycartridge pouch; his brawny right hand grasped a Snider rifle; hishead-covering was a roughly made cap of coconut-nut leaf, with aprojecting peak, designed to shield his blood-shot, savage eyes fromthe sun. Yet he had been a White Man. For nearly an hour he had beenwatching, ever since the dawn had broken. Far below him, thin, waveringcurls of pale blue smoke were arising from the site of the nativevillage, fired by the bluejackets on the previous evening. The ruins ofhis own house he could discern by the low stone wall surrounding it;as for the native huts which, the day before, had clustered so thicklyaround his own dwelling, there was now no trace save heaps of greyashes. A boat put off from the ship, and as the yellow-bladed oars flashed inthe sunlight the man drew his rifle close up to his side and his eyesgleamed with a deadly hatred. "Officers' shootin' party, " he muttered, as he watched the boat groundon the beach and three men, carrying guns, step out and walk up thebeach--"officer's shootin' party. Christ A'mighty! I'd like to pot everyone o' the swine. An' I could do it, too, I could do it. But wot's theuse o' bein' a blarsted fool for nothin'?" The boat's crew got out and walked about the smouldering remains of thevillage, seeking for curios which had escaped the fire, pausing awhileto look at a large mound of sand, under which lay seven of the nativeskilled by the landing-party on the preceding day. Then, satisfied thatthere was nothing to be had, the coxswain grumblingly ordered the menback to the boat, which pushed off and returned to the ship. The wild, naked creature lying upon the boulder saw the boat pull offwith a sigh of satisfaction. There was, under the ashes of his house, and buried still further under the soil, a 50-lb. Beef barrel filledwith Chilian and Mexican dollars. And he had feared that the bluejacketsmight rake about the ashes and find it. He rose and stepped down the jagged boulder to where, at the base, the thick carpet of dead leaves, fallen from the giant trees whichencompassed it, silenced even the tread of his naked feet. Seatedagainst the bole of a many-buttressed _vi_-tree was a native woman, whose right arm, shattered by a bullet and bound up in the spathe of acoconut-palm, was suspended from her neck by a strip of soft bark. Shelooked at him inquiringly. "A boat has come ashore, " he said in the native tongue, "but none of thewhite men are seeking for my money. " "Thy money!" The woman's eyes blazed with a deadly fury. "What is thymoney to me? Is thy money more to us than the blood of our child? O, thou coward heart!" Grasping his Snider by the tip of the barrel the man looked at his wifewith sullen, dulled ferocity. "I am no coward, Nuta. Thou dost not understand. I wish to save themoney, but I wish for revenge as well. Yet what can I do? I am but oneman, and have but one cartridge left. " * * * * * This naked, sun-tanned being was one of the most desperate andblood-stained beachcombers that had ever cursed the fair isles of theSouth Pacific, and in those days there were many, notably on PleasantIsland and in the Gilbert Group. Put ashore at Nitendi from a HobartTown whaler for mutinous conduct, he had disassociated himself for everfrom civilisation. Perhaps the convict strain in his blood had somethingto do with his vicious nature, for both his father and mother had "lefttheir country for their country's good, " and his early training had beengiven him under the shadow of the gallows and within the swishing soundof the "cat" as it lacerated the backs of the wretched beings doomed tosuffer under the awful convict system. From the simple, loafing beachcomber stage of life to that of a leaderof the natives in their tribal wars was a simple but natural transition, and Jim Martin, son of a convict father and mother whose forbears wereof the scum of Liverpool, and knew the precincts of a prison better thanthe open air, followed the path ordained for him by Fate. The man's reckless courage won him undoubted respect from hisassociates; the head chief of the village alone possessed a greaterinfluence. A house was built for him, and a wife and land given him; andwithin a year of his arrival on the island he signalised himself by adesperate attempt to cut-off a barque bound from Hobart to China asshe lay becalmed off the island. The attempt failed, and many of hisfollowers lost their lives. A few months later, however, he was moresuccessful with a Fijian trading cutter, which, anchoring off thevillage, was carried during the night, plundered of her cargo of tradegoods (much of which was firearms), and then burnt. This established hisreputation. Five years passed. But few vessels touched at the island now, for it hada bad name, and those which did call were well armed and able to beatoff an attack. Then one day, two years before the opening of this story, a trading schooner called off the village, and Martin, now more a savagenative than a white man, was tempted by her defenceless condition, andby the money which the captain carried for trading purposes, to captureher, with the aid of the wild, savage people among whom he had casthis lot. Of what use the money would be to him he knew not. He was anoutcast from civilisation, he was quickly forgetting his mother tongue;but his criminal instincts, and his desire to be a "big man" with thesavages among whom he had lived for so long, led him to perpetrate thisone particular crime. In the dead of night he led a party of nativeson board the schooner, and massacred every one of her crew, save oneFijian, who, jumping overboard, swam to the shore, and was spared. A fewmonths later this man escaped to a passing whaler, and the story of themassacre of the captain and crew of the _Fedora_ was made known tothe commodore of the Australian station, who despatched a gunboat "toapprehend the murderers and bring them to Sydney for trial. " Failing theapprehension of the murderers, the commander was instructed "to burnthe village, and inflict such other punitive methods upon the peoplegenerally" as he deemed fit. So Commander Lempriere, of H. M. Gunboat _Terrier_, went to work witha will. He meant to catch the murderers of the crew of the _Fedora_ ifthey possibly could be caught, and set to work in a manner that wouldhave shocked the commodore. Instead of steaming into the bay on whichthe village was situated--and so giving the natives ample time to clearout into the mountains--he brought-to at dusk, when the ship was twentymiles from the land, and sent away the landing party in three boats. TheFijian--he who had escaped from the massacre of the _Fedora_--was theguide. "You know what to do, Chester, " said Commander Lempriere to his firstlieutenant as the boatswain's whistles piped the landing party away;"land on the north point, about two miles from the village, and surroundit, and then wait till daylight. You can do it easily enough with thirtymen, as it lies at the foot of the mountain, and there is no escapefor the beggars unless they break through you and get into the bush. Beguided by the Fiji boy; and, as the Yankees say, 'no one wants a brassband with him when he's going duck-hunting, ' so try and surround thevillage as quietly as possible. I'll see that none of them get away intheir canoes. I'll work up abreast of the harbour by daylight. " Guided by the boy, Lieutenant Chester and the landing party succeeded ingetting ashore without being seen, and then made a long detour along theside of the mountain, so as to approach the village from behind. Thenthey waited till daylight, and all would have gone well had not hissecond in command, just as the order was given to advance, accidentallydischarged his revolver. In an instant the village was alarmed, and somehundreds of natives, many of them armed with rifles, and led by Martin, sprang from their huts and made a short but determined resistance. Then, followed by their women and children, they broke through the bluejacketsand escaped into the dense mountain jungle, where they were safe frompursuit. But the fire of the seamen had been deadly, for sevenbodies were found; among them was a boy of about ten, whom the Fijianrecognised as the renegade's son--a stray bullet had pierced his bodyas he sat crouching in terror in his father's house, and anotherhad wounded his mother as she fled up the mountainside, for in theexcitement and in the dim morning light it was impossible for theattacking party to tell women from men. Then by the commander's orders the village and fleet of canoes wasfired, and a dozen or so of rockets went screaming and spittingamong the thick mountain jungle, doing no damage to the natives, butterrifying them more than a heavy shell fire. ***** "Let us away from here, Nuta, " said Martin, "'tis not safe. In the hutby the side of the big pool we can rest till the ship has gone and ourpeople return. And I shall bind thy arm up anew. " The woman obeyed him silently, and in a few minutes they were skirtingthe side of the mountain by a narrow leaf-strewn path, taking theopposite direction to that followed by the two officers and bluejackets. Half an hour's walk brought them to the river bank, which was clothedwith tall spear-grass. Still following the path, they presently emergedout into the open before a deep, spacious pool, at the further end ofwhich was a dilapidated and deserted hut. Here the woman, faint with thepain of her wound, sank down, and Martin brought her water to drink, andthen proceeded to re-examine and properly set her broken arm. ***** The two officers--the second lieutenant and a ruddy-faced, fair-hairedmidshipman named Walters--had hardly proceeded a hundred yards along thebeach, when the boy stopped. "Oh, Mr. Grayling, let us turn back and go the other way. There's a bigriver runs into the next bay, with a sort of a lake about a mile up; Isaw it in the plan of the island, this morning. We might get a duck ortwo there, sir. " "Any way you like, " replied the officer, turning about, "and walkingalong the beach will be better than climbing up the mountain in thebeastly heat for the sake of a few tough pigeons. " Followed by the three bluejackets, who were armed with rifles, they setoff along the hard white sand. In a few minutes they had rounded theheadland on the north side and were out of sight of the ship. For quitea mile they tramped over the sand, till they came to the mouth of theriver, which flowed swiftly and noisily over a shallow bar. A shortsearch revealed a narrow path leading up along the bank, first throughlow thicket scrub, and then through high spear-grass. Further back, amidthe dense forest, they could hear the deep notes of the wild pigeons, but as young Walters was intent on getting a duck they took no heed, butpressed steadily on. "By jove! what a jolly fine sheet of water!" whispered the midshipman asthey emerged out from the long grass and saw the deep, placid pool lyingbefore them; then he added disappointedly, "but not a sign of a duck. " "Never mind, " said Grayling consolingly, as he sat down on the bank andwiped his heated face, "we'll get plenty of pigeons, anyway. But firstof all I'm going to have something to eat and drink. Open that bag, Williams, and you, Morris and Jones, keep your ears cocked and youreyes skinned. It's lovely and quiet here, but I wouldn't like to get apoisoned arrow into my back whilst drinking bottled beer. " "I'm going to have a swim before I eat anything, " said Walters, with alaugh. "Won't you, sir?" he asked, as he began undressing. "Looks very tempting, " replied the officer, "but I'm too hot. Take myadvice and wait a bit till you're cooler. " The youngster only laughed, and, having stripped, took a header fromthe bank, and then swam out into the centre of the pool where it wasdeepest. "Oh, do come in, sir, " he cried; "it's just splendid. There's a bit of acurrent here and the water is delightfully cool. " ***** Martin was aroused from his sleep by the sound or voices. He seized hisrifle, bent over his wife, and whispered to her to awake; then crawlingon his hands and knees from the hut he reached the bank and looked out, just as young Walters dived into the water. Hardened murderer as he was, he felt a thrill of horror, for he knewthat the pool was a noted haunt of alligators, and to attempt to swimacross it meant certain death. His wife touched his arm, and crouching beside him, her black eyesfilled with a deadly hatred, she showed her white teeth and gave a low, hissing laugh. "Before one can count ten he will be in the jaws, " she said, with savagejoy. "Nuta, " whispered Martin hoarsely, "'tis but a boy, " and the veins stoodout on his bronzed forehead as his hand closed tighter around his rifle. "What wouldst thou do, fool?" said the woman fiercely as she seized theweapon by the barrel; "think of thy son who died but yesterday. .. Ah!ah! look! look!" Tearing the rifle from her grasp he followed the direction of her eyes;a swiftly-moving black snout showed less than thirty yards from theunconscious bather, who was now swimming leisurely to the bank. "He must not die, " he muttered; "'tis but a boy!" Then turning to thewoman he spoke aloud. "Quick! run to the forest; I shall follow. " Again she sought to stay his hand; he dashed her aside, raised the rifleto his shoulder and took a quick but steady aim; a second later the loudreport rang out, and the monster, struck on his bony head by the heavybullet, sank in alarm; and then, ere Martin turned to run, two othershots disturbed the silence and he pitched forward on his face into thelong grass. * * * * * "We just saw the beggar in time, sir, " cried Jones. "I happened to lookacross and caught sight of him just as he fired at Mr. Walters. Me andMorris fired together. " Grayling had sprung to his feet. "Are you hit, Walters?" he shouted. "No, " replied the boy as he clambered up the bank; "what the deuce isthe matter?" "A nigger took a pot-shot at you! Get under cover as quick as you can. Never mind your clothes!" Ten minutes passed. No sound broke the deathly stillness of the place;and then, cautiously creeping through the grass, the officer and Morriscrawled round to where the latter had seen the man fall. They came uponhim suddenly. He was lying partly on his face, with his eyes lookinginto theirs. Morris sprang up and covered him with his rifle. "I'm done for, " Martin said quietly "my back is broken. Did thecrocodile get the boy?" "Crocodile!" said Grayling in astonishment. "Did you fire at acrocodile? Who are you? Are you a white man?" "Never mind who I am, " he gasped; "let me lie here. Look, " and hepointed to a bullet-hole in his stomach; "it's gone clean through me andsmashed my backbone. Let me stay as I am. " He never spoke again, and died whilst a litter was being made to carryhim down to the beach. THE RIVER OF DREAMS I There is a river I know which begins its life in a dark, sunless canyonhigh up amid the thick forest-clad spurs of the range which traversesthe island from east to west. Here, lying deep and silent, is a pool, almost encompassed by huge boulders of smooth, black rock, piledconfusedly together, yet preserving a certain continuity of outlinewhere their bases touch the water's edge. Standing far up on themountainside you can, from one certain spot alone, discern it twohundred feet below, and a thick mass of tangled vine and creepersstretching across its western side, through which the water flows on itsjourney to the sea. A narrow native path, used only by hunters of the wild pigs haunting thedepths of the gloomy mountain forest, led me to it one close, steamingafternoon. I had been pigeon shooting along the crests of the ridges, and having shot as many birds as I could carry, I decided to make ashort cut down to the level ground, where I was sure of finding water, resting awhile and then making my way home along the beach to thevillage. I had descended scarcely more than fifty yards when I struck the path--athin, red line of sticky, clay soil, criss-crossed by countless roots ofthe great forest trees. A brief examination showed me that it had beentrodden by the feet of natives quite recently; their footprints leddownward. I followed, and presently came to a cleared space on themountainside, a spot which had evidently been used by a party of hunterswho had stayed there to cook some food, for the ashes of a fire lay inthe ground-oven they had made. Laying down my gun, I went to the edgeand peered cautiously over, and there far below I could see the pool, revealed by a shaft of sunlight which pierced down through the leafycanopy. Feeling sure that the track would lead me to the water, where I shouldhave the satisfaction of a long drink, I set out again, and afternarrowly escaping pitching down headlong, I at last reached the bottom, and, with a sigh of relief, threw down my gun and birds, and in anothermoment was drinking eagerly of the ice-cold, crystal water in one of themany minor pools which lay everywhere amid the boulders. After a few minutes' rest I collected some dead wood and lit a fire, being hungry as well as thirsty; then leaving it to burn down, Iclimbed one of the highest boulders to get a good view, and sighed withadmiration at the scene--there lay before me a deep, almost circularsheet or water, about thirty yards across. Directly beneath me I couldsee the rocky bottom; fifty feet further out towards the centre it wasof unfathomable blueness. On the opposite side a tree of enormous girthhad fallen, long years before, yet it was still growing, for some of itsmighty roots were embedded in the rich red soil of the mountain-side. As I looked, a fish, and then another, splashed just beside the fallentree. Slipping down from the boulder, I made my way round, just in timeto see scores of beautiful silvery fish, exactly like English graylingin shape, dart away from under the tree out into the deep water. Inother streams of the island I had caught many of these fish, but hadnever seen any so high up inland; and, elated at the prospect of muchfuture sport, I went on with my explorations. I was about to climb over the tree, when I discovered that I could passunderneath, for here and there it was supported on boulders standingout two or three feet above the water. On the other side a tiny streamtrickled over a flat ledge of rock, to fall into a second but muchsmaller pool ten or fifteen feet below; beyond that lay a long, narrowbut shallow stretch of crystal water, running between highly verduredbanks, and further away in the distance I could hear the murmur of awaterfall. Turning over a stone with my foot, a crayfish darted off and triedto hide. There were scores, hundreds of them, everywhere--fine, fat, luscious fellows, and in ten minutes I had a dozen of the largest in mybag, to roast on the now glowing fire beside a juicy pigeon. Salt I hadnone, but I did possess a ship biscuit and a piece of cold baked taro, and with pigeon and crayfish, what more could a hungry man desire? The intense solitude of the place, too, was enchanting. Now and thenthe booming note of a pigeon, or the soft _coo-coo_ of a ringdove, wouldbreak the silence; overhead there was a sky of spotless blue; an hourbefore I had sweltered under a brazen sun; here, under the mountainshade, though there was not a breath of wind to stir a leaf, it wassurprisingly cool. To lean against the soft white moss clothing the buttresses of a giantmaruhia-tree and smoke a pipe, was delightful after a tramp of sixor eight miles through a mountain forest; and to know that the returnjourney would be through easy country along the banks of a new river wasbetter still. I set off with a feeling of joyful expectancy, taking a last glance atthe beautiful little lake--I meant to return with some native friends tofish it on the morrow--ere I struck into the forest once more to pick upthe path. Every now and then I caught glimpses of the river, now graduallywidening as it was joined by other streamlets on either side. Some ofthese I had to wade through, others I crossed on stones or fallen trees. Half-way to the beach I came to a broad stretch of shallow water coveredwith purple water-lilies; three small ducks, with alarmed quacking, shotupward from where they had been resting or feeding under the bank, andvanished over the tree-tops; and a sudden commotion in the water showedme that there were many fish. Its beautiful clearness tempted me tostrip off and swim about the floating garden resting on its bosom, andI was just about to undress when I heard a shot quite near. The momentafter, I fired in return, and gave a loud hail; then the high reedy canegrass on the other side parted, and a man and a woman came out, staredat me, and then laughed in welcome. They were one Nalik and his wife, people living in my own village. The man carried a long single-barrelledGerman shot-gun, the woman a basket of pigeons. Stepping down the bank, they waded across and joined me. "How came ye here?" they asked, as we sat down together to smoke. I told them, and then learnt that the river ran into the sea through themangroves at a spot many miles from the village. Then I asked about thebig pool. Nalik nodded. "Ay, 'tis deep, very deep, and hath many fish in it. But it is a placeof _jelon_ (haunted) and we always pass to one side. But here where wenow sit is a fine place for fish. And there are many wild pigs in theforest. " "Let us come here to-morrow. Let us start ere the sun is up, and stayhere and fish and shoot till the day be gone. " "Why not?" said Sivi his wife, puffing her cigarette, "and sleephere when night comes, for under the banks are many thousand _unkar_(crayfish), and I and some other women shall catch them by torchlight. " And that was how I began to learn this island river and its ways, sothat now it has become the river ot my dreams. II But with the dawn there came disappointment keen and bitter, for in thenight the north-east trade had died away, and now wild, swooping rainsqualls pelted and drenched the island from the westward, following eachother in quick succession, and whipping the smooth water inside thereef into a blurred and churning sheet of foam, and then roaring away upthrough the mountain passes and canyons. With my gear all ready beside me, I sat on the matted floor of thehut in which I lived, smoking my pipe and listening to the fury of thesqualls as the force of the wind bent and swayed the thatched roof, andmade the cinnet-tied rafters and girders creak and work to and fro underthe strain. Suddenly the wicker-work door on the lee side was opened, and Nalik jumped in, dripping with rain, but smiling good-naturedly asusual. "_Woa!_" he said, taking his long, straight black hair in his hands andsqueezing out the water, "'tis no day for us. " I ventured an opinion that it might clear off soon. He shook his head ashe held out his brown hand for a stiff tot of Hollands, tossed it off, and then sat down to open a small bundle he carried, and which containeda dry jumper and pair of dungaree pants. Then quickly divesting himself of the soddened girdle of grass aroundhis loins, he put on the European garments, filled his pipe, and beganto talk. "The wind will soon cease, for these squalls from the westward last notlong at this time of the year; but when the wind ceases, then comes rainfor two days sometimes--not heavy rain such as this, but soft rain asfine as hair, and all the forest is wetted and the mountain paths aredangerous even to our bare feet, and the pigeons give no note, and thesun is dead. So we cannot go to the river to-day. To-morrow perhaps itmay be fine; therefore let us sit and be content. " So we sat and were content, remaining indoors in my own house, orvisiting those of our neighbours, eating, drinking, smoking, andtalking. I was the only white man on the island, and during my threemonths' residence had got to know every man, woman, child, and dogin the village. And my acquaintance with the dogs was very extensive, inasmuch as every one of the thirty-four families owned at least tendogs, all of which had taken kindly to me from the very first. They werethe veriest mongrels that ever were seen in canine form, but in spite ofthat were full of pluck when pig hunting. (I once saw seven or eight ofthem tackle a lean, savage old wild boar in a dried-up taro swamp; twoof them were ripped up, the rest hung on to him by his ears and neck, and were dragged along as if they were as light as feathers, until anative drove a heavy ironwood spear clean through the creature's loins. ) During the evening my native friends, in response to my inquiries aboutthe river, told me that it certainly took its rise from the deep pool Ihave before described, and that had I made a more careful examination Ishould have seen several tiny rivulets, hidden by the dense undergrowth, flowing into it from both sides of the gorge. During severe rains animmense volume of muddy water would rush down; yet, strangely enough, the two kinds of fish which inhabited it were just as plentiful as everas soon as the water cleared. About four o'clock in the morning, when I was sound in slumber, a voicecalled to me to awaken. It was Nalik. "Come out and look. " I lifted (not opened) my Venetian-sashed door of pandanus leaf, andstepped out. What a glorious change! The rain had ceased, and the shore and sea laybright and clear under a myriad-starred sky of deepest blue; the whiteline of surf tumbling on the barrier reef a mile away seemed almostwithin stone-throw. A gentle breeze swayed the fronds of the coco-palmsabove us, and already the countless thousands of sea birds, whose"rookery" was on two small islets within the reef and near the village, were awake, and filling the air with their clamour as they, like us, prepared to start off for their day's fishing. Our party consisted of-- (1) Nalik, his wife and five dogs. (2) Three young women, each with several dogs. (3) Old Sru, chief of the district, with numerous dogs. (4) Two boys and three girls, who carried baskets of food, crayfishnets, boar-spears, &c. Large number of dogs, male and female. (5) The white man, to whom, as soon as he appeared, the whole of thedogs immediately attached themselves. (6) Small boy of ten, named Toka, the terror of the village forhis illimitable impudence and unsurpassed devilry. But as he was aparticular friend of the white man (and could not be prevented) he wasallowed to come. He had three dogs. Before we started old Sru, Nalik, and myself had some Hollands, twobottles of which were also placed in the care of Nalik's wife. The"devil, " as Toka was called, mimicked us as we drank, smacked his lipsand rubbed one hand up and down his stomach. One of the big girls cuffedhim for being saucy. He retaliated by darting between her legs andthrowing her down upon the sand. Presently we started, the women and children going ahead, with theexception of the "devil, " who stuck close to me, and carried my Sniderin one hand and my double-barrel muzzle-loader in the other. For the first two or three miles our way lay along the hard, whitebeach, whose sands were covered everywhere by millions of tiny, blue-backed, red-legged soldier crabs, moving to and fro in companies, regiments, and divisions, hastening to burrow before the daylightrevealed their presence to their dreaded enemies--the golden-winged sandplovers and the greedy sooty terns, who yet knew how to find them by themyriad small nodules of sand they left to betray their hiding-place. Oh, the sweet, sweet smell of the forest as it is borne down from themountains and carried seaward, to gladden, it may be, the heart of somehard-worked, broken-spirited sailor, who, in a passing ship, sees fromaloft this fair, fair island with its smiling green of lear, and soft, heaving valleys, above the long lines of curving beach, showing whiteand bright in the morning sun! And, as you walk, the surf upon the reeffor ever calls and calk; sometimes loudly with a deep, resonant boom, but mostly with a soft, faint murmur like the low-breathed sigh of awoman when she lies her cheek upon her lover's breast and looks upwardto his face with eyes aglow and lips trembling for his kiss. Far, far above a feint note. 'Tis but a snow-white tropic bird, suspended in mid-air on motionless wing, his long scarlet pendricesalmost invisible at such a height. Presently, as he discerns you, helets his aerial, slender form sink and sink, without apparent motion, till he is within fifty feet, and then he turns his graceful head fromside to side, and inquiringly surveys you with his full, soft black eye. For a moment or two he flutters his white wings gently and noiselessly, and you can imagine you hear his timid heart-beats; then, satisfied withhis scrutiny, his fairy, graceful form floats upward into space again, and is lost to view. Leaving the beach and the sound of the droning surf behind us we turnedto the starboard hand, and struck through the narrow strip of littoraltowards the mountains. For the first mile or so our way was through agrove of pandanus-palms, nearly every one of which was in full fruit; onthe branches were sitting hundreds of small sooty terns, who watchedour progress beneath with the calm indifference borne of the utterconfidence of immunity of danger from any human being. Once through the sandy stretch on which the pandanus loves to grow, we came to the outlier of the mountain lands--low, gently undulatingridges, covered on both sides of the narrow track with dense thicketsof pineapples, every plant bearing a fruit half-matured, which, whenripened, was never touched by the hand of man, for the whole island was, in places, covered with thickets such as this, and the wild pig onlyrevelled among them. "They grow thickly, " I said to Nalik. "Ay, _tahina_* they grow thickly and wild, " he replied, with someinflection of sadness in his voice; "long, long ago, before my father'sfather lived, there was a great town here. That was long before we ofthis land had ever seen a white man. And now we who are left are but asdead leaves. " * Friend. "How came it so to be?" He shook his head. "I cannot tell. I only know that once we of this landnumbered many, many thousands, and now we are but hundreds. Here, wherewe now walk, was once a great town of houses with stone foundations; ifye cut away the _fara_ (pineapples) thou wilt see the lower stones lyingin the ground. " We pressed onward and upward into the deeper forest, then turneddownwards along a narrow path, carpeted thick with fallen leaves, dampand soft to the foot, for the sun's rays never pierced through the densefoliage overhead. And then we came out upon a fair, green sward withnine stately coco-palms clustered, their branches drooping over theriver of my dreams, which lay before us with open, waiting bosom. III Under the shade of the nine cocos we made our camp, and old Sru and thewomen and children at once set to work to build a "house" to protect usin case it rained during the nights. Very quickly was the house built. The "devil" was sent up the cocos to lop off branches, which, as theyfell, were woven into thatch by the deft, eager hands of the women, whowere supervised by Sivi, Nalik's handsome wife, amid much chatter andlaughter, each one trying to outvie the other in speed, and all anxiousto follow Nalik and myself to the river. The place was well chosen. For nearly a hundred yards there was a clearstretch of water flowing between low, grassy banks on which were growinga few scattered pandanus-palms--the screw pine. Half a mile distant, ajagged, irregular mountain-peak raised high its emerald-hued head in theclear sunshine, and from every lofty tree on both sides of the streamthere came the continuous call of the gentle wood-doves and the greatgrey pigeons. With Nalik and myself there came old Sru and the imp Toka, who at onceset to work and found us some small crayfish for bait. Our rods wereslender bamboos, about twelve feet long, with lines of the same lengthmade of twisted banana fibre as fine as silk, and equally as strong. Myhook was an ordinary flatted Kirby, about half the size of an Englishwhiting hook; Nalik preferred one of his own manufacture, made from astrip of tortoise-shell, barbless and highly polished. Taking our stand at a place where the softly-flowing current eddied andcurled around some black boulders of rock whose surfaces were but a fewinches above the clear, crystal stream, we quickly baited our hooks andcast together, the old chief and the boy throwing in some crushed-upcrayfish shells at the same time. Before five seconds had passed mybrown-skinned comrade laughed as his thin line tautened out suddenly, and in another instant he swung out a quivering streak of shining blueand silver, and deftly caught it with his left hand; almost at thesame moment my rod was strained hard by a larger fish, which darted intowards the bank. "First to thee, Nalik; but biggest to the _rebelli_"* cried old Sru, as with some difficulty--for my rod was too slight for such a fish--Ilanded a lovely four-pounder on the grass. * White man. Nalik laughed again, and before I had cleared my hook from the jaw ofmy prize he had taken another and then a third, catching each one in hisleft hand with incredible swiftness and throwing them to the boy. Thewomen and girls on the opposite bank laughed and chaffed me, and urgedme to hasten, or Nalik would catch five ere I landed another. But the_rebelli_ took no heed of their merriment, for he was quite content tolet a few minutes go whilst he examined the glistening beauty which layquivering and gasping on the sward. It was nearly eighteen inches inlength, its back from the tip of the upper jaw to the tail a brilliantdark blue flecked with tiny specks of red, the sides a burnished silver, changing, as the belly was reached, to a glistening white. The pectoraland lower fins were a pale blue, flecked with somewhat larger spotsof brighter red than those on the back, and the tail showed the samecolouring. In shape it was much like a grayling, particularly aboutthe head; and altogether a more beautiful fresh-water fish I have neverseen. We fished for an hour or more, and caught three or four dozen of thisparticular fish as well as eight or nine dark-scaled, stodgy bream, which haunted the centre of the pool where the water was deep. Then asthe sun grew fiercer they ceased to bite, and we ceased to tempt them;so we lay down and rested and smoked, whilst the women and children madea ground-oven and prepared some of the fish for cooking. Putting asidethe largest--which was reserved for the old chief and myself--Nalik'skindly, gentle-voiced wife, watched the children roll each fish up ina wrapper of green coconut leaf and lay them carefully upon the glowingbed of stones in the oven, together with some scores of long, slendergreen bananas, to serve as a vegetable in place of taro or yams, whichwould take a much longer time to cook. On the top of all was placed thelargest fish, and then the entire oven was rapidly covered up with wildbanana leaves in the shape of a mound. The moment Nalik and I had laid down our rods, and whilst the oven wasbeing prepared, Toka and the two other boys sprang into the water atone end of the pool and began to disturb the bottom with their feet. Theyoung girls and women, each carrying a small finely-meshed scoop-net, joined them, and in a tew minutes they had filled a basket withcrayfish, some of which were ten inches in length, and weighed over apound, their tails especially being very large and fleshy. "Shall we boil or bake them?" asked Nalik as the basketful was broughtup to me for examination. "Boil them, " I replied, for I had brought with me several pounds ofcoarse salt taken from our wrecked ship's harness cask and carefullydried in the sun, and a boiled crayfish or crab is better than onebaked--and spoiled. A tall, graceful girl, named Seia, came forward with a large woodenbowl, nearly eighteen inches in diameter at the top, and two feet indepth--no light weight even to lift, for at its rim it was over an inchthick. Placing it on the ground in front of Sru and myself, she motionedto the other girls to bring water. They brought her about two gallonsin buckets made of the looped-up leaves of the taro plant, and poured itinto the vessel; then Nalik and old Sru, with rough tongs formed of themidrib of a coconut branch, whipped up eight or ten large red-hot stonesfrom a fire near by, and dropped them into the vessel, the water inwhich at once began to boil and send up a volume of steam as Seia tippedthe entire basketful of crustacean delicacies into the bowl, togetherwith some handfuls of salt. Then a closely-woven mat was placed over thetop and tied round it so as to keep in the heat--that is the way theyboil food in the South Seas with a wooden pot! From time to time during the next quarter of an hour more red-hot stoneswere dropped into the bowl until old Sru pronounced the contents to be_tunua_, _i. E. _, well and truly cooked, and then whilst the now brightred crayfish were laid out to cool upon platters of green woven coconutleaf, the first oven of fish and bananas was opened. What a delightful meal it was! The fat, luscious fish, cooked in theirown juices, each one deftly ridden of its compact coating of silveryscales by the quick hands of the women, and then turned out hot andsmoking upon a platter of leaf, with half a dozen green, baked bananasfor bread! Such fish, and so cooked, surely fall to the lot of few. YourCity professional diner who loves to instruct us in the daily papersabout "how to dine" cannot know anything about the real enjoyment ofeating. He is _blasé_ he regulates his stomach to his costume and tothe season, and he eats as fashion dictates he should eat, and fillshis long-suffering stomach with nickety, tin-pot, poisonous "delicacies"which he believes are excellent because they are expensive and areprepared by a _chef_ whose income is ten times as much as his own. So we ate our fish and bananas, and then followed on with the crayfish, the women and children shelling them for us as fast as we could eat, thelargest and fittest being placed before the old chief and the white man. And then for dessert we had a basket of red-ripe wild mangoes, with agreat smooth-leaved pineapple as big as a big man's head, and showingred and green and yellow, and smelling fresh and sweet with the rain ofthe previous night. Near by where we sat was a pile of freshly-huskedyoung coconuts, which a smiling-faced young girl opened for us as wewanted a drink, carefully pouring out upon the ground all the liquidthat remained after Sru and myself had drank, and then putting the emptyshells, with their delicate lining of alabaster flesh, into the fire tobe consumed, for no one not of chiefly rank must partake even of thatwhich is cast aside by a chief or his guests. Our first meal of the day finished, we--that is, Nalik, Sru, andmyself--lay down under the shade or the newly-built thatched roof andsmoked our pipes in content, whilst the women and children, attended bythe dogs, bathed in the deepest part of the pool, shouting, laughing, and splashing and diving till they were tired. The dogs, mongrel as theywere, enjoyed the fun as much as their masters, biting and worrying eachother playfully as they swam round and round, and then crawling out uponthe bank, they ran to and fro upon the grassy sward till they too wereglad to rest under the shade of the clump of coco-palms. In the afternoon--leaving the rest of our party to amuse themselves bycatching crayfish and to make traps for wild pigs--Sru, Nalik, Toka, andmyself set out towards _the_ pool at the head of the river, where, Iwas assured, we were sure to get a pig or two by nightfall. The dogsevidently were equally as certain of this as Nalik and Sru, for themoment they saw the two men pick up their heavy hunting-spears theysprang to their feet and began howling and yelping in concert till theywere beaten into silence by the women. I brought with me a short Snidercarbine--the best and handiest weapon to stop a wild pig at a shortrange--and a double-barrelled muzzle-loading shot-gun. The latter I gaveto the "devil" to carry, and promised him that he should fire at leastfive shots from it at pigeons or mountain fowl before we returned to thevillage. Following a narrow footpath which led along the right bank of thestream, we struck directly into the heart of the mountain forest, and ina few minutes the voices, shouts, and laughter of our companions soundedas if they were miles and miles away. Now and then as we got deeperinto the dark, cool shade caused by the leafed dome above, we heardthe shrill cry of the long-legged mountain cock--a cry which I canonly describe as an attempt at the ordinary barnyard rooster's"cock-a-doodle-do" combined with the scream of a cat when its tail istrodden upon by a heavy-booted foot. Here in these silent, darkenedaisles of the forest it sounded weird and uncanny in the extreme, andaroused an intense desire to knock the creature over; but I forebore tofire, although we once had a view of a fine bird, attended by a hen andchicks, scurrying across the leaf-strewn ground not fifty feet away. Everywhere around us the great grey pigeons were sounding their boomingnotes from the branches overhead, but of these too we took no heed, fora shot would have alarmed every wild pig within a mile of us. An hour's march brought us to the crest of a spur covered with a speciesof white cedar, whose branches were literally swarming with doves andpigeons, feeding upon small, sweet-scented berries about the size ofEnglish haws. Here we rested awhile, the dogs behaving splendidly bylying down quietly and scarcely moving as they watched me taking off myboots and putting on a pair of cinnet (coir fibre) sandals. Just beneathus was a deep canyon, at the bottom of which, so Nalik said, was a tinyrivulet which ran through banks covered with wild yams and _ti_ plants. "There be nothing so sweet to the mouth of the mountain pig as the thickroots of the _ti_, " said Nalik to me in a low voice. "They come hereto root them up at this time of the year, before the wild yams are wellgrown, and the _ti_ both fattens and sweetens. Let us start. " At a sign from Sru, Nalilc and the boy Toka, followed by the dogs, wentoff towards the head of the canyon, so as to drive down to the old manand myself any pigs which might be feeding above, whilst we slippedquietly down the side of the spur to the bank of the rivulet. Srucarried my gun (which I had loaded with ball) as well as his spear. Ihad my Snider. We had not long to wait, for presently we heard the dogs give cry, andthe silence of the forest was broken by the demoniac yells of Nalik andthe "devil, " who had started a party of two boars and half a dozensows with their half-grown progeny, which were lying down around thebuttressed sides of a great tika-tree. They (the pigs) came down theside of the rivulet with a tremendous rush, right on top of us in fact. I fired at the leader--a great yellow, razorbacked boar with enormoustusks--missed him, but hit a young sow who was running on his port side. Sru, with truer aim, fired both barrels of his gun in quick succession, and the second boar dropped with a bullet through both shoulders, and adear little black and yellow striped four-months'-old porker went underto the other barrel with a broken spine. Then in another three or fourminutes we were kicking and "belting" about half of the dogs, who, maddened by the smell of blood from the wounded animals, sprang uponthem and tried to tear them to pieces; the rest of the pack (Heaven savethe term!) had followed the flying swine down the canyon; they turned upat the camp some three or four hours later with bloodied jaws and gorgedto distension. The boar which Sru had shot was lean enough in all conscience, butthe young sow and the four-months'-old porker were as round-bodied asbarrels, and as fat as only pigs can be fat. After disembowelling them, we hoisted the carcasses up under the branch of a tree out of the reachof the dogs, and sent Toka back to the camp to tell the women to comeand carry them away. Then, as we had still another hour or two of daylight, and I longed tosee the deep, deep pool at the head of the river, even if it were butfor a few moments, the old chief Nalik and I started off. It lay before us with many, many bars of golden sunlight striking downthrough the trees and trying to penetrate its calm, placid bosom withtheir warm, loving rays. Far below the sound of the waterfall sung tothe dying day, and, as we listened, there came to us the dulled, distantmurmur of the combing breakers upon the reef five miles away. "'Tis a fair, good place this, is it not?" whispered Nalik, as he satbeside me--"a fair, good place, though it be haunted by the spirits. " "Aye, a fair, sweet place indeed, " I answered, "and this pool aid theriver below shall for ever be in my dreams when I am far away fromhere. "