The South Seas.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 247, 17 October 1891, Page 4 (Supplement)

The South Seas.

Ey ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Author of "Treasure Island," "Kidnapped, " The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," etc. '

. CHAPTER XXXV. THE ICING OF APEMAMA. Thus all things on the Island, even the priests of the gods, obey the word of Tembinok'. He can give and take, and slay' and allay the scruples of the conscientious' and do all things (apparently) but interfere in the cookery of a turtle. " I got power," is his favourite word; it interlards his conversation ; the thoughb haunts him and ia ever fresh; and when he has asked and meditates of foreign countries, he looks up with a smile and reminds you — " / gob poiotr." Nor*is his delight only in the possession, but in the exercise. He rejoices in the crooked and violent paths of Kingship like a strong man to run a race or like an artist in his art. To feel, to use his power, to embellish his island and the pictures of the island life after a private ideal, to milk the island vigorously, to extend his singular museum, these employ delightfully the sum of his abilities. I never saw a man more potently in the right trade. It would benatural to think thismonarchy inherited intacb bhrough generations. And so far from bhab, ib is a thing of yesterday. I was already a boy at school while Apemama was yeb republican, ruled by a noisy council of Old Men, and born wibh incurable feuds. And Tembinok' is no Bourbon, rather the son of a Napoleon. Of course he is well born. Norman need aspire high in the isles af the Pacific, unless I his pedigree be long and in the upper regions mythical. And our King counts cousinship with most of the high families in the Archipelago, and traces his descenb to a shark and a heroic woman. Directed by an oracle, she swam beyond sight of land bo meeb her revolting paramour, and received ab sea tho seed of a predestined family. "I think lie," is the King's emphatic commentary ; yefc ho is proud of bhe legend. From this illustrations beginning, the fortunes of the race must have declined ; and Tenkoruti, the grandfather of Tembinok', was the chief of a village ab bhe north end of bhe island. Kuria and Arenuka were yet independent; Apemama itself the arena of devastating feuds. Through this perturbed period of history, the figure of Tenkoruti stalks memorable. In war, ho was swift and bloody ; several towns foil to his spear, and the inhabitants were butchered to a man. In civil life his arrogance was unheard of. When the council of Old Men was summoned, he went to the Speak House, delivered his mind, and left without waiting to be answered. Wisdom had spoken : let others opine according to bheir folly, He was feared and hated, and this was his pleasure. He was no poet: he cared nob for arbs or knowledge. "My gran'patha one thing savvy, savvy pighfc," observed fche King. In some lull of bheir own disputes, the Old Men of Apemama adventured on fche conquest of Apemama ; and this unlicked Caius Marcius was elected general of the united troops. Success attended him ; the islands were reduced, and Tenkoruti returned to his own government, glorious and detested. He dies about 1860, in tbe seventieth year of his ago and the full odour of unpopularity. He was tall and keen, says his grandson, looked extremely old, and "walked all bhe same young man." The same observer gave me a significant debail. The survivor., of bhab rough epoch were all defaced wibh spaarmarks ; there was none on the body of this skilful fighter. " I see old man, no got a spear," said the King. Tenkoruti lefb two sons, Tembaitake and Tembinatake. Tembaitake, tho King's fabher, was shorb, middling sbout, a poet, a good genealogist and something of a fighter; it seems be took himself seriously, and was perhaps scarce conscious that he was in all things tbe creature and nurseling of his brother. There was no shadow of dispute between the pair ; the greater man filled with alacrity and conbenb the second place ; held the breach in war, and all the portfolios in the time of peace ; and when his brother rated him, listened in silence, look- ; ing on the ground. Like Tenkoruti, he : was tall and lean, and a swift walker: a I rare trait in the islands. He possessed every accomplishment. He knew sorcery, 1 he waß the best genealogist of his day, he was a poeb, he could dance and make canoes and armour ; and bhe famous masb of Apemama, which ran one joint higher than the mainmast of a full-rigged ship, I was of his conception and design. I But these were avocations, and the man's trade was war. " When my uncle go make wa', he laugh," said Tembinok'. He forbade the use _ of field fortification, that protractor of native | hostilities; his men must fighb in.the open,

and win or be beaten out of hand ; his own activity inspired his followers, and the swiftness of his blows beat down,- in one lifetime, the resistance of three islands. He made his brother sovereign, he left his nephew absolute. "My uncle make all smooth," % said Tombinok'. "I mo' King than my patha, I gob power," he said, with formidable relish. Such is the nephew's portrait. I can set beside ib yeb another, from an able bub fanciful brush. Many anobher has ofben, I may say always, delighted me wibh his romantic taste iv narrative. He has not always, and I may say not often, persuaded me of his- exactitude. But I have already denied myself bhe use of so much excellent mabter from bhe same source, that I begin bo think ib time to reward good resolution, and his accounb of Tembinabake agrees so well with the King's, thab it may very well be (what I hope ib is) the record of a fact, and nob (whab I suspect) the pleasing exercise of an imagination more than sailorly. A (for so I had, perhaps, better call him) was walking up the island after dusk, when he came on a lighted village of some size, was directed to the chief's house, and asked leave to re3t and smoke a pipe. " You will sib down and smoke a pipe, and wash, and eat, and sleep," replied tho chief, "and to-morrow you will go again." Food was brought, prayers were held (for this was in the brief dayof Chrisfcianiby), and tho chief himself prayed with eloquence and seeming sincerity. All tho evening A sab and admired bhe man by bhe firelight. He was six feet high, lean, with the appearance of many years, and an extraordinary air of breeding and command. " He looked like a man who would kill you laughing," said A, in singular echo of one of bhe King's expressions. And again, "I had been reading bhe muskebteer books, and he reminded me of Aramia." Such is the portraifc of Tembinatake, drawn by an expert romancer. We had heard many tales of 'my patha,' never a word of my uncle till two days before we left. As the time approached for our departure, Tombinok' became greatly changed ; a softer, a more melancholy, and in particular a more confidential man appeared in his stead. To my wife he continued laboriously to explain that though he knew he musb leave" his father in the course of nature, he had not minded nor realised it till bhe momenb came ; and thab now he was bo lose us he repeated bhe experience. We showed fireworks one evening on the terrace. It was a heavy business ; the sense of separation was in all our minds, and tho talk languished. . The King was specially affected, sab disconsolate on his mat, and often sighed. Of a sudden, one of the wives stepped _ forth cluster, came and kissed him in silence, and silently went again. It was just .such a caress as we mighb give to a disconsolate child, and the King received it wibh a child's simplicity. Presently after we said good-nighb and withdrew, but Tembinok' detained Mr Strong, patting the mat by his side and saying: "Sib down, Sblong, I feel bad, I like balk." Stong sab down by him. "You like some beer, Stlong?" said he; and one of bhe wives produced a bottle. The King did not partake, but sab sighing and smoking a meerschaum pipe. "I very sorry you go," he said ab last. " Miss Stlevens he good man, woman he good man, boy he good man ; all good man. Woman he smart all the same man. My woman " (glancing towards hia wives) "he good woman, no very smart. I think Miss Stievens he big cheip all the same Cap'n man-o'-wa'. I think Miss Stlevens he rich man all bhe same me. All go schoona. I very sorry my patha he go, my uncle ho go, my cubcheons he go, Miss Stlevens he go—all go. Stlong, you no see King cry before. King all the same man ; feel bad, he cry. I very sorry." In the morning, ib was the common topic in the village thab the King had wept. To me he said : " Last nighb I no can 'peak, too much here," laying his hand upon his bosom. "Now you go away all the same my pamily. My brobhers, my uncle go away. All the same." This was said with a dejection almost passionabe. And ib was bhe firsb time I had heard him name his uncle, or indeedemploy the word. Tho same day he sent me a presenb of bwo corselets, made in the island fashion of plaited fibre, heavy and strong. One had b_fen worn by Tenkoruti, one by Tembaitake ; and the gift being gratefully- received, he eenb me, on bhe return of hia messengers, a third ; thab of Tembinabake. My curiosity was roused; he begged for information as to the three wearers; and the King entered wibh gusbo into bhe details already given. Here was a strange thiug, thab he should have talked so much of his family, and not once mentioned that relative of whom he was plainly the mosb proud. Nay more :he had hibherbo boasted of his father ; now he had libble to say of him ; and bhe qualities for which he had praised him in the past wore now abbributed where bhey were due, to fche uncle. A confusion might be natural enough among islanders, who call all the sons of their grandfather by the common name of father. But this was not the case with Tembinok'. Now tho ice was broken, the word uncle was perpetually in his mouth ; he who had been so ready to confound, was now careful to distinguish ; and the father sank gradually into a self • complacenb ordinary man, while bhe uncle roso to his bruo sbabure as bhe hero and founder of the race. The more I heard and fche more I considered, the more this mystery of Ternbinok's behaviour puzzled and attracted me. And the explanation, when ib came, was one to strike fche imagination of a dramatist. Tembinok' had two brothers. One, detected in privabe brading, was banished, then forgiven, lives to this day in the island, and is the father of bhe heir | apparent, Paul. The other fell beyond for- ' giveness. I have heard it was a love affair wifch one of the king's wives, and the thing is highly possible in bhab romantic archipelago? War was attempted to be levied ; but Tembinok' was too swift for the rebels, and the guilty brother escaped in a canoe. He did not go alone. Tembinatake had a hand in the rebellion, and the man who had gained a kingdom for a weakling brother, wa- vanished by bhab brother's son. The fugitives came to share in other islands, but Tembinok'remains to this day ignorant of their fate. So far history. And now a moment for conjecture. Tembinok' confused habitually not only the attributes and merits of his father and his uncle, but their diverse personal appearance. Before he had even spoken, or thoughb to speak of Tembinatake, he had told me often of a tall, lean father, skilled in war, and his own schoolmaster in genealogy and island arts. How if both wer9 fathers, one natural, one adoptive? How if the heir of Tembaitake, like the heir of Tembinok' himself, were not a son, bub an adopbed nephew? How if bhe founder of the monarchy, while he worked for his brother, worked at the same time for the child of his loins ? How if on the death ot Tembaitake, the two sbrong natures, father and son. King and Kingmaker, clashed, and Tembinok when he drove out his uncle, drove out the author of his days ? Here is ab least a tragedy four square. The King took us on board his own gig, dressed for tbe occasion in the naval uniform. He had little to say, he refused refreshments, shook us briefly by the hand, and went ashore again. Thab nighb bhe palm bops of Apema had dipped behind the sea, and bhe schooner sailed solitary under the stars.

The largest locomotive yet built m Europe was recently senb out of the Hirschau works in Munich. According to the "Zeitung der Deufcchen Eisenbahn-Ver-walbungen " it is forby-six feefc over .all, and weighs eighty-four tons.