THE SWIMMER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 194, 16 August 1911, Page 6

THE SWIMMER.

A MAORI WOMAN* WHO SWAM THE TORY CHANNEL. (By K. ALLEN.) This story is founded on fact. A Maori woman quarrelled with her husband, and in her rage actually swam across Tory Channel —a feat which any passenger from Wellington to Picton must be surprised at. After accomplish) 'ig the feat she danced the war-dance on the beach, and then walked up to Waikawa, on the coast. Cannibal Bay is the property of the lale Mr. C. H. Turner and family. The name did not appeal to the ladies of the family, so it was changed to "Ravenscliffe." Piles of human bone were found on the station in the early davs. THE AUTHOR. Rua Piaki lived on the slopes of Te Awaiti, Arapawa Island. His house had been a large and commodious one, as he was the chief, his father having lately died, but Rauparaha came in the channel one morning with two war canoe loads ti fierce warriors, and Rua Piaki and his small following fled into the bush, and away over the range to a hiding place tbey knew of at East Bay. Later, when the look-out man stated that he saw two big war canoes paddling out of Cannibal Bay, and later out ol the north entrance of Queen Charlotte Sound, some of the men crept back to Te Awaiti.

All the whares had been burned, and the beautiful bush, the rata, and the clematis were all destroyed. Fortunately not a life was lost, and the men set to work to build more whares ere they brought their wives and children back to their old home.

Rua Piaki missed the comforts of hts old whare, so thought he would go on an expedition up the Sound to see how his neighbours at Waikawa, and WaitoUi (Picton) had fared during Rauparaha's raid for slaves, and human flesh food.

Rua remembered a pretty girl he had seen once at Waikawa, a daughter of Rppama, who boasted of being of much higher caste than Rua, and so offended the haughty young chief of Te Awaiti. But that was all forgotten now, Rua could only think of pretty Amina, and of Rauparaha's fierce cannibal warriors taking her a prisoner. He urged his men to paddle quickly, and in due time arrived at Waikawa, but only to find the place deserted. "There is only Waitohi now," said Rua despondently, "and I fear Amina is lost to me. Why was I a fool to take heed of an old man's boasting and leave her. I might have taken her away then, and she would have been safe and mine." "Paddle me faster, faster, faster," he cried to the men in the canoe. "I want to pet there, I want to know. If that Koliuru has hurt a hair of her head, fj>r every hair he shall suffer death, yet not die. - ..1..wi11. follow him everywhere. I will be a taniwha to torment bira. I wall; I will." With a jerk the oanoe ran nground, and Rua jumped on to tan beach. He was too much excited to notice that the fortified pa was still in existence, though visibly, it had suffered considerably from attacks of some enemy, or that smoke was issuing from several whares inside the fortifications, or that numbers of small dogs were barking defiance at the warlike figure leaping from stone to stone, with fury in his face, and a formidable stone mere in his hand.

Rua did not stop to think. The desertion of WaSkawa and the desolation, had in a manner prepared hrm for more dreadful things at Wnitohi. "Amina, Amina." lie shouted. It was like a war cry, and the astonished Maoris who had snatched up their spears, and axes in haste, stood transfixed at the sight of one man defying—as they thought— the whole tribe. "Te Rua Piaki," shrilled a woman's vok-e, and in a moment or two. when the gate could be opened, Amina was rubbinj, noses with Rua.

It took some time for Rua to ru' noses with all the Maoris present, and still more to relate how his people had been surprised at Te Awaiti, and their escape, and then to listen to the tale of the attack on the pa, and how Rauparaha had been beaten off twice with the loss of several men, and how at last he had gone off, probably to attack smaller pas.

Rua listened attentively, but all the time his eyes sought Amina's, and Aiaina's answered back, after the manner of all who love, all the world over.

There was a great feast next day, the great Maori ovens contained pigs, and potatoes, pigeons, kakas. and fish. There was also a great tangi, for Ropama had given his daughter to Rua, and when the couple had started for the canoe in which they were going to To Awaiti, the whole tribe followed them to the beach dancing liakas. and chanting speeches of good will and advice, till the canoe rounded the -corner out of sight. Now Rua was a great chief, and though he did not disdain fishing as a pastime, he was too great a chief to take the fish off the hooks, or to clean them. "That." he said, "was the woman's work."

The woman was a qTcat chiefs daughter, and though for a time love for her bin- handsome husband made her obedient to his orders, there came a time when she rebelled against his arbitrary way*, and instead of chattering nonsense, and laughing, she lay still in the canoe and sulked. Aorain Rua ordered her to take off the fish. Amina looked at hiim, anil refused. Then he struck her with the paddle, overbalanced the canoe which filled and sank. Rua swam to land without troubling about his wife. He was a sreat chief, and anyway Amina could swim like a duck, so why should he bother? He did not bother, he landed in a little cove and lay down to sulk too, and dry himself in the sun, expectins every minute to feel Amina's soft arms round his neck, and her cheek rubbing; against his.

The sun was hot, and his swim had tired him, he dropped off to sleep, when suddenly something startled him. "Was it a cry? He sprang to his feet and looked about him. There was no Amina on the beach, no black curly head shaking the water out of her eyes, which were roguishly peeping through the curls to see if he was watching her antics in the water. The canoe was floating upside down far away on the other side of the channel, but of Amina there was no sign. Had he stunned her when he struck her with the paddle? If so, he had killed her, and she was drowned. Never again would he see her laughing face, never hold her in his arms. What would the whare be without her? And how could he ever look old Ropama in the face again? He had better go into the water again and swim, and swim,

till the sharks took him, or he was drowned. He could never face his tribe again without Aroma. He climbed up on a rock with the intention of diving into the sea to follow his wife, when something black bobbing about across the channel attracted his attention. It was moving steadily towards a little bay right opposite Te Awaiti, and now that Rua could concentrate his sight in that direction he saw the movement of arms and legs. It was, it must be Amina, but why was she swimming in that direction, away from her home, and from him. Alas! he knew the reason only too well. He had struck her. But oh, if she only knew how he repented, she would, she must "come back.

"Amina, Amina, come back." It was a wail this time, not a war Try, but the black head, and the splashing arms and legs, propelled Amina along to the haven she was seeking on the beach.

Rua still stood on the rock. He dared not leave that point of vantage lest he should lose sight of that dear black head which "was more to hum now than ever before, more than his position as a great chief by descent from those early warriors who had fished the country up out of the sea. More than his lands, or his influence, or anything. More by far than his own life, which he would gladly lay lown for her.

"Come back, my Amina, come back," was his cry, as he held out his arms towards her.

Then he saw the figure crawl out of the water to lie exhausted on the stones, and he ran, as never before had he ran in all his life since he had realised how great a chief he was. He ran, willing the Maoris to launch another canoe to fetch back .his Amina.

Ere the canoe was launched they saw a great sight over on the beach. Amina, whose powers of recuperation must have been great indeed, was dancing a wardance. Her gesticulations of contempt and repudiation were unmistakable. Her eyes, and her tongue, her hands feet kept time to the measure of the war chant, which could be distinctly heard across the water. Every bitter sentence fell upon Rua's heart like a knife thrust, and when, in her rage, she spat at him, he felt the insult like a blast of fire ou his face.

Nevertheless, he urged the Maoris to paddle "faster, faster, faster," was his cry for he feared that she would kill herself ere he could reach her, and he cried out "Amina, Amina, I am coming to you." But ere the canoe had reached the beach, Amina had fled into the bush, and though Rua and the Maoris searched the bush, and the beach, till darkness set in they found no sign of her anywhere.

Next day other Maoris brought food and joined the search party. They camped on the beach for weeks, and searched diligently with no result, and then Rua sadly gave up all hopes of ever seeing Amina again. "She must have thrown herself into the sea," he said.

In the meantime Rauparaha had raided all the small settlements in the Sounds, where the Maoris were camping the while, they planted their potatoes and other crops. They were surprised generally at day-break. Some were killed, some taken prisoners, and a few only in each ease escaped. These last fied to the bush where they lived as best they could, and in time some of them appeared at their head pas more like skeletons than human beings. Rauparaha went on his way till he came to a bay, whence he could easily escape into the straits if the Wairau Maoris were so foolish as to pursue him. Hero he camped, and rested, and his prisoners disappeared one by one. The bay has been called Cannibal Bay ever since, and the white settlers, when they came to reside there, frequently came across piles of human bones.

Two -.noons had passed away sunce Amina had disappeared. The Maoris who has escaped into the bush, and those who slipped away at the first alarm into hiding places, prepared for just such a raid as Rauparaha had made on them, had resumed their old habits, and returned to their old ways. Only the old chief Ropaina lay dying in his whare at Waikawa.

He was anxious to see his son-in-law, who, for all those two months, had never left his home further than to paddle across to the beach, where he had last seen Arnma. But lie could not refuse old Ropama's last request, and so he set out.

His heart was very heavy, and his face a sad one. as he walked slowly up to Ropama's whare, and pushing aside the curtain of dressed flax, entered. Before ever his eyes turned to his sick old friend they rested on a figure crouched by the fireside, and he knew he had found Amina. Not the bright-eyed merry girl whom he had married three months before, but a woman who had starved, and repented in the bush, for two months without seeing one of her kind all those dreadful weeks. "Amina," he said hoarsely, but Am'ina only looked at him. She had almost forgotten how to use her voice, while she starved and toiled through the tangle of supple jacks and svrubs to reach her old home. Then he strode across the room, and lifted her in his arms, a mere bundle of bones. She had been found crawling near the pa, pulling herself along by bits of manuka that very morning, and she was so weak now that she siimply crumpled up in Rua's arm*.

There was no need for anything more. Everything was forgotten and forgiven. and when old Ropama's obsequies were ■completed, they returned t.i Te Awaiti and were true lovers till death parted them in their old age.