WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

A STRANGE HISTORY (Continued).

BY W. 8., TE KUITI.

[ALL BIGHTS RESERVED/}

To the voyager of those days, sated with an iterant sky and Pacific, coasting: along the seaboard of these islands, and viewing their shores in their primal virginal glories, must have, and did, ravage the soul of the astounded spectator with continuous surprise and emotions. Surely nowhere else on this planet are juxtaposed placid level and Titanic mountain' masses. Andas we approach its southernmost meridians, we enter regions where the gods of the Terrible built their palaces and temples, and fear, admiration, and insignificance battle for mastery in the brain of the beholder! Here a headland is thrust out like a tongue of derision at ■ Antarctic storm, and oceans', determined assaults to remove the defiance. Beyond it an incurved reach of finely-milled saffron grains, piled into mounds, and clad with stunted wood and sand herbage, ends in perpends of beetling cliffs, weather-graven into gargoyles, and grim unchanging human faces, assiduously washing their ; brown kelp beards in a white lather of surf. Unchanging did I say? lam wrong! Not by Time's 'mperceptible chisel alone, but to the pensive watcher their change is persistent. Now the face is hideous, diabolical, truculent; but as our progression alters the view angle, by gradations the harsh outlines soften into the comic, the philosophic, the appealing/the patriarchal, the majestic; but all; with sightless eyes, staring into the infinite years. And when this exhibition of petrified passions is ended, a slit in the barrage reveals the further magic of an enchanted lagoon of still water, cinctured by a circumvallage of sheer hills, adorned from base to rim-sum-mit with decorations of green and yellow, and indescribable purpleslike a .vast cup for the gods to drink out of; ornamented with designs Man might attempt, but Hover achieve! And when : the dallying summer breeze has breathed upon and crinkled its surface, and passed on, lb, a mirror of silver reflects circumvallation and adornment like ■ a beatific twin vision of glory, true and complete in graving and detail. And Man! puny, boastful, egregious Man! ;.: What -ho;;: of "thy intolerant arrogance here? " Abase thyself! And as a mere peradventure permitteth thee to approach and place thy chapped, sinful lips to this wondrous loving cup, and drink of its elixir, drink on thy knees, for thou art in the -presence of the Great Eternal! And mark: lest thou risk to -be stricken with a palsy, and murrain, stay thy accurst hands from defiling its beauty with thy pretentious improvements, for ever!-

Not in these/words,; but tempered by a like reverence for all he saw in that presence -X. of the magnificent "and: marvellous in what we cacophonously have deno- ■ minated the "Sounds," his: narrative continued:—"ln and out of that stonri-carven coast, its inlets and bays, we searched for the natives in whose territory the reputed gold/was supposed to/ lay hidden. But as the weeks slipped by, v and we .am no signs of human..presence, my; distrust of Goff and bis golden phantasies grew upon me. Not eo -Captain Jeth'ro, .whose'craze' 7between his drunker 'fits was painful to listen to; also his -;■ blasphemous -v threats, how, , if r they .- refused to .disclose its locality, or showed resistance, why, he ; ;:knew' : of ways and' : means ' to force : them. , And . Goff : encouraged him, and producing his -few golden grains, given him by a; whaleman' years before, together with v a vague description \of ,- the f: localit? where it; was found, where non-success took the edge off our appetite for further exploration, persisted that greater 'discoveries awaited the daring and venturesome. ■ ! •,, " One evening^in the fifth week we anchored under the lee of an island, and in the morning saw a column of smoke arising from the :forest near the /shore; and suddenly disappear! Even now I wondered whether we , were justified in disturbing these fugitive remnants of a-race which had* ! shown nothing but goodwill to the friendly j white man, ..and; whose, necessities forced them to a precarious existence in this terrible wilderness. But Goff and Jethro had no such compunction! "; And' later,; leaving the shipkeepea- and third mate's boat's crew to stand by the ship, the rest were divided into two partiesone in charge of the captain and Goff, and the other in mine; and, ' armed with muskets, axes, spades, and pro- ; visions for two days, we landed to explore : and test the truth'of this longshore tale. '. My party went in one direction, and the : captain's in another, to prospect, and which- . ever met with resistance from the natives was to fire a volley, upon which the other '' should go to its assistance. It is/scarcely ' needful to mention that though-we dug, and : examined rocks and quartz outcrops, of gold ' or its semblance we found nothing! Towards evening I heard two shots, and tak- ' ing this as a danger signal we hastened toward them. • Presently we came to a clear- I ing, or plantation, where, in front of a ■ native house, lay the dead bodies of an ' elderly man and woman, shot through the ' heart and, lashed to a stake, naked to the ' waist, I saw the handsomest maiden, though brown, and a Maori, I had seen in my life, j Not only handsome of face, but as she stood there, her naked body clothed in a dainty i loin mat, no statue chiselled by sculptor of : genius could have surpassed In perfection that Maori maiden. Every curve of bust, ; limb, and tendon was a line of beauty. In i ; front of her. stood Goff, and to one side the ' captain swished a supplejack, and as I came ' up I heard him say to Goff: 'Ask her where the rest of her people are.' But ; she answered never a word; only shook the ' hair from her face and bravely gave look for ! look! 'She villnot speak? Den I vill : make her!' And, raising his cane, brought ' it down with sickening thwack across her tender brown shoulders, and.was raising it : again for another when I strode up and planting a mule-kick blow under his ear dropped him like a spent ox into a nest of nettles And drawing my sheath-knife cut the length of lance-warp with which she was lashed; then, passing .my arm round her waist, held her in the crook of my .-arm,- while I kept a baleful eye on the stark ruffian as he clawed with aimless paws among the nettles to rise, but could not! 'Serve the — Dutch swine right!' From ' this remark by one of the men, and the murmur of approbation from the rest, I knew that the sympathies of the men were with me. So I turned to the .trembling girl, and in the pidgin, by which the Maori and pakeha negotiated their commercing, and which the Maoris perfectly understood, no matter whether some heard St for the' first time, said, huskily: 'Kaore ia koe wurri-wurri • iau me pakaru the beast, 'spose he touch you again!' And, gleaning from the ridiculous words, and tone of my voice, that I was her protector, she clutched my airm and held on, while I sternly demanded of Goff the beginning and sequence of this horrible crime! For truly here was a fine dilemma: a wanton murder of two harmless natives, a half-dead captain, and an orphaned native maiden, and who knows what retribution should the rest of the tribe happen along! 'Where are her people!' I told Goff to ask her. But by this she was beside her dead wailing the death dirge of her race. Also, the setting sun warned us to be moving shipward if. we would be away from this butchery before retaliation overtook us.- Oh, that horrible scene!"

Co be concluded.)