Lost in the Bush. A NEW ZEALANDER'S ADVENTURE IN SAMOA.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 20, 17 July 1900, Page 3

Lost in the Bush. A NEW ZEALANDER'S ADVENTURE IN SAMOA.

The following aocount of an adventure he had is contained in a lottor from Mr H. S. Griffin, which we have been permitted to publish :—: — " I must tell you about an adventure I had, but which did not terminate as badly as it might have done. Mr and Mrs LL — — and I went to the mountain cottage on Saturday last to stay lill Monday morning. The mountain is eight miles inland, and the cottage ia on the top of it, about 1200 feet above the sea. The track lies through the very densest forest. We went on horseback and had continually to keep ducking our heads to avoid overhanging boughs, The bush is very thick; sometimes one cannot sco the aun for half an hour at a stretch. Well, it is very pleasant when we ar« at lass safely at the coUaga. After breakfast, about 8 o'clock on Sunday morning, I told my friends I would go for a walk round the ridge', that meant I would go along the top of the mountain, starting one way and coming back the other. The mountain, by-the-way, is an extinct volcano, and tha top is the edge of the crater. This edge forma a narrow path, the widest part of which is vrbere the cottage stands, it being about 20 feat there. The rest is just a path through the thick forest. I had never been round before, but felt sure I could find my way safely, so started out alone. After walking along for about an hour and a half, not thinking of the way I was going, it suddenly struck me that I was off the track. This was not very pleasant, &• I had not the slightest idea which way the track lay. Of 'course, 1 could have gone back, but was too conceited to acknowledge that I had been unable to find nay way round. The idea of a New Zealand boy being lost in a Samoan bush was too ridiculous

altogether, so I hit out agaiu, and afc last Cfuii9 to a cldanug right on the flat. Hero was a heap of black stones which I lecogiiijed as a Samoan oven, a pine* where a " fale," or native house, had stood. I next found a 'rack, and followed it, and I could tell by the sun, when I aaw it, which was .ot often, that ] was going in an sawtarly direction, and I kiidw that that -vould bring me out at tha right sido u the island at all events, and once at ,ie sea coast it would uofc bo difficult •> find ray way borne. But when I - 1 you that bet .veon mo and the sea y eight or nine miles of the thickest, •jrest, you can form an idea of what /as before me. After going along the Lack for a few hundred yardn, it lopped abruptly, right in tha dense >ush. I almost made up my mind to buck if possible, but was noc sure :hat I could find my way. I felt con lident that I should erentu'illj come out at the mountain cottage, so I pushed on through the forest, and oh, ■ what a job it was, New Zealand bush lis nothing to it. It meant forcing through tha tangled masses of shrubbery and living ropes, head first, dragging body and lags after, falling over rocks, scrambling orer dead trees, with perhaps a few scoro centipedes and scorpions crawling over them. I'll guarantee I saw more lizards during that outing than ever I did before. And weren't some of them monsters LGreen ones, gigantic black onos, that make as much row running over dead leaves as a couple of sh6op would ; ; little lizards with black find gold stripes down their backs and. having pretty violet tails. I had a good look at them. "Well, I scrambled on hks this until 12 o'olock, when I etruok a olear place in tho buih cultivated with tavo, * root plant something like the mangold, a Tory nutritious food. It ia j roasted bsfore being eaten. I stopped here and had a look back. By standing on a broken tree I could sse a mouutnin, which appeared to be about four miles back. Believing it to be tbe one the cottage was on, I determined to make for it again. I could have reached the coast in about an hour, but knowing how anxious my friends would be, I thought it best to make straight back to them and relieva their anxiety. I had no compass, neither had I anything to oat or drink. Tbe thirst tha* was on me was something awful, and I can sympathise with those who have made long journeys without water. What a fearful thing a death from thirst must be, or, rather, what agonies must be be endured before death gives relief ! I pulled up a couple of the taros, in case the worst came to the worst and I had to stay out all night. I felt my pocket and to my joy found a box of matches. As loug as I had these and there was anything to cook, I could live. When crossing the clearing again, I espied a rnamiapplo-tree with its fruit on. Tbe mamiapple is something like rock mellon in appearance, and about the size of a small one, only it grows on a tree. I elinaed this tree (a straight stem about 25ft high), but when I had nearly reached the top the thing broke and came down on top of me. I got up, howaver, very littlo the worse, and pulled some of the biggest of the fruit, and taking my direction by the sun, started through the bush again for some four miles. The toils of that journey I I was parched with thirst. The mamiapples were too green and I had to throw them away. Well, after walking, rolling and climbing, I came upon a little spring, high up on the mountain sido. Oh 1 that water I N«ver was any so sweet and cool, and never did I drink so much at ono tima. I filled my straw hat with it and drank it off, time after time. Then, when I i thought it indiscreet to drink any more —which wa3 not till I had thoroughly satisfied myself — I started on my way again. Vary booh the water began to affect me with, cramp. What I suffered cannot bo expresued in wurds. I would' be hanging on to a tree on the almost precipitous sido of the mountain, 'the only foothold a root or dead bough, when this cramp would seize mebehind both knees. But I shall not dwell on the hardships of tho journey, I reached the top of the mountain at about 8 p.m., only to find it waß j n«wher« near the locality of tho cottage, but, as I guessed, another mountain away to the west."

(To he Concludtd.)