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Chapter XIV. Potona's Story—Further Misfortunes and Delays—Forced to Return.

At a remote period—for Potona could give no idea as to date—his ancestors were driven away from some other island by powerful enemies; they fled in several canoes to sea, and after a long voyage landed at the mouth of the river Pareoranuia, which in their language meant “Water of Life.” There these exiles, to the number of several hundreds, formed a settlement, and lived in peace and plenty.

One day a party who had gone southwards to eatch seals returned with the information that they had met a party of strange men on the shore of the bay where we first landed. These strangers were described as being all old men of venerable appearance, who gave their visitors to understand that they were the last of their race and people, the rest having been carried off by some sweeping disease; that they lived up in the hills by the side of a small lake; and ended by giving a cordial invitation to their new acquaintances to come and visit them again.

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On the return of the latter to their homes with this intelligence, they, with a large party of their friends, determined to accept the invitation of the strangers, and lost no time in carrying out this project.

They were met and welcomed on the beach by the same old men, by whom they were conducted up to a small village which then stood on the borders of the lake, near which we had erected our hut.

Although there were evidences that a considerable population had once existed at this spot, the only inhabitants at that time besides their guides were a very old chief and his wife.

Once upon a time, they were informed, the tribe was numerous as the leaves in the forest, but of late years had gradually dwindled down in numbers, until at one fell swoop, the whole population, with the exception of the handful then surviving, were swept away by some deadly and mysterious malady.

These old men, we were informed, possessed many weapons and domestic arts that were unknown to the new arrivals; but the only description of the men themselves that I could obtain from Potona, was that they were much “Inaro” or fairer, than his own people, and much taller.

They often spoke of the time, now evidently near at hand, when the last of their tribe should be gathered to his rest, and expressed a desire that some of Potona's people might come and live near them, to attend to the final disposal of their remains, a matter to which they attached great importance, and which had long been with them a subject of deep anxiety. This request was complied with to their great satisfaction.

One by one these aged inhabitants breathed their last, page 87 and were carried up with certain solemn observances into the cave before mentioned, until at length one survivor alone remained. When he became conscious of his own fast-approaching end, he obtained from Potona's people a solemn pledge that after he had been placed in the cave beside his people, they would securely close and conceal its portal, and never enter it again, and that they would utterly destroy every trace of the village, leaving only the one hut on the island in the lake, which had been the residence of their head chief, and was to be reserved for the spirits to occupy when they revisited the earth.

Potona's ancestors carried out their instructions to the letter, and neither they nor their descendants had ever visited the bay or neighborhood since, until the day they found our camp situated on the spot.

On seeing our two companions they at first thought they were the spirits of some of the dead chiefs; but on drawing closer, a priest, whom they had in the canoes, said they were bad spirits from “Motai,” otherwise the devil, and that they must be killed. Landing very quietly, they seized Smith, who was asleep on the beach, and killed him, they also thought they had killed Swabs.

On examining Smith, however, they began to have misgivings about what they had done, some believing these were spirits of the dead “Tawaian” (the old men), who assumed this form to visit the earth. Our sudden appearance, coupled with the awful thunder and lightning which we had directed upon them, left no doubt in their minds but what this surmise was true; and they fled in horror, quite impressed with the belief that we were other spirits come down to take summary vengeance on them. When we afterwards showed Potona the hatchets, etc., which we had brought from the page 88 cave, it confirmed him in this idea, and he fully expected some awful fate to await him.

Such was the tradition, which with every appearance of truth, Potona repeated to us. On asking him if all the people of the old men's tribe had been buried in the cave, he replied in the negative, informing us it was used as a place of sepulture for the chiefs and distinguished men only; the rest had been always burnt when they died. This accounted for our not seeing any graves or other burial ground about.

And now to return to our adventures. We remained encamped some days on the bank of this river, and after a diligent survey, both up and down the valley, were almost in despair of finding any practicable ascent to the summit of the tremendous line of cliffs on the opposite side. At last Hunter and Smart returned late one evening, jaded and weary, but bearing the welcome intelligence that they had discovered, some miles below the site of our camp, a break in the wall of precipices, which, though steep and rugged, appeared to afford access to the unknown country beyond.

Next day we packed our swags, and started down the river bank. Arrived opposite the spot our companions had named, we made preparations for ascending on the following morning. The only difficulty that we could see before us was the river, which ran very swift right against the spot where it would be necessary for us to land. If we succeeded in effecting the crossing in safety there seemed very little to prevent us making our way up the rift in the cliff.

We set to work to construct a raft of driftwood lashed firmly together with flax, which grew plentifully on the river bed. We also furnished ourselves with long poles to propel the raft across. Next day we wrapped our perishable page 89 goods, such as gunpowder, tea, coffee, etc., very carefully inside the blankets in case of a capsize.

Nothing of the kind however occurred, and we reached the other side in safety. By dint of considerable manual exertion and a good deal of scrambling we attained the summit of the precipice.

Our course after this lay for some distance along its edge until we arrived at the lower end of the large pass previously seen. Entering this, the ascent became gradually steeper, and when we halted at the close of the day, very little progress had been made.

It took us several days before we reached the top or watershed of the pass—and dreary and disheartening was the prospect we obtained from it.

In front, nothing was to be seen but snowy mountains, one beyond the other, while immediately below us lay a vast glacier, from which the wind reached us cold as ice, and cut through us like a knife. A few minutes before we had passed through a small patch of bush, nestled in the pass, and we determined to return and camp there for the night, and discuss our future course of proceedings.

Misfortunes never come singly. While retracing our steps, Harry slipped off a rock, and dislocated his ankle. We carried him the rest of the way, and made as warm a shelter as possible in the thickest part of the little bush. I managed to re-set his limb, and bathed it carefully in warm water.

The rest of the men erected a rude hut for themselves, near Harry's, with branches of trees; at the same time lighting a huge fire close in front.

During the night we were visited by a short but heavy snow storm, which filled the hollow below us with drifts. page 90 It was with anything but cheerful hearts we surveyed our position the next morning. Harry would not be able to move for a week or more at least, and when we did strike camp again, it would be to return the way we came; further advance to the east being quite impossible. Besides the enormous difficulties in the way of travelling we should have to surmount, starvation stared us in the face; for there seemed to be no sign of any living thing—beast, bird, or fish—on which we might subsist. So it was at last unwillingly decided that we must give up all hope of reaching any settlement overland.

A fortnight passed, and no move had yet been made.

Harry was quite recovered, but poor Swabs had fallen very ill of some disease not unlike scurvy. We did our utmost for him, but he became weaker and weaker day after day; until at last we gave up all hope for the poor fellow. He had very little pain, but complained of a weary gnawing feeling in his stomach and chest.

Another week, and our little party was diminished to six besides Potona. Swabs had passed away,

We buried him under a ledge of rock, heaping up heavy stones round him to protect his remains from any attacks of birds, etc. We cut his name and a few particulars of his death on a large tree close by; then returned to our sad and lonely bivouac.

Dreary and mournful were our thoughts and anticipations of the future.

Were we to die like this, one by one, until the last would be left to linger on by himself and at last lie down with nobody to soothe his parting pillow?

The remaining men bitterly reproached themselves for ever undertaking this mad expedition; while Harry and I page 91 could not but wish we had listened to the wishes of some of the party and started away before the last winter had arrived. But what use was there in lamenting now? What each had done had been done believing it was for the best.

“Come lads!” I said at last, trying to put on a light heart and cheerful countenance, “Come lads! We must bestir ourselves, and get-back to the coast as soon as possible. We will there build another boat, and I for one will take good care we don't lose it this time.” Harry followed my example, and our words and looks cheered our companions up considerably.

We struck camp at once; and our little party, consisting now of Harry, Hunter, Smart, Moroney, Spanish Joe, myself, and Potona, began retracing our steps down the mountain pass.

I reckoned it must be at least two months since we had left the coast; this, with the month we had spent in boat-building, and six weeks it would take us to return to the coast, would make in all about four or five months of fine weather wasted, but we ought still to have two clear months before the arrival of another winter, to build a boat and reach the settlement. I pointed out this to my companions. I also reckoned we had been about ten months altogether on the coast.

It took us only two days to descend to the edge of the precipices, and another one saw us in our former camp on the opposite side of the river.

I will not repeat each day's incidents of back travel.

Nothing of any note occurred; except the finding of the remains of some huge birds (since learnt to be moas) which considerably astonished us at the time. Potona told us he thought they were quite extinct.

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On arriving on the banks of the large or second part of the river Pareoranuia, Potona proposed that we should follow its course down to the sea, where his people lived, and he would do his best to procure us a favorable reception, and get a canoe to take us away; at the same time saying that his tribe had been so much impressed with fear and respect by our guns that we should have nothing to fear from them.

After all we had gone through it may be thought we had had enough of such uncertainties in the way of escape; but Potona's advice and words seemed so plausible; and no doubt the poor fellow was thoroughly in earnest and believed he could perform all his promises; that we at last consented to accompany him.

It was much farther to the sea by this route than we expected. The river must have run almost parallel to the ocean for fifty or sixty miles. On the evening of the third day, however, it suddenly turned to the left, and Potona gave us to understand that we should reach his village that night.

On arriving within a very short distance of it, Potona bade us wait behind a small eminence while he went forward to prepare his tribe for our coming. Nearly an hour elapsed, and darkness had set in, when our companion returned. He bade us follow him, informing us on the way, that there had been, great changes since he had last been, there—that there was a white man in the village who had acquired great influence, and was passing himself off as a superior being.