“After leaving the house with Marheyo,” said Toby, “we struck across
the valley, and ascended the opposite heights. Just beyond them, my
guide informed me, lay the valley of Happar, while along their summits,
and skirting the head of the vale, was my route to Nukuheva. After
mounting a little way up the elevation my guide paused, and gave me to
understand that he could not accompany me any farther, and by various
signs intimated that he was afraid to approach any nearer the
territories of the enemies of his tribe. He, however, pointed out my
path, which now lay clearly before me, and, bidding me farewell,
hastily descended the mountain.
“Quite elated at being so near the Happars, I pushed up the acclivity,
and soon gained its summit. It tapered up to a sharp ridge, from whence
I beheld both the hostile valleys. Here I sat down and rested for a
moment, refreshing myself with my cocoa-nuts. I was soon again pursuing
my way along the height, when suddenly I saw three of the islanders,
who must have just come out of Happar valley, standing in the path
ahead of me. They were each armed with a heavy spear, and one, from his
appearance, I took to be a chief. They sung out something, I could not
understand what, and beckoned me to come on.
“Without the least hesitation I advanced towards them, and had
approached within about a yard of the foremost, when, pointing angrily
into the Typee valley, and uttering some savage exclamation, he wheeled
round his weapon like lightning, and struck me in a moment to the
ground. The blow inflicted this wound, and took away my senses. As soon
as I came to myself, I perceived the three islanders standing a little
distance off, and apparently engaged in some violent altercation
respecting me.
“My first impulse was to run for it; but, in endeavouring to rise, I
fell back, and rolled down a little grassy precipice. The shock seemed
to rally my faculties; so, starting to my feet, I fled down the path I
had just ascended. I had no need to look behind me, for, from the yells
I heard, I knew that my enemies were in full pursuit. Urged on by their
fearful outcries, and heedless of the injury I had received—though the
blood flowing from the wound trickled over into my eyes and almost
blinded me—I rushed down the mountain side with the speed of the wind.
In a short time I had descended nearly a third of the distance, and the
savages had ceased their cries, when suddenly a terrific howl burst
upon my ear, and at the same moment a heavy javelin darted past me as I
fled, and stuck quivering in a tree close to me. Another yell followed,
and a second spear and a third shot through the air within a few feet
of my body, both of them piercing the ground obliquely in advance of
me. The fellows gave a roar of rage and disappointment; but they were
afraid, I suppose, of coming down farther into the Typee valley, and so
abandoned the chase. I saw them recover their weapons and turn back;
and I continued my descent as fast as I could.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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