King Hot-Water disdained to show any fear of the monstrous apparition, but calmly divested himself of his personal adornments, metaphorically sat in sackcloth and ashes, and devoutly made the tama to his God. The crew were prostrate with terror. As the waterspouts approached, the snow-white flashes of foam became blinding. I abandoned all hope, and prepared myself for the end with such calmness as I could command. Casting a last shuddering glance towards the impending horror, I saw that by a slight change in their course, directed by the shifting wind, they would not overwhelm us. But already I felt the throbbing pulsation they imparted to the sea, and two great waves, which they raised in their passage by our bows, sundered the timbers of the ill-fated Marama. In a moment the whole company, men, women, and children, numbering 70 in all, were struggling in the cruel sea.
The turbulence of the waters soon subsided, and in a short time the shipwrecked party had the advantage of a comparatively smooth sea. The disaster had not been observed at Ramáka, and the wrecked canoe-load had no hope of reaching their homes except by swimming. The distance being only six miles, this was easy of accomplishment by the natives, but that which made the position so alarming was the well-known fact that this particular locality was infested by numbers of sharks of the most ravenous kind, against whose attacks the unhappy people knew they could not hope successfully to cope.
The King’s companions had no great love for him, but they feared him and his Government, and they knew that it would be as well to be eaten by a shark as to return home without him. The 69 unfortunates, including the women and children, accordingly formed themselves into a circle, having a diameter of about 60ft., round the King and myself, whom they regarded with superstitious reverence. As they swam, they shouted and splashed with their feet, until they produced the miniature resemblance of an annular reef endowed with locomotive powers. The King occupied the central space, and swam serenely on, in that diagonal, half-sitting posture in which Polynesians can get so comfortably through the water. I was a good swimmer, but had no hope of being able to support myself till we reached the shore. Hot-Water, however, was quite at his ease, and he told me to rest on his shoulder whenever I felt tired.
The shark is a timid creature in some respects, and His Majesty knew that no such monster would break through the charmed ring unless it should be one with tattoo marks on its belly, when it would be a god come to console him in his trouble, and show him an easier mode of deliverance. Feeling that he was of divine origin himself, it was only natural to his mind that some such incident should occur, and he thought that, whatever might happen to his attendants, the divinity which hedged him would preserve him at all hazards.
The villainous footpads of the sea, which give an especial terror to Polynesian waters, were not long in making their appearance. When the first straight back-fin appeared above the water, gliding steadily on, a howl of terror went up from the devoted band which surrounded the royal personage.
The sharks came prowling round, one or two at a time, occasionally thrusting out of the water their great brown shagreened heads, without daring to touch the ring. When they received a large accession of numbers and became bolder, they darted about, sometimes coming close up and then retreating, as though making a deliberate selection of some particular victim. Then they lingered near to the living fence, rubbing their cold, horny noses against the bare bodies of the Fijians, who yelled woefully, beseeching Dakuwaqa, their Neptune, to protect them. One of the children was the first sacrifice offered for the lives of the king and his white friend.
The taste of the blood which floated on the water at once aroused the dormant appetites of the sharks, and they made a terrific onslaught, never daring, however, to penetrate the circle. Their horrid rows of saw teeth now gleamed frequently in the sun, as they turned on their sides to bite. Some of the men were armed with bamboo knives, and fought boldly. When a shark turned on his side to make a good mouthful, these often gave him a fatal stab; but they were no match for an enemy so numerous and so insidious in their mode of attack.
The women and children were the first links missed from the chain. Then men began to drop out, but those who remained, constantly closed up, and preserved an unbroken circle round us, the onward motion never being stayed.
The sharks now surrounded the whole party, and feasted pretty much at will. When a man fell out, there was a lull in the attack until his body was devoured. But the appetites of these rapacious fishes seemed to grow by what they fed on. Many of the men who still swam on had lost a leg or an arm. The foam raised in beating the water to scare the sharks from penetrating the protecting band, was crimson with blood.
To those who now began to notice the strange appearance from the shore, however, the water had only that rose colour which it has in the tropics when thrown up between the sunlight and the spectator, and little attention was paid to a disturbance which might have been caused by a shoal of fish. Meanwhile the unhappy swimmers were in sight of their homes. They could see the stilted roots of the mangroves skirting their shores, the stony beach, the houses in the town, and the temples on the rising ground. To not a few of them it was a farewell glance. The remorseless monsters who had them at their command, ceased not their attentions, and with a despairing cry many poor fellows continued falling out of their places, notwithstanding their assiduity in shouting the tama to their god.