CHAPTER XXVI.
A TREACHEROUS CHIEF.
Turner and Cobb, the two companions who survived with me the wreck of the Molly Asthore, were absent from Ramáka when Hot-Water died. They were away on a visit to the sandalwood coast, on the island of Vanua Levu, with a party of natives. About three weeks had elapsed from the date of the consignment of our friendly old chief to the earth when they returned in a large double canoe, bringing the joyful intelligence that an English-manned barque from the East Indies, named the Sarah Jane, was at Bua, trading with the natives, her chief object being to obtain a cargo of sandalwood for the China market. Captain Jackson, of the Sarah Jane, having lost two men in a skirmish with the natives in Natewa Bay, was short-handed, and he had expressed his desire to ship Turner, Cobb, and myself for the voyage to China.
I had now been two years in the country. I spoke the language fluently, and had become thoroughly accustomed to the native mode of life. The intense desire to return to a civilised land, and the fellowship of white people, which afflicted me during the first few weeks of my enforced residence in the islands, had gradually worn off. I had not only become reconciled to my fate—I liked it. And what would become of Lolóma if I said farewell to Fiji? She could not accompany me to the home of the white man, and to part from her was impossible. When I listened to her beguiling voice, looked into her frank and tender eyes, and watched the gay, pretty toss of her head, in fresh, unconscious coquetry, or gazed upon the fiery langour of her embrowned limbs, the idea of separation became intolerable.
A few days after the return of Turner and Cobb from Vanua Levu, the Sarah Jane put into the port of Ramáka to take on board a quantity of yams, which had been promised in a message sent to her captain by Bolatha. I stepped once more on an English ship. As I listened to brief, fragmentary accounts of the most striking events that had occurred in Europe during the past two years, and to some items of Sydney news (for the vessel had called there only two months back), strange reflections crowded upon my mind, and I felt that the spirit of civilisation was strong within me. However, the authorities against whom I had transgressed in Sydney were still in power, and it would not do for me to return there at present.
The delight Lolóma felt in inspecting the cordage and fittings, the hold, the forecastle, and the cuddy of a real ship, was unbounded. Her sunny-natured disposition was all aglow with happiness. Life never seemed to her to be more a merry and gladsome frolic than it did that day. It was pleasure enough to be in the sun and laugh like the rippling torrent as it leaps from stone to stone.
Bolatha paid a visit of state to the Sarah Jane, accompanied by a large number of his retainers, and exchanged presents with the captain. As he carefully inspected the various quarters of the vessel, I noticed the covetous gleam which fired his eye, and boded no good to the Englishmen.
On the following day, Captain Jackson was invited by Bolatha to a grand meke (song and dance) given in his honour. He had been treated with a great show of friendliness, and, nothing doubting, he went ashore unarmed, accompanied by two of his sailors. The barque was left in charge of the mate and the remainder of the crew. Turner and Cobb, who had already taken up their abode on the vessel, were also on board.
In the midst of the shore festivities, of which I was an idle spectator, Lolóma ran to me in intense excitement, saying she had overheard the chiefs talking, and that the ship was to be captured, and all the white men, including myself, slain. I started to my feet with the intention of secretly giving warning to Jackson, but I was too late. Before I had gone three paces, Jackson, and the two sailors who accompanied him, were clubbed from behind, and I was near enough to see that the blows were fatal. At the same moment, by a preconcerted signal, the ship was attacked. She was surrounded with canoes, whose occupants had been trading with the sailors in a friendly way. Her decks were also covered with natives. Suddenly an onslaught was made with clubs, spears, and bows and arrows. The white men were taken unawares, but they were prompt in resistance. Turner and Cobb were luckily below at dinner, and sitting within reach of the arm-rack. The sailors on deck had vigorously laid about them with belaying pins, sheath-knives, and capstan-bars; and Turner and Cobb’s steady firing of musketry through the skylight soon cleared the decks of Fijians, with the exception of seven who lay dead. As soon as Turner and Cobb gained the deck, and fired upon the canoes, the whole flotilla retreated in disorder. The well-planned attempt to capture the vessel had failed. The casualties on the side of the Europeans were two sailors badly wounded.
At this time I was running my fleetest with Lolóma to the cavernous retreat in which I had waited for the crocodile to make his appearance. Pausing on rising ground to take breath, I was overjoyed to see that the attack on the barque, which lay half a mile from the shore, had aborted. I now believed that by making a detour, and gaining possession of a small canoe, I could paddle on board in the night time without much difficulty.
In the evening we were imprisoned by an unexpected event—a sudden thunderstorm of great violence. There was a premonitory hollow uproar in the higher regions of the air, and then the storm broke with magnificent fury on the flank of the mountain range which backed the town. Monarchs of the wood, held in the python-folds of enormous creepers, were levelled. The atmosphere was filled with branches driven before the wind, and they added to the noise of the sweeping ruin. Then the gloom was pierced with vivid flashes of forked lightning, tracing deep fissures in the clouds; the thunder leaped from peak to peak with its salvos of flying artillery; and the storm plunged through space, enacting a direful tragedy. No wonder that at such a time the Fijians picture to themselves their war-god riding on the whirlwind and directing the storm. Lolóma clung to me in wild affright.