- end_line
- 4796
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4736
- text
- moment, refreshing myself with my cocoanuts. 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 further 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.
‘What could have caused this ferocious attack on the part of these
Happars I could not imagine, unless it were that they had seen me
ascending the mountain with Marheyo, and that the mere fact of coming
from the Typee valley was sufficient to provoke them.
‘As long as I was in danger I scarcely felt the wound I had received;
but when the chase was over I began to suffer from it. I had lost my
hat in the flight, and the run scorched my bare head. I felt faint
and giddy; but, fearful of falling to the ground beyond the reach of
assistance, I staggered on as well as I could, and at last gained the
level of the valley, and then down I sank; and I knew nothing more until
I found myself lying upon these mats, and you stooping over me with the
calabash of water.’
Such was Toby’s account of this sad affair. I afterwards learned that,
fortunately, he had fallen close to a spot where the natives go for
fuel. A party of them caught sight of him as he fell, and sounding
the alarm, had lifted him up; and after ineffectually endeavouring to
restore him at the brook, had hurried forward with him to the house.
This incident threw a dark cloud over our prospects. It reminded us that
we were hemmed in by hostile tribes, whose territories we could not hope
to pass, on our route to Nukuheva, without encountering the effects of
their savage resentment. There appeared to be no avenue opened to our
escape but the sea, which washed the lower extremities of the vale.
- title
- Chunk 4