War to the Knife 21

War to the Knife 21

A contention as to title by English law ousted the jurisdiction of

magistrates in an assault case. Why should not this paltry squabble

about an insignificant portion await an authoritative legal decision?

No people apparently understood the deliberate verdict of a Court

better than these Maoris. Delay, even protracted delay, would have been

truly wise and merciful in view of the grisly alternative of war. Such

a war, too, as it was likely to be!

 

However, though Erena and Warwick were confident of a fight, no

official notice had yet reached them. It might yet be avoided, and

so hoping, after hearing with increasing distinctness all manner of

strange and fearful sounds, above, around, beneath, our traveller fell

asleep.

 

The morning proved fine. As Massinger left his couch, the half-arisen

sun was reluming a landscape neither picturesque nor alluring. Wild

and wondrous it certainly was; upon such the eyes of the pakeha had

never before rested. The elements had apparently been at play above and

below the earth's surface, which showed signs of no common derangement.

Rugged defiles, strangely assorted hillocks of differing size, colour,

and elevation. A scarred volcanic cone poured out steam from its base

upward, while, between the whirling mists, igneous rocks glinted, like

red-hot boulders, in the morning sun. Near this strange mountain was

a lake, the glittering green of which contrasted with the darkly red

incrustations heaped upon its margin. Looking southward, a sense of

Titanic grandeur was added to the landscape by a vast snow-covered

range, on the hither side of which, he had been told, lay the waters of

the historic Taupo--Taupo Moana, "The Moaning Sea."

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VII

 

 

Strolling back to camp, his movements were quickened by observing that

the rest of the party had finished the morning meal, and were only

awaiting his arrival to commence the first day's sight-seeing. After a

council of war, it was finally decided to remain in the valley for the

rest of the day, making for Taupo and Rotomahana on the morrow.

 

"In this valley of Waiotapu," said Warwick, "you have a good idea, on

a small scale, of Rotomahana and the terraces. The same sorts of pools

are on view; you have also the feeling of being on the lid of a boiling

cauldron, and can realize most of the sensations belonging to a place

where you may be boiled alive or burnt to death at any moment."

 

"A romantic ending," replied Massinger; "but I don't wish to end my New

Zealand career in such a strictly Maori fashion. What is one to do, to

avoid incensing the _Atua_ of this very queer region?"

 

"Be sure to follow me or Erena most carefully, and do not step away

from the path, or into any water that you have not tried. One traveller

did so, and, as it was at boiling heat, died next day, poor fellow!

So now, let us begin. Do you see this yellow waterbasin? This is the

champagne pool. For the champagne, watch this effect." Here a couple of

handfuls of earth were thrown in. Thereupon the strange water commenced

to effervesce angrily, the circles spreading until the outermost edges

of the pool were reached. "The outlet, you see, is over that slope, and

is known as the Primrose Falls. But we must not linger. Beyond that

boiling lake, with the steam clouds hanging over it, lies a terrace,

gradually sloping, with ripples in the siliceous deposit, finally

ending in miniature marble cascades."

 

"All this is wonderful and astonishing, but it is only the beginning

of the play. I shall reserve my applause until the last act. I have

been in strange places abroad, but never saw so many different sorts

of miracles in one collection. What are those cliffs, for instance, so

white and glistening?"

 

"The Alum Cliffs, sparkling with incrustations of alum. You notice that

they rise almost perpendicularly from the hot-water pools? In contrast,

the colour of the surrounding earth varies from pale yellow to Indian

red and crimson. Some of the crystals you see around are strongly acid.

The pools are all sorts of colours: some like pots of red paint, others

green, blue, pink, orange, and cream."

 

"Evidently Nature's laboratories. What she will evolve is as yet

unknown to us. Let us hope it will be more or less beneficial."

 

"It is hard to say," replied Warwick, musingly. "There is a legend

among the Maoris that, many generations since, this valley, now so

desolate, was covered with villages, the soil being very productive;

that the inhabitants displeased the local Atua, upon which he ordered

a volcano in the neighbourhood to pour forth its fiery flood. An

eruption followed, which covered the village many feet deep with the

scoria and mud which, in a hardened state, you now see."

 

"Highly probable. I can believe anything of this sulphur-laden Valley

of the Shadow. And did the mountain disappear also?"

 

"No! there he stands, three thousand feet high, quite ready, if one may

judge from appearances, for another fiery shower. Let us hope he will

not do it in our time. In the mean time, look at this Boiling Lake. Is

not the water beautifully blue? And what clouds of steam! It is much

the same, except in size, as the one above the Pink Terrace."

 

The day wore on as they rambled from one spot to another of the magical

region.

 

"It is a city of the genii," said Massinger, as he watched the guide

apply a match to one of a number of metallic-looking mounds, which

promptly caught fire, and blazed until quenched. "Where in the world,

except a naphtha lake, could one find such an inflammable rest for the

sole of one's foot? I believe the place is one-half sulphur, and the

other imprisoned fire, which will some day break forth and light up

such a conflagration of earth, sky, and water, as the world has not

seen for centuries. See here"--as, driving the end of his walking-stick

into the crumbling earth, it began to smoke--"it is too hot to hold

already."

 

The sun was low, as the little party, having lunched at a bungalow

specially erected for tourists, took the homeward route.

 

"There is one more sight, and not the least of the series," said

Warwick, as they approached a curious soot-coloured cone, from which,

of course, steam ascended, and strange sounds, with intermittent

groanings, made themselves heard.

 

"The powers be merciful to us mortals, who can but believe and

tremble!" ejaculated Massinger. "What demon's kitchen is this?"

 

"Only a mud volcano," answered Warwick. "Let us climb to the top and

look in."

 

The mound, formed by the deposit of dried mud, some ten or twelve

feet high, was easily ascended. Open at the top, it was filled with

a boiling, opaque mass of seething, bubbling mud. Ever and anon were

thrown up fountain-like spurts, which turned into grotesque shapes as

they fell on the rim of the strange cauldron. A tiny dab fell upon

Erena's _kaitaka_. She laughed.

 

"It will do this no harm; but it might have been my face. A mud scald

is long of healing."

 

"What an awful place to fall into alive!" said Massinger, as he gazed

at the steaming, impure liquid. "Is it known that any one ever slipped

over the edge?"

 

"More than one, if old tales are true," said Warwick; "but they were

_thrown in_, with bound hands, after battle. It was a choice way of

disposing of a favourite enemy. He did not always sink at once; but

none ever came out, dead or alive."

 

"Let us go on!" said Erena, impatiently. "I cannot bear to think of

such horrors. I suppose all nations did dreadful things in war."

 

"And may again," interposed Warwick. "These people were not worse

than others long ago. The Druids, with their wicker cages filled with

roasting victims, were as well up to date as my Maori ancestors.

Luckily, such things have passed away for ever."

 

"Let us trust so," said Massinger, feelingly.

 

Erena made no answer, but walked forward musingly on the track which

led in the direction of the camp.

 

"Though narrow, it appears to have been much used," he remarked.

 

"It is an old war-path," replied the guide. "When the Ngapuhi came

down from Maketu on their raids, they mostly used this route. I am

not old enough to have seen anything of Heke's war in '45. It was the

first real protest against the pakeha. The natives were beginning to

be afraid, very reasonably, that the white man would take the whole

country. If the tribes had been united, they could have defied any

force then brought against them, and driven your people into the sea."

 

"And why did they not make common cause?"

 

"The old story. Blood-feuds had embittered one tribe against another.

Chiefs of ability and forecast, like Waka Nene and Patuone, his

brother, saw that they must be beaten in the long run. They allied

themselves with the British. They had embraced Christianity, and

remained faithful to the end, fighting against the men of their own

blood without the least regard to their common origin."

 

"I need not ask you," said Massinger, "on which side your sympathies

are enlisted."

 

"No! it goes without saying," answered the guide. "I have had a fair

education; I have been about the world, and I cannot help recognizing

the resistless power of England, against which it would be madness to

contend. I should never think of joining the natives in case of war. A

war which is coming, from all I hear. At the same time, I cannot help

feeling for them. Amid these woods, lakes, and through these mountains

and valleys, their ancestors roamed for centuries. No people in the

world are more deeply attached to their native land. Think how hard for them to be dispossessed."