War to the Knife 22

War to the Knife 22

"And have you an alternative to offer?"

 

"None whatever, if war breaks out. It is idle to expect that New

Zealand, able to support millions of civilized people, should be

abandoned to less than a hundred thousand savages; for such, with

exceptions, I am afraid I must call them. As for justice and mercy in

dealing with conquered races, these are mere words. _Force_ is the

only law, as it has ever been. What mercy did the Maoris show to their

conquered enemies? They slew, enslaved, tortured--and worse! They

exterminated weak tribes, and took their lands. They have little ground

for complaint if a nation stronger in war applies the same measure to

them."

 

"I congratulate you," said Massinger, "upon the logical view which you

take of the question. But is there no way of reconciling the interests

of the colonists and the children of the soil?"

 

"Certainly. If they are cool enough on both sides to adjourn this

paltry dispute about the Waitara block until it can be settled by legal

authority or arbitration, war might be avoided. No people are more

obedient to law, when they properly understand it. They are naturally

litigious, and enjoy a good long-winded lawsuit. If they were convinced

that they were getting fair play in an arbitration, which I should

recommend--and there are available men, like Mannering or Waterton,

who understand thoroughly the people and their customs, and are trusted

by both sides--I believe they would cheerfully abide by an award."

 

"Then as to the sale of lands, disputed titles, upset price, and so on?"

 

"I believe that they are getting justice from the present land

tribunals apart from political pressure, which would weaken in time;

and if they do not get it from England, I do not know, speaking from

experience and reading, from what other nation to expect it. There must

be delay and litigation, but they will be satisfied in the end."

 

"And if not, and war breaks out?"

 

"Then there will be bloodshed to begin with, murder, outrage; all

things which lead to unpardonable crimes on both sides; blood-feuds

which will last for generations."

 

"A man like you might do much good in the legislature. Why do you not

come forward, when inferior people of my own nation, from what I hear,

degrade our parliamentary system?"

 

"The time is not yet," he answered. "We shall soon have other matters

to think of. When we get back to Auckland there will be very little

political business for some time to come."

 

* * * * *

 

Onward, and still onward. Fresh marvels of scenery seemed hourly

opening before them. In pride of place, Tongariro, fire-breathing

Titan, with volcanic cone, encircled by his stupendous mountain range.

As they gazed, the ceaseless steam-clouds, now enveloping the summit,

now wind-driven sportively, as if by a giant's breath, exposed to view

the darkened rim of the crater.

 

To the right of Tongariro, more than five thousand feet in height, they

saw the heaven-piercing bulk of Ruapehu (eight thousand nine hundred

feet), cloud-crowned, lava-built, but girdled with ice-fields at a

lower altitude; and at the base, arising from gloomy forests, valleys

seamed and fissured, precipices, ravines, and outlined terraces.

 

"What a land of contrasts!" said the Englishman. "The sublime, the

dread and awful, the idyllic and peaceful rural, seem mingled together

in the wildest profusion; fire and water conflicting furiously in

the same landscape. Nature appears to have thrown her properties and

elements about without plan or method."

 

"A strange country!--a strange people!" exclaimed Erena. "Is that what

you are thinking of? Surely you cannot expect an ordinary population

amid scenes like these. I fear that we resemble our country in being

calm as the sleeping sea, until the storm of passion is aroused."

 

"And then?" queried he.

 

"Then, if we feel injured, cruel as the grave, merciless, remorseless.

So beware of us! We make bad enemies, I confess; but, then, we are

always ready to die for our friends."

 

"I am numbered, I trust, among that favoured class, am I not?" he

continued, as he gazed at the girl's face, wearing as it did a sudden

look of high-souled resolve.

 

So might have looked, so posed, the daughter of Jephthah; so, scorning

fate and the dark death, stood Iphigenia as she awaited the blow of

doom.

 

The __EXPRESSION__ of her face changed; a wistful, half-pleading look came

into her eyes.

 

"Why ask?" she said softly. "You know that you are; that you always

will be."

 

* * * * *

 

And now, after a passage across the pumice-strewn levels, lo! Taupo the

sacred, Taupo-Moana, the moaning sea.

 

There was no thought of unsatisfied expectation as Massinger gazed upon

the glorious sheet of water, over which the eye wandered until the

darksome shadows of Kaimanawa and Tankaru dimmed its azure surface--the

vast mountain range, from which, on Tongariro, a mathematically correct

cinder-cone sprang upwards, like the spire of a gigantic minster.

 

On the other side, the peak of Tauhara, 3600 feet in height, stood out

in lone majesty. The twin Titan, Ruapehu, bared his enormous shoulder

to the unclouded sky. The day was wonderfully fine, having the softened

atmospheric tone peculiar to the later summer months of the northern

island. Then gradually a delicate haze crept over the horizon, shading

the stern outlines of the dark-browed Alp. The foot-hills seemed to

have approached through the clear yet tinted lights of the fading day.

 

"When have I seen such a panorama before?" thought Massinger. "What

vastness, what sublimity, in all its component parts! Then, as columns

of steam rose in the far distance, completing the weird and abnormal

effects of the unfamiliar vision, speech, even exclamation, appeared to

fail him.

 

"Yonder stands the _pah_ of his Majesty, King Te Heu Heu, the head

chief of all this district," interposed Warwick. "We must send forward

a herald and pay our respects, or our visit may not be so successful.

He has a queer temper, and is as proud as if he had been sent from

heaven. There is his castle."

 

"Warwick is right," said Erena, coming up at this juncture and arousing

herself from the reverie into which she, too, appeared to have fallen.

"This is his kingdom, and we must do _tika_. We can rest for to-night,

however, and give Te Heu Heu the second proper warning, so that he can

receive us in state. I wish you could have seen the _real_ Te Heu Heu,

however."

 

"Why so? and what was his special distinction?"

 

"Something truly uncommon, personally. You would then have carried

away an idea of a Maori Rangatira--one of the olden time. A giant in

stature, he must have resembled old Archibald Douglas in 'Marmion'--'So

stern of look, so huge of limb.' He lived in a valley some distance

from here, among the hills you see yonder. But life in these regions

has always been uncertain. One fine night--or perhaps it was a stormy

one, for there had been a deluge of rain--the soil about here in the

valley, even the rocks, they say, became loosened and came down in

a kind of avalanche. It filled the whole valley, covering up Te Heu

Heu, his people, his wives and children, numbering in all some seventy

souls. They were never seen alive or heard of any more. There was a

lament composed by his brother to his memory. I remember a verse or

two.

 

'LAMENT FOR TE HEU HEU.

 

'See o'er the heights of dark Tauhara's peak

The infant morning wakes. Perchance my friend

Returns to me clad in that lightsome cloud.

Alas! I toil alone in this cold world; for thou art gone.

 

'Go, thou mighty one! Go, thou hero!

Go, thou that wert a spreading tree to shelter

Thy people, when evil hovered round.

Ah! what strange god has caused so dread a death

To thee and thy companions?

 

'The mount of Tongariro rises lonely in the South,

While the rich feathers that adorned thy great canoe, Arawa,

Float on the wave. And women from the West look on and weep.

Why hast thou left behind the valued treasures

Of thy famed ancestor Rongo-maihua,

And wrapped thyself in night?'

 

There are as many more verses," said Erena, "but I have forgotten them.

They all express the deepest feeling of grief--almost despair--as,

indeed, do most of the Maori love-songs and laments. The grief was by

no means simulated in the case of relations. I know myself of several

suicides which took place immediately after funerals or disappointments

in love."

 

"There is strong poetic feeling, with a high degree of imagination,

in the native poems and orations," said Massinger. "It is a pity that

these recitations should die out."

 

"The Te Heu Heu we refer to was a remarkable man," said Warwick.

"Standing as near seven feet as six, he looked, I have heard people

say, the complete embodiment of the Maori chief of old days--terrible

in peace or war; and, arrayed in his cloak of ceremony, with the

_huia_ feathers in his hair, and his _merepounamou_ in his right hand,

was enough to strike terror into the heart of the bravest."

 

"Didn't he refuse to sign the Treaty of Waitangi?" said Massinger.

 

"Of course he did. It was just like his pride and disdain of a

superior. 'You may choose to be slaves to the pakeha,' he said

scornfully to the assembled chiefs, as he turned away; 'I am Te Heu

Heu!'"