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Ngamihi; or The Maori Chief's Daughter

Chapter XXIX. A Tale of the Sea

page 119

Chapter XXIX. A Tale of the Sea.

The Maoris then made search for their dead find wounded, and found that Doctor Gill had bandaged and strapped the latter far better than they could have done. In a few minutes they were enjoying a good meal with our men. At first they were rather reserved, but under the influence of a hearty welcome, they became as cheerful and lighthearted as boys. It was a singular sight to see these men, who had so recently been engaged in a deadly conflict, thus fraternising like old friends.

"The drays for the wounded and dead cannot arrive before evening," said the Captain, so we will be obliged to camp here for the night. Ngahoia is delighted with the success of his rain of tire stratagem. Do not allow the artifice to become known to the Maoris, as the mystery must be prolonged as long as possible. I have mentioned my wishes to Ngahoia, and some of the other men. Of course it will leak out like all matters you want to keep secret; still the temporary mystification will be beneficial."

The men made a huge fire and formed a ring round it, and the Maoris were invited to sit down with them. I was pleased to see that everyone treated them as friends. They proved to be page 120of a very sociable disposition, and interested us greatly in the narration of some of the legends of their country, the young chief, Taipua, especially displaying great fluency of speech. His language and gestures were very eloquent, and his whole manner was most impressive.

The day passed quietly, and in the evening a good supply of rum was served out. As I was passing a group which was seated round a fire, I heard Regan being called upon to give a toast. As he was such a droll fellow I stopped to listen. He waved his pannikin wildly over his head and sang the following:—

Here's a health to Martin Flannigan's aunt.
  An I'll tell you the rason why,
She ate whin she was hungry,
  And she drank whin she was dry.
"And if ever a man stopped the course of the can,
  Martin Flannigan's aunt would cry,
Blessed be your sowl, why not pass on the bowl,
  How d'ye know but you neighbour's dry"

The toast was received with much laughter and created great amusement for a short time.

"Did you ever suffer much from extreme cold in your last winter's camping out?" I asked of one of the men, who was relating his experiences in the mountains.

"You bet, sir; we had some very cold weather. One time after a few days rain it began to freeze hard. In the morning the blanket covering me was like a sheet of iron with the frost. My limbs were so numbed that I could hardly move. After I had shaken myself up a bit, I put the blanket standing on end against a tree, and——."

page 121

"Draw it mild, draw it mild, Bill," said an old ex-sailor, who was known by the name of Blowhard.

"Quite true, mate," said Bill, "I never would have believed it but that I saw it with my own eyes."

You have told us yourself, Blowhard, that you on one occasion had to take your rum and whisky in square inch blocks."

"Yes," growled the old sailor, "but that was when I was whalin' in the South Seas."

"Tell us about it, old man," someone called out. "All right young 'uns," but it is a long story, so I will light my pipe and then fire away.

'We were a good bit south, and met a vessel one time sailin' along quietly close to us. Our skipper hailed her, but got no answer. As we were short of grub, he put out a boat, and went alongside her. The skipper and me clambered on board, and left the others in the boat, they being quite willin' to stop there, as they thought we might find small-pox on board. There was no one at the wheel, so after securing her from runnin' away with us, we looked down the cabin and was astonished to see five men sittin' down at the table quite comfortable like. The skipper put his head down the hatch and called out. "Below there, shipmates, did't you hear us hail you. A pretty set you must be to let the ship go to h——in this way with no one at the wheel. As there was no answer, and everything seemed so silent and mysterious like, the skipper turned a bit pale and asked me to go below and see who they were. "After you, sir," I said, not likin' the job, and wishin' him to have the honour of goin' first. After some palaver a we both went down, and I slapped the nearest man on the shoulder and said:

page 122

'Now then mate, can't you answer a civil question?' The man I had touched gave a lurch againt the skipper, and almost sent him on his beam ends. The old man swore a good 'un while he picked himself up.

No use at swearin' at dead corpuses sir,' said I; everyone of them is as dead as a marlin' spike. Sure enough they were, and all sittin' at the table with good grub in front of them, although a bit stale. They had a pleasant look on their faces too, only rather white about the gills. The skipper at once ordered the others out of the boat, and a thorough search was made of the ship. There was men lyin' on different parts of the deck dead, as if they had been friz suddint. Two women were in the cabin quite stiff, but looked as if they was sleepin' comfortable like. One was a pretty young thing with a nice figure head, and I reckoned they were the skipper's wife and daughter. All hands were soon piped to the funeral, and we quickly had them in canvas well weighted with old iron, and overboard. It was now gettin' dark, and every appearance of a cold night comin'. The skipper got us to haul the craft alongside our ship and we made her fast. That was a cold night if you like! The quicksilver in the weather fixins' went down so low that I thought it would never rise again above freezo or zero, I think they call it. I turned out for my watch on deck at eight bells, and didn't like the look of the coffin ship alongside of us at all. At first it snowed a little, but in the mornin' it friz horrid. All the grog in the bottles was hard, and we had to break it with a cold chisel. We found plenty of good grub on board the dead ship, and shifted it to our vessel. After that we got everythink out that we wanted in the shape of togs and spare sails. As we was short handed we was a considerin' what to do with her, when it came on to blow very heavy, and after setting her on fire, as we page 123did not want her to run foul of other ships we cut her adrift. My word, did'nt she burn; I never seed a ship afire before, and it was a beautiful sight to see her sailing away all ablaze. If I had to go to "Davey Jones" I would sooner be drowned than roasted.'"