University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IX.

The fearless confidence of Toby was contagious, and I began to
adopt the Happar side of the question. I could not, however,
overcome a certain feeling of trepidation as we made our way
along these gloomy solitudes. Our progress, at first comparatively
easy, became more and more difficult. The bed of the
watercourse was covered with fragments of broken rocks, which
had fallen from above, offering so many obstructions to the
course of the rapid stream, which vexed and fretted about them,
—forming at intervals small waterfalls, pouring over into deep
basins, or splashing wildly upon heaps of stones.

From the narrowness of the gorge, and the steepness of its
sides, there was no mode of advancing but by wading through
the water; stumbling every moment over the impediments which
lay hidden under its surface, or tripping against the huge roots
of trees. But the most annoying hindrance we encountered was
from a multitude of crooked boughs, which, shooting out almost
horizontally from the sides of the chasm, twisted themselves
together in fantastic masses almost to the surface of the stream,
affording us no passage except under the low arches which they
formed. Under these we were obliged to crawl on our hands
and feet, sliding along the oozy surface of the rocks, or slipping
into the deep pools, and with scarce light enough to guide us.
Occasionally we would strike our heads against some projecting
limb of a tree; and while imprudently engaged in rubbing the
injured part, would fall sprawling amongst flinty fragments,
cutting and bruising ourselves, whilst the unpitying waters flowed
over our prostrate bodies. Belzoni, worming himself through
the subterranean passages of the Egyptian catacombs, could not
have met with greater impediments than those we here encountered.

But we struggled against them manfully, well knowing
our only hope lay in advancing.

Towards sunset we halted at a spot where we made preparations
for passing the night. Here we constructed a hut, in much
the same way as before, and crawling into it, endeavoured to
forget our sufferings. My companion, I believe, slept pretty
soundly; but at daybreak, when we rolled out of our dwelling,
I felt nearly disqualified for any further efforts. Toby prescribed
as a remedy for my illness the contents of one of our
little silk packages, to be taken at once in a single dose. To
this species of medical treatment, however, I would by no means
accede, much as he insisted upon it; and so we partook of our
usual morsel, and silently resumed our journey. It was now the
fourth day since we left Nukuheva, and the gnawings of hunger
became painfully acute. We were fain to pacify them by chewing
the tender bark of roots and twigs, which, if they did not
afford us nourishment, were at least sweet and pleasant to the
taste.

Our progress along the steep watercourse was necessarily slow,
and by noon we had not advanced more than a mile. It was
somewhere near this part of the day that the noise of falling
waters, which we had faintly caught in the early morning,
became more distinct; and it was not long before we were
arrested by a rocky precipice of nearly a hundred feet in depth,
that extended all across the channel, and over which the wild
stream poured in an unbroken leap. On either hand the walls
of the ravine presented their overhanging sides both above and
below the fall, affording no means whatever of avoiding the
cataract by taking a circuit round it.

"What's to be done now, Toby?" said I.

"Why," rejoined he, "as we cannot retreat, I suppose we
must keep shoving along."

"Very true, my dear Toby; but how do you purpose accomplishing
that desirable object?"

"By jumping from the top of the fall, if there be no other
way," unhesitatingly replied my companion: "it will be much
the quickest way of descent; but as you are not quite as active
as I am, we will try some other way."

And, so saying, he crept cautiously along and peered over

into the abyss, while I remained wondering by what possible
means we could overcome this apparently insuperable obstruction.
As soon as my companion had completed his survey, I eagerly
inquired the result.

"The result of my observations you wish to know, do you?"
began Toby, deliberately, with one of his odd looks: "well, my
lad, the result of my observations is very quickly imparted. It
is at present uncertain which of our two necks will have the
honour to be broken first; but about a hundred to one would be
a fair bet in favour of the man who takes the first jump."

"Then it is an impossible thing, is it?" inquired I, gloomily.

"No, shipmate; on the contrary, it is the easiest thing in life:
the only awkward point is the sort of usage which our unhappy
limbs may receive when we arrive at the bottom, and what sort
of travelling trim we shall be in afterwards. But follow me now,
and I will show you the only chance we have.

With this he conducted me to the verge of the cataract, and
pointed along the side of the ravine to a number of curious
looking roots, some three or four inches in thickness, and
several feet long, which after twisting among the fissures of the
rock, shot perpendicularly from it and ran tapering to a point
in the air, hanging over the gulf like so many dark icicles.
They covered nearly the entire surface of one side of the gorge,
the lowest of them reaching even to the water. Many were
moss-grown and decayed, with their extremities snapped short
off, and those in the immediate vicinity of the fall were slippery
with moisture.

Toby's scheme, and it was a desperate one, was to intrust
ourselves to these treacherous-looking roots, and by slipping
down from one to another to gain the bottom.

"Are you ready to venture it?" asked Toby, looking at me
earnestly, but without saying a word as to the practicability of
the plan.

"I am," was my reply; for I saw it was our only resource if
we wished to advance, and as for retreating, all thoughts of that
sort had been long abandoned.

After I had signified my assent, Toby, without uttering a
single word, crawled along the dripping ledge until he gained a
point from whence he could just reach one of the largest of the

pendant roots; he shook it—it quivered in his grasp, and when
he let it go it twanged in the air like a strong wire sharply
struck. Satisfied by his scrutiny, my light-limbed companion
swung himself nimbly upon it, and twisting his legs round it in
sailor fashion, slipped down eight or ten feet, where his weight
gave it a motion not unlike that of a pendulum. He could not
venture to descend any further; so holding on with one hand,
he with the other shook one by one all the slender roots around
him, and at last, finding one which he thought trustworthy,
shifted himself to it and continued his downward progress.

So far so well; but I could not avoid comparing my heavier
frame and disabled condition with his light figure and remarkable
activity; but there was no help for it, and in less than a
minute's time I was swinging directly over his head. As soon
as his upturned eyes caught a glimpse of me, he exclaimed in
his usual dry tone, for the danger did not seem to daunt him in
the least, "Mate, do me the kindness not to fall until I get
out of your way;" and then swinging himself more on one side,
he continued his descent. In the mean time I cautiously transferred
myself from the limb down which I had been slipping to
a couple of others that were near it, deeming two strings to my
bow better than one, and taking care to test their strength before
I trusted my weight to them.

On arriving towards the end of the second stage in this vertical
journey, and shaking the long roots which were round me,
to my consternation they snapped off one after another like so
many pipe stems, and fell in fragments against the side of the
gulf, splashing at last into the waters beneath.

As one after another the treacherous roots yielded to my grasp,
and fell into the torrent, my heart sunk within me. The
branches on which I was suspended over the yawning chasm
swang to and fro in the air, and I expected them every moment
to snap in twain. Appalled at the dreadful fate that menaced
me, I clutched frantically at the only large root which remained
near me, but in vain; I could not reach it, though my fingers
were within a few inches of it. Again and again I tried to
reach it, until at length, maddened with the thought of my
situation, I swayed myself violently by striking my foot against
the side of the rock, and at the instant that I approached the

large root caught desperately at it, and transferred myself to it.
It vibrated violently under the sudden weight, but fortunately
did not give way.

My brain grew dizzy with the idea of the frightful risk I had
just run, and I involuntarily closed my eyes to shut out the
view of the depth beneath me. For the instant I was safe, and
I uttered a devout ejaculation of thanksgiving for my escape.

"Pretty well done," shouted Toby underneath me; "you are
nimbler than I thought you to be—hopping about up there
from root to root like any young squirrel. As soon as you have
diverted yourself sufficiently, I would advise you to proceed."

"Aye aye, Toby, all in good time: two or three more such
famous roots as this, and I shall be with you."

The residue of my downward progress was comparatively easy;
the roots were in greater abundance, and in one or two places
jutting out points of rock assisted me greatly. In a few moments
I was standing by the side of my companion.

Substituting a stout stick for the one I had thrown aside at
the top of the precipice, we now continued our course along the
bed of the ravine. Soon we were saluted by a sound in advance,
that grew by degrees louder and louder, as the noise of the
cataract we were leaving behind gradually died on our ears.

"Another precipice for us, Toby."

"Very good; we can descend them, you know—come on."

Nothing indeed appeared to depress or intimidate this intrepid
fellow. Typees or Niagaras, he was as ready to engage one as
the other, and I could not avoid a thousand times congratulating
myself upon having such a companion in an enterprise like the
present.

After an hour's painful progress, we reached the verge of
another fall, still loftier than the preceding, and flanked both
above and below with the same steep masses of rock, presenting,
however, here and there narrow irregular ledges, supporting a
shallow soil, on which grew a variety of bushes and trees, whose
bright verdure contrasted beautifully with the foamy waters that
flowed between them.

Toby, who invariably acted as pioneer, now proceeded to
reconnoitre. On his return, he reported that the shelves of rock
on our right would enable us to gain with little risk the bottom of

the cataract. Accordingly, leaving the bed of the stream at the
very point where it thundered down, we began crawling along
one of these sloping ledges until it carried us to within a few
feet of another that inclined downward at a still sharper angle,
and upon which, by assisting each other, we managed to alight
in safety. We warily crept along this, steadying ourselves by
the naked roots of the shrubs that clung to every fissure. As we
proceeded, the narrow path became still more contracted, rendering
it difficult for us to maintain our footing, until suddenly,
as we reached an angle of the wall of rock where we had expected
it to widen, we perceived to our consternation that a yard
or two farther on it abruptly terminated at a place we could not
possibly hope to pass.

Toby as usual led the van, and in silence I waited to learn from
him how he proposed to extricate us from this new difficulty.

"Well, my boy," I exclaimed, after the expiration of several
minutes, during which time my companion had not uttered a
word; "what's to be done now?"

He replied in a tranquil tone, that probably the best thing we
could do in our present strait was to get out of it as soon as
possible.

"Yes, my dear Toby, but tell me how we are to get out of it."

"Something in this sort of style," he replied; and at the
same moment to my horror he slipped sideways off the rock, and
as I then thought, by good fortune merely alighted among the
spreading branches of a species of palm tree, that shooting its
hardy roots along a ledge below, curved its trunk upwards into
the air, and presented a thick mass of foliage about twenty feet
below the spot where we had thus suddenly been brought to a
stand still. I involuntarily held my breath, expecting to see the
form of my companion, after being sustained for a moment by
the branches of the tree, sink through their frail support, and
fall headlong to the bottom. To my surprise and joy, however,
he recovered himself, and disentangling his limbs from the fractured
branches, he peered out from his leafy bed, and shouted
lustily, "Come on, my hearty, there is no other alternative!"
and with this he ducked beneath the foliage, and slipping down
the trunk, stood in a moment at least fifty feet beneath me, upon
the broad shelf of rock from which sprung the tree he had
descended.

What would I not have given at that moment to have been
by his side! The feat he had just accomplished seemed little
less than miraculous, and I could hardly credit the evidence of
my senses when I saw the wide distance that a single daring act
had so suddenly placed between us.

Toby's animating "come on!" again sounded in my ears,
and dreading to lose all confidence in myself if I remained meditating
upon the step, I once more gazed down to assure myself
of the relative bearing of the tree and my own position, and then
closing my eyes and uttering one comprehensive ejaculation of
prayer, I inclined myself over towards the abyss, and after one
breathless instant fell with a crash into the tree, the branches
snapping and crackling with my weight, as I sunk lower and
lower among them, until I was stopped by coming in contact
with a sturdy limb.

In a few moments I was standing at the foot of the tree, manipulating
myself all over with a view of ascertaining the extent
of the injuries I had received. To my surprise the only effects
of my feat were a few slight contusions too trifling to care about.
The rest of our descent was easily accomplished, and in half an
hour after regaining the ravine we had partaken of our evening
morsel, built our hut as usual, and crawled under its shelter.

The next morning, in spite of our debility and the agony of
hunger under which we were now suffering, though neither of
us confessed to the fact, we struggled along our dismal and still
difficult and dangerous path, cheered by the hope of soon catching
a glimpse of the valley before us, and towards evening the
voice of a cataract which had for some time sounded like a low
deep bass to the music of the smaller waterfalls, broke upon our
ears in still louder tones, and assured us that we were approaching
its vicinity.

That evening we stood on the brink of a precipice, over which
the dark stream bounded in one final heap of full 300 feet. The
sheer descent terminated in the region we so long had sought.
On either side of the fall, two lofty and perpendicular bluffs
buttressed the sides of the enormous cliff, and projected into the
sea of verdure with which the valley waved, and a range of
similar projecting eminences stood disposed in a half circle about
the head of the vale. A thick canopy of traces hung over the

very verge of the fall, leaving an arched aperture for the passage
of the waters, which imparted a strange picturesqueness to the
scene.

The valley was now before us; but instead of being conducted
into its smiling bosom by the gradual descent of the deep watercourse
we had thus far pursued, all our labours now appeared to
have been rendered futile by its abrupt termination. But, bitterly
disappointed, we did not entirely despair.

As it was now near sunset we determined to pass the night
where we were, and on the morrow, refreshed by sleep and
by eating at one meal all our stock of food, to accomplish a
descent into the valley, or perish in the attempt.

We laid ourselves down that night on a spot, the recollection
of which still makes me shudder. A small table of rock which
projected over the precipice on one side of the stream, and was
drenched by the spray of the fall, sustained a huge trunk of a
tree which must have been deposited there by some heavy freshet.
It lay obliquely, with one end resting on the rock and the other
supported by the side of the ravine. Against it we placed in a
sloping direction a number of the half decayed boughs that were
strewn about, and covering the whole with twigs and leaves,
awaited the morning's light beneath such shelter as it afforded.

During the whole of this night the continual roaring of the
cataract—the dismal moaning of the gale through the trees—the
pattering of the rain, and the profound darkness, affected my
spirits to a degree which nothing had ever before produced. Wet,
half famished, and chilled to the heart with the dampness of the
place, and nearly wild with the pain I endured, I fairly cowered
down to the earth under this multiplication of hardships, and
abandoned myself to frightful anticipations of evil; and my
companion, whose spirit at last was a good deal broken, scarcely
uttered a word during the whole night.

At length the day dawned upon us, and rising from our miserable
pallet, we stretched our stiffened joints, and after eating
all that remained of our bread, prepared for the last stage of our
journey.

I will not recount every hair breadth escape, and every fearful
difficulty that occurred before we succeeded in reaching the
bosom of the valley. As I have already described similar scenes,

it will be sufficient to say that at length, after great toil and
great dangers, we both stood with no limbs broken at the head of
that magnificent vale which five days before had so suddenly
burst upon my sight, and almost beneath the shadows of
those very cliffs from whose summits we had gazed upon the
prospect.