54. CHAPTER LIV.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE WILD CATTLE IN POLYNESIA.
Before we proceed further, a word or two concerning these
wild cattle, and the way they came on the island.
Some fifty years ago, Vancouver left several bullocks, sheep,
and goats, at various places in the Society group. He instructed
the natives to look after the animals carefully; and by no
means to slaughter any, until a considerable stock had accumulated.
The sheep must have died off; for I never saw a solitary
fleece in any part of Polynesia. The pair left, were an ill assorted
couple, perhaps; separated in disgust, and died without issue.
As for the goats, occasionally you come across a black, misanthropic
ram, nibbling the scant herbage of some height inaccessible
to man, in preference to the sweet grasses of the valley
below. The goats are not very numerous.
The bullocks, coming of a prolific ancestry, are a hearty
set, racing over the island of Imeeo in considerable numbers;
though in Tahiti, but few of them are seen. At the former
place, the original pair must have scampered off to the interior,
since it is now so thickly populated by their wild progeny.
The herds are the private property of Queen Pomaree; from
whom the planters had obtained permission to shoot for their
own use, as many as they pleased.
The natives stand in great awe of these cattle; and for this
reason, are excessively timid in crossing the island, preferring
rather to sail round to an opposite village in their canoes.
Tonoi abounded in bullock stories; most of which, by the
by, had a spice of the marvelous. The following is one of
these.
Once upon a time, he was going over the hills with a brother
—now no more— when a great bull came bellowing out of a
wood, and both took to their heels. The old chief sprang into a
tree; his companion, flying in an opposite direction, was pursued,
and in the very act of reaching up to a bough, trampled under
foot. The unhappy man was then gored—tossed in the air—
and finally run away with on the bull's horns. More dead than
alive, Tonoi waited till all was over, and then made the best of
his way home. The neighbors, armed with two or three muskets,
at once started to recover, if possible, his unfortunate
brother's remains. At nightfall, they returned without discovering
any trace of him; but the next morning, Tonoi himself
caught a glimpse of a bullock, marching across the mountain's
brow, with a long dark object borne aloft on his horns.
Having referred to Vancouver's attempts to colonize the
islands with useful quadrupeds, we may as well say something
concerning his success upon Hawaii, one of the largest islands
in the whole Polynesian Archipelago; and which gives the native
name to the well known cluster named by Cook in honor
of Lord Sandwich.
Hawaii is some one hundred leagues in circuit, and covers an
area of over four thousand square miles. Until within a few
years past, its interior was almost unknown, even to the inhabitants
themselves, who, for ages, had been prevented from wandering
thither, by certain strange superstitions. Pelee, the
terrific goddess of the volcanoes Mount Roa and Mount Kea,[20]
was supposed to guard all the passes to the extensive valleys
lying round their base. There are legends of her having chased
with streams of fire several impious adventurers. Near Hilo,
a jet-black cliff is shown, with the vitreous torrent apparently
pouring over into the sea: just as it cooled after one of these
supernatural eruptions.
To these inland valleys, and the adjoining hillsides, which
are clothed in the most luxuriant vegetation, Vancouver's bullocks
soon wandered; and unmolested for a long period, multiplied
in vast herds.
Some twelve or fifteen years ago, the natives, losing sight of
their superstitions, and learning the value of the hides in commerce,
began hunting the creatures that wore them; but being
very fearful and awkward in a business so novel, their success
was small; and it was not until the arrival of a party of Spanish
hunters, men regularly trained to their calling upon the
plains of California, that the work of slaughter was fairly begun.
The Spaniards were showy fellows, tricked out in gay blankets,
leggins worked with porcupine quills, and jingling spurs.
Mounted upon trained Indian mares, these heroes pursued their
prey up to the very base of the burning mountains; making the
profoundest solitudes ring with their shouts, and flinging the
lasso under the very nose of the vixen goddess Pelee. Hilo, a
village upon the coast, was their place of resort; and thither
flocked roving whites from all the islands of the group. As
pupils of the dashing Spaniards, many of these dissipated fellows,
quaffing too freely of the stirrup-cup, and riding headlong
after the herds, when they reeled in the saddle, were unhorsed
and killed.
This was about the year 1835, when the present king, Tammahamaha
III. was a lad. With royal impudence, laying claim
to the sole property of the cattle, he was delighted with the
idea of receiving one of every two silver dollars paid down for
their hides; so, with no thought for the future, the work of extermination
went madly on. In three years' time, eighteen
thousand bullocks were slain, almost entirely upon the single
island of Hawaii.
The herds being thus nearly destroyed, the sagacious young
prince imposed a rigorous “taboo” upon the few surviving
cattle, which was to remain in force for ten years. During this
period—not yet expired—all hunting is forbidden, unless directly
authorized by the king.
The massacre of the cattle extended to the hapless goats. In
one year, three thousand of their skins were sold to the merchants
of Honolulu, fetching a quartilia, or a shilling sterling
apiece.
After this digression, it is time to run on after Tonoi and the
Yankee.
