“That night the boats of the ship could not land on the beach of Tai-o-hae, for the sea was too great, so that they came and went from Peikua, the staircase in the rocks.  The sailors had leave to do what they wished and they had plenty of rum given them by the captain who was born that day forty years before.  I went then to the ship to drink the captain’s rum and to buy tobacco.  I am of Hiva-oa, and the ship was large, and new to me.”

Tetuahunahuna’s gesture brought quickly to him a fresh cigarette, and he savored its rank smoke with satisfaction.  The slender canoe swung like a hammock in the long, sluggish rollers.  The sun blazed pitilessly upon us, and no slightest ruffle of white broke the surface of the calm, unrelenting sea that held us prisoner.

“At night there was nobody on the ship not drunk.  Some of the men had seized several women on the road that leads to Tai-o-hae, and had forced them to the boat and carried them aboard.  Among these women was Anna, who had fled from the nuns to seek word of her father.  She fought like a wild woman of the hills when they held her in jest to make her swallow the rum, but the strong ship men conquered her, and the sound of their laughter and her cries was so great that the captain himself came forward.  When he saw her he claimed her as the youngest, as is the custom.

“She went with him weeping.  When they came to his cabin, we heard her crying aloud to Maria Peato.  We heard the shouts of the captain, enraged, subduing her with blows.  There was much rum, and the women were dancing.  There was much noise, but I had drunk little, having just come to the ship, and I heard the crying and weeping of Anna.”

“After a time came Anna, running across the deck.  It was a large vessel, and it was a dark night.  The captain pursued her.  She climbed the rigging, and the captain ordered two men to go aloft and bring her to him.

[Illustration:  The gates of the Valley of Hanavave]

[Illustration:  A fisherman’s house of bamboo and cocoanut leaves]

“Every one came to look, with yells and with songs.  The sailors climbed after her, and she went higher and higher, until near the top of that tall mast, taller than the greatest cocoanut-tree in Atuona.  There she held to the wood, calling upon Maria Peato.  The captain was like a man mad with namu.  He called to the sailors to climb higher.  But when one reached to take her by the foot, she threw herself into the air and fell a great distance into the water.

“The captain cried that he would give four litres of rum to the man that brought her back.  Some ran to get the boat, others dived after her.  I was one of these.

“I have said that it was a black night.  When in the water we could get no sight of her.  Then on the ship one turned a bright lantern on the sea, and all of us saw her arm as it was raised to swim.  She was a hundred feet before us, and swimming with great swiftness.  The sailors meantime had set out in the boat, but they had drunk much rum, and rowed around and around.  We three men swimming in the beams of the lantern came closer to her at every stroke.