Between Nanomea and Nanomaga--two of the Ellice Group--but within a few
miles of the latter, is an extensive submerged shoal, on the charts
called the Grand Cocal Reef, but by the people of the two islands known
as Tia Kau (The Reef). On the shallowest part there are from four to
ten fathoms of water, and here in heavy weather the sea breaks. The
British cruiser BASILISK, about 1870, sought for the reef, but reported
it as non-existent. Yet the Tia Kati is well known to many a Yankee
whaler and trading schooner, and is a favourite fishing-ground of the
people of Nanomaga--when the sharks give them a chance.
* * * * *
One night Atupa, Chief of Nanomaga, caused a huge fire to be lit on the
beach as a signal to the people of Nanomea that a MALAGA, or party of
voyagers, was coming over. Both islands are low--not more than fifteen
feet above sea-level--and are distant from one another about
thirty-eight miles. The following night the reflection of the answering
fire on Nanomea was seen, and Atupa prepared to send away his people in
seven canoes. They would start at sundown, so as to avoid paddling in
the heat (the Nanomagans have no sailing canoes), and be guided to
Nanomea, which they expected to reach early in the morning, by the far
distant glare of the great fires of coconut and pandanus leaves kindled
at intervals of a few hours. About seventy people were to go, and all
that day the little village busied itself in preparing for the
Nanomeans gifts of foods--cooked PURAKA, fowls, pigs, and flying-fish.
* * * * *
Atupa, the heathen chief, was troubled in his mind in those days of
August 1872. The JOHN WILLIAMS had touched at the island and landed a
Samoan missionary, who had pressed him to accept Christianity. Atupa,
dreading a disturbing element in his little community, had, at first,
declined; but the ship had come again, and the chief having consented
to try the new religion, a teacher landed. But since then he and his
sub-chiefs had consulted the oracle, and had been told that the shades
of Maumau Tahori and Foilagi, their deified ancestors, had answered
that the new religion was unacceptable to them, and that the Samoan
teacher must be killed or sent away. And for this was Atupa sending off
some of his people to Nanomea with gifts of goodwill to the chiefs to
beseech them to consult their oracles also, so that the two islands
might take concerted action against this new foreign god, whose priests
said that all men were equal, that all were bad, and He and His Son
alone good.
* * * * *
The night was calm when the seven canoes set out. Forty men and thirty
women and children were in the party, and the craft were too deeply
laden for any but the smoothest sea. On the AMA (outrigger) of each
canoe were the baskets of food and bundles of mats for their hosts, and
seated on these were the children, while the women sat with the men and
helped them to paddle. Two hours' quick paddling brought them to the
shoal-water of Tia Kau, and at the same moment they saw to the N.W. the
sky-glare of the first guiding fire.
* * * * *
It was then that the people in the first canoe, wherein was Palu, the
daughter of Atupa, called out to those behind to prepare their ASU
(balers), as a heavy squall was coming down from the eastward. Then
Laheu, an old warrior in another canoe, cried out that they should
return on their track a little and get into deep water; "for," said he,
"if we swamp, away from Tia Kau, it is but a little thing, but here--"
and he clasped his hands rapidly together and then tore them apart.
They knew what he meant--the sharks that, at night-time forsaking the
deep waters, patrolled in droves of thousands the shallow waters of the
reef to devour the turtle and the schools of TAFAU ULI and other fish.
In quick, alarmed silence the people headed back, but even then the
first fierce squall struck them, and some of the frail canoes began to
fill at once. "I MATAGI! I MATAGI! (head to the wind)" a man called
out; "head to the wind, or we perish! 'Tis but a puff and it is gone."
* * * * *
But it was more than a puff. The seven canoes, all abreast, were still
in shallow water, and the paddlers kept them dead in the teeth of the
whistling wind and stinging rain, and called out words of encouragement
to one another and to the women and children, as another black squall
burst upon them and the curling seas began to break. The canoe in which
was Atupa's daughter was the largest and best of all the seven, but was
much overladen, and on the outrigger grating were four children. These
the chief's daughter was endeavouring to shield from the rain by
covering them with a mat, when one of them, a little girl, endeavoured
to steady herself by holding to one of the thin pieces of grating; it
broke, and her arm fell through and struck the water, and in an instant
she gave a dull, smothered wail. Palu, the woman, seized her by her
hair and pulled the child up to a sitting posture, and then shrieked
with terror--the girl's arm was gone.
* * * * *
And then in the blackness of night, lightened now by the white,
seething, boiling surge, the people saw in the phosphorescent water
countless hundreds of the savage terrors of the Tia Kau darting hither
and thither amongst the canoes--for the smell of blood had brought them
together instantly. Presently a great grey monster tore the paddle from
out the hands of the steersman of the canoe wherein were the terrified
Palu and the four children, and then, before the man for'ard could
bring her head to the wind, she broached to and filled. Like ravening
wolves the sharks dashed upon their prey, and ere the people had time
to give more than a despairing cry, those hideous jaws and gleaming
cruel teeth had sealed their fate. Maddened with fear, the rest of the
people threw everything out of the six other canoes to lighten them,
and as the bundles of mats and baskets of food touched the water the
sharks seized and bit, tore and swallowed. Then, one by one, every
paddle was grabbed from the hands of the paddlers, and the canoes
broached to and filled in that sea of death--all save one, which was
carried by the force of the wind away from the rest. In this were the
only survivors--two men.
* * * * *
The agony could not have lasted long. "Were I to live as long as he
whom the FAIFEAU (missionary) tells us lived to be nine hundred and
sixty and nine, I shall hear the groans and cries and shrieks of that
PO MALAIA, that night of evil luck," said one of the two who lived, to
Denison, the white trader at Nanomea. "Once did I have my paddle fast
in the mouth of a little devil, and it drew me backwards, backwards,
over the stern till my head touched the water. TAH! but I was strong
with fear, and held on, for to lose it meant death by the teeth. And
Tulua--he who came out alive with me, seized my feet and held on, else
had I gone. But look thou at this"--and he pointed to his scarred neck
and back and shoulders "ere I could free my FOE (paddle) and raise my
head, I was bitten thus by others. Ah, PAPALAGI, some men are born to
wisdom, but most are fools. Had not Atupa been filled with vain fears,
he had killed the man who caused him to lose so many of our people."
"So," said the white man, "and wouldst thou have killed the man who
brought thee the new faith? Fie!"
"Aye, that would I--in those days when I was PO ULI ULI [Heathen, lit. "In
the blackest night"]. But not now, for I am Christian. Yet had Atupa
killed and buried the stranger, we could have lied and said he died of a
sickness when they of his people came to seek him. And then had I now my
son Tagipo with me, he who went into the bellies of the sharks at
Tia Kau."