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 bye, had a
spice of the marvellous. 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 underfoot. 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 neighbours, 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 the 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 honour of Lord Sandwich.
Hawaii is some one hundred leagues in circuit, and covers an area of
over four thousand 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 Eoa
and Mount Kea, 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 lost 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, leggings
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 quartila, or a shilling sterling apiece.
After this digression, it is time to run on after Tonoi and the Yankee.