near which we lie. It was erected by the Provincial Government, who attempted to make this a landing-place for goods consigned to the Tuapeka Diggings, when roads were not, and in those days a steamer used to trade between Dunedin and the river mouth.
After a short halt the ship is put about, and we now steam back again up the river, getting another, and perhaps a finer view than on the passage down. To the casual visitor the names of each particular hill or promontory are not of much interest; the general or prevailing features are all he cares for, and in sailing upwards new views are disclosed.
Facing us now is that beetle-browed precipitous point, whose back we saw in coming down stream, but which now openly asserts its pre-eminence against all assailants. And it has a tale to unfold. Where was there ever a weird spot like this, to which some incident was not attached? And the wilder the country, and the more rugged the inhabitants, the more romantic would be the tale.
The steamboat is brought to a standstill whilst the narrative is told by the captain.
It was a beautiful summer evening, and the declining sun, glancing through the tops of the trees, cast a golden reflection on the smooth waters of the Waihola Lake, and rested on the form of a young girl, who was reclining on its banks on a rude couch of dry grass, beneath a large fern-tree, whose noble fronds almost touched a small canoe which was made fast close to the shore.
A richly-coloured mat fell in graceful folds to her feet, and was fastened below her shoulder by a large knot of purple flax, while her splendid dark tresses were interwoven with the wild vine and convolvulus. Her dark eyes sparkled with pleasure as the branches were heard to rustle, and a tall, handsome young man approached her. He was deeply tattooed, and his spear, the axe in his girdle, and his massive earrings, proclaimed by their curious carving that he was a man of some importance in his tribe.
Sitting down beside her, they conversed familiarly; but alas! they knew not that from a tree close beside them a man—who from the fiendish hate displayed in his face might have been mistaken for a demon—was listening to all they said.
