“ T re e ? ” said the other, awe in his voice; “ look at
it.”
We crowded under the white awnings to see a great
hnau floating swiftly down, shadowy, unhelmed, no
lights upon her, a ship of the. dead. We were still
wondering when a great crash shook the air. The pity
of it came upon us, for a great hnau with her rich
carved stern, her vast rigging and shapely bows, makes
ON TH E R IV ER
a noble spectacle upon the water. She passed within a
fathom’s sweep, and must have rammed us, had we not
anchored for the night in the shelter of a rocky ledge,
protruding a few feet into the river. We crept a foot
nearer in to the bank and put a fresh rope out. The
anchor offered no security, and had we held by it, the
current must have lifted it and swept us away. So it
lay with a slack chain at the bottom, where it collected
large quantities of drift during the night.
All through the night the rain fell, and the river rose,
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PAGODAS ON THE R IV E R
