hem, and had approached
within about a yard of the foremost, when, pointing angrily into the Typee
valley, and uttering some savage exclamation, he wheeled round his weapon
like lightning, and struck me in a moment to the ground. The blow
inflicted this wound, and took away my senses. As soon as I came to
myself, I perceived the three islanders standing a little distance off,
and apparently engaged in some violent altercation respecting me.

"My first impulse was to run for it; but, in endeavouring to rise, I fell
back, and rolled down a little grassy precipice. The shock seemed to rally
my faculties; so, starting to my feet, I fled down the path I had just
ascended. I had no need to look behind me, for, from the yells I heard, I
knew that my enemies were in full pursuit. Urged on by their fearful
outcries, and heedless of the injury I had received--though the blood
flowing from the wound trickled over into my eyes and almost blinded me--I
rushed down the mountain side with the speed of the wind. In a short time
I had descended nearly a third of the distance, and the savages had ceased
their cries, when suddenly a terrific howl burst upon my ear, and at the
same moment a heavy javelin darted past me as I fled, and stuck quivering
in a tree close to me. Another yell followed, and a second spear and a
third shot through the air within a few feet of my body, both of them
piercing the ground obliquely in advance of me. The fellows gave a roar of
rage and disappointment; but they were afraid, I suppose, of coming down
farther into the Typee valley, and so abandoned the chase. I saw them
recover their weapons and turn back; and I continued my descent as fast as
I could.

"What could have caused this ferocious attack on the part of these Happars
I could not imagine, unless it were that they had seen me ascending the
mountain with Marheyo, and that the mere fact of coming from the Typee
valley was sufficient to provoke them.

"As long as I was in danger I scarcely felt the wound I had received; but
when the chase was over I began to suffer from it. I had lost my hat in
the flight, and the sun scorched my bare head. I felt faint and giddy;
but, fearful of falling to the ground beyond the reach of assistance, I
staggered on as well as I could, and at last gained the level of the
valley, and then down I sunk; and I knew nothing more until I found myself
lying upon these mats, and you stooping over me with the calabash of
water."