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Stories from the South Seas
BY
“SUNDOWNER"

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7.4.97

STORIES FROM THE SOUTH SEAS
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW STREET SQUARE
LONDON
NOQU TALANOA
STORIES FROM THE SOUTH SEAS
BY
*SUNDOWNER
/
LONDON
THE EUROPEAN MAIL LIMITED
IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C.
1896
Price Half-a-Crown
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Most of the stories in this volume have
already appeared in substance in The
Weekly Telegraph and The Colonies and
India, to whose editors I am indebted
for the necessary permission to recapitulate
the incidents. I dedicate the book with
affectionate remembrances to the thousands
of coloured friends with whom I had the
pleasure of communing during my wander-
ings among those earthly paradises known
vaguely on this side as the South Pacific
Islands. I have enjoyed many a breezy
talanoa over the yaqona-bowl with those
splendid Polynesians, whose genial and
kindly natures have always challenged my
warmest admiration and gratitude, and I
vi
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
have published my story—or Noqu Talanoa
-by way of letting the world know what
good souls I think them to be. Forgetting
their sometime waywardness, I shall always
remember their sterling qualities, their
large hearts, their lovable natures, and
their genial humours. My tongue may
cleave to my mouth if ever I cease to sing
the praises of those bright and cheerful
people, whose kindly comradeship, in danger
as in sport, added so much zest and enjoy-
ment to the glorious holiday it was my
privilege to spend among the picturesque
Pacific archipelagos, 'waiting for sundown.'
CONTENTS
PAGE
SERUA AND MAAFU . . . . . . . I
LOVE . . . . . . . . . . 8
A CANNIBAL KING, CAKO-BAU, HIGH LORD OF Fiji
CANNIBALISM . . . . . . . . . 30
TALANOA NA YAQONA . . . . . . 41
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI . . . . . ...
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS. . . . . .
NA LAIRO . . . . . . . ..
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF Fiji . . . . 87
AMONG THE MAORIS . . . . . . . 95
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND . . . . . 106
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS. . . 117
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'. . . . .
THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS . .
THE CASTAWAYS. . . . . . . . 152
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—THE LEPER COLONY OF
MOLOKAI . . . . . . . . . 163
A MODEL MONARCH . . . . . . . 174
SERUA AND MAAFU
TTTT
VANUA LEVU has its story of Heloise and
Abelard, and a touching story it is in its way.
There is a little mound on a picturesque hil-
lock overlooking the waters of Loa Bay, in
north-eastern Vanua Levu, wherein lie the
bodies of Serua and Maafu, who loved blindly
and were divided in life, and whom death
brought together in a strange and tragic way.
The love-lorn maidens and buoyant youths
in the Buca country make regular pilgrimage
to the classic little mound where the unfor-
tunate lovers rest together after their troubled
lives, and the legend is told by young and
old in the countryside, with that rare elo-
quence and sympathetic pathos which cha-
racterises the Fijians. Serua was the most
beautiful woman ever born to these parts,
SERUA AND MAAFU
LII
according to the story. She was the
daughter of the Buli of Loa, and was con-
nected with the best families in Buca and
Natewa. As she developed into young-
womanhood suitors came from far and near,
chiefs of high and low degree, Turagas,
Bulis, sons of Rokos--and even, it was said,
a son of Tui-Cakau had come across the Straits
of Somo Somo in one of the royal canoes to
pay court to the charming and accomplished
daughter of the head of the Loa commune.
Serua was high-spirited and particular, it
seems, and one and all were refused in turn.
At last her fate arrived with the advent of a
party of high-toned Tongans, who came to
Eastern Fiji on one of their visits to Tui-
Cakau's capital at Somo Somo. The waters
to the north of Somo Somo Straits, beyond
Kioa and along the Buca coast to Koro-I-
Vonu and Rambi, are famous for their turtle
and shark fishing, and on many occasions the
flash young Tongans were brought thither
for sport by the young Taviunian chiefs of
SERUA AND MAAFU
.
3
1
TY
Somo Somo. On one of the turtle-hunting
trips Maafu happened to visit Loa, where he
saw Serua, and the two appear to have fallen
in love at first sight, as the saying goes.
But Maafu had to go back to Tonga pre-
sently with his companions, and he left with
the promise that he would return and marry
Serua at the next rising of the balolo, some
six months later. There was no postal or
telegraph communication between Fiji and
Tonga in those days, so poor Serua spent the
interim fretfully enough. Then came the
balolo, but no sign or word of the young
Tongan chief.
Time sped along, and at last came a
rumour from Tonga that Maafu had knelt
before another goddess, and had abandoned
Serua. The young chieftainess took her
trouble sadly enough, and it was some time
before she could recover anything like her
old gaiety. Suitors from all parts of Vanua
Levu, Taviuni, Rambi, and even Ovalau still
followed the Loa beauty, and at last, in a sort
71
-
2
B
SERUA AND MAAFU
of despair, Serua consented to marry Ratu
Maiko, a big chief from the Macuata coast.
The marriage meeting was appointed, fatefully
enough, for the next-coming balolo, and as the
time approached there was great rejoicing
and extensive preparations, from Na-Gai-Gai
up to Kumbalau, for it was felt that Ratu
Maiko, being a Vanua Levuan and well-
known in the country, would surely be round
from Macuata to claim his bride at the rising
there came the rising of the balolo lai-lai.
All was in readiness for the wedding arrange-
ments on the eve of the big balolo, when there
arose a sea-storm such as is only known, as a
rule, in those regions some months after balolo
time. As night came on the storm, instead of
abating, grew fiercer, and as Ratu Maiko and
his friends were on the way from the Macuata
coast by way of Udu and Kumbalau Points,
a good deal of excitement arose as to how
the party of voyagers would fare in the sud-
den stress of weather. The wind rose, as
SERUA AND MAAFU
5
did the sea, and, as if to add to the general
warring of the elements, a fierce thunder-
storm struck across Loa Bay. Through the
darkness of the night those on the look-out
in Loa could see away across the mouth of
the bay in the flashes of lightning which
burst upon the place at frequent intervals.
At last the anxious watchers in one of the
flashes sighted a large royal canoe bearing
into the bay, and there was general rejoicing,
as the craft seemed able to hold her own in
the hurricane. As each succeeding flash,
however, showed the canoe bearing inwards,
the men began to be alarmed at the way in
which she was being driven, for her course
appeared to be directed towards a nasty piece
of coral reef that stretches out towards Kioa
from the Diloi side. Everybody wondered,
for the reef was well known to Ratu Maiko,
as he must have passed the place hundreds
of times. But on the canoe sped, and at last,
when one of the lightning flashes showed the
position of the vessel to the excited people
irr
SERUA AND MAAFU
11
of Loa, the canoe was smashing to ribbons
on the coral reef, with her sail gone. There
was really nothing to do but await the course
of events, for no canoe could be launched
from Loa in the teeth of the gale then blow-
ing. There was nothing for it but to wait
patiently, the men going out and patrolling
the beach with torches, with a view to rescu-
ing any of the canoe party who might succeed
in struggling inshore. After some hours
bodies began to arrive, and one after another
was picked up in the weird gloom of the fag-
end of the awful night. The women-folk
now helped in the search, and naturally
enough Serua joined anxiously in the grue-
some quest. At last, while body after body
was being washed up on the beach, a youth
came rushing from a point where he had
found a body, to announce that the chief had
been washed ashore. Serua, mad with
excitement and grief, rushed forward to the
spot, and stooping over the body, pulled the
chief's tangled hair into something like order,
YTT
SERUA AND MAAFU
Y
1
to find, on looking into the dead face, that she
had come upon the body of her old flame,
Maafu! Serua threw her arms round the
body of her lifeless lover, and remained there.
When they went to move her later, she too
was dead, and instead of a wedding cere-
mony on the day of the big balolo there was
a funeral procession to the little hillock out-
side the town of Loa. Ratu Maiko reached
Loa a few days afterwards, having been
detained at Udu by the storm ; but whether
the ill-fated Maafu had mistaken the year of
the balolo on which he had made up his mind
to marry Serua is not known to the chronicler,
and never will be. But it came to be known
that he had been steadily true to poor Serua,
as she in reality in her heart had been to him.
They were divided in life, but were united in
death.
LOVE
Love it is, and love alone,
Makes the world go round and round;
Love is surely to be known
Where a woman's to be found.
IL
Thus says the old song-writer, and as women
are to be found amongst the fairy islands of
the Pacific, so also is love. To make love'
is a common expression, but we may search
over the wide region of books in vain for a
prescription for ‘making' it. We make it
each in our own way, and it comes natural to
us. The profession of love in England is
one thing, the profession of love amongst
the numerous inhabitants of the Pacific
archipelagos is another.
They have a custom in one portion of
the New Hebrides which is, to say the least
of it, unique. In one of the islands there is
LOVE
1
a large broken gully in the mountains—the
Americans call them cañons. At one spot
this cañon is about eighty yards across, and
on one side, situated near the top of the ridge,
there is a large ledge of rock. When a
young man has made it right with his
inamorata he, on an appointed day, betakes
himself to the cañon, in company with large
numbers of his friends and friends of his
fiancée. The girl, being a deeply interested
party, acts as a kind of missile-holder to her
future lord and master. From the opposite
side to the rock-ledge his tavi, or task, is to
throw a stone on to the ledge. If the stone
remain upon the rock the ceremony of mar-
riage is completed. If the stone should roll
off, as it very often does, the marriage is
deferred for ten moons, during which period
both candidates for matrimony are debarred
from entering upon that holy state. I
attended one of those marriages a few years
ago. The bridegroom was a smart young
fellow, and several remarks were dropped by
IO
LOVE
the bystanders, to the effect 'that if Nepuka-
taneseri (Nebuchadnezzar) couldn't make a
stone stick on the ledge, nobody could.'
The bride herself complacently smoked my
pipe, without any apparent anxiety, while
preparations were being made for the cere-
mony. She had evidently the greatest
confidence in her lover's ability to accomplish
the task he had before him. He justified
the confidence by safely lodging the stone
without much effort, and the happy couple
were at once congratulated by their friends
on their union. We adjourned to the village,
and spent the rest of the day round the
kava-bowl, where the general conversation,
naturally enough, turned upon the experiences
of several of those present in their matri-
monial efforts. One old fellow, whose hand
had never been blessed with any cunning for
stone-throwing, had made in his time about
a dozen efforts to take unto himself a wife,
but had met with indifferent luck upon each
occasion, and was consequently still a bache-
LOVE
II
1
TTY
lor. The life of a bachelor is not, of course,
so hard in the New Hebrides as it is in
England. The holiday best of a New
Hebridean comprises merely a fathom of
light cloth thrown round the loins, and
called a 'lava-lava.' He is, therefore, never
troubled with that universal obstacle to the
British bachelor's happiness, the difficulty
of getting his buttons sewn on.
In the Fiji Islands the custom obtains of
arranging marriages when the parties are in
their infancy. Thus, a bright young Fijian
lady often becomes engaged when she is two
or three years of age.
The Fijian is only happy when a feast is
going on. Upon the slightest possible pro-
vocation a feast is organised, and so it happens
that the betrothal of a young couple is always
made the subject of a festival on a large scale.
Scores of pigs are slaughtered and deposited
in the lovos, or ovens, which, half a century
ago, were the receptacles of human bodies
on similar occasions. Yams are rooted up
VO
12
LOVE
1
by the ton, and the koro, or town in which
the feast is held, is kept in a bustle of excite-
ment from sunrise to sunset.
A marriage engagement commenced in
this way, and extending over a period of per-
haps twelve or fifteen years, very often comes
to nothing after all.
Sweethearting, or billing and cooing, a-
mongst the Fijians, is a curious feature in
their social customs. It is decidedly tabu to
do any courting within doors. The gardens
or plantations are the spots held sacred to
Cupid. And the generally approved trysting-
place of lovers is up, high up, amongst the
branches of a bread-fruit tree. Many a score
times have I, walking round a plantation
on a moonlight night, spied couples perched
forty feet from the ground in the bread-
fruit trees, one on each side of the trunk, a
position which comes fairly within the limits
of a Fijian maiden's ideas of modesty. The
custom is held to have many advantages by
those who indulge in it. Foremost and most
IU
LOVE
13
111
important of these is that you can see the
old man coming' a good way off. I have
never heard, however, any calculation made
of the chances one would have if the old
man' proved to be a sticker,' and took up
his station at the foot of the tree before one
could get down. There is one thing—a man
'up a tree' in Fiji, especially a bread-fruit
tree, could stand a long siege without starv-
ing.
I have never seen, during years of travel
in many countries, a race of people of higher
moral instincts than the Fijians. A scandal
is of rare occurrence. But the Fijian mother
is a born matchmaker, and the Fijian maiden
is herself a keen prospector after any good
thing in the shape of a matrimonial alliance.
While I was trading amongst them, and
spending money freely with them, I was—
so I afterwards learned-notwithstanding
an uncomely personal appearance, generally
looked upon as a 'good catch. It may
be necessary to mention here that very many
YY 1
14
LOVE
7
Y
IS.
of the white residents of Fiji are married to
native wives. The ladies in most cases, of
course, are daughters of high chiefs, and have
been liberally educated. I was one day en-
tertaining a number of young ladies from the
house of a neighbouring chief, who was a
native magistrate, and with whom I stood
upon close official and intimate terms. One
of the girls—a tidy soul-was constantly
brushing down the table or sweeping the
floor. Some of the others twitted her about
it. I broke in with a little banter. "Wait
till Lavinia and I are married,' I said, 'and
we shall have a servant to keep the house
tidy.' My horror may be imagined when, a
few days later, the girl, in company with her
mother, landed at my door with her baggage !
She had taken me at my word, and I had
some heavy work before me to clear the matter
up satisfactorily.
The apathy which is engendered by these
long marriage engagements among the Fijians
is sometimes followed with amusing results.
LOVE
15
TY
1
A young fellow living in my neighbourhood
had been engaged to a girl for about fourteen
years. As neither party had been attracted
by any more fascinating third person, the
long engagement was about to end in a
matrimonial alliance. Accordingly a day was
fixed for the celebration, and preparations
made for the usual festivities. The appointed
day came round in due course, and the pig
tribe suffered in the usual alarming degree.
The bride and her friends were on hand,
but the bridegroom was non est. The day
passed—the festival was partaken of, not-
withstanding the non-performance of the
ceremony which occasioned it ; but still ‘he
came not.' Next day, however, he appeared,
and was considerably surprised to hear of the
trouble he had occasioned. He had forgotten
all about the wedding business, and had
merely gone for a day's fishing! But he
received such a lesson from his mother-in-
law that was to be, in good round Fijian
(and a fine language it is to abuse a person
rson
16
LOVE
Y
with), that he is likely to be more punctual
in attending to business connected with her
family for the future.
The national beverage in Fiji is the yaqona,
or kava. This is a small tree (Macropiper
methysticum), the root of which is chewed,
and then dissolved in water. After a little
straining, to remove the root-dregs, the
mixture is fit for drinking. It is an intoxi-
cant, and if the root happens to be old it has
a powerful effect. The effect of a yaqona
drunk' is most peculiar. While the head
of the subject remains clear enough to discuss
the toughest political question, the legs totally
refuse to do their accustomed work. A
drunken: man is often compelled to hold
on to the grass for support. The young
girls are invariably employed in the work of
grog-chewing when a company sits down
to drink. But when you see a young woman
chewing grog single-handed for a solitary
young man, you know that that couple are
engaged to be married. It is one of the
LOVE
17
best signs that a young woman will make a
suitable wife for a youth when she can chew
his grog to the proper strength. There are,
of course, many differences of taste--some
like it 'over proof,' and others prefer it
under.'
Like the men, the Fijian women comb
their hair straight upwards. It stands up
stiff like the top of a well-trimmed hedge, and
when flowers are to hand, they are profusely
planted on top, making the woman to appear
as if she carried a miniature flower-garden
on the top of her head. A lock of hair on
the right temple is preserved, however, for a
downward course, and this is carefully plaited
and allowed to hang down the side of the
cheek. When the girl is married this lock
is shorn and never allowed to appear again.
Hence the experienced eye can quickly dis-
cern the married from the single when a
village is entered.
In Samoa when a woman is married several
tattoo marks are inflicted upon her. And,
TITY
18
LOVE
YTTY
both in Fiji and Samoa, the birth of each
child is registered by a tattoo mark on the
mother's hand. When you see a woman
with her hand covered with these marks you
may be sure she has contributed largely to
the population of her country. It would have
warmed the heart of Bonaparte to see a
venerable old lady who lives on Vanua Levu.
Her hand is as 'black as sin. I was bidding
her 'Good-bye' one day. “I veca ?' I asked
as I held her hand. “Rua-saga-vulu ka lima'
(twenty-five), she answered proudly.
In the Society Islands (Tahiti) tattooing
is carried on to an amazing extent. Serious
crimes are punished by the infliction of a
mark upon the forehead, which, of course, it
is impossible to conceal or efface. No felon's
mark was ever so terrible in its punishing
effects as this. The bearer of it is shunned
by everyone, the brand of Cain' is literally
upon his brow, and the only peaceful retreat
left to him is the grave.
-
19
A CANNIBAL KING,
CAKO-BAU, HIGH LORD OF FIJI
Y
EPENESERI, or Ebenezer, Cako-Bau, King of
Fiji, Controller of the Sharks, and Boss of
all the Islands in the World,' was born about
a hundred years ago. The exact date is not
known, but the traditions are unanimous on
the point that the heavens and earth were
seriously disturbed and convulsed at the birth
of the future prodigy. Gales blew and
storms raged. Probably the people had
enough to do to look after their houses and
canoes, without going to the trouble of fixing
a date for the birth of their new Prince.
Tanoa, the father of Cako-Bau, was rather
a good King in his way. He was an active
man, fond of the chase, of war, and such like
manly occupations, while he was, at the same
C 2
20
A CANNIBAL KING
-
time, little given to gourmandising. Hence
we find that Tanoa only ordered a man to
be killed and cooked when he wanted a feed ;
he didn't have beef lying about all over the
place, going to waste, as did his predecessors
and the son who succeeded him.
Tanoa is the name given to the large
wooden bowl in which the yagona, or native
grog, is prepared. The old King had such
a happy way of absorbing yaqona that he
was facetiously called a Tanoa. The name
stuck to him, and he eventually ruled under
it, and handed it down to posterity as the
name of a king who was distinguished from
the rest of his dynasty by the mercifulness of
his character and the wisdom of his reign.
His mercy and wisdom of course grew out
of his economical habits, in that he never
killed more men than he could use.
When Cako-Bau (evil to Bau) was five
years of age he clubbed his first man! The
victim was tied up in the usual way, a club
given to the boy, who beat the poor
TT
1
A CANNIBAL KING
21
wretch to death, taking, however, about two
hours to complete the task. It will be
allowed that this was an early age at which
to receive his baptism of massacre.
11
when a king or chief died, his wives (and
sometimes he had many) were put to death
and buried along with him. When Tanoa
died he left five widows, Cako-Bau's mother
being amongst them. The young King
assumed the reins of power immediately
upon the death of his father, and his first act
was to carry out the usual festivities in
connection with the funeral, and the massacre
of the widows. Two white missionaries,
with their wives and families, lived on Bau
at this time, and they made every effort
to induce Cako-Bau to spare the women's
lives. They annoyed him very much over
the matter. Why,' he said, “if I were to
omit the observance of such an important
custom the people would be justified in tell-
ing me that I was unfit to rule over them.'
22
A CANNIBAL KING
U
was
The ceremony was carried out accordingly,
Cako-Bau leading off the massacre by strang-
ling his own mother.
For many years after his accession to the
throne of Bau the career of King Cako-Bau
was one long array of cowardly massacre and
unjust wars. The whole of the Fijian
Archipelago, which consists of about two
hundred islands, became subject to him, and
he ruled them with a hand of iron. But
white people began to gather round him, and
the King at last commenced to find that it
was necessary for him to exercise more care
in the discharge of his royal functions. Many
of the leading nations had consuls at Levuka.
The American Consul always had the 'stars
and stripes' flying over his official residence.
A Fijian from the Livoni Valley was in the
Levuka one night, and an idea occurred to
him that the Yankee colours would make
a picturesque and comfortable sulu (a waist-
cloth-the one article of a Fijian's wearing
apparel). Accordingly, in the morning the
A CANNIBAL KING
23
Consul was surprised to find the old flag
gone. He went down to Cako-Bau and
lodged a formal complaint. The King only
laughed at him. The Consul used consider-
able language of a parliamentary character,
and let the matter lie over for a while.
Some time afterwards, an American man-of-
war entered the port. The Consul made a
due representation of matters, with the result
that Cako-Bau was carried aboard, and
informed that he would not be allowed to
return to shore till the flag stealer was pro-
duced. Of course the King immediately sent
emissaries into the Livoni, and they returned
in a few days with the culprit. He was
flogged, and he and Cako-Bau were then
allowed to depart. The Americans were
satisfied, but the King had a bone to pick
with the man whose offence had caused His
Majesty to be subjected to indignity. The
man was slowly tortured to death in the
public square at Totoga in Levuka. His
arm was first cut off at the elbow, and
24
A CANNIBAL KING
thrown into the oven; in fact, he was dis-
membered by slow degrees, and the King
feasted upon him.
The first thing which began to show some
likelihood of interfering seriously with the
rule of Cako-Bau in Fiji was the rising power
of Maafu, in the Lau, or eastern group.
Maafu has been called the 'Lord Byron of
Tonga,' which country he had been com-
pelled to leave some years before. He was
one of the cleverest native chiefs who ever
came to the surface in the Pacific, and his
untimely death at Lakeba a few years ago
was universally deplored. Maafu was an
extensive trader, had amassed a large sum of
money, and possessed many ships. Finding
from the disturbed state of the country that.
it was necessary for the proper protection of
his business and his property that he should
keep a small army, he equipped one, which
grew in time to formidable dimensions.
Cako-Bau quarrelled with Maafu at last,
and the latter would probably have smashed
TY
1
A CANNIBAL KING
the Bau ruler were it not for British inter-
vention and the subsequent annexation of
Fiji to this country.
If Maafu had lived, he would have suc-
ceeded, upon the death of his uncle, the late
King George of Tonga, to the throne of that
country.
During the latter portion of Cako-Bau's
reign he had the assistance of a white Minis-
try in his councils. Like administrations in
England, the King's Ministers went in and
out, but their removal from office was gene-
rally the effect of a cause different to that
which removes an English Government.
One Ministry, I remember, in which a friend
of mine held the portfolio of Chancellor of
the Exchequer, lost office through having
purchased ten cases of gin of inferior quality
for His Majesty's use. The old man was
not to be humbugged with cheap gin, so he
sent for the Leader of the Opposition and
charged him with the commission of forming
a new Government.
11
11
III
26
A CANNIBAL KING
The Administration resolved upon a
great coronation ceremony. All the leading
chiefs of the group were called together at
Levuka to witness the ceremony. A daïs
was erected, and the crown manufactured.
The man who made the crown still lives in
Fiji, and he always complains that he was
never paid the half-sovereign which he was
promised for making the article. On the
other hand, it appears that Cako-Bau was
not satisfied with the workmanship. The
coronation ceremony took place, and late in
the day Cako-Bau stuck his penknife into
the velvet covering by which the hard
material of the crown was concealed. This
material he found to consist of part of a
kerosene tin, and his disgust was great.
The old man flung the crown from him with
some very strong and unregal expressions
indeed. The Administration which con-
ceived the coronation idea was ignomini-
ously dismissed from office.
When I remember that popular term in
A CANNIBAL KING
27
use amongst us, De mortuis nil nisi bonum,
I begin to fear that, in speaking roughly of
Cako-Bau, I may be making a breach in
what has come to be a generally recognised
law. But there is some excuse for me in
the recollection that the old King himself
spoke at times very depreciatingly of the
dead. We learn that he constantly inter-
rupted the decorum of a banquet by fling-
ing a piece of bokola (dead man) from him,
with an oath about the 'toughness' or the
'saltiness' of the deceased.
What a victory the good Christian mis-
sionaries scored when they succeeded in
changing this human fiend into the fine
character which he exhibited during the latter
portion of his life!
Cako-Bau resisted Christianity for many
years. He, however, was good enough to
allow the missionaries a footing in the country,
but no particular respect was paid to them.
On Bau, the Fijian capital, white mission-
aries had been allowed a residence from the
28
A CANNIBAL KING
time of Tanoa, the predecessor of Cako-Bau.
But the only spot upon which they were
allowed to erect a residence was upon the
rubbish heap in the centre of the town.
Here two of them lived for many years, with
their wives and families, witnesses very
often of the cannibal feasts for which Bau
was notorious..
The good King George of Tonga was
the man who eventually succeeded in pre-
vailing upon Cako-Bau to embrace Chris-
tianity
The old man certainly could never be
blamed for doing things by halves. From a
cut-throat and cannibal of advanced ideas,
he turned right round to a God-fearing,
humane Christian. He abandoned polygamy,
as well as the 'bokola' trade, and put forth
his influence amongst the different tribes
in the group in the assistance of the mis-
sionaries.
Towards his latter days he also adopted
the more civilised custom of wearing shirts
1
A CANNIBAL KING
29
and trousers regularly, although they
'scratched' him a good deal at first. When
the King visited Sydney, in 1874, he was
the guest of Sir Hercules Robinson, the then
Governor of New South Wales. His
Majesty interviewed a George Street tailor,
who promptly turned him out in a neat-fitting
dress suit. Immediately after his first dinner
at Government House the old man retired,
and was not seen again for some hours. He
was subsequently unearthed in the kitchen.
The dress suit had been abandoned, and the
conventional Fijian sulu substituted for it.
The potentate had extemporised the sulu
from a table-cloth, and had comfortably set
himself out for a smoke in the kitchen. He
wore that damask sulu for a long time after,
its great advantage over the dress suit being
that it didn't scratch!'
.
30
CANNIBALISM
TY
LANDING once upon the coast of Malayta,
one of the Solomon Islands, the first sight
which riveted my attention was the body of
a little girl lying under a cocoa-nut tree,
with a spear stuck partly through its head.
A crowd of natives stood near, engaged
apparently in some festal business, but no-
body appeared to heed the child. It was yet
alive, and its cries for 'mother' and for a
drink of water' made an impression upon
me which is with me yet. I instinctively
drew my revolver. A man is sometimes
prompted to attempt foolish things in emer-
gencies of such a nature as this.
I happened to be known to some of the
people present. A young Christoval chief
approached me and told me in a friendly way
1 TY
CANNIBALISM
31
Y17
to put the shooter' away. I managed after-
wards, however, with his assistance, to save
the poor child from the oven, for a time, at
least.
Any inclination I had for saving victims
was useless in the next case which came be-
fore me, further up the village. The candi-
date for pièce de résistance honours here
was a full-grown warrior, who had, I learnt
upon inquiry, been trying the ‘John Hamp-
den' business, and had encountered some
bad luck in the venture. He was as dead as
the proverbial door nail, and was tied up and
properly hamstrung, awaiting the preparation
of the lovo, or oven, which was to receive
him. I hope the English reader will not be
too much horrified when I mention that I was
subsequently invited to partake of the re-
freshments at the banquet which followed.
I hope it will also be needless to mention
that the offer was refused. But for the
offence of saying these horrible things, I may
be allowed to congratulate English people
YA
32
CANNIBALISM
Y
upon the fact that such scenes may now be
reckoned amongst the things that were, and
to go a little further in stating the universally
acknowledged fact that the English people
are solely responsible for their discontinu-
ance.
It is but a few years, comparatively
speaking, since the English missionary
hoisted his glorious flag in the Pacific, but to
say that the traveller to the Islands to-day
is astonished when he views and realises the
work which has been accomplished, is not
saying enough—he is amazed. The Ameri-
can Consul at Levuka, a few years ago (he
has since been compelled to make way for the
protégé of a friend of President Cleveland's)
had a curious relic in his office with which to
edify his visitors. This consisted of the fork
of a vesi tree, in which were embedded about
a hundred shin-bones, arm-bones, jaw-bones,
and other fragments of the human frame.
The tree from which the fork had been taken
stood underneath a rock-ledge or precipice in
LI
IT
CANNIBALISM
33
y
1
the Livoni Mountains, on top of which was
situated a favourite feasting ground. These
bones were merely a few of those which had
been thrown over from time to time, and had
happened to catch in the fork of the tree. I
remember saying to the Consul once : ‘There
must have been a considerable pile of bones
around the foot of the tree where this came
from ?' “Aye,' said the Consul, you kin bet
there just was-con-siderable !
The Maoris of New Zealand were at one
time cannibals of no mean order. The hot
springs and lakes in different parts of the
North Island were, from an early date, much
valued by the Maoris for their curative pro-
perties. They were the subject of many a
dispute and many a war between the different
tribes. On the conclusion of a battle in the
neighbourhood of one of these boiling springs
the prisoners of war were thrown by the
victors into the natural boiling cauldrons, and
subsequently eaten. A rule existed amongst
0
34
CANNIBALISM
IT1
some of the tribes which allowed every
warrior to use his own victims himself. His
wife and children, even his mother-in-law,
were not allowed to partake of the repast.
. There is one chief of the Arawa tribe-
the Arawas dwelt in the Hot Lake district,
the scene of the recent volcanic disturbances
—who is mentioned a good deal in Maori
history. Space will not allow me to give his
name. But the meaning of one of his titles
was' Eater of his own relations!' He
appears to have been a kind of Home Ruler,
and made a considerable mark in the history
of his time. In curious contrast to this chief,
however, was a warrior of the same tribe, a
contemporary of his, who, though a valiant
fighter and a slayer of many scores of people,
possessed a strange disinclination for
' tangata,' or man, when dished up. This
eccentricity on his part lost him prestige, and
he failed to advance himself much politically;
the only circumstance which warrants the
retention of his name in history being his
LI
CANNIBALISM
. 35
unaccountable aversion to the favourite
national meat of his country.
“Tangata ' is the Maori pronunciation of
the Fijian word 'tamata,' which is the syn-
onym for our word ‘man.' A dead man, how-
ever, is called by the Fijians a 'bokola,' but
this did not prevent a wag in Suva from
passing the remark once that the Fijians
were very fond of tamatas. Through the
prevalence of cannibalism in New Zealand in
the old days, and the custom of preserving
the heads of the victims, a great trade in
skulls arose with the advent of the first white
settlers. The trade remained brisk for some
years, but the custom of cannibalising died
out, and heads eventually became scarce.
We learn in one of the published histories of
New Zealand of a trader who had been applied
to for some skulls replying, “'Eds is 'eds.
now, sir ; 'eds is wery scarce, sir, I can assure
you.'
The decadence of the custom did not,
D 2
36
CANNIBALISM
T
however, prevent the Australian colonies from
being inundated with Maori skulls. When
I was a young fellow I remember taking part
in an amateur representation of Hamlet.
We purchased a Maori skull from an old store-
keeper in the town for a shilling to represent
poor Yorick's. It tickled us a good deal at
the time to see the skull of a wild Maori
doing duty for the jester's, but we have lived
and learned since. Not so very long ago I
saw the head of a notorious murdering bush-
ranger apostrophised by the Prince of Den-
mark, ‘Alas, poor Yorick ! I knew him once.'
One of the most notorious cases of the con-
sumption of a white man by cannibals was
that of the Rev. Mr. Baker, a missionary
in Fiji. Mr. Baker performed some noble
pioneering work in that country, and in 1868
he started upon an expedition, in company
with some native Christians, into the moun-
tains of Viti Levu. Taking a kind of pass-
port from the ruling chief in the Rewa River
district, Mr. Baker travelled a considerable
1
CANNIBALISM
37
1
distance up the Rewa, and struck into the
Namosi Valley. He entered a village at last,
outside the borders of the Christian district
at the time. He was, with his companions,
most hospitably entertained by the villagers
during the night, and on the following morn-
ing he took his departure, little dreaming of
any treachery. As a matter of fact, however,
the chief, who had arranged for his protection
along the road, had turned traitor, and sent
word along after him to the Namosi people
not to let him proceed. They construed the
message into a mandate for the removal' of
the missionary in the orthodox way, with the
club.
Mr. Baker and his people were proceeding
along a track or 'wakolo,' accompanied by
some of the villagers, one of whom walked
immediately in front of him. This man sud-
denly stepped aside from the path, allowing
Baker to pass him. As the missionary passed
the native struck him on the head with his
club, and that part of the ceremony was con-
7
38
CANNIBALISM
erel
1
1
cluded. Another ceremony followed, when
the body was cooked and eaten.
Many of the people who had a hand in
this affair are alive yet, and, of course, well
known. They invariably, however, deny
having partaken of the 'bokola-na-papalagi.'
On the top waters of the Rewa I once en-
countered an old scoundrel who took a leading
part in the affair. I was in the company of
a gentleman who has lived for many years in
the group, and who has had a large experi-
ence amongst the natives. We questioned
the old fellow about his connection with
Baker's affair. He denied any complicity
in it. Later on, over a tanoa of yaqona, my
friend said to him, 'I have heard that the
bokola ko Misi Peka (Mr. Baker's body) was
very salt to the taste ; not like a bokola na
Vaka Viti (Fijian body)?' 'Don't you be-
lieve it,' said the old man unguardedly; 'there
wasn't a bit of difference.'
Did the reader ever hear the story of
Cook's club'? A visitor once went to.Bar-
LV
12
CANNIBALISM
39
11
11
YY IT
num's celebrated show in New York. He
was looking about a good deal, evidently in
search of some relic. An attendant asked
him at last if there was anything which he
was anxious to find. Yes, there was, he
said. He wanted to gaze upon the club that
killed Captain Cook! The attendant had
never heard of it himself, but he sought the
boss,' the great showman himself, and men-
tioned the matter to him. Barnum also,
strangely enough, had never heard of it, but
he was not going to allow anyone to leave
Barnum's show without being able to see any
relic that could be mentioned. A club was
taken privily from a case, and a ticket,
'Cook's club,' hastily pasted upon it. The
visitor was then invited to come and see it.
"Ah,' he said, when he looked upon it, 'I
thought you would be sure to have it here.
I have been in all the other small shows in
town, and they have got it, so I sorter
reckoned that Barnum's would not be with-
out it.'
NYT
V
40
CANNIBALISM
It is necessary to have heard about Cook's
club to understand the phenomenal relic which
is popularly treasured in Fiji. “Baker's fork'
they call it. This is the fork with which the
body of poor Mr. Baker was eaten. I have
myself seen about two hundred and fifty, and
of course there are many hundreds which I
have not seen. Everybody has it. The
traveller to Fiji is invariably sold the real
· Baker's fork.' I bought one myself once
for half a dollar, but the burst of laughter
which greeted me when I produced it at my
hotel in Levuka made me ponder, and I was
glad soon to abandon the treasure. I had,
however, a consoling friend in the hotel-
keeper, who observed that it was two bob
clean throw'd away!'
i
TALANOA NA YAQONA. 1
THERE is one thing which forcibly strikes the
traveller among the different peoples who
inhabit the earth, and that is the undeniable
propensity of the human race generally for in-
dulgence in some kind of intoxicating liquor.
The national beverage in this part of the
world appears to be beer, or' Ye fine olde nutt
browne ale,' whilst the Continental peoples
have of late years to a great extent dropped
the 'bier' for the less harmful vino of
Southern Europe. In different parts of
Asia arak and samshu hold first place in the
hearts of the drinking people; whilst in
Africa many decoctions from the popular
i The freest English synonym for talanoa is a tale ;
yaqona is Fijian for grog. “Talanoa na yaqona' is the title
given to the much-honoured custom of indulging in a con-
versation round the grog-bowl.
42
TALANOA NA YAQONA
1
TIT
Coco-nut and from mealie grain are used for
'stealing away the brains' of the people.
In the South Sea Islands the most
generally approved drink is the yaqona, or
kava. In some groups, however, the Macro-
piper methysticum, or yaqona root, is not
indigenous, and a toddy is made from the
coco-nut. This toddy, or tekereri, as it is
called by the Line islanders—the people who
enjoy a monopoly of its use—is much used
by European residents in the Islands, who
call it South Sea champagne. The method
of procuring it from the coco-nut tree is
simple. The native climbs a tree upon
which the young nuts are beginning to make
their appearance. The nuts are scraped off,
and the young branch which held them is
docked' with a knife and inserted in a
bottle. The bottle is tied on and left to
hang. In about twelve hours it is full of the
future tekereri, when it is removed and
another put in its place. The toddy is then
allowed to stand for another twelve hours
TIT
YVO
TALANOA NA YAQONA
43
1
TY
or so, by which time it is fermented, and is
fit for use. When allowed to stand for two
or three days tekereri is a violent intoxicant,
but when taken in the ordinary way, about
twelve hours after abstraction from the tree,
its exhilarating qualities are about on a par
with ordinary Australian or European wine.
The Line islander, of whom there are a
large number on the plantations in Fiji, is
a firm believer in his tekereri. Every man
on a plantation has to be allowed his own
tree. The unrestricted use of the toddy
very often, of course, leads to serious trouble,
as these people are naturally very ferocious
in their habits. Many horrible murders
which have occurred in Fiji during late years
are directly attributable to the tekereri sprees.
The drink for the gods, however, in the
Pacific Islands, is yaqona. What the good
Rhine wine is to the German baron, so is
the flowing bowl of yaqona to the South Sea
chief. The effect of a few bowls of yaqona
is very soothing. It produces a feeling
TS
10
1
44
TALANOA NA YAQONA
M
02-
somewhat akin to that pictured by the
Arizona cow-boy who was once treated to a
blow-out of Mononghela whisky. 'Arter the
vi-ands wur got through,' he said, “the liquors
wur brought in. An' wot liquors they wuz,
too! They warn't none othet kind ez
made yer feel like hittin' yer mother, an
flyin' round an’smashin' things ginirally ;
they wuz just thet kind as made yer feel like
histin' up yer glars sorter genteel-like, an'
sayin', “ Joe, ole pard, I'm lookin' at yer.”'
I shall never forget that feeling of happy
contentment which pervades the senses when
we have thrown ourselves upon the mats
round the tanoa, or grog-bowl, after partaking
of the solid portion of a chief's hospitality.
The matter of form command of a chief
is invariably given out after dinner, when all
hands are expected to come round the tanoa
and join in the talanoa na yaqona. The con-
versational powers of the average Fijian are
of no mean order. And what is generally
said of the Maori may often with equal truth
TALANOA NA YAQONA
45
be said of the Fijian-he is a born orator.
The reader can imagine the keenness of the
interest felt by the average new chum as he
listens to the graphic description of a can-
nibalistic orgie, in which, perchance, the
narrator has taken a leading and important
part. When I was on Vanua Levu I was
one evening the guest of old Tui Kama
(King Kama), the ruler of the Buca district.
The Tui was telling us of a war in which he
had taken part in Buca some years previously.
'Those ovens near my door were full of men
for several days,' said the old chief, 'and that
grey-headed old fellow over there '-pointing
to a benevolent-looking individual who was
just in the act of drinking a bowl of yaqona
—that old fellow partook of portions of nine
different men during the solevu (feast) which
followed the war. The old fellow alluded to
hastily stopped in the middle of his drink (it
may be mentioned that in a general way the
Fijian only stops between the start and finish
of a bowl of grog when he is interrupted by
Y
ni
Illl
VV
46
TALANOA VA
TALANOA NA S
1
,
NA VAQONA
an earthquake) to correct his chief. 'Segai,'
he said, “Koi au sa mamau tinie-ka-dua
na bokola.' (* Nay, I ate of eleven bodies on
that occasion !') The Tui promptly apolo-
gised. There is a good deal of the courtier
about a Fijian chieftain.
In Fiji the yaqona is prepared by the
chewing process. Some white people, how-
ever, who are unable to use the chewed
article, have it grated, but the devotee will as
soon drink water as the grated grog. Grat-
ing does not bring the flavour or the essence
out properly. But the white drinking popu-
lation of Fiji were much troubled recently by
some inquiries made by Sir William Mac-
Gregor, when he was Chief Medical Officer
of the group, into the grog-chewing business.
The doctor took three ounces of the ordinary
yaqona root. This was given to a young
woman, who chewed it in the usual way.
After the chewing process was completed the
result was weighed. The three ounces had
developed into eight-a palpable gain of five
ICIL
WIT
YY
TALANOA NA YAQONA
47
.
ounces. The question of the composition of
this surplus five ounces of 'grog'was invari-
ably allowed to stand over till next sitting.
A Fijian is properly equipped for the road
when he has a few leaves of tobacco stuck
behind his ear—as a store clerk carries his
pen-and a root of grog in his hand. If he
meets an acquaintance, or a stranger for that
matter, a leaf of the fragrant weed is ex-
changed, and an adjournment made for liquid
refreshment. He will scarcely ever, or, in
fact, never, meet a countryman who is not
prepared to join him in a drink.
On Savage Island, where the root is not
found, but where the rites of hospitality are
as highly respected as they are in the Western
Archipelagos, the man who is desirous of
'standing treat' invites his friend to join him
in a pig. A pig, or vuaka as he is called in
the South Seas—evidently the native rendi-
tion of the word porker-requires to be an
old pig if two ordinary natives can't finish
him. Hence a Savage Islander is often heard
w
re
11
48
TALANOA NA YAQONA
to say, in refusing a proffered drink, or rather
pig, 'You must really excuse me this time,
for I have already had about seven vuakas
this morning, and begin to feel full up.'
There is a wide difference between going
on a spree on pig and indulging heavily in
yaqona. There is one point of affinity, how-
ever--the over-indulgence in either luxury is
productive of a certain amount of discomfort.
If you have ever seen an injudicious and
misguided young puppy dog who has just
emerged from an encounter with a well-filled
dish of milk, the remembrance of it will
assist you in framing a mental picture of a
Savage Islander who has just arrived home
drunk!
A drunken man is often said to have
the devil in him. If the devils or evil spirits
had not been driven from the swine in years
gone by, I wonder how many devils the
satiated Savage Islander would have in him!
Talking of Savage Island reminds me for
a moment of a visit I paid to it some years
II
TALANOA NA YAQONA 49
YT
TS
1
since. The jolly old skipper in whose com-
pany I was brought a case of gin ashore to
treat the King. The liquor was consumed
by an early hour in the evening ; and, the old
King having retired, we accepted an offer
from one of his numerous young-blood rela-
tions to have a cruise round the town. My
friend the skipper, being an ordinary kind of
seafaring man, was unlike most of the skippers
we read about in books, and had partaken
freely of the gin while it lasted. In true
sailor fashion he succeeded in getting both
of us into trouble. We were detained ashore,
all night on parole. The following morning
a sort of judicial inquiry was solemnly held
into our conduct. The King himself tried
the cause, dressed in a volunteer's pants with
red stripes down the sides, a dress coat with
one of the tails torn off, and a tall white hat.
Shoes and shirt were alike wanting. His
Majesty, after long consideration, decided to
inflict a fine upon the captain. We asked
how much? This delayed the proceedings
50
TALANOA NA YAQONA
IT
for a considerable time longer. At last a
young fellow-an ovisa, or officer-ap-
proached and asked the captain to produce
all the money he had upon him. This was
done, with the result that $18 were placed
on the table. I was then invited to do like-
wise. I produced my bank-$43. The two
lots were carefully put together, counted, and
recounted, and the King informed of the total
amount, when he gravely settled the proceed-
ings by recording a fine of $61 against the
captain. Need I say that the fine was paid ?
The captain, however, displayed wonderful
alacrity in devising what he exultantly termed
a method of revenge. We had a busy day
on board our schooner, opening cases of gin,
removing capsules from the bottles, and
watering the otherwise pure liquid. In the
experience of the previous evening the King
had developed an extraordinary taste for
yaqona-na-papalagi (white man's grog); his
craving for it had to be satisfied, and hang
the expense. Our experience of the morning
y
TALANOA NA YAQONA
51
suggested the necessity of a sudden and sub-
stantial rise in the price of our liquor (we
were traders then). To make a long story
short, we soon had our dollars back again,
as trade was brisk for the next few days.
I am afraid we were very wicked. But
our evil doings had a good effect on the mind
of the King. A trader who subsequently
visited the island got into a trouble somewhat
similar to ours. He was dragged to the
tribunal of justice, but the fine registered
against him was two cases of gin. That was
a less roundabout plan of the King's for
attaining a certain result.
VYY
E 2
:
52
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
Has there ever been a people who have been
without a god? There is a want—a craving-
in the human breast generally for the protec-
tion and comfort of something beyond the
stars. It has often occurred to me that the
fear of death may account in a great mea..
sure for this human phenomenon. Where
Christianity has not reached people you
will invariably find a god of some sort to
whom they look. They have some impos-
ing gods in Africa and Asia. The followers
of Mahomet, of Brahmin, of Confucius are
legion. They have big gods in these parts,
but not many of them.
In the South Seas, however, the gods are
generally of a much smaller order and much
less influential. It has a sadly depreciating
ers
It
THE GODS' IN FIJI
53
influence on the god business when the
Pacific believer can sze, almost any day he
likes, a British heathen enter a 'relic' shop
in Sydney or Melbourne and purchase a
South Sea Island god, right out, for a few
shillings.
The god is very often made of wood, and
in islands where hard wood is scarce they do
not devote much wood to his manufacture.
In some parts of the Solomons he is cut out
to very small lengths indeed, and in many
cases the worknianship is of a poor order. I
gave a hard-up Solomon Islander half a dollar
once for a god who had done considerable
service in his time. He had given the people
rain when they wanted it, and had been very
obliging in many respects. They had on
some occasions asked him to do tough jobs,
which he failed to carry out, but this was
generally attributed to the wicked character
of the persons who had preferred the pray-
erful requests. Accordingly he had main-
tained his popularity for a considerable time,
1
V
VI
54
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
e no
1
>
and in fact would have been ruling yet were
it not for the advent of Christianity. The
missionaries settled him, and after the lapse
of time he fell into my hands. He is very
ugly, and I may say candidly that I have no
fạith in him as a god. The man who manu-
factured him in the Solomons died, so I heard
upon inquiry, a natural death. If I had been
a god, with the powers that he had, the man
who made me should have died a most
sudden and awful death. But he would be
of little use in England, seeing that he was
more in the line of a 'rain god’ than any-
thing else. The kind of god I should like to
bring to England would be an anti-rain god.
If he were sound what a business we could
do!
In Fiji I encountered a strong illustration
of the powerful effect of cradle teaching upon
the mind. We remember what our mothers
have taught us.
The tribes of the district in which I lived
at the time had a god who lived underground.
10.
-
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
55
1
He was a tremendous size, and everything
around him was proportionately big. His
day was about 500 years long, and the night
a similar length. For the past two or three
hundred years he had been in bed, having
his ordinary night's rest. He was a good
god, of course, who went to bed at sunset,
and didn't go fooling round taverns for 250
years or so, spending the best part of his
night drinking yaqona and discussing local
politics. He did very little for his people,
as far as they could remember ; but then,
how can you expect a god to attend to
business when he is in bed ? I know I
should be sorry to wake him to listen to my
prayers.
He has been very restless of late years,
turning about a good deal in bed. Every
one of these turns produces a shock of earth-
quake upon the top. I have had the honour
of being disturbed and alarmed by two of these
turns. Many of the old people, of course,
believe in this god still. They hope he
T
56
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
won't get up early in the morning, for when
he stands up Fiji is likely to go up too. He
is not going to allow Fiji to be overrun with
white people, and a Christian god rammed
down the throats of his people when he can
prevent it by bursting up the whole concern.
Did not a Maori god of Tongariro go along
the underground track a few years ago and
blow the pink and white terraces of Roto-
mahana all to smash, because the conduct
of his people in holding communion with
the white man had seriously annoyed him ?
But to revert for a moment to the influence
of cradle teaching. I had an old Fijian in
my employ once who had been lotu, or
Christian, for many years. The missionaries
had converted him from a worshipper of the
underground god into a zealous worshipping
Christian. He took very ill, and he was
about to die. I spoke to him one evening
about his prospects, and suggested that I
would send over for the missionary for him
on the following morning. He declined the
1
717
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
57
offer in the most emphatic way. He had
been thinking the matter over, he said, since
he had been taken ill, and had come to the
conclusion that the white man's God was
only humbug after all. White men had only
gone to Fiji to make money—not to save the
souls of the heathen. And, besides, he had
never seen or heard anything of the Christian
God. But his old god, about whom his
mother had told him often, testified to his
presence by these shocks of earthquake. He
doesn't do much for us,' the old man continued,
but he lets us know he's about. I tried
in vain to make him receive the missionary,
but he was obdurate, and died without him.
And before he died he called his people
about him, and troubled them a good deal
with warnings to abandon the Christian God.
The missionary had some work for a while
after repairing the damage.
In the Straits of Somo Somo, between
Vanua Levu and Taviuni, dwells the great
water god of northern Fiji, Daka-waqa (keel
TO
1
58
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
YIT
of a canoe). Daka-waqa is a shark of
tremendous size, who is thus called because
when seen in the water his appearance
resembled that of an overturned canoe. He
hạs one residence underneath the island of
Benau, opposite Vuna Point, and another in
a cave up the Buca River, about twenty
miles further up the coast of Vanua Levu, a
sort of Windsor and Balmoral, as it were.
There is a large native graveyard on Benau,
where many thousands of people have been
buried at different times. The old custom
was to drive a great stake into the grave
a few days after a burial. This gave the
devil a chance to depart from the body, and
so leave it clear and in a fit state to be
adopted by Daka-waqa. Sometimes an old
sinner died, and it was a difficult task for
the medicine man to get the devil out of him.
In a tough case of this kind, when the devil
happened to prove obdurate, the matter was
generally referred to Daka-waqa himself, who,
upon the receipt of a small fee, in the shape
THE GODS' IN FIJI
59
TI
1
of a baby, thrown into the sea where he could
get it, promptly settled the business by
driving that particular devil away to the
farthest ends of the earth. Benau was tabu
against him for ever. His body-snatching
games in that district were at an end. I
once had a long talk with an old believer in
Daka-waqa. The god's superiority to the
Christian God commended itself to the old
man from the circumstance that he did not
allow any devil to get the better of him.
The Christian God was altogether too mild a
character. The old fellow couldn't realise
how a God of His reputed power could allow
a devil to set up a business in opposition to
Him, and do more work in one year in the
collection of souls than God Himself appeared
to do in a thousand! Some years ago, when
I lived in the Straits of Somo Somo, the
appearance of Daka-waqa in the Buca River
one day caused great consternation amongst
the people. I, in my ordinary heathenish
way, determined to force an interview with
T1
60
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
him if possible. I had some Solomon
Islanders with me who were as much
heathen as myself as far as Daka-waga was
concerned. We blocked the bar on the
mouth of the river with bamboos, and gave
chase up the river in a takia, or small canoe.
We were not long in finding him, but the
Solomons were afraid to take to the water
after him. He was far and away the biggest
gio (shark) they had ever encountered.
Accordingly I had to satisfy myself with
sending an occasional bullet after him when
we managed to cross him. I must have hit
him hard at last, for he made down stream
at a terrific rate, and managed to break away
through our bamboo fence before we could
reach him. That was the last occasion in
recent years in which the Daka-waqa has
been seen. After my sacrilegious treatment
of him he will probably be as anxious to rid
the country of white men as his godly brother
the underground divinity. The god of the
leeward coast of Viti Levu (Big Fiji) is called
7
THE 'GODS' IN FIJI
61
came
11
Na Droga (the Growler). He only came
amongst the people upon one occasion, many
years ago. He was in appearance like an
ordinary white man, and he spoke in a
language somewhat similar to that most in
use amongst rough English sailor men.
When a sailor is annoyed and commences to
use some of those popular seafaring phrases
which generally come under the heading of
'stormy language,' the natives say that he is
talking like Na Droga. The missionaries
have done the cause of Na Droga considerable
harm by suggesting that he was no god at
all, but more probably a shipwrecked sailor !
Dengei, the great serpent god, had his
location in the neighbourhood of the Tai-
Levu and Bau coasts. He was a sea-god,
but he occasionally condescended to come
ashore for a short spell, generally to have a
yaqona drink' with the medicine man, and
to express his admiration of the doctor's
house and its furniture. On occasions, there-
fore, when Dengei proposed to pay one of
62
THE GODS' IN FIJI
these visits, he sent a warning to the doctor,
who in his turn promptly apprised the people.
It then became obviously necessary that the
neighbours should inundate the doctor with
presents of mats, pillows, tobacco, grog, &c.,
so that the god should be pleased with his
visit. The house was then left to the doctor,
the people getting away to the farthest end
of the town, so that Dengei might not have
his sight polluted with their unworthiness.
The poor folks were always greatly relieved
in the morning when they were told that the
god had enjoyed the grog immensely and
greatly appreciated the presents.
Among the young people of Fiji, of
course, Christianity is now universal. I have
yet ringing in my ears the first 'Meké-Meké
na Lotu' (Christian song) I heard in Levuka.
A party of girls were singing for the edifica-
tion of some tourists.
17
11
IN
UIT
"O let im pe shai. pull,
Shai-pull, shai-pull, shai-pull,
O let im pe shai-pull,
Wen we pa to meed no mo.'
63
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
The story of the mutineers of the 'Bounty'
and their strange adventures in the South
Pacific has always had a peculiar fascination
for English readers. Those who have read
the case fully have freely justified the
malcontents in their insubordination, par-
ticularly as the notorious Captain Bligh's
subsequent behaviour when he was Governor
of New South Wales amply showed what
manner of man he was, and how easily he
could make trouble among those about him
who happened to have the misfortune to be
serving under him. It has been placed
beyond doubt that Captain Bligh treated the
crew of the 'Bounty' so badly during the
voyage across the Pacific that the men were
absolutely forced either to get rid of him by
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
Inc
TY1
YY
64 THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
the plan which they adopted or by killing
him outright.
The mutiny of the 'Bounty' took place
in the year 1789. Bligh had made matters
so uncomfortable for his crew that they
at last resolved to rid themselves of him.
Accordingly, after some parleying and desul-
tory fighting between the Captain's party-
which consisted of Bligh and a small portion
of the crew who stood by him-and the
mutineers, Bligh and his companions were
placed in a boat, supplied with provisions,
and set adrift upon the open sea. From the
south-eastern Pacific, somewhere between
Pitcairn Island and the Society's, the
Captain with his little party of faithful
comrades pushed on across the wide expanse
of ocean, amongst the numerous fairy archi-
pelagos, till they eventually landed in the
neighbourhood of Java, in the East Indies.
They were, of course, many months on the
voyage, and it was many months more
before they succeeded in reaching England.
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
65
T
ITT
In the meantime the mutineers started off
upon a voyage of discovery on their own
account. They touched at many places, but
eventually made up their minds for a sojourn
at Tahiti. Here they were hospitably
treated by the natives, who, it will be re-
membered, earned the title of the Society
Islands for their group through their sociable
and agreeable characteristics. The ladies
especially made themselves agreeable to the
mutineers, who eventually selected Tahitian
wives for themselves. Tahiti, or the
Society's, has been justly called 'the Paradise
of the Pacific. The main island—Tahiti-
is indeed lovely to look upon. Its fertility
and verdure are not to be surpassed, even in
the ocean of pearls. Although it is just a
hundred years since the · Bounty'people were
here, many relics of their residence in the
group yet remain. But they stayed but a
few years. Disturbances and disagreements
having arisen among themselves, and also
between them and the Tahitians, they
F
66
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
1
1
resolved upon seeking fresh fields and
pastures new. A few of the malcontents of
their number were left behind, while the
remainder again started out upon the ocean.
This time they hit upon Pitcairn Island as a
landing place, and they resolved so firmly to
make this their permanent home that they
destroyed the vessel in which they came.
In the meantime Captain Bligh had
reached England and reported the mutiny to
the authorities. Action was immediately
taken, as Bligh of course only represented
his side of the tale, and the whole country
universally sympathised with him. The
* Pandora' was sent out to the Pacific to
investigate the matter, and she returned to
England a few years afterwards with a lot of
the mutineers aboard. They were tried, and
three of them hung up to the yard-arm for
their complicity in the affair. The balance
of these people, who had been left in the
Pacific, clung together on Pitcairn Island,
and developed in time into a considerable
TY
C
· THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
67
W
settlement. John Adams, one of the
originals, died in the year 1829 at the age of
.fifty-six years. Adams had grown to be a
kind of father to the people, who profited
greatly by his teaching and example. He
had retained his Bible amongst his effects,
and had thus been enabled to keep
Christianity alive in his flock. The
mutineers, or rather their descendants, were
eventually, in the year 1857, removed from
Pitcairn Island to Norfolk Island. Norfolk
Island will be remembered as one of the last
of our English convict settlements in that
part of the world. It became notorious
through the severity and cruelty which
characterised the treatment of the unfor-
tunate convicts who were transported there
many years ago. The late Marcus Clarke
the Australian novelist, has given, in his well-
known work, ‘His Natural Life,' a graphic
and terrible description of the horrors of
Norfolk Island in the convict days. One
looks upon the island now and forgets the
TT
r
2
68
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
horrible in the contemplation of the lovely
spot. Norfolk Island stands a thousand
miles to the eastward of Sydney, about mid-
way, and in a line, between New Zealand
and New Caledonia. It consists of a series
of hills, crowned with magnificent groves of
gigantic pine, graceful palmetto, guava,
lemon, and fern trees. Yellow cornfields
wave by the side of gardens in which grow
the delicate cinnamon tree, the tea and
coffee shrubs, the sugar-cane, the banana,
and luxuriant vines.
The old barrack walls and stockades near
the landing place are the only things which
now remain to remind the traveller of the
gruesome old times. The settlers upon the
island now are under the care of the Rev.
Mr. Nobbs, a gentleman who has a great
deal to be proud of in the results which have
followed from his noble work amongst them.
Hard work, instruction, and amusement are
all equally attended to, and one is forcibly
struck with the advanced results which have
TY
now I
ren
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
69
been attained in each of these departments.
The island may be said to be one extensive
and rich plantation. The scholarly attain-
ments of the mass of the people reflect the
highest credit upon the teachers. The
avidity with which the younger section of the
population follow up the ordinary national
British sports is not to be surpassed by
the proverbial keenness of the Australians
in this respect. Tennis-courts abound. A
team of cricketers is always ready to meet
and defeat any visitors in that popular sport.
A match is often played with visiting mis-
sionary teams from other islands and New
Zealand, and, if my memory serves me
rightly, the Norfolk Islanders have up to
now an unbeaten record.
For some years after the mutiny of the
Bounty 'the sympathy created by the hard-
ships endured by Captain Bligh on his return
voyage to England brought him into general
favour; and little or no suspicion was directed
towards him as a possible cause of the
70
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
trouble. It was after his appointment to the
Governorship of New South Wales, or Botany
Bay, as it was then called, that the real
character of the man made itself apparent.
He exercised the most arbitrary and unjust
conduct in the discharge of his duties as
Governor, and soon had the people of
Sydney bordering upon a state of revolution.
In fact, what was at one time called a serious
rebellion did break out, headed by the well-
known Captain Johnstone, of Annandale, a
member of the governing Council in Sydney
at the time. Captain Johnstone called out a
large section of the military, who were pre-
pared to follow him, and they blockaded the
Governor in Government House. Bligh
became greatly terrified at the turn which
things had taken, and when Johnstone
eventually forced an entrance into Govern-
ment House they found His Excellency
ignominiously concealed beneath the bed in
his bedroom. He was placed under arrest
by Captain Johnstone, who assumed for a
..
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
I
time, with the consent of the majority of the
Council and the people of Sydney, the
direction of the affairs of the Colony. Com-
munications were made to the home authori-
ties, and the Governor's conduct fully
reported, with the result that the 'rebels'
were held justified in their conduct, and
Bligh was removed from his position.
Captain Johnstone, the hero of the rebellion,
lived in Sydney to a venerable old age,
having only died a few years since. He
was a popular 'old identity' figure in the
streets of Sydney, and died universally
lamented. Bligh was one of the few un-
popular Governors who have been sent to
Australia. He was the only really bad
ruler the New South Wales people have
had.
The descendants of the ‘Bounty’mutineers
are a handsome people. There are probably
no prettier women in the world than the
women of Tahiti, and the Norfolk Islanders
owe much of the grace of their complexion
72
THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS
to their foremothers. Some of the names
they adopt are quaint. Thursday October
Christian, a son of Christian-one of the
mutineers—was one of their leading charac-
ters. He has a large number of descendants
on the island, and the consequence is that
there are a goodly number of Thursdays and
Octobers knocking about. A handsome
quadroon-looking youth called Oc'—an ab-
breviation of October—was the demon
bowler of the young colony when I visited
the island.
7
1
UO
73
NA LAIRO
I HAVE seen in many of the fish shop windows
in London a large kind of sea-crab which,
dead, has reminded me in many respects of
a dead lairo. I should like, however, to see
him in his live state, to see if he conducts
himself in the same manner as my affection-
ate acquaintance, the lairo of Fiji. I say my
affectionate acquaintance, and I use the adjec-
tive advisedly. For who that has had any
experience of the lairo will deny him an
extraordinary proclivity for clinging to the
human form divine ? You can't make much
out of the expression of his features, and
some pessimists will say that he clings with
felonious intent, but I can never feel justified
in imputing vicious motives to a fellow-
member of the natural world when I am not
1
y
74
NA LAIRO
G
sure but that he means well. Let us not be
too severe in our strictures. I have often
seen the lairo, like the tender-hearted dog
which licks the hand that smites it, turn with
a dogged persistence and endeavour to
embrace—and warmly, and possibly affection-
ately, embrace—the great toe of a foot which
has spurned it. And, if the physical capaci-
ties of the lairo will not admit of its embrac-
ing the object of its regard in the orthodox
way, round the waist, does not the little
animal display some sagacity in trying to hug
a portion of the human form which it can
hug comfortably and completely? It has a
partiality for the great toe, and it also may
be said to dearly like the thumb or finger.
I remember once reading a story of a
young woman in some part of America who
was wooed by a young farm-hand in her
neighbourhood. He was well up in farming,
but in love-making business he couldn't count
for much. He spent long evenings with the
girl, and would sit for hours with his arm
NA LAIRO
75
T
TIT
Ilm
round her waist; but speak to her, or indulge
in a conversation of any kind, he could not.
The painful monotony annoyed her, and lost
him his girl. “She slung him,' as they
roughly say over that way.
It is just something of the same kind
which prompts the average man to a desire
to ‘sling' a lairo when that affectionate animal
has taken a finger or a toe in its warm
embrace. The lairo says nothing-does not
even wink—when he is absorbed in business
of that kind; but he just hangs on. And the
thing gets monotonous to the other party.
It thus happens that the lairo often gets
'slung,' and in a literal, not an allegorical,
sense. I have seen wicked men return the
embraces of a poor lairo by slinging him
forty yards or more, and not paying much
attention to the kind of place they were
slinging him to either.
I have had some experiences of the grasp
of the interesting creature. For every one
occasion, however, on which I have been
LIU
III
26
NA LAIRO
1
successfully embraced I dare say there are
twenty or more occasions upon which I have
persistently declined the friendly overtures
made to me. I was once travelling along the
coast of Goro, the large and fertile island in
the centre of the Fiji group. Coming to a
friend's house, I walked in at the open door,
to find no one at home. The rule in Fiji in
such a case is to help yourself to anything
you want. I saw a sugar-bag in a corner,
half full of something, probably yaqona root,
as it is generally kept in such bags. I sent
my servant for a bucket of water, while I
strode across the room and picked up the
bag, with a view of extracting a handful of
grog. But what powerful grog I found it to
be! What a strength it had! Two pieces
of it seemed to come together suddenly and
grip my finger through the bag with the grip
of a vice. When my boy returned he found
me dancing a most extraordinary kind of
meké-meké on my own account, with the bag
suspended to my finger. For the error of
NA LAIRO
77
one of their number, however, that small
community of lairos suffered. They might
have lived till dinner time in the planter's
house had it not been for the misplaced
affection of the erring one who caught hold
of my finger.
Scientifically, I am unable, through my
want of knowledge, to say much about the
lairo. I believe, however, that he belongs to
the order reptilia, and I know that in his
general habits he is amphibious. In size,
his usual average would be about as big as
a Fijian's head, and he is about as hard on
the outside. In fact, I think that if you
started firing alternate revolver shots at a
Fijian's head and a lairo, you would waste
about the same amount of lead upon each
before you succeeded in driving a hole in.
When the lairo is living ashore he digs holes
in the ground for his habitation, which he
seems to take a pride in furnishing upon the
latest improved principles. If you leave
your boots outside the door at night, and a
78
NA LAIRO
lairo comes along, he doesn't stop to inquire
whether you may have any further use for
them. He assumes that you have done with
them, or you wouldn't leave them outside, in
a lairo country, without a small chain or
strong cord fastening them to the fence or
wall. He takes them down his hole straight-
way. They may not be much use to him-in
fact, he couldn't get them on if he tried, but
they help to fill up; and, besides, they are,
generally speaking, imported goods. The
lairo thinks as much of imported goods as
does an Australian native.
I went to the trouble of digging out an
old man lairo once. I wanted to have an ,
interview with him. I was prepared for a
stormy interview ; in fact, made up my mind
that that was the kind of interview which
I must have with him. I didn't want any
civility, any hand-shaking, or softness of that
sort. I desired to see him more particularly
with reference to a penknife, a hair brush,
and several other articles which had dis-
NA LAIRO
79
appeared from
the verandah one night.
degrees as we excavated. We were also
surprised to find many other articles which
had not been particularly missed-old boots,
spoons, crockery ware, &c. The old man
had made a good all-round collection. When
we eventually got the proprietor of the
show to the surface a fierce battle com-
menced between him and my boy Tiemi
111
unable to save the lairo from a violent
death. I should like to have saved him, too;
but I think if he remained on the place Tiemi
would have in any case assassinated him, or
left my service. The latter would have been
a painful alternative to both of us. Tiemi
hails from Mallicollo, in the Hebrides. His
case always reminds me of the lines written
by the notorious pickpocket Barrington, who
was transported to Botany Bay in the latter
years of last century. A play was performed
in Sydney in 1796 by a company of convicts,
80
NA LAIRO
and a prologue was written for the occasion
by Barrington
From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
Though not with much éclat or beat of drum.
True patriots we, for, be it understood,
We left our country for our country's good.
No private ends disgraced our generous zeal-
What urged our travels was our country's weal ;
And none will doubt but that our emigration
Has proved most useful to the British nation.
Tiemi had also left Mallicollo for Malli-
collo's good. Like Barrington, Tiemi had
broken the law of his country; but he did
not want to undergo the disagreeable form of
a trial. He left suddenly on his own account.
They don't transport people from Mallicollo
—they possess no mundane Botany Bay to
which to transmit offenders. When you
commit a fairly serious offence there they
transport you without much delay to the
happy banana groves. Tiemi's offence
had consisted in the slaughter-in error, he
always maintains-of a pig belonging to the
Royal household. The law clearly sets forth
in Mallicollo that he who interferes with a
NA LAIRO
81
pig belonging to Royalty shall surely die, and
die of a sudden, too. Tiemi preferred to die
of consumption, or some other lingering com-
plaint, in a foreign country.
The natives of Vanua Levu and other
islands have a curious way of catching the lairo.
The crab has a great propensity for climbing
up the coco-nut trees and pulling down
the young fruit, which he breaks open and
eats when he comes down again. Where the
lairos are numerous it can be easily seen that
the coco-nut plantations have a poor chance
of success, and so the natives have adopted
an ingenious way of thinning out the crabs.
The lairo generally goes up the tree early in
the night, that is to say, between dusk and
nidnight, and he remains pottering about a
good while, generally coming down as the
day begins to break. The plan is for the
natives to go round after midnight and tie
great wisps of grass round the coco-nut trees
about ten feet from the ground. Then, as
the lairo comes down-backwards of course,
1
82
NA LAIRO
IT
as this is his only way of descending—and
reaches the tuft of grass, fancying he is once
more on terra firma, he lets go his hold on
the tree and comes tumbling to the ground a
mangled mass. Where the crabs have been
numerous I have often seen small schooner-
loads of them lying round the foot of each
coco-nut tree in the morning. When the
lairo season is at its full the natives have
terrific feasts; in fact, there are thousands of
them left over for export, if only the trade in
that class of edible had been developed.
The life of the lairo would be fairly enjoy-
able were it not for the annoyance to which
he is subjected by the small boy tribe.
Boys have not yet learnt to use the pea-
shooter or the shanghai in Fiji. They play
cricket to a limited degree only. This is
chiefly owing to the fact that an umpire is
a necessity to control the play. Then the
umpire generally gets half killed before the
innings is over. An accident policy on a
Fijian umpire's life would be a very bad risk
TTY
S
NA LAIRO
83
11
LI
for an insurance office. Hence the small
boy, generally speaking, devotes his recreation
hours to annoying the lairo. In fact, trapping
the lairo, or persecuting him, is a kind of
instinct with the boy. As the young cat
knows what to do when she sees her first
mouse, so does the Fiji boy, as soon as he
begins to toddle, by a species of instinct,
stand around a good deal where lairos most
do congregate, armed to the teeth with junks
of rock and other implements of destruction.
One of the funniest physical features of the
lairo is the construction of his eyes. In a
full-grown crab the eye is about an inch long
when fully projected ; or, rather, the eye is
fixed at the end of a projecting arm about an
inch long. This arm is projected or with-
drawn at will, of course. When the lairo
wants to look down the road he doesn't get
up on his hind legs or climb on a fence to do
it; he merely throws up his eyes. When he
wants to wink he has to draw them in again
temporarily.
TO
G 2
84
NA LAIRO
Lairo hunting is one of the popular sports
of the Fijian people. He is always hunted
at night time, with torches. The light dazzles
him, and he falls an easy prey. A koro, or town,
generally turns out en masse when the proper
hunting season is on. Young people gene-
rally take a lively interest in the sport, and
the dark character of an uvi jungle will always
commend it as a desirable spot for a little
Airting. You have often heard it said that
love is blind. I don't know what to think of
that favourite saying when I remember things
which I have seen in Fiji. I have known
some marvellous cases of long-sightedness,
in fact, which would to some extent explode
the blind theory. I have known a pair of
lovers to find each other on occasions when
the darkness of the night has been such that
old experienced people have not been able to
see through it.
The lairo is a favourite dish with the
Fijian. A prominent trait in the Fijian cha-
racter—his tender-heartedness and regard for
NA LAIRO
85
II
1
111
the feelings of other creatures—is a strange
feature to find in the constitution of a people
who were, up to a few years ago, to be ranked
amongst the most thorough-paced cannibals
on the face of the earth. The captured lairo
is put out of his misery in a merciful way. A
thin, well-sharpened hardwood stick, some-
what resembling a bodkin, is used to settle
him. The point of the stick is dexterously
driven into him at a point immediately under
his left armpit. It probably strikes him
somewhere in the region of the heart, for he
dies immediately.
If the Fijian recognises in the lairo a
delicacy, the lairo, in his own turn, when in
the land of the quick, has many partialities in
the matter of delicacies himself. He is fond
of 'medicine' for one thing. I was travelling
in company with a Fijian once. He carried
a basket of which he appeared to be very
careful; there was evidently some live stock
in it. I asked him what it was. “Medicine'
was the prompt reply. The medicine turned
86
NA LAIRO
out to be a brace of chickens. This is the
kind of health restorer which is most appre-
ciated by the lairo. He will travel a long
way out of his track to surround a chicken.
The proverbial American chicken-stealer is
not a better hand at skinning a barnyard of
chicks than the lairo. The roost, however,
is the only thing which defies him. But the
nigger has had to drop the roost-raiding
business of late years since the Americans
patented the torpedo chicken!
87
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER
OF FIJI
1
One of the most interesting characters in the
latter-day history of the Pacific was Charlie
Savage, a resourceful Cockney, who found
his way into the Fiji group as cabin-boy on
board a trading ship which sailed from the
Thames in the early days of the present
century. The vessel in question, having got
in among the Fiji Islands, was cast away on
the coral reef at Nairai, a little island lying
to the eastward of Ovalau. The natives of
Nairai pounced upon the prize with avidity,
and all hands on board the vessel, with the
exception of Charlie Savage, were in due
the Nairaians. Charlie Savage, owing doubt-
less to the fact that he was cabin-boy and had
88
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI
1111
a good run of the commissariat department,
was in the pink of condition at the time, and
as the Nairai people were bound to carry
some part of their fortunate find to the ruling
authorities at Bau by way of tribute, Charlie
was kept for this purpose, and so escaped the
general massacre. The bad weather which
brought about the wreck of the vessel
prevented the Nairai people from running
their canoes down to Bau for a little time,
and by degrees Charlie got to be on some-
thing like friendly terms with his captors.
*They had looted the vessel and carried off
such things as they understood the use of,
but among the neglected cargo was a quantity
of gunpowder and some fire-arms. Securing
these, the stranded Cockney amused himself,
and greatly interested and excited the natives,
by shooting birds and other things, and when,
eventually, they took him on to Bau and
made an offering of him to King Tanoa, the
chief ruler of the Fiji archipelago, they had
some wonderful tales to tell of Charlie's
-arms.
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI 89
1
prowess with the dakai (fire-stick). So it
came about that King Tanoa, having plenty
of fresh meat when he wanted it, decided not
to eat Charlie Savage, but to keep him and
learn something of the wonderful 'fire-stick'
which he had brought into the country. It
was soon conveyed to Charlie that the King
would like an exhibition of the use of the
dakai, and the royal wish was promptly
gratified. Birds, pigs, and even men were
placed hors de combat under the royal wish,
and it was not long before the King himself
picked up the use of a gun. Tanoa was a
crafty monarch, and quick to act when a new
stroke of policy occurred to him, and as soon
as he had mastered the use of the dakai, and
grasped the effect of it, he sent a couple of
messengers off at full speed across country to
Na Droga to apprise the King of that place
(who had, by the way, given Tanoa's land
forces a severe drubbing a little while before)
that he did not care a coco-nut for him, and
that he was only a poor nigger after all.'
90
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI
Y
This insult stirred the King of Na Droga to a
high pitch of wrath, and, without wasting any
more time than it took to cook and eat the
two messengers from Bau, the Na Droga
fighting contingent was on the march to
King Tanoa's country. Expecting them,
Tanoa, with the help of Charlie Savage, had
rigged up something in the shape of a rough
fort at Bau, facing the coast of Viti-Levu, and
when the Na Droga warriors appeared on
the scene and came prancing across the
shallow reef between the mainland and Bau
they received a peppering from the little fort
which surprised them not a little.
The Bau forces were completely victori-
ous, and the news of the wonderful new
weapon and its marvellous and destructive
effects for fighting purposes soon spread from
one end of the Fijian archipelago to the
other. The King, accompanied by Charlie
Savage, now made trips to various parts of
the group, and in a short time the whole of
the islanders, from Rambi to Kandavu, from
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI
91
a
TIT
the Yasawas to Loma Loma, rendered sub-
mission to the King of Bau. Old Tanoa,
in a proper spirit of gratitude, heaped honours
and rewards on Charlie Savage, who became
the owner of large plantation properties and
of a fine selection of beautiful wives as well.
This elevation from the poor condition of a
cook-boy on a trading vessel to that of a
large land-owner and sort of Prime Minister
and Commander-in-Chief in an important
kingdom tended somewhat to turn Charlie's
head, and some of the veracious chronicles of
the period point to him as having developed
into a very high-handed and overbearing
personage. From hammering his wives when
they disagreed with him up to shooting
Fijians who came inconveniently in his way,
Charlie Savage committed all sorts of crimi-
nal acts, and there was some relief felt gene-
rally when, in leading an expedition up the
Macuata coast on one occasion, he was
driven into a corner, his forces routed, and he
himself mbutirak'd to death.
II
92
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI
LI
If Charlie did but little good for himself
in the end, he certainly did good things for
Fiji, and particularly for King Tanoa, who
was enabled by his help to confederate the
various groups forming the Fijian archipelago
into one united kingdom, so that when Cako-
Bau succeeded his father on the throne at
Bau he found himself at the head of one of
the strongest powers in the South Pacific in
those days. In the first years of his rule
Cako-Bau exceeded his father, and, indeed,
exceeded his royal predecessors for many
generations, in the brutality of his behaviour
and the open encouragement he gave to
cannibalism and other horrible vices of the
period. It is related of Cako-Bau that he
killed his first man when only six years of
age. In one of the gruesome functions held
in the royal compound on the island of Bau
in those times a captured chief from the
Raki Raki country was bound hand and foot,
and the young prince, who was just able to
lift a club, was put forward to kill the unfortu-
T
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI
93
nate turaga. It took him some time, accord-
ing to all accounts, but he finished the task
himself; so when hardly out of his infancy he
was guilty of his first criminal act as a homi-
cide. It is satisfactory to learn, however,
that later on, mainly through the influence of
his loyal friend the late King George of
Tonga, King Cako-Bau received the papalagi
missionaries at Bau, and eventually himself
became a professing and very sincere
Christian. In the latter years of his life he
endeavoured in every possible way to atone
for the ruffianism of his early days, and much
sympathy was felt for him both among his
own people and by the European residents of
the group, who now began to increase largely
in numbers. When the old King died—a few
years after he ceded the islands to Great
Britain, in 1874-there was general sorrow in
the group, and the scene at his funeral on
Bau was a most impressive one. A British
man-of-war was sent to Bau for the occasion,
and the then Governor of Fiji, Sir William
1
94
THE EUROPEAN PIONEER OF FIJI
des Voeux, officially attended on behalf of the
Queen.
I remember once meeting on the Rewa
River a granddaughter of Charlie Savage,
a rather pretty octoroon girl, who showed
considerable pride in the memory of her
buccaneering progenitor. There are, I be-
lieve, many descendants of Savage's knock-
ing about the Fijis. Some years ago there
were found in the house of a chief in the
Namosi Valley several articles of silver-ware
that had evidently come from some of the
Catholic churches on the Pacific slope of
South America. They were known to have
been in Savage's possession, and the con-
jecture was that the ship to which he belonged
had been carrying off some loot in one of the
war times from the South American coast
when she foundered at Nairai.
95
AMONG THE MAORIS
C
What a surprise that must have been for
the Englishman who was one day strolling
down Queen Street, Auckland. He espied
the well and fashionably dressed figure
of a young lady a short distance in front.
Her head was concealed from his view by a
sunshade of the most gaudy pattern. He
became a deeply interested party at once.
Young Englishmen out in the colonies for a
holiday invariably take a keen interest in our
fair sex, more especially when their personal
appearance is attractive. And our girls very
often possess fathers who own considerable
stretches of jumbuck' property, which is an
additional attraction.
The young fellow pushed ahead till he
came on a level with the lady. Imagine his
96
AMONG THE MAORIS
L
surprise, when he looked in her face, to find it
copper-coloured, with a black clay pipe stuck
leisurely in her mouth. His disenchantment
was sudden and complete.
The American citizen is a great smoker
as a rule ; in fact, the rule has come to be
so generally recognised that the American
now passes, with most people, as the tallest
smoker in creation.
But the Maori can give him a long start.
And the Maori would be prepared to bet on
himself, too, I dare say. The proverbial
keenness of the Yankee for speculation is as
nothing when the Maori enters the arena.
The Maori, as a smoker, begins young.
On my first visit to Auckland I saw a portrait
in a photographer's window in which a
mother was shown with a child slung, in the
orthodox fashion, upon her back—the mother
was represented smoking a large bowled
meerschaum, while the baby sucked at a
diminutive Irish cuddy. My first impression,
of course, was that this was meant to convey
1
1
AMONG THE MAORIS
97
IlIlIl
some artistic idea of the photographer's, and
not a representation of things as they were.
But I afterwards learned that children took
kindly and early to the fragrant weed.
I was one evening the guest of a Maori
rangatira in Whaka-rewa-rewa. The party
was a small one-the Maori, his wife, his
sister, and myself. We had a rubber at whist,
and my host suggested an adjournment for
refreshment and a smoke. While we were
enjoying our weed a child—about three
years of age, I should think-suddenly put
in an appearance, and made a formal demand
for a smoke.
“Finish my cigar,' said my host, tendering
his butt. But the child would have none of
him. It threw its head in mamma's lap, and
made a disjointed request, throwing occa-
sional side glances at the stranger, for
mamma's pipe. My own experience has
taught me that cigars give poor satisfaction
to a real smoker. I therefore suppose that
AI
II
98
LILI
AMONG THE MAORIS
TT
L
.
ST
Y
the child had already learned what it had
taken me years to gather.
I said to the mother on this occasion,
*Fine boy, that.' She laughed as she
replied, 'Ko te wahine' ("It's a girl ').
The Maori is a born orator, according to
the generally accepted notion. But he knows
just exactly when to talk. Upon an occasion
when speaking is required of him, he will
speak practically, forensically, politically, or
in any way which best suits the occasion.
But when 'speech is silvern, silence golden,'
no living creature can hold his tongue so
smartly and so effectually as the Maori. A
game of draw-poker in a Maori whare is a
veritable quakers' meeting.
The Maori people have never taken
kindly to the British. Although peace has
reigned in the country for many years, the
Maori preserves a sullenness which at times
creates some alarm in the political atmo-
sphere. The great King Country, a belt of
AMONG THE MAORIS
99
Y
1
rich but undeveloped country lying between
the Wairarapa and the now celebrated Hot
Lake district, has not been open to Europeans
till quite a recent date. After many years
of discussion the Government have at last
succeeded in gaining the consent of the
Maori people to the construction of a railway
through the country. The first sod of the
railway was turned at Te Awamutu, a few
miles from the home of King Tawhiao at
Whati-whati-hoe, some years ago. Wahanui,
the Maori orator, and Parliamentary repre-
sentative for one of the Maori districts, went
to Te Awamutu with the then Premier, Sir
Robert Stout. It had been arranged, of
course, that the Premier should turn the first
sod. Before the appointed hour for the
ceremony, however, a korero was held, at
which the Maoris decided that their member,
Wahanui, should turn the sod, while the
Premier was relegated to a back seat.
Accordingly Wahanui was the principal
Tas
H
2
IOO
AMONG THE MAORIS
YIY
1211
I111
performer at the ceremony, Sir Robert Stout
being allowed the privilege of wheeling away
the barrow which contained the sod.
The Maori has also, when compared with
the other aboriginal inhabitants of the Pacific,
been very slow to embrace Christianity.
When I was in Tauranga once I was called
upon at my hotel by a young Maori from the
neighbouring native town of Judea. Before
leaving he asked me to come and take dinner
with him the following evening. I was on
hand in due course, and after dinner we lit
our pipes and had a stroll through the town.
Passing a church- the only one in the town
-I asked him, 'What religion have you got
here?' 'Oh, he replied, we have two
here; some are Cathoricks' (the Maori never
uses an L), and some b’long to the other
chap.' 'Which chap?' I asked, "Wesleyan
or Church of England ?' 'No,' he said,
“none of them. Oh, I dunno,' he continued,
' I never take any interest in these things, so
I don't know which it is ; anyway, there's a
IV
AMONG THE MAORIS
101
lot about Solomon and Methuselah in it;
perhaps you know it.'
Tawhiao, the late Maori King, held
whatever social and political status he
possessed just as an English lord of poor
character retains his title and rank. Morally
he was bereft of power amongst the people.
Rewi—the hero of Orakau-Te Wheoro,
Taiaroa, and many others possessed large
influence.
But as regards illustrious descent,
Tawhiao was the Cecil, the Norfolk, of
Maoriland. His dynasty changed its ruling
name a generation before him-his official
title being Potatau the Second. His full
name was ‘Matutaeru Te Puké-puké Te
Paue Tu Karato Te-a Potatau Te Whero-
whero Tawhiao,' or Potatau II., and he was
a direct descendant of the celebrated pioneer
Hotonui, who came in the great war canoe
Tainui, from Hawaiki, and settled in Kawhia,
little of the genealogy.
Tapaue was a dis-
102
AMONG THE MAORIS
tinguished descendant of Hotonui, who was
followed by his son Tawhia, whose son was
Tuata, whose son was Te Rauanganga,
whose son was Te Whero-whero, whose son
was Tawhiao, or Potatau II.
In his personal character Tawhiao had
little regal dignity. He did unkingly things,
and moved about generally in an unkingly
way. When I was at Rangiriri some years
ago Tawhiao met me and showed me over
the old battle-field. This was the scene of
the first collision between the Maoris and the
British troops in the great Maori war. We
visited the native town on the northern shore
of Lake Whakaré. Coming back across
Whakaré to Rangiriri the King took an oar
in the canoe, and worked hard with it all the
way, and the disgust of the other Maoris
aboard was but ill-concealed.
The Maoris are keen business men, and
many of them rank amongst the richest
people in New Zealand. I was sitting in
a friend's office in Christchurch one day
AMONG THE MAORIS
103
when a Maori came in. He spoke to my
friend for a few moments, handed him a
cheque, and left again. When he had gone
the cheque was shown to me. It was
drawn for 10,000l. I said, “That's a big
figure for a Maori.' 'Oh,' said he, 'that's
nothing; that man is worth over half a million
of money. It was the late Hon. Mr. Taiaroa,
for many years Parliamentary representative
for the South Maori division, but later a
member of the Upper House.
The Maori character of the century was
Hongi-Hika, who was born in the year 1777.
Hongi-Hika was 'hard of christening,' and
the old people prophesied that he would be a
bad man. The christening ceremony is a
funny one. The candidate is got ready and
a list of names produced. The first names
on the list are those of good people, such as
John, Joseph, Matthew, Luke, and so on.
Further down you come upon the wicked ones
-Nero, Guy Fawkes, Richard, and such. I
once attended a christening near Ateamuri,
104
AMONG THE MAORIS
where the tail end of the list contained the
name of Wirimu Karatistoni (William Glad-
stone). The child is held up and the mother
recites the names slowly, one after the other.
The first move which the baby makes in the
direction of a sneeze or a cry fixes its nomen-
clature. The name that he sneezes or cries
upon belongs to hini for ever. If he happens
to take things coolly, and fails to take action
before the mother gets down amongst the
political and other odious names, his sur-
rounding friends are stricken with sadness,
as they know he will turn out a bad one.
Such was Hongi-Hika. Hongi came to
England in 1820, in company with Waikato.
They were well received by George the
Fourth, who gave Hongi a suit of armour
and a lot of valuable presents in the shape of
jewellery. When Hongi reached Sydney on
his return he converted the jewellery into
muskets, powder, and ball, and commenced
to play Napoleon Bonaparte as soon as he
landed in his own country, the Bay of
T
Y
Il
C
AMONG THE MAORIS
105
Islands. He marched from north to south,
carrying death and destruction wherever he
went. His name was, indeed, a terror in the
land.
The Maoris are a courageous and self-
possessed people. But I have seen great
strong men shudder at the mention of the
word · Hongi!'
106
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
JUAN FERNANDEZ AND THE GALAPAGOS
Y
I READ a paper not long since in which the
writer endeavoured to show that the island
upon which the original of Defoe's 'Robinson
Crusoe' made his home was none other than
Trinidad, the islet on the east coast of South
America, about which we have lately been
frightened by the Brazilians, who, after stand-
last let the British Government know that if
it did not abandon all claims to the island the
Rio Republic would declare war on us. So
we had to clear out, of course. But no argu-
ing, however ingenious, can upset the well-
established fact that Alexander Selkirk was
cast adriſt from his ship off the island of Juan
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
107
TY
Fernandez, in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean,
in the year 1706. He had quarrelled with
his skipper, who got rid of him by driving
him into a dingy and sending him ashore.
All the accounts state, however, that he was
humanely supplied with a quantity of provi-
sions, a Bible, hatchet, gun, and other trifles
of sporting gear likely to prove useful to a
man who was about to take up his residence
on a lonely island for an indefinite period.
He does not appear, however, to have had a
bottle of patent medicine amongst his effects,
which has always been a matter of surprise
to me. The papers in the colonies are con-
stantly giving us long accounts of how
Chinese Gordon went to Khartoum armed
with nothing but his Bible and a small bag
containing a few clothes and a bottle of one
of the much advertised articles. They also
often tell us that George Washington, Oliver
Cromwell, and other distinguished but long-
defunct individuals invariably carried bottles
of these useful cures. That Selkirk had none
VI
108
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
TI
Y
there is hardly any doubt. The skipper, in
all probability, had none aboard. He was
an illiterate man very likely-couldn't read,
and therefore had never read about them.
I have an old acquaintance in Fiji who is
rather short-sighted. He is fond of reading,
however, and subscribes to many papers.
Amongst other amiable qualities he is pos-
sessed of a good temper. He is only ruffled
once in a way. This happens upon occasions
when a newspaper has 'got at him,' as he
terms it. I called upon him one day, and the
atmosphere in his immediate presence ap-
peared to be charged with electricity gene-
rated of the language he had been using.
He pointed to a newspaper and hoarsely
requested me to look at that.' "That' was
an attractively headed paragraph, 'Hints for
intending coffee-planters in Fiji.' Half a
column was devoted to an elaborate disser-
tation upon coffee culture; the planter was
advised to use this thing and that, but he was
solemnly warned that he would go to the dogs
1
as
ROBINSON CRUSOE S ISLAND
109
altogether if he failed to keep on hand a good
supply of some quack nostrum or other.
Alexander Selkirk spent four years and
four months upon the island of Juan
Fernandez, when he was picked up by a
passing vessel and brought to England, which
place he reached in the year 1711.
His look-out station, where he probably
spent most of his time looking out to sea in
the hope of catching sight of a passing ship,
still exists upon the island, and there are
many other spots which are supposed to show
traces of his occupation.
It was Mr. Cowper who said, I think,
that Alexander Selkirk was monarch of all
he surveyed. This particular Alexander
was probably the most unhappy monarch
who ever reigned. Even with plenty of
company, and a good supply of the neces-
saries of life, the ruler of Juan Fernandez
would have but a poor time of it.
There is a man on the island now-a
Chilian-who rents it from the Chilian
1
1
Ta
IIO
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
а.
a
11
Government for a few hundred dollars a
year. The island itself is of little or no use
to him ; but there is a guano reef in the
neighbourhood, which brings him a good
revenue. The Chilian has a wife, who con-
tributes in a great measure to break the
monotony of his existence upon the place.
She does not always confine her efforts in
the breaking line to the monotony either.
He wishes that she did. She very nearly
proke his head on one occasion when I was
there. He told me confidentially, over a
glass in my cabin a few days after, that he
would give her what Murphy gave his
missus' some day, if she didn't alter her
ways.
You do not know, perhaps, what Murphy
gave his missus ? The expression is in
popular use on the western coast of South
America, and thereby hangs a tale. The
Republic of Ecuador is one of the most
interesting States in this part of the world.
The equator runs through the capital city,
run
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
II
7
INT
1
Quito. The Galapagos, a group of islands
lying out in the ocean to the west of
Ecuador, belong to that State, and are made
use of as a convict settlement. A convict is
brought over from Atacames, or Guayaquil,
deposited on the Galapagos, and left to look
after himself, the ship which brought him
returning to Ecuador. The term of his
penal servitude for life invariably expires
upon the arrival of the next vessel. Whalers
are constantly calling in here for a supply of
beef-several of the islands are overrun with
cattle, and a captain is always ready to take
a man away when he is willing to work his
passage. Señor Murfé, who was a descendant
of an ancient family of the name of Murphy,
which originally emigrated from Flanders
and settled in Ireland, was for many years
the keeper of a gin saloon in the city of
Quito. The Señor was gay and festive in
his personal habits, and, as often happens to
people of this temperament, he had con-
tracted an unfortunate matrimonial alliance.
S
1.
112
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
YY
habit of entering the gin saloon and smiting
him about the head with a bottle. In size
they were disproportionately matched. The
Señor was a little man, while his better half
was a big woman. He couldn't safely resort
to the old-fashioned system of hammering her.
He was sorely perplexed for a long time,
and was one day pouring his troubles into
the sympathetic ear of an old acquaintance.
The friend suggested that the Señor should
melt a drop of lead in her ear some
Y
V
It was a novel method of killing a person,
even in South America. In due course, one
morning the unfortunate woman was found
dead in her bed. Many men out that way
have since given their wives 'what Murphy
gave his missus.'
You will be wondering how the Señor
got on, though. They do not let a man
off in Ecuador, as they do in other parts
of America, for murdering a wife. He was
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
113
tried, convicted, and sentenced to transporta-
tion to the Galapagos for life. This was a
heavy sentence, but the Señor had voted
against the judge who tried him at the last
election, and he now reaped the reward of
his perfidy. Murfé had money, and before
he was transported he arranged that a small
schooner should be at once sent out to the
islands to bring him back again. Accord-
ingly the Government vessel conveyed him
to the Galapagos and landed him. A few
hours later he stepped aboard his schooner
and started on his way back. The schooner
was a clipper, and she reached Atacames
before the other vessel.
Murfé is a great character over that way.
We went round to his saloon one night when
we were up in Quito and had a chat with
him. We had heard of his escapade, and
broached the subject. He was quite proud
of the manner in which he had managed the
affair. I couldn't help asking him, though,
how it was they didn't bring him up again
Was
mes
114
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
when he came back. “Don't you know it's
a rule all over the wur-rld,' said the Señor,
'nivir to thry a man twoice for a criminal
offince ?' That was a settler. How can one
argue against logic like that, especially when
it is accompanied by the persuasiveness of an
Irishman? The Señor, though a citizen of
Ecuador, retains in a marked degree the
personal characteristics which distinguished
his ancestors.
How devoutly the average boy pictures
to himself as he reads the life of Robinson
Crusoe the pleasures of such a life. How
devoutly he wishes he could be cast away
upon some lonely island, with a gun, and a
cat, and a dog, and lots of other impedimenta,
so that he might act Robinson Crusoe. I
know that I used to feel that way a good
deal when I was a boy. I have since had the
distinction of acting the rôle of Robinson
Crusoe for a short season, and I have no
particular desire to do it again. I was thrown
away once in the Carolines, and managed
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND 115
to pick my way through reefs and drifts to
the shores of a small island. It was a much
more hospitable island than Juan Fernandez,
as coco-nuts grew in large quantities all over it.
I spent the first ten days in frightful misery,
more through the want of company than any-
thing else. The most pleasant day I had
was that following a night upon which I had
been troubled a good deal with dreams. The
subject of my dreams was something novel
to think about. The loneliness of a man's
situation is something intense when he is
compelled to fall back on his dreams for
fresh matter. I had begun to think that I
was also monarch of all I surveyed. This
idea of mine was rudely dispelled one day.
A huge native approached me, with what I
imagined at first to be friendly gestures. I
had got him to throw down his spear by
throwing down a piece of bamboo, and sign-
ing to him to follow my example. He came
up close, and I commenced to try my
languages on him. All of a sudden he
V
I 2
116
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
made a violent kick at me, which would have
left me powerless in his hands if it had not
been for the greatest luck in the world. We
then fought for our lives, as it were. There
is a universal rule to be followed in fighting
a Polynesian. If you hit him about the head
you smash your knuckles, and you only
amuse him ; you do not hurt him. But his
binjie, as the Australian blacks call it, is his
weak spot. As Artemus Ward would have
put it, my new acquaintance struck me a
violent blow on the left fist with his stomach,
after which he sat down to have a spell. I
promptly handcuffed him with my belt, and
kept him in charge till next day. I had some
trouble with more of his tribe before I suc-
ceeded in getting away to the next island,
and eventually from the group. But I want
no more experiences in the Robinson Crusoe
line.
117
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS
CONVICTS
7T
As the reader will probably know, New
Caledonia is a French colony, and has been
used by the French Government for many
years as a penal settlement.
The island of New Caledonia is about
300 miles in length by an average breadth
of 40 miles. It lies about 950 miles north-
east from Sydney, and runs in a south-easterly
and north-westerly direction between latitude
20 and 23 degrees south.
Entering the roadstead of Noumea, the
first impression which one gets of the physi-
cal character of the country is not very invit-
ing. Great arid-looking mountain ridges
stretch away behind the town, and the further
knowledge of the country which one gains
118 NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
1
upon an extended acquaintance with it only)
tends to confirm the first impressions formed
of its barrenness. There are, of course,
many fertile spots to be found upon New
Caledonia. The banks of the rivers have all
been selected at different times by cattle-
raisers and planters. Noumea is situated
upon a kind of flat, on the shore of a most
picturesque harbour. The harbour itself is
very secure, being alnıost land-bound, as it
has Ile Nou situated directly in its mouth.
Ile Nou is, of course, the first spot of interest
which attracts the traveller as the vessel
passes close under its shore. This is the
chief penal dépôt in the colony, about 8,000
convicts being confined upon it. They are
conveyed from Ile Nou every morning in
barges to the mainland to enter upon their
daily hard labour.
Noumea would appear to have had its
creation about forty years ago, when the
Crimean War was going on. Thus we find.
the main thoroughfare called Alma Street.
A
СО
el
001
CL
1
1
MA
IIIII
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
TI
119
U
There is also Inkerman Street, the Hôtel
Sébastopol, and so on.
Many of the public buildings in Noumea -
present a rather imposing appearance from
the harbour. There are several military
barracks of huge dimensions, and the hospital
on the northern side of the town holds a
commanding position. Many of the wealthier
residents have their picturesque-looking
private residences dotted over the sides of
the hills at the rear of the town.
Noumea is very cosmopolitan in the
constitution of its inhabitants. The French
element, of course, predominates, but other
nationalities are represented. The Celt
blooms in great profusion. “Who goes there?
queried a sentry once as some people were
passing him in the dark. “Uz, Frinch,' was
the reply
The great social lever in Noumea is
Freemasonry. It would be unjust to reck-
lessly credit this popular and deserving insti-
tution with any hand in ways that are dark,
1
120
Y
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
1
but it is certain that in this part of the world
rumour attributes to the craft a rather un-
enviable connection with the escape of con-
victs from the settlement. The escape of
Henri Rochefort, Pascal Grousset, and Oliver
Pain in the 'P. C. E.'' some years ago is
pointed to as a triumph of the fraternity in
the matter of standing by a brother. This
case, however, could fairly be looked upon as
a political one. The trouble arises where
the agent appears upon the scene, prepared,
upon receiving a fee of 50 or 100 francs, to
work the lever, and hoist the cut-throat or
the forger upon the already over-burdened
populations of Sydney and Brisbane.
Touching the Rochefort affair, the man
who took a leading part in the preparations
for that escapade was practically ruined
through it. He had been carrying on a lucra-
tive business as an hotel-keeper in Noumea,
and his connection with the affair led to the
confiscation of his property and his banish-
ment from the colony. He afterwards kept
1
ITIN
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS 12I
1 in
4
a small hotel in Sydney, but never did well,
and has always been appealing to Rochefort
for help..
I was a lad at the time of the terrible
Franco-German war. Mayne Reid and
Fenimore Cooper supplied us in the main
with our spiritual food in those days. But
these graphic hero painters fell out of demand
at the time when newspapers were full of the
exploits of Gustave Flourens and Aurelles du
Paladin. And what noble pictures we had
in our minds of the persons of Henri Roche-
fort and his companions. A soldier and an
orator, a proper conventional six-footer, with
the conventional moustache-who of us would
not have hypothecated his pocket-money for
a whole year to go and look upon the exiled
hero of the Commune ? I shall never forget
the thrilling interest with which we heard the
news of the arrival of Rochefort with his
companions at Newcastle. They remained
but a few days in the district before they
started off on their way to London. I
I 22 NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
remember one morning passing in front of
the hotel at which they were staying.
Fortune favoured me. As I passed, the
party of political évadés walked out of an
upstair room on to the balcony. I rooted
myself to the spot to realise the scene pro-
perly. They had some of the mortal element
about them, though, after all. They smoked.
But what would I not have given to be able
to roll a cigarette à la Rochefort. I was only
learning to smoke at the time.
What a pity it is that time and experience
knock so much of the fine edge off our ideas
of admiration for the great. During late
years it has been my fortune to have con-
siderable communion with tribunes of the
people, with princes, and even with kings.
The result is that I would not walk a hundred
yards now to see a hero or a monarch.
Talking of my connection with Royalty,
I was once acting as Prime Minister and
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces to a South
Sea potentate. The kingdom was twenty-
Y
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS 123
.
two miles long by about two miles in breadth.
But the King had established a protectorate
over some neighbouring islets. The protec-
torate part of the business was a grand feature
in the administration of the affairs of the
kingdom. Before I had taken office the
King encountered some trouble from the
people on the islets, who, in their foolish way,
protested that they wanted no protection
whatever. His Majesty's method of pro-
tecting them did not fit in with their ideas of
political economy. He collected all their
coco-nuts for them, converted the nuts into
copra, and sold it to white traders, keeping
the money for his own personal use. After
I had been in office for a few days I tried to
induce the old man to go halves with them,
but he couldn't see his way to do it. The
army had to be kept up. The army always
wanted something. There were about 47
men in it altogether, and only a short time
previously the King had bought a pair of
trousers for one of the ovisas. The ovisa
TO
124 NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
1
Mir
I
N
had not worn them a day when the whole
army clamoured for trousers. In fact, a
mutiny seemed to be at hand; the men were
growing impatient and impudent, and one
had actually the effrontery to tell His
Majesty that if he were not supplied with a
red shirt he would 'bust up' the whole busi-
ness. The old man was troubled, and he
determined to hold all the money he could
get for the purpose of conciliating the army.
So that the protectorate over the islets went
on as before.
We had a curious method of drilling in
the army. The first occasion upon which
I took charge I began to use some orders
which I had formulated for the purpose. I
gave the order, Mata totonu (eyes straight,
or eyes front). An ovisa came over to me.
• Oh,' he said, 'never mind that; we just
give them Shouldah hums ! for everything,
and they imitate or follow us in what we re-
quire them to do. I had to fall in with the
arrangement, and accordingly, to the order
Y
n
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS 125
shouldah hums' every movement was done.
Right wheel, left wheel, stand-at-ease, and
all, were performed with alacrity to the order,
Shouldah hums !
I went along very well as Premier till the
King and I disagreed. He annexed my
watch, and I wanted it back again. I had to
threaten to blow a hole into him with a Lan-
caster · R.I.C.,' which I always carried, before
he would disgorge, but he retaliated by invest-
ing me with the ancient order of the sack.
The traveller to Noumea naturally betakes
himself to Ile Nou in search of the interest-
ing. During one of my visits to the island I
had a conversation with the notorious Parisian
assassin Abadie. A young friend of mine
from the Mauritius, who accompanied me,
took great interest in the arch-assassin, as
he was living in Paris at the time of Abadie's
capture and conviction, and had, in fact,
strangely enough, given evidence at the trial.
My friend lived with his uncle in Paris, and
one evening had occasion to step across the
126
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
T
е
a ne
11
street to purchase a newspaper. Returning,
he was hardly well inside when a commotion
at the door attracted his attention. He
rushed out to find a man weltering in his
blood near the doorstep. He was just in
time to catch a glimpse of the murderer as
he hastened away. He had time to take a
longer look at the assassin when he confronted
him in a court of justice to assist in his prose-
cution. But he had time to survey him more
leisurely still as the three of us stood chatting
together on Ile Nou. Abadie had been the
director of a gang of assassins in Paris. As
my friend offered him a cigarette he put the
question, 'I wonder how it would have been
if I had crossed the street a minute earlier,
just as you had come up with that fellow ?'
• You would never have been here,' was the
convict's reply.
Another interesting character here is the
worthy who gave himself out as a Roman
Catholic bishop and collected immense sums
of money in different parts of France for con-
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS 127
in Con
1
12
vent building purposes. Like most swindlers,
he did not know where to stop, and he is
now booked for the rest of his natural life for
a residence in New Caledonia.
The convict band is also a striking feature
in connection with Ile Nou. This band,
which is about the finest I have ever heard,
plays for five hours on Thursdays and Sun-
days in the public park in the centre of
Noumea. During the remainder of the week
they devote five hours a day to practice, so
that they ought to play well. I should almost
be inclined to think that this continued appli-
cation to music would tend to make the
performers stale. But, after all, who would
not sooner beat a drum all day than break
stones along the roadside ? I am sure, if I
were compelled to choose between the two,
I should elect to have the music, even if I
had to blow the trombone.
There is a strange character who moves
majestically up and down the streets of Nou-
mea, whose dress and general appearance
LE
L
moves
NEW CALEDONIA AND ITS CONVICTS
1
1
1
1
catch the stranger's eye at once. This is an
Algerian sheik, who was transported to
Noumea after the rebellion in Algiers which
followed the rising of the Commune in Paris.
The sheik was one of the leaders of the re-
volt, and when the rebellion was crushed he,
with some companions, was sentenced to
death for his complicity in the trouble. But
during Marshal MacMahon's time in Algeria,
many years before, the young Algerian chief
was a loyal subject and a close personal friend
and ally of MacMahon's. When the sheik
got into trouble the Marshal had just been
elected President of the Republic. The
sheik's mother hastened to Paris, appealed
to the President, and saved her son's life.
The alternative was given him of banishment
to New Caledonia. The old man is very
popular. He walks round the streets on
parole, and is allowed the privilege of adoring
his own God in his own way.
129
KANAKAS AND KAI-OUI-OUIS'
Y
THE antithesis of the desert, with its green
and refreshing oasis, is to be found on the
bosom of the Pacific Ocean, some five
hundred miles to the north-east of Brisbane,
the capital of Queensland. As one sails over
the calm face of the ocean, fanned by the
gentle breezes for which the Pacific is remark-
able, it is with a feeling somewhat akin to
pain and abhorrence that one approaches the
desolate-looking shores of New Caledonia.
The smoke from the dreaded bush fires is
seen rising from amongst the forests of niaouli
along the sides of the mountain ridges, and
the imagination can depict the comforts
enjoyed by the unhappy libéré, whom the
Government of the Republic has so thought-
fully furnished with a free land grant of
UI
130
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-CUI-OUIS'
โin
LIII
thirty-six acres in the scrubby forests among
the mountain gorges.
When the traveller to New Caledonia
passes through the narrow straits which
divide Ile Nou from the southern headland
of the harbour of Noumea, he bids good-bye
to the sweet Pacific breezes till he emerges
through the straits again. For heat, and
mugginess, and general 'cussedness' in the
matter of climate, the town of Noumea is
almost equal to Cooktown, Queensland,
which spot is far and away the warmest
corner on the warm continent of Australia.
The heat of Cooktown greatly assists the
preachers of the Gospel up that way. When
people experience the heat of that place, and
reflect that Hades is in all probability a
hotter spot, they invariably begin to ponder
over the chances of saving their souls. An
illustrated tale always fixes itself upon the
mind more indelibly than one plainly printed
without such assistance. Noumea is for
the most part built upon land reclaimed
TITI
O
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'
131
It
from the foreshores of the harbour. Many
of the wealthier inhabitants have erected for
themselves cool and pleasant-looking resi-
dences upon the sides of the mountain wall
at the rear of the town, where also is situated
the gubernatorial residence, in the centre of
a most charming tropical plantation.
Proportionately to the number of its
population, Noumea probably possesses more
cafés and liquid-refreshment rooms than any
other town in creation. There are over sixty
licensed houses in the place, and drinking
appears to be indulged in to an almost alarm-
ing extent by the thirsty population. Upon
Sunday, which, as is well known, is recog-
nised as a gay and festive holiday by French
people generally, the cafés and saloons are
all open, and yet one meets with less drunken-
ness than is encountered in the towns in
Australia and New Zealand, where, in most
cases, the hotels and public-houses are closed
by law from Saturday night till Monday
morning
11
II
K
2
132
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'
The Sabbath Day is more sombre and
solemn-looking in Australia than it is even in
England. And Sunday is more gay and
rollicking in Noumea than it is even in
France. Imagine, then, with what strange
feelings the Australian on his first visit to
the capital of the great French penal colony
strolls out on a Sunday afternoon to find a
cricket match going on in the public gardens,
a band gaily playing the liveliest dance music,
and the bar-rooms crowded with people on
all sides of him. And he will search the
streets in vain on Sunday evening to find a
drunken man or to see a row. Is it that the
French people conduct themselves better
under the influence of liquor than the average
Englishman or Australian, or is it that they
can carry' it better? Or do the Australian
prohibitive regulations excite the obstinacy
1
a desire in his bosom to make a big effort to
procure liquor at all hazards, and to imbibe
it largely when he does procure it, just for
spite ?
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'
133
Sunday in Noumea is a day of rest-for
inveterate dancers only. And who does not
dance in the convict capital ? On week
nights, immediately after dinner is got
through, the small round tables so profusely
scattered over the ground floors of the hotels
are removed, the band begins to play-a
small band is attached permanently to every
hostelry of any pretensions-and the dancers
come pouring in from different quarters.
Most of the public-houses are 'tropically'
built ; that is, the whole of the ground floor
is preserved as one room, with a small space
fenced off, in one of the corners, for the
purposes of a bar.
This serves as a dining-room and drinking
saloon during the day and a ball-room in the
evening. In the more fashionable rooms the
evening scene is a gay one indeed, as pre-
sented to the eye of the unsophisticated
traveller. Officers in their bright uniforms are
plentiful, pretty and dashingly-dressed women,
many of whom are pointed out to the stranger
TT
134
KANAKAS AND ‘KAI-OUI-OUIS'
11
1
as libérées who distinguished themselves in
the home country by their kleptomaniacal
proclivities, and young men and women of all
shades of colour, from the fascinating quad-
roon down to the dusky Kanaka of New
Caledonia.
The aboriginal of New Caledonia is a
curious customer. He hates the Frenchman,
or 'Kai-oui-oui,' as fervently as his Satanic
Majesty hates holy water. But convert him
into a policeman, drawing what is to him the
munificent pay of twenty-five francs per
month, and he is the most devoted servant
of the Republic, and the most abject syco-
phant, who bows before, or touches his cap
to, the passing citizen. In his wild state the
Kanaka much resembles the Maori of New
Zealand in his surliness of temper and
general want of amiability, though little re-
sembling him in colour or physical character-
istics. When he finds his way to a town,
such as Noumea, he affects the greatest
cordiality towards everybody but Frenchmen,
KANAKAS A
135
AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'
7
1
TT
171
lea
yas
and he also adopts a good deal of the gesticu-
latory style of the latter, though certainly
without any intention of paying homage to
French customs.
As a policeman, he is a terror to peaceful
citizens as well as to evil-doers. A few years
since a young man from Adelaide was over
for a few months' visit to some friends in
Noumea. He was out visiting rather late
one evening, and on his return homewards,
as he was hurrying along one of the dark,
unlighted streets—they have not reached
street lamps in the convict capital yet-he
was accosted by a native policeman. Before
he had time to make any explanation the
policeman made an effort to handcuff him,
probably assuming, though very unreason-
ably, that he was a runaway convict. A
scuffle ensued, and the black commenced to
use the native wooden pickaxe with which
he was armed, and the consequence was that
the young fellow was killed upon the spot.
An inquiry was held, but of course without
136
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'
any satisfactory result, as far as the friends of
the murdered youth were concerned.
They have a kind of Bois de Bologne
in Noumea, in which, when a duel is on the
tapis, the battle is fought upon a Sunday
morning. Duels were rife in New Caledonia
a few years ago. They have fallen off a
good deal lately, owing to interference on the
part of the authorities. A young fellow went
over from Australia once to try his luck at
business in the convict colony. Like most
new chums in every colony, he devoted a
good deal of his time, and his money also,
during the first few weeks, to seeing the
sights of the capital. Much of his time was
spent among the cafés and billiard saloons,
and, as a matter of course with a gay
Australian Lothario, he became enamoured
of some fair Hebe who dispensed absinthe
and cocktails over one of the fashionable
bars. But he only happened to be one of
many who had been softly sighing in that
direction. The numerous phalanx against
KANAKAS AND ‘KAI-OUI-OUIS
137
which he had to contend consisted solely of
Noumeans, and one of them very hotly
resented the intrusion of the stranger from
Botany Bay. At last the Australian threat-
ened to punch the Frenchman's head. This
was of course what might have been expected
from a vulgar fellow of English habits. The
use of the knuckle, especially in the excite-
ment of love affairs, was indeed a degrading
and vulgar method to suggest. Next day
the Australian was waited upon at his hotel
by a friend of his rival, who invited him to
name a friend with whom the necessary pre-
liminaries for the duel could be arranged.
The Australian found at last that, how-
ever he might dislike the idea of fighting
another man with swords, he could not
possibly, with any show of decency, get out
of the difficulty. The meeting came off
in due course. The Australian, who had
scarcely ever seen a sword before, let alone
used one, was rather at a loss how he should
begin. However, probably before the
138 KANAKAS AND 'KAI-QUI-OUIS'
Frenchman was quite ready, he rolled into
him pell-mell, and nearly chopped his head
off before he could realise what was the
matter. The duel ended here, and the
Frenchman left the field minus an ear and
with a terrible gash over his collar-bone, but
armed with the firm resolve that when he
fought again he should pick out an adversary
who had some science about him, and who
would go about the business properly, so as
to give another scientific man a chance.
The Australian, however, Aushed with
his success, was quite anxious to have
another go at someone. Without seeking
far he was very soon accommodated. But his
challenger on this occasion, not to be drawn
into the sword business, proposed pistols as
the weapons to be used. It was all the same
to the Cornstalk. He had had some experi-
ence with the revolver, but to get his hand
in he promptly purchased one, with a box of
cartridges, and spent an afternoon in the
woods at the back of the town, where he
TIT1
YY
OT
VV
KANAKAS AND 'KAI-OUI-OUIS'
139
1
h
WITH
TT
rev
-
was able to indulge in some quiet practice
on his own account. The consequence was
that at the meeting on the following Sunday
morning, at his first shot he lodged a bullet
in his adversary's thigh, and laid him up on
a bed from which he was unable to rise for
the next two months.
When a convict does happen to elude
the vigilance of his warders, which happens,
strange to say, very often, the policeman
who effects his capture obtains a reward of
fifty francs. To the Kanaka gendarme this
is a tempting amount, and as the Govern-
ment pay the reward for the production of
the évade's body, dead or alive, and as part
of the Kanaka's religion is to keep his own
skin as whole as possible, the unfortunate
runaway generally has a very rough time of
it in Noumea.
One day during my sojourn in Noumea
two policemen approached the place from the
direction of St. Louis, and as they came
down the winding road from the hillside
1
140
KANAKAS AND ‘KAI-OUI-OUIS'
leading into the town it could be seen that
they were carrying something between them
on a pole. What at first appeared to be a
prize in the shape of a captured bush-pig
turned out upon a closer examination to be
an évadé who had escaped from Noumea
some days previously. He was rudely tied
on to the pole which the men carried
between them. Some humane people on the
street remonstrated with the Kanakas when
they deposited their burden on the pavement
to indulge in a short rest. 'Oh,' replied one,
we were compelled to tie him tightly; he
gave us a lot of trouble catching him, and
we were fearful lest he might escape again.'
But when, later on, they deposited their
burden in the prison dépôt on the Quay, it
was found that the poor prisoner had indeed
escaped. But the fifty francs were counted
out all the same.
1
141
THE MISSIONARY IN THE
SOUTH SEAS
L
YTY
It is not many years since the first batch of
missionaries went down to the sea in ships,
and found landing places upon the lovely
islands which are so profusely scattered over
the Pacific. Early in the present century-
somewhere about the time of Waterloo_the
Rev. Mr. Henry found his way from England
to the Society Islands (now known as Tahiti),
and hoisted the flag of Christianity. Mr.
Henry is the generally acknowledged pioneer
of Christian labour in that part of the world,
and the good work which he performed
amongst the Tahitians was not, happily,
interred with his bones, but lives after
him.
The Tahitians are a gentle and tractable
VY
142 THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS
)
as a
people, and the popular Pacific Island custom
of cannibalising was never very extensively
developed amongst them. Consequently
Mr. Henry had the distinction of living a
long life there, and of dying a natural death
in the end. This latter circumstance dis-
tinguishes the story of his life from that of
the vast majority of his contemporaries, who,
as a rule, died of a sudden.
In those groups of islands stretching
along from the New Hebrides up towards
the Solomons and New Guinea, boiled
missionary was for many years, and in some
places still is, the favourite dish. A plump
young Englishman, who has been carefully
reared, and has never had many opportunities
of poisoning his blood and his flesh with
alcoholic stimulants, comes out well in the
cooking, when compared with the roystering
gin-drinking islander who often finds his
way to the oven after a battle amongst the
tribes.
Preparations for a South Sea island
T
THE HD
MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS 143
dinner' would have been a splendid study
for the artist who could have looked on as
of Santa Cruz some years ago. The interested
natives had watched the boat drop anchor,
and each coco-nut tree that faced the unlucky
missionary as he strode confidently up the
beach concealed a dusky form and a formidable
club. The excitement was keen as the new
arrival walked forward in the direction of
the smoke which indicated the location of the
native village. The man behind the first tree
was 'warm' as the missionary passed within
a few feet of him. The next man was 'cold,'
Mr. Brown having walked out into the open.
He soon made one of the anxious islanders
111
At short range a club never misses fire.
The poor missionary went the way of all
flesh in a most precipitous manner. And
the way of all human flesh on the Santa Cruz
was a merry one-merry, of course, for those
who accompanied it. Different portions of
144
THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS
TY1
T
TL
the Rev. Mr. Brown found living tombs that
day, and his skull is still retained by an old
chief living up amongst the mountains. The
chief happened to be in the village the day
of the massacre, and was a spectator of the
whole proceedings. Although he retains the
head as a trophy, he was not the man who
clubbed the missionary, and he also, strangely
enough, refrained from partaking of the
repast. The condition of the missionary was
prime-so the chief was told by several people
who were there. I have every reason to
believe that the old man was innocent of any
complicity in the proceedings, because he
told me so himself, and I never knew a Santa
Cruz chief to tell a lie yet, except to get
money or gin out of me.
Before I commenced to travel I had a
well-set idea that the preacher of the gospel,
wherever he happened to be met, would of
necessity be a very proper person indeed.
If he smoked tobacco, or imbibed liquor, he
would do it privately, always presenting to
nec
THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS 145
1
the outside world a good example of moral
and abstemious conduct. How the idols of
a boy's fancy are shivered and blasted when
he pries into a few outside corners of the
world! I was once cruising along the coast
of Malayta when I ran into a small cove one
evening for shelter. We made up to the
town at the head of the harbour, and were
guided by a native whom we met to the house
of the village chief. Here we found a
pleasant company assembled. Several gaily-
painted chiefs and a white man occupied
the mat of honour in the centre of the floor,
deeply engaged in the classic study of draw-
poker, and the air was filled with the seduc-
tive fragrance of gin-punch. The poker
was abandoned, and a hearty welcome
accorded to us, my countryman being very
demonstrative in his gestures and words of
greeting. I shall never forget him. He
had many points about him which commended
him to me as a good soul, for at sea we learn
146 THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS
to look charitably on the vagaries of a man
and a brother when we see any indication
that, whatever be his failings, his heart is in
the right place.
White men are mutually inquisitive in the
South Seas. After he had pumped me dry
with questions as to where I hailed from,
whither I was bound, and the nature of my
business, I returned the compliment by ask-
ing him what he was doing on Malayta. “I
am the sky-pilot for this coast,' he replied
playfully. This was my first experience of
a good healthy tobacco-chewing muscular
Christian, and I was rather amused and
entertained by the sample before me. Of
rough personal exterior, he completed the
picture by affecting the slovenly dress of the
trader, with a few touches of native adorn-
ment added. He wore a native cloth turban
on his otherwise bare head, and concealed
the greater portion of the rest of his body
with a regatta shirt and a pair of moleskin
pants. I have mentioned that he was a good
an
Y1
THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS
147
YY
TY
soul, and his character shall, therefore, not be
depreciated here.
. One of his strong points was the utter
absence from his mental composition of any.
thing which could be construed into hypocrisy
or bigotry. Another good point was that
he was very plain-spoken. When the time
came on for evening prayers one of the
young fellows present-evidently a kind of
pupil of the missionary—offered up the usual
extempore prayer. The community was
Wesleyan, and the young suppliant confined
his application for Divine encouragement and
clemency to the body of which he was a
member. When he had concluded, the
missionary, who had for a few moments been
nervously handling a coco-nut which lay
upon the mat beside him, sent the nut flying
at the youth's head with unerring aim, at the
same time remarking— Didn't I tell you last
night to give the Catholics a show?'
The young fellow, rather sullenly, resumed
his prayers, this time asking rather em-
1
21
L
2
148 THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS
TY
phatically for a shower of heavenly blessings
on the head of the 'Kai Katolikas.'
I spent several days in the village, and
would have probably remained several weeks
in the enjoyment of my friend's pleasant
company were it not for the circumstance
that he was much my superior at poker
and euchre, and for the trifling additional
circumstance that he always insisted upon
having something on each game, just by
way of making it interesting. When one
dollar follows another in rapid and regular
succession without any break, for two or
three days, cards become monotonous, and I
decided to clear out from that port without
much delay. The game of poker, as it was
developed between the missionary and myself,
became merely a trial of Science v. Luck. I
played, and trusted to my luck, while my
friend based his play upon scientific rules..
The good and the bad are to be found
amongst all sorts and conditions of men. The
South Sea missionary body is no exception
TIIE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS 149
in this respect. While there are many lame
ducks, there are also amongst them men
whose nobleness of purpose and heroism in
the discharge of their oftentimes unpleasant
and dangerous duties evoke the most unre-
served admiration for their conduct.
On the occasion of the massacre of the
wives of a late Fiji King—the prevailing
custom upon the death of a king or chief-
two white missionaries were stationed on the
island of Bau, where the ceremony took
place. While the necessary preparations
were being made one of the missionaries
offered the officiating murderers the alterna-
tive of cutting off his hand as an atonement
for sparing the unfortunate women's lives.
He tried very hard to induce them to accept
this propitiatory sacrifice, but without suc-
cess, probably because a white man's hand,
however palatable and tasty, would not go
round as well in a large dinner company as
five or six bodies.
But while the majority of the missionaries
150
THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS
AT
LA
LI
are impelled by a strong desire to carry out
their work with thoroughness and sincerity,
there are many whose natural proclivities are
of the earth, earthy. Take, for instance,
the sky-pilot' who combines business with
the pleasure of guiding souls in the way that
they should go. The trader-missionary has
a great deal to answer for, if only for the
amount of Pacific blasphemy which he is
the cause of extracting from the legitimate
trader with whose business he interferes. If
you go on a trading expedition to a district
where one of this class of missionary shep-
herds the native flock, you require to be
very polite in your movements to insure any
success in your undertaking. During my
own trading experience in the South Seas the
line which I generally found the best to follow
was that of submitting a present to the mis-
sionary. The intrinsic value of the testimo-
nial would, of course, be regulated by the
amount of business likely to be done within
the jurisdiction of the 'sky-pilot' to whom it
THE MISSIONARY IN THE SOUTH SEAS 151
was tendered. And sometimes a competitive
lay trader would appear upon the scene, which
rendered it necessary that he should, if pos-
sible, be outbid. Competition was a splendid
thing for the missionary, who invariably
temporised and hesitated till he extracted the
highest possible bribe from the more enter-
prising of the two traders. The unlucky
trader whose tender was not accepted with-
drew from the place at once, as there was no
use for him to stay in the face of the mandate
from the missionary to the natives which fol-
lowed the acceptance of the successful trader's
bid.
In some cases the traders refuse to recog-
nise the claims of the missionary to any royalty
of the kind, but they invariably lose money
by it. The sky pilot has a tight grip on his
followers.
Y
152.
THE CASTAWAYS
A TALE OF CANNIBALISM
more popularly known to travellers in the
Pacific Ocean, from the circumstance that
they lie directly under the Equator, consist
of a numerous archipelago of small islets, or
atolls, the largest of which is not more than
thirty-five miles in length. Longitudinally
these islands are situated to the northward of
the Fiji group, between 174 degrees and 180
degrees east. They are inhabited by a
curious race of people, called, from the islands
on which they live, the Kai Tokalaus. “Kai’
is the generic Pacific term for man. A French-
man is known to the natives as a Kai Oui
Oui, an Englishman a Kai Piritania, a Jew a
Kai Tierusalemi, and so on.
THE CASTAWAYS
153
From their general physical character-
istics one would incline to the conclusion that
the Kai Tokalaus are of Mongolian extrac-
tion; they have no sentiment or poetry in
their composition, and it may be safely said
that they are the most debased set of aborigi-
nals existing in that part of the world. Of
a naturally savage and bloodthirsty nature,
they have made the Tokalau archipelago the
greatest martyr field for missionaries in
the South Seas. Cooked missionary often
figured upon the unwritten menu of the
festivals prepared for the island chieftains.
And how any of these devoted men have
managed to survive the risks and horrors of
the Line Islands, and accomplish the noble
results which have been attained amongst the
people, is a wonder to travellers.
Apart from their ferocious instincts, the
Tokalaus possess many curious personal
characteristics which are not to be generally
found in the other denizens of the Pacific
Islands. Not the least remarkable of these
re
154
THE CASTAWAYS
YTT
XT1
is the uncontrollable desire to travel. Family
ties and bonds of affection have alike no
hold upon the Tokalau if an opportunity
presents itself by which he may travel abroad
-he does not care where; if it be to the
farthest ends of the world it is all the same
to him. Without a word of adieu to his wife,
his children, or his parents, the Tokalau will
jump aboard a whaler for a three or four
years' voyage, and leave his home without
the faintest notion of ever returning to it
again. If chance brings him back after the
whaling voyage is over, well and good ; if
chance brings him instead to some remote
corner of the world, thousands of miles away
from the Tokalaus, it is all the same to
him.
When the writer was reluctantly com-
pelled, through shipwreck, to spend fourteen
weeks upon one of the Tokalau islands, a few
years back, a strange incident occurred. A
party of eight of the islanders returned home
from a neighbouring archipelago, where they
THE CASTAWAYS
15.5
1
had been dropped by a trading schooner, in
which they had recently come from San
Francisco. They had been away from home
for a period of nearly three years, during the
greater part of which they had been travel-
ling. Their story was a strange account of
suffering and adventure.
The Tokalaus are low islands, having
been formed by degrees on the crests of a
series of coral reefs—a common physical
occurrence in the Pacific Ocean. None of
the islands are more than six feet above sea
level, and the coco-nut trees, with which the
islands abound, although most prolific in the
matter of fruit-bearing, are stunted in growth
when compared with the general height of
such trees.
The sea currents are also very rapid and
treacherous in these regions. Hence, in
passing from one island to another in small
boats or native canoes, the voyageur often
loses sight of land, and when particular
attention is not paid to the tide rip, or the
156
THE CASTAWAYS
T1
current, there is a considerable risk of being
carried away to sea.
Nearly three years before the return of
these eight survivors a mixed party of
twenty-two Tokalaus—men, women, and
children-started one afternoon from a mis-
sion station on one of the islands to visit the
missionary on a neighbouring atoll. They
sailed away before a very mild breeze in the
whaleboat belonging to the mission. When
they got well away from the land-out of
sight of it, in fact--the breeze had almost
died away. The sail was kept up, however
—a thing which the Tokalau will always do
while there is an ounce of wind to blow him
along. He does not believe in doing with
the oar, in a hot climate, what a thoughtful
Providence will do for him with a few puffs
of wind. And the matter of time is no
object to the Tokalau.
The consequence was that night came
upon the party while they were yet tossing
gently about on the glassy water, many
THE CASTAWAYS
157
It
Y 1
miles from home and from their point of
destination. The treacherous current had
also been doing its work, and when, after a
weary night had been passed, day again
dawned upon them, they were far away from
any chance of reaching land—for some time
at all events. Unacquainted, of course, in
the absence of landmarks, with their position
upon the ocean, and confused as to the
course which they ought to steer, the wildest
disorder began to reign amongst them.
One steered in the direction which he
thought the right one for a few hours, when,
no land appearing ahead, he was violently
ejected from his place at the tiller and re-
placed by one who thought he knew better.
The boat was steered to all points of the
compass, till at last the most sensible plan
under the circumstances was resorted to-
that of sailing away before the wind-going,
in fact, wherever the wind had a mind, to
take them. The new course was no sooner
proposed than it was unanimously adopted,
TTY
LL
158
THE CASTAWAYS
holding out, as it did, the prospect of an
adventure in some foreign country—a pros-
pect dear to the Tokalau's heart. The pre-
vailing breeze in the Pacific during the
greater portion of the year is from the south-
east, and this breeze happened to be blowing
at the period of the adventurers' resolve to
sail before the wind. Days and weeks
passed, and still they flew away before it,
without, however, meeting with the slightest
sight of land. The small amount of pro-
visions which they had originally carried
aboard had been long since exhausted, and
the greatest trouble now in the immediate
front of them was hunger. But to a set of
cannibals a way out of such a difficulty was
not long in suggesting itself. It was merely
a case of the survival of the fittest. The
weakest of the party went first. The young
people were sacrificed, one by one, to satisfy
the hungry cravings of the older and stronger
ones. After the young and tender ones had
been used up, the turn of the unfortunate
'n
THE CASTAWAYS
159
women came. The greatest economy in the
use of the food was exercised, probably in
recognition of the well-known human instinct
that self-preservation is the first law of
nature. And when at last the number of
the whaleboat's occupants had dwindled
down from twenty-two to eight, land was
sighted ahead one morning. No accurate
account had been kept of the time the
adventurers had been at sea, but the period
occupied must have been at least seven or
eight weeks, for when they landed they
found themselves upon the coast of Japan,
some thousands of miles away from the
Tokalau group. It may be imagined that
the travellers created no small amount of
astonishment and interest amongst the
Japanese whom they first encountered.
Taking note of the somewhat Mongolian
features of the Kai Tokalaus, it is only
natural that they were mistaken for some
outlandish Chinese natives who had wan-
dered across, or been reluctantly driven
111
160
THE CASTAWAYS
across, the Chinese Sea. It was, of course,
impossible for them to make themselves
understood, except by gestures, and, after
much parleying by that primitive method,
they were eventually conveyed to one of the
mission stations along the coast, where the
good and patient missionaries, full of infor-
mation regarding the mission work and the
inhabitants of the Pacific, were able at last
to discover that their unfortunate guests
came from the Tokalau archipelago. They
were retained at the station for some time,
till an opportunity at last presented itself,
when passages were secured for them upon a
sailing vessel bound from Yokohama to San
Francisco. The latter port, though far from
being in the direction of home, would offer
them many chances of reshipping in the
direction of their own country, as a large
number of trading vessels ply between
'Frisco and the Pacific Islands.
In due time the adventurers passed
through the celebrated Golden Gate, and
THE CASTAWAYS
161
were landed in San Francisco. Here their
first care was, of course, to endeavour to
secure passages in the direction of their
home under the Equator. They were for-
tunate enough at last to get over one stage
of the journey through getting berths on a
vessel bound to Honolulu, the capital of the
Sandwich Islands.
At Honolulu they fell into the hands
of an enterprising American showman, who
promptly opened negotiations with them to
show for a brief season in San Francisco.
The affair seemed genuine, as money was
forthcoming, and back they went to the
Californian capital in charge of the show-
man, who exhibited them there for a con-
siderable time, and with the greatest success,
as 'wild men from the interior of Thibet.'
They brought back with them many of the
bills and posters through which they had
been advertised to the American public, and
probably retain them yet as mementoes of
their curious adventure. The showman
111
In
M
162
THE CASTAWAYS
kalaus.
appears to have behaved very handsomely
towards them, and when the engagement
came to a conclusion they were well supplied
with funds and other necessaries, and a
passage secured for them upon the trading
schooner which eventually landed them in
the neighbourhood of the Tokalaus.
The islanders had, of course, long since
given them up as dead, and a few of the
survivors who had left wives behind returned
to find the good ladies in possession of other
husbands. This naturally caused some
irritation, and the King of the island was
called upon to King-Solomonise and other-
1TT1Y
• Peace was restored when the writer left
the place, but the Tokalaus had made up
their minds that when they ventured upon the
water again and the wind fell the order was
to be-Man the oars!'
163
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS-THE
LEPER COLONY OF MOLOKAI
2013.
TYY
1
Most people remember the heroic conduct
of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who
voluntarily entombed himself among the
lepers on the island of Molokai in 1873.
The kingdom of Hawaii will always hold
a place in the minds of English people who
care to dwell upon the travels and adventures
of Captain James Cook. Loyal Englishmen,
whose pride is the vastness of our great
Empire-upon which it has been truly said
that the sun never sets—whose pride it is
also to remember that our Colonial subjects
are, if possible, more strong and enthusiastic
than the people at home in their devotion to
the Throne and their desire to uphold and
maintain the integrity and the unity of the
UU
M
2
164
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
XY
UI
British Empire, will always be prepared to
acknowledge the indebtedness of that Empire
to the labours of James Cook.
The Sandwich Islands were first touched
by Captain Cook in 1778, and thus named
by him, in honour of his patron, the Earl of
Sandwich, who occupied the position of First
Lord of the Admiralty at that time. This
name is, however, gradually being dropped,
and probably it is much better that the
original native name should be perpetuated.
Such a change has actually taken place in.
most of the other archipelagos in the Pacific
to which English names were given by
Captain Cook and other navigators. The
Society Islands—so called by Cook on
account of the social and hospitable cha-
racteristics of the islanders—are now univer-
sally spoken of as the Tahitian Islands.
It is understood, by the way, that the
social pre-eminence of the Tahitians consisted
simply in the circumstance that cannibalism
was not indulged in by the islanders.
T
THE SANDWICH 165
N
ISLANDS
The Friendly Islands, the Navigators,
and the Cannibal Islands have now totally
dropped those titles, and are known to
travellers by their old native names of Tonga,
Samoa, and Fiji respectively.
The kingdom of Hawaii consists of eight
islands : Hawaii, Maui, Kahulaui, Lanai,
Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau.
The superficial area of the whole group
is over 6,000 square miles. A large propor-
tion of this area is covered with volcanic
scoriæ and pumice, rendering it unfit for
agricultural purposes; but that portion which
is available to the planter is not to be sur-
passed in any part of the Pacific, or indeed
in any part of the tropical world, for richness
and producing capacity. When the late
George Augustus Sala passed through
Honolulu he was struck with the remarkable
fertility of the place, which he called in some
of his papers the 'Eden' of the Pacific. Or,
to quote the chatty journalist more fully,
he spoke of Hawaii as the 'Eden and the
vu
11
A
166
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
Serpent. The 'serpent' was a graphic point
at the hideous disease of leprosy which has for
years been crawling about amongst the people
of these fairy islands.
Although this dreadful disease was—to
a very limited extent only-known to the
natives of most of the Pacific Islands before
the advent of foreigners, there is no doubt
that, in the case of Hawaii and the Tahitian
Islands, the alarming spread of the disease
of late years is more directly traceable to the
Chinese labour immigrants who have been
introduced from Macao and Canton.
The Hawaiian will avoid hard work as
persistently as any of his coloured brethren
of the Pacific, and that is saying a great deal.
And it will surprise no one who has travelled
amongst the islands that such is the case.
Providence is peculiarly kind to the islander:
The Kava feast, the yam, the coco-root,
Which bears at once the cup, the milk, the fruit;
The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields
The unreap'd harvest of unfurrowed fields,
And bakes its unadulterated loaves
Without a furnace in unpurchas'd groves.
1
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
16.7
These are the natural perquisites of the
Pacific islander. In the matter of fish and
other kindred delicacies, the pleasure of
catching them is the peculiar prerogative of
woman. And the man takes a pleasure in
letting her do it. Everything is placed to
the native's hand, without any effort on his
part to obtain it. There are a good many
people outside of the Pacific who would not
hanker much after work if they could get
all the necessaries of life upon such terms.
Such being the state of affairs among the
islands, the white coffee, tea, or sugar planter
is invariably compelled to introduce foreign
labour to his estates. During the past twenty
or thirty years large drafts have been imported
from China and India for the estates in
Hawaii. The labour-recruiters in Calcutta,
Macao, and Canton were not very particular
as to the class of people whom they engaged
-in fact, for the greater part they could not
afford to be—where the wages offered were
only at the rate of about 10 dollars per annum.
168
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
A
Hence the slums of these pestilential cities
were drawn upon for the required labourers,
and before the immigration system had been
long in force at Honolulu that lovely spot
was reeking with the accursed plague of
leprosy.
The island of Molokai, which lies between
Oahu and Maui, and not far from Honolulu,
was selected by the Government for use as a
quarantine ground to which to transmit per-
sons affected with the disease. When a case
is discovered the patient is placed in a small
native canoe, or a boat which is of little value.
In this he is towed by a steamer or sailing
vessel to the shores of Molokai, where he is
cut adrift and allowed to make his way ashore
as best he can.
Years ago I paid several visits to Molokai,
and on one occasion the little colony of
lepers were in a deplorable condition, in
consequence of the inclemency of the season.
There are several settlements, or townships,
on the island, and the communal system of
III
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
169
YA
living, so common to Pacific Island peoples,
is much in vogue amongst the lepers.
Of course, the large majority of the
residents on Molokai are but slightly affected
with the disease, and in many cases leprosy
develops very slowly. But the measures
which the Honolulu Government found it
necessary to adopt for the suppression of
leprosy were of such a drastic kind that the
slightest symptoms of the disease were suffi-
cient to warrant the banishment of the
unfortunate subject.
One Englishman, who was well known
some years ago in Hawaiian political circles
-who had, in fact, held an important legal
position in the Government at one period
had the misfortune to become slightly af-
fected by leprosy in one of his hands. He
wore gloves—an unusual thing in Honolulu
--for some time to conceal the terrible white
spot from public view. But the gloves
attracted suspicion, and the ‘leper detec-
tives' made a raid upon him. Through his
ny
111
170
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
1
social position and his general popularity,
many efforts were made to get him away
in outgoing vessels for America or the
Chinese side, but he was eventually cut
adrift from a Government vessel off Molo-
kai. When I last saw him he had got
into considerable practice in his profession
amongst the lepers, but the scale of fees was
somewhat different to that which he had
been in the habit of charging in Honolulu
and New Zealand. His position was also
more in the character of a judge than an
advocate. He had just adjudicated in an
important breach of promise case between
two patients, and, having decided that the
would-be deceiver should marry the girl, the
worthy lawyer was inundated with fees in
the shape of bunches of bananas, baskets of
yams, coco-nuts, &c., supplied for the most
part by the girl's friends and admirers.
In some cases, when the judge obtains
fees which appear to be too much in excess
TYY
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
171
CO
of what is reasonable, the chief missionary
extemporises himself into a prothonotary,
and taxes the costs. This little piece of
business is always carried out with the
utmost good humour on the part of the two
parties most immediately concerned, and the
quantity by which the costs are reduced is
conveyed to the missionary's residence, from
which it may be needless to say it is not
again sent into circulation.
Molokai contains about a thousand in-
habitants. Plantation work of all kinds is
followed by the majority of the people, who
inter-marry and otherwise follow out all the
social customs to which they have been
reared.
A severe season naturally affects them
more than it would a robust class of people.
I remember some of the villages being in
a terrible state. The people had become
so reduced as to be unable to help one
another, and all the work, of course, fell upon
172
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
TY
the late famous Father Damien. The large
numbers of the residents who were lucky
enough not to be seriously affected were un-
willing to go amongst the stricken villagers
and thus risk a more virulent contagion than
they already had.
It would be hard indeed—if at all pos-
sible—to imagine a scene of greater horror
and loathsomeness than the picture of a leper
village of low degree, such as those which
are often to be seen upon Molokai. The
writer had the somewhat grim distinction
of riding over Isandlwanha when that blood-
marked spot was but a few days known
to fame, but the remembrance of it is
sweet in comparison with the ghastliness of
Molokai.
That men can be found to stand up and
die game amidst the terrors of such work
as Isandlwanha witnessed ; that men can be
found who are prepared to face any danger
which the imagination can conjure up on
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
173
flood or field, we already know; but it was
a new departure in heroism when young
Damien voluntarily abjured a life of promise
and comparative luxury to devote the re-
mainder of his days to the misery of an
existence in pestilential Molokai.
174
A MODEL MONARCH
TIAOJI TUBOU, KING OF TONGA
THE Tongans are generally admitted to be
among the smartest people in the Pacific.
They have more self-reliance and natural
ability as a rule than the other Pacific islanders,
with the exception, of course, of the Maoris,
and it has been a matter of general interest
to watch the developments that have taken
place in the Tongan archipelago in recent
years. One of the most striking figures in
the public life of the South Pacific during the
latter half of this century has undoubtedly
been the late King George of Tongatabu.
Although anything but a warlike or ambitious
man, King George, from the time that he
ascended the throne of Tonga up till the
moment of his death, held the most prominent
1
i
A MODEL MONARCH
175
place in the public eye in the Pacific, and his
word was law to many chiefs and peoples
he legally ruled.
Tiaoji Tubou, to give him his Tongan
name, was born in 1796, so that he had nearly
reached his century when he died in 1893.
Like many another Tongan chief, Tiaoji
Tubou left his native country when quite a
young man, to see the rest of the world for
himself. Shipping on board a whaler, he
knocked about a good deal in Australian and
American parts before he returned to Tonga-
tabu.
fierce rebellion going on against his family's
dynasty, and having picked up a good deal
of general knowledge during his wanderings,
he was naturally looked to for aid in the sup-
pression of the rising. He was a long time
stamping out the trouble, but stamp it out he
did in a most effective way, and during the
campaign earned a great reputation for per-
A
176
A MODEL MONARCH
sonal deeds of valour and generally for his
prudence and courage in the command of
fighting men. He ascended the throne of
Tonga on December 4, 1845, and his modera-
tion was aptly exemplified in connection with
the enthroning function, as he insisted on
doing away with all the grotesque ceremony
which usually marked such occasions, simply
celebrating his ascension to the throne by
holding a comparatively informal kava meet-
ing. In other words, the new king invited
his friends and supporters simply to come and
have a drink with him on the strength of his
accession. After he had been at the head of
affairs in Tonga for a short time, the Wesleyan
missionaries induced him to become a member
of that religious body, and as he took up
Christianity with abnormal enthusiasm for a
Polynesian prince, he soon became what is
called a lay-preacher in that body. For a
number of years he occupied the pulpit
regularly, and, as may be imagined, he was a
great draw as a preacher. In 1853, shortly
A MODEL MONARCH
177
after the discovery of gold in Australia, King
George went over to Sydney, with the idea,
so it was said, of taking up some gold lands
and working them with the cheap labour
which he could bring over from Tonga.
Either the plan was not found feasible under
the existing labour regulations, or the king
himself did not care to tackle the hardships
attending life on the then very wild gold-fields,
at any rate he returned to Tonga and quietly
worked away at his own gold-mine, the tax-
ation of the Tonga people. It was shortly
after this that King George paid a visit to the
late King Cakobau of Fiji, whom he even-
tually succeeded in converting from his well-
known wicked practices to a Christian life.
Cakobau had every reason to be grateful to
King George of Tonga for other things
besides his conversion to Christianity. On
one occasion, when a dangerous rebellion
broke out in Fiji which Cakobau found him-
self utterly unable to suppress, King George
sailed across from Tongatabu with a large
CO
178
A MODEL MONARCH
force of Tongan warriors and helped the Bau
ruler out of his difficulties. On the whole
King George was a dignified and large-hearted
man of the world to whom the ruling of 25,000
or 30,000 people like the Tongans was an
easy and congenial task. In the latter years
of his life he was brought into much tribula-
tion by the machinations of wicked whites
who had settled in his country, and one of
these, a well-known missionary, had even-
tually to be deported from Tongatabu by
order of the British High Commissioner for
the Western Pacific. The king was much
beloved by all who knew him, and his death
was the occasion foran expression of profound
regret from one side of the South Pacific to
the other,
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

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and spirit merchants, of 22B Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square,
have taken up the agency of Ern. Stein's world-famed Tokay wines,
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recuperative qualities. Mr. Ern. Stein is the sole owner of nine
celebrated vineyards in the Tokay district, namely, Bencsik, Baksa,
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III
THE BOOK OF THE SEASON:
SECOND EDITION.
S NAKES.
By "SUNDOWNER.'
The Daily News. A pleasant little volume—might have been signed by
“Truthful James " instead of by " Sundowner." '
Lancaster Standard.—The book is an interesting production, an cdotal,
brightly written, racy and entertaining to the superlative degree . . . thoroughly
readable and worth purchasing.'
Financial News - Really good read
Devon and Exeter Gazette. Although the sensitive reader of "Snakes"
may feel a creeping sensation when perusing the accounts of "Sundowner's "
thrilling experiences of that species of reptiles in Australia and Fiji, yet he or
she cannot fail to be intensely interested by them. So extraordinary are some
of the stories related that one might almost be inclined to question their genuine.
ness, but, according to the preface, the book is intended as an antidote to
unreliable and obviously fanciful accounts of snakes and their habits."..
The Scotsman,- A study of the Australian and Fijian snakes, made by a
writer who appears to have had considerable experience as a snake-farmer. The
stories it tells are interesting in themselves, and, unlike the majority of snake
stories that have got into print, do not bear upon their face a guarantee of their
untruthfulness. The book is interesting, chatty, and well-informed, and will
both amuse and instruct anyone who desires to have unsystematised information
on its subject.'
Gall's News Letter. The author gives some of his own experiences with
snakes. The elusive character of the reptile is first set forth, their occasional
good deeds; the tragic end of one is dwelt upon in the first chapter in a
manner that will certainly bear re-reading. We never realised until now how
fond a snake is of music, nor of its wonderful power of digestion. The book
shows an immense amount of study, and is written in a manner calculated to
impress the reader.'
Daily Chronicle.—'We have read this book through from cover to cover, and
cannot for the life of us make out whether it is meant as a huge and long-drawn
joke, ophidian in length and coiliness, or whether it is supposed to be a con.
tribution to snake history tempered by jocularity.'
Morning Advertiser,-'Not only instructive, but most entertaining.'
The Eastern Morning News.- This is a second edition of a volume of
stories illustrative of the habits and peculiarities of Australian and Fijian snakes.
"Sundowner" is evidently an expert in spinning yarns of an amusing and ex.
traordinary character, consequently “Snakes" is a book that the average boy
will fully appreciate and enjoy. The ordinary reader will, however, scarcely be
sufficiently credulous to accept the statements contained therein as absolute
facts, but that circumstance need not interfere with their hearty appreciation of
the humour of the book. “Snakes" will probably command a ready sale, as
the lively style of the writer cannot fail to be appreciated.'
Weekly Irish Times. It is doubtful if the aspirant ophiologist will obtain
much reliable information from this amusing volume. We say this in spite of
" Sundowner's" declaration in the preface as to the veracity of the contents of
his book, for a perusal of the many wonderful stories he tells will not, we fear,
do much to clear away the doubt and suspicion with which the average snake
story is regarded. But, taken as half joke or all joke,“ Sundowner's " book is
well worth reading, and, even if we reſuse to believe the author's most stirring
contribution to natural history, we must admire him for his sense of humour and
frequent defiance of the limits of his reader's credulity.'
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02
THE BOOK OF THE SEASON.
SECOND EDITION.
SNAKES.
By "SUNDOWNER.'
Christian Age." Sundowner's " Antipodean snake yarns are droll without
a doubt, yet we question whether he could successfully prove his descent from
George Washington if challenged to do so. Be that as it may, from these
amusing pages can be sifted not a few good grains of interesting information
concerning “the habits and customs” of Australian snakes, which, by the way,
"Sundowner" libellously likens to Australian beer for poisonousness.'
South American Journal.-" There is much amusement to be derived from
his story. . . . Most of the scenes of the story are laid in Australia, the land
where the ladies wear live snakes for garters.'
South London Observer.-'Is an amusing companion for an idle half-hour,
despite the prejudice against the subject which some unreasonable persons may
entertain.'
'. The Dezon and Exeter Gazette.—'Intensely interesting. ... So extra-
ordinary are some of the stories related, that one might almost be inclined to
question their genuineness.
Shipping. One only requires to read the preface to "Sundowner's " chatty
and well-informed little work on snakes to have both curiosity and appetite
whetted. ...A contribution to snake history which will fill an hour of any.
body's time with both profit and pleasure.'
The Western Mail (Cardiff).- A volume of stories of Australian snakes;
pleasantly told, and forming an agreeable companion for an hour or so.'
Professor Stradling, the well-known ophiologist, writes to the author :-
'I have read your book on snakes with immense pleasure and interest.'
Mammon says :-'We like a good yarn when we can get one, and
“Sundowner" gives us plenty. Yet extraordinary as they may appear to the
uninitiated, we must perforce accept them as fact, because perhaps they are
fact. At all events anyone who wishes to know everything about snakes will be
able to learn it easily from this book.'
The Westminster Gazette.-'The knowledge of the average resident in these
islands concerning reptiles of this class is not very sound, and a gentleman
writing under the name of " Sundowner" has published a little book intended to
enlighten the benighted Briton on the subject. His experiences seem to have
been gained principally in Australia.'
Publishers' Circular. -The volume consists of tales and experienres of
reptiles in Australia and the Pacific, and comes out at a time when the habits of
snakes are being a good deal discussed in the press.'
Sheffield Weekly Telegraph.--""Sundowner" gives some curious facts
about Australian snakes."
Antigua Standard. -A wonder ul little brochure, in which a praiseworthy
effort has been made to out-rival the much admired Baron Munchausen, whose
versatility of genius, even at this date, entitles him to remain top of the best of
gentlemen who feel it a duty to see that the art of lying shall not become only a
point in ancient history.'.
Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review.--""Snakes," by “Sundowner,"
is a small, well-printed book, by one who has had a great experience of the
reptiles in Australia. He is brimful of stories about snakes, all of which are
inceresting, and some are of gig tic height; by this last qualification we do not
by any means express incredulity, as our own experience of Australian snakes is
practically ril. With these snake stories there is a good deal of import:int im.
furmation regarding the natural history of these animals and their manners and
customs. The book will repay perusal.'
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is arranged to sail from Dunedin in January of each year.
Each Trip will occupy about Nine Days from Port Chalmers, during which
the most attractive of the Sounds will be visited, and special facilities will be
given for FISHING, SHOOTING, and SKETCHING, and for exploring
those wonderful Fiords, where Nature is seen in her grandest aspects. Oppor-
tunity will also be given for visiting THE SUTHERLAND FALLS--the Largest
in the World--the Steamer remaining Iwo Days in Milford Sound for that
purpose.
The SOCIAL ENJOYMENT OF PASSENGERS
is made a special feature of these Excursions, the whole Trip taking the form of
an extended picnic.
ROYAL MAIL SERVICE TO GREAT BRITAIN
VIA SAN FRANCISCO
(A. & A. ROUTE).
The Steamers of this Line-MONOWAL (3,433 tons),
ALAMEDA (3,000 tons), MARIPOSA (3,000 tons)
Leave Sydney every FOURTH MONDAY for
AUCKLAND, APIA, HONOLULU, & SAN FRANCISCO,
And return from latter Port every FOURTH THURSDAY.
This is the Passenger Route to the Colonies, avoiding alike the heat of the
Red Sea and the cold of Cape Horn, and giving passengers the opportunity
of travelling in luxury and comfort through the most interesting country in the
world.
THROUGH FIRST-CLASS FARE.-Sydney or Auckland to London,
and vice versa, £63. to £67. 8s.; Sydney or Auckland to
San Francisco, and vice versa, Saloon, £40 ; Sydney or
Auckland to Honolulu, and vice versa, Saloon, £30.
ROUND THE WORLD TOUR (First-class all the way), returning
by Orient or P. and 0. Co.'s Line from London via Suez; or by
New Zealand Shipping Co. or Shaw, Savill and Albion Co.'s
Line direct to New Zealand, or orce versa, £125.
mmmmmmmmm w
London Office: 34 LEADENHALL STREET..
SAN FRANCISCO : Messrs. J. D. SPRECKELS & BROS., Limited.
ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W:C.
Founded 1868; Incorporated by Royal Charter 1882.
mimuuri
President.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., K.T., K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G.
Vice-Presidents.
H.R.H. the Duke of York, K.G.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Dunraven, K.P
H.R.H. Prince Christian, K.G.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery, K.G.,
His Grace the Duke of Argyll, K.G., K.T.
K.T.
The Right Hon. the Marquis of Dufferin The Right Hon. Lord Brassey, K.C.B.
and Ava, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.M.G.
The Riht Hon. Lord Carlingford, K.P.
The Right Hon. the Marquis of Lorne, Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart.
K.T., G.C.M.G., M.P.
Sir Henry Barkly, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Henry E. G. Bulwer, G.Č.M.G.
G.C.M.G.
General Sir H. C. B. Daubeney, G.C.B.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Cranbrook, Sir James A. Youl, K.C.M.G.
G.C.S.I.
Sir Frederick Young, K.C.M.G.

Councillors,


W. J. Anderson, Esq.
F. H. Dangar, Esq.
Frederick Dutton, Esq.
Lieut.-General Sir J. ^ Bevan Edwards,
K.C.M.G., C.B., M.P.
C. Washington Eves, Esq., C.M.G.
W. Maynard Farmer, Esq.
Major-General Sir Henry Green, K.C.S.I.,
C.B.
Sir Robert G. W. Herbert, G.C.B.
Sir Arthur Hodgson, K.C.M.G.
Vice-Admiral Sir Anthony Hoskins, G.C.B.
R. J. Jeffray, Esq.
H. J. Jourdain, Esq., C.M.G.
William Keswick, Esq.'
The Right Hon. Lord Loch, G.C.B.,
G.C.M.G. ..
Lieut.-General R. W. Lowry, C.B.
Nevile Lubbock, Esq.
George S. Mackenzie, Esq.
S. Vaughan Morgan, Esq.
Sir Westby B. Perceval, K.C.M.G.
Sir Saul Samuel, K.C.M.G., C.B.
Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, G.C.M.G.
Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith.
Sir Charles E. F. Stirling, Bart.
Sir Charles Tupper, Bart., G.C.M.G., C.B.
.. Honorary Treasurer.
Sir Montagu F. Ommanney, K.C.M.G.
Secretary.
J. S. O'Halloran, Esq., C.M.G.
Librarian.
James R. Boose, Esq.
Chief Clerk.
William Chamberlain, Esq.
Bankers.
London and Westminster Bank, 1 St. James's Square, S.W.
Honorary Corresponding Secretaries.
Bahamas, Hon. E. B. A. Taylor, C.M.G., | Canada, Hon. Matthew H. Richey, Q.C.,
Nassau,
peg.
D.C.L., Nova Scotia.
Barbados, W. P. Trimingham, Esq.
Thomas Robinson, Esq., Winni-
British Guiana, G. H. Hawtayne, Esq.,
C.M.G., Georgetown.
J. T. Small, Esq., Toronto.
British Honduras, Hon. J. H. Phillips,
lony, C. M. Bult, Esq., J.P., Kim.
C.M.G., M.E.C., Belize,
berley.
Canada, Sandford Fleming, Esq., C.M.G.,
Henry B. Christian, Esq.,
Ottawa,
Port Elizabeth.
Very Rev. Principal G. M. Grant,
John Noble, Esq., Capetown.
M.A., D.D., Kingston.
Herbert T. Tamplin, Esq.,
George Hague, Esq., Montreal.
M.L.A., Grahamstown.
Ernest B. C. Hannington, Esq., Ceylon, J. Ferguson. Esq., Colombo.
M.D., Victoria, British Columbia. Cyprus, T. E, Mavrogoidato, Esq.

Honorary Corresponding Secretaries-continued.
Egypt, Ralph C. Grafton, Esq., Ramleh, New Zealand, Hon. C. C. Bowen, M.L.C..
Alexandria.
Middleton, Christchurch.
Fiji, Hemilton-Hunter, Esq., Suva.
Douglas McLean, Esq.,
Hong-Kong, Hon. T. H. Whitehead, M.L.B.
Napier,
Jamaica, Hon. C. S. Farquharson, M.L.C.,
Auckland.
Savanna-la-mar.
Queensland, Hon. Walter H. Wilson, M.L.C.,
The Leeward Islands, Hon. W.H. Whyham,
Brisbane.
M.L.C., Antigua.
Sierra Leone, T. J. Alldridge, Esq., Sherbro'.
Malta, Hon. Count Strickland, C.M.G., South Australia, George W. Hawkes, Esq.,
Valetta.
J.P., Adelaide.
Mashonaland, A. H. F. Duncan, Esq., Straits Settlements, A. P. Talbot, Esq.,
Salisbury.
Singapore.
Mauritius, A. De Boucherville, Esq., Port Tasmania, N. E. Lewis, M.A., Esq., B.C.L.,
Louis.
M.H.A., Hobart.
Natal, John Goodliffe, Esq., Durban,
Transvaal, W. T. Graham, Esq., Johannes-
New South Wales, W. L. Docker, Esq.,
burg.
Sydney.
Trinidad, Hon. H. W. Chantrell.
New Zealand, James Allen, Esq., M.H.R., Victoria, Benjamin Cowderoy, Esq., Mel-
Dunedin.
bourne.
George Beetham, Esq., Wel Western Australia, James Morrison, Esq...
lington,
J.P., Guildford.


The Objects of the Institute are:-
"To provide a place of meeting for all gentlemen connected with the Colonies
and British India, and others taking an interest in Colonial and Indian affairs ;
to establish a reading room and library, in which recent and authentic intelli-
gence upon Colonial and Indian subjects may be constantly available, and a
aluseum for the collec.ion and exhibition of Colonial and Indian productions
to facilitate interchange of experiences amongst persons representing all the
dependencies of Great Britain; to afford opportuniệies for the reading of papers,
and for holding discussions upon Colonial and Indian subjects generally : and
to undretake scientific, literary, and statistical investigations in connection with
the British Empire. But no paper shall be read, or any discussion be permitted
to take place, tending to give to the Institute a party character.' (Rule 1.)
There are two classes of fellows (who must be British subjects), resident and
non-resident, both elected by the Council on the nomination of two fellows, one.
of whom at least must sign on personal knowledge. The former pay an entrance
fee of £3, and an annual subscription of £2; the latter an entrance fee of £1. IS.
(which is increased to £3 when taking up permanent residence in the United
Kingdom), and an annual subscription of tr. Is. (which is increased to f2 when
in the United Kingdom for more than three months). Resident fellows can
compound for the annual subscription by the payment of £20, or after five years'
annual subscription of £2, on payment of £15; and non-resident fellows can
compound for the non-resident annual subscription on payment of £10.
The privileges of fellows, whose subscriptions are not in arrear, include the
use of rooms, papers, and library. All fellows, whether residing in England or
the Colonies, have a copy of the munthly journal, containing a report of each
meeting, and the annual volume of proceedings forwarded to them.
To be present at the evening meetings, and to introduce one visitor.
To be present at the Annual Conversazione, and to introduce a lady.
The Institute occupies its own house, which is open on week-days from 10 10
8 p.m., and comprises library, reading, news rooms, writing rooms, offices, &c.
The library, of 26.000 volumes (including pamphlets), chiefly on Colonial
subjects. Books may be borrowed, and visitors introduced by a fellow are
admitted.
The Annual Meeting is held in February or March ; ordinary meetings are
held at 8 pm. on the second Tuesday (as a general rule) of the months from
November to June, as well as occasional afternoon meetings, for the reading
and discussion of papers. The number of members on 20th November, 1895,
was 3,815.
e mensen
THE BOOK OF THE SEASON.
SECOND EDITION.
S NAKES.
By •SUNDOWNER.
Price is.
The Overland Mail.—'To anyone likely to take an interest in the reptilic
reminiscences of a modest and religiously-inclined member of the far-famed
family of hatchet-throwers, we can recommend a little volume on " Snakes" and
their peculiarities, just issued by the European Mail. The experiences of the
author, “Sundowner"-own brother, we should opine, to “Truthful James."
and a past master in the art of drawing the long-bow-are, to say the least,
remarkable, and, but for the fact that he repeatedly and earnestly impresses
upon us that he is a man of a truthful and a serious mind, one would be inclined
to credit him with virtues tending in a somewhat different direction. ...Who.
ever lays out a shilling on this humorous and amusing little brochure will have
to thank its author for an hour's pleasant and lively reading, and will find no
difficulty in believing his statement that he has “often been complimented on
the accuracy and 'freshness' of the matter which he places before the public
from time to time.”.
African Review.—'Is full of interesting and exciting stories about reptiles
in the Antipodes, and anyone in search of sensations, nightmares, and the like
will find it a veritable widow's cruse in that line. A score or so of nightmares
at a shilling are cheap.'
Edinburgh Evening News.-Is devoted to the ways and manners of the
Australian snake in all his varieties. “Sundowner" is apparently versed in
snakes, and those who like a good creepy subject, and are not over-critical as to
a little use of the long-bow, will appreciate the book.'
South African Empire. - One of the most valuable contributions to
" Snakeology" that we have seen, and literally sparkles with fresh, and hitherto
wholly unexpected, facts about a subject whose turns and twists the author has
closely studied in Australia. ... Interesting, chatty, and very funny.'
Public Opinion. It is possible to get a good and invigorating half hour's
entertainment out of this volume. The serpent world is under a debt of gratitude
to "Sundowner" for the graceful and complimentary recital of its sagacity.'
Introduction. -""Sundowner's” genial and pleasantly written monograph
on the habitat and characteristics of snakes has, we are pleased to observe,
attained to the distinction of a second edition. The author, whether playful,
hilarious, or serious, is always amusing and interesting, and is evidently facile
princeps of this absorbing subject, which, as all the world knows, comes
periodically to brighten a dreary press during the “big gooseberry" season.
In this veracious chronicle of his own experience tbere is much of shrewd and
wary observation, pithily expressed, and coloured by an amiable fancy for
natural incident and local surrounding, as well as exciting incidents and hair-
breadth escapes.'
Dominica Guardian.—'It is an interesting and well-informed little work,
both amusing and instructive to those who would obtain information on the
subject of which it treats. . . . Has created a favourable impression.'
Jamaica Post. This is a most enjoyable little book; and it would be
impossible to take up a volume which would help to while away more pleasantly
an idle hour or two." Sundowner" is a humorist of the first water; and the
fun of his remarks is all the greater because of the exceeding gravity and
earnestness of his literary style. No professor's descriptions could be couched
in more sober language; and yet the reader is kept smiling, or laughing, at the
bumour of the narrative from the first page to the last. Mark Twain has rarely
done anything better than " Sundowner" in this little brochure, and we can
cordially recommend it to all. Some of the incidents are screamingly funny;
but the adventure with the black snake takes the cake.'
Published at the Offices of The European Mail (Limited),
Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, London, E.C.
ESTABLISHED OVER HALF A CENTURY.
The European Mail
AND
THE COLONIES AND INDIA.
The European Mail
Is the title of seven distinct papers which are read in all
parts of the world. Published in English and Spanish.
These journals are specially edited for every Mail. They
have special agencies in, and are very extensively circulated
throughout, every part of the world, and are thereby
rendered at once the Most Effective and Economic
Media of Communication between Merchants .and
Manufacturers generally, and all classes of Foreign and
Colonial Consumers.
The Colonies and India
Read by all interested in the Colonies and India. It is
the only Paper published in Great Britain which contains
Summaries of News of intrinsic importance alike to
Shippers, Merchants, and Manufacturers, and the general
reader, from all the Countries in which the English tongue
is spoken. An important feature is the complete list of
names of Colonial and Indian people arriving in England,
with the addresses, hotels, &c., at which they put up.
Indeed, it is generally conceded that the Paper is an
epitome of news of great practical value to all who are
engaged in Trade between the Mother Country and the
various English-speaking Countries throughout the World.
Full Particulars and Scale of Charges for the insertion
of Advertisements in all or either of the Eight Papers
will be forwarded on application to
The Publisher, Imperial Buildings, Ludgate
Circus, London, E.C.
SPOTTISWOODE & CO.
MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER, BOOK, AND GENERAL PRINTERS,
.. NEW-STREET SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.
Printers of the following Publications, possess unequalled facilities
for the printing of Periodicals.
Academic Gazette
Lloyd's Weekly Shipping Index
Alpine Journal
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Architect
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Badminton Magazine
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Burdett's Oficial Intelligence
Metropolitan Charities Directory
Business Directory of London
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Clinical sketches
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Olubs, A List of 2,150 English
ports &o.
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Education
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Elizabethan (Westminster School)
tions
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English Catalogue of Books (annual)
Proceedings
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tions
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Zealand
Royal Holloway College Calendar
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Royal Institute of British Architects'
Journal and Transactions
European Mail for South Africa
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Saturday Roview
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Finance Chronicle
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Shipping Gazette and Lloyd's List
Free and Open Church Advocate
Shipping Gazette Weekly Summary
General Medical Council's Proceedings
South Kensington Museum Handbook
Gentleman's Magazine
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Gospel Missionary
St. James's Budget
Greater Britain Messenger
Statist
Homeward Mail
Stock Exchange
Sution & scns' Amateur's Guide
Icones Plantarum
International Code of Signals
Sutton & song' Farmer's Year-Book
Iron and Coal Trades Review
Trinity College, London, Calendar
Universal Shipping Code
Ironmonger
Walford's County Famílies
Law Digest
Whitelaw's Codes
Law Journal
Law Journal Reports
Windsor Peerage
world
Leisure Hour
NEW-STREET SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.





CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW.
No. LXXXIV.
JULY 1896.
Price 6s.
1.- The Constitution of the Churches in the Days of the Apostles.
II.-The Present Tendencies of Presbyterianism.
III.-The Epistle to the Romans.
IV.-Bright's Studies in Church History.'
V.--Professor Moore's Commentary on Judges.'
VI.-The Somerset Carthusians
VII.-Gibson's. Thirty-nine Articles.'
VIII.-The Ancient Mysteries.
IX.-Keble's Christian Year.'
X._Dr. Beet's Studies in Theology and Persona Religion.
XI.The Seventh Ecumenical Council.
XII.-The Education Bill. What Next?
Short Notices.
Annual Subscription £1, received by Publishers.

POOLE'S UNITED KINGDOM STOCK AND SHARE-
BROKERS' DIRECTORY FOR 1896.
Containing information received direct from about 220 Principal Provincial Cities and
Towns, including the various Stock Exchanges, with their Chairinen, Comınittees, Secretaries,
Pirtnerships, &c., in Alphabetical Order; also Registered Telegraph Addresses and Tele-
phone Numbers. Explanatory Introductions will be found at the head of each Section. An
Appendix is added which contains a Selected List for London. Price 45. 6d, net.
MEDICAL WORKS,
THE BRITISH PHARMACOPELA. Price 75. post-free.
TAE MEDICAL RE ISTER. Price 75. od. post-free.
TEE DENTISTS' REGISI'ER. Price 45. post-free,
THE MEDICAL STUDENTS' REGISTÉR. Price 25. od. po-t-
free.
THE REGULATIONS FOR STUDENTS. Price 7d. post-free.
CLUBS FOR 1896.
A List containing the Names and Addresses of 2,000 Social, Yacht, Golf, and other Clubs
in London and the Counties of Great Britain and Ireland, in Foreign Countries, and in th:
British Colonies. By E. L. AUSTEN LEIGH, MA. Fcp. 8vo. Fourth Annual Edition.
Price is. ; post-free, is. 2d.
I vol. demy 8vo. cloth, price ros. Ord.
PEN, PENCIL, BATON, ANO MASK :
Being Articles on and Interviews with Sixty Eminent Persons connected with the above.
Illustrated with Six Full-Page Portraits.
By HELEN C. BLACK,
Author of Nolable Worner Authors of the Day'. Two 1.Vomen's Tramp in South Afr ca.
SKETCHES ARE INCLUDED OR
Sir Joseph Barnby.
Mrs. Parr.
F. C. Philips.
Marie Corelli.
Sir Augustus Harris.
Sophie Larkin.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E. Sarah Giand.
Dorother Gerard (Madanie
Miss Ellen Terry.
Henry Arthur Jones.
Longard de Longardc).
W. E. Norris.
Mrs. Croker.
William Terriss.
Carlotta Audison
George R. Sims.
Marion Terry.
(Mrs. Le Trobe). Kate Terry (Mrs. Arthur Rev. Prof. Monierie, LL.D.
Sir Henry Irving.
Lewis).
Genevieve Ward.
Madame Albani-Gye.
Jolinston Forbes-Robertson. G, A. Storey, A.R.A.
George Alexander.
Mrs. Amyot.
And many others.
I vol cloth, 926 pp. ros. 6d.

PRACTICAL GASTRONOMY & RECHERCHÉ COOKERY.
Containing up-to-date descriptions of the following branches :-Hors-d'Euvres, Soups,
Dressed Fishi, Entrees, Renoves, Sauces, Roasts, Second Course Dishes, Vegetab.es,
Salads, Sweets, and Savouries, and much other information,
By CHARLES H. SENN,
Gold Medallist and Member of the Académie de Cuisine, Paris.
SPOTTISWOODE & CO.,
NEW-STREET SQUARE, E.C., & 54 GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C.
IIIIII
The following Publications can be obtained
from the Offices of
THE EUROPEAN MAIL.
nanana
THE SISTER DOMINIONS: Through Canada to Australia by
the New Imperial Highway. By J. F. HOGAN, M.P. Price 2s. 6d..
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PEN, PENCIL, BATON AND MASK. Biographical Sketches
by HELEN C. BLACK. With Six Portraits. Prire ros. Õd. (Spottiswoode
& Co.)
A RAMBLE ROUND THE GLOBE. By T. R. DEWAR. With
220 Illustrations by Eminent Artists. Cloth covers, price 7s, 6d. (Chatto
& Windus.)
BURDETT'S OFFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR 1896. A care.
fully revised précis of information regarding all British, American, and
Foreign Securities. By HENRY C. BURDETT, Secretary io the Share and
Loan Department of the Stock Exchange. Price 425. (Spottiswoode & Co.)
SNAKES. By 'SUNDOWNER.' (Second Edition.) “A pleasant
little volume.'- Daily News. Most favourably received by the Press.
Price 15. (The European Mail, Limited.)
ACROSS THE CANADIAN PRAIRIES. By J. G. COLMER,
C.M.G. An Account of a Two Months' Holiday in the Dominion. Price is.
(The European Mail, Limited.)
CLUBS : 1896. A List of 2,000 Clubs frequented by the English
in all parts of the World. By E. C. AUSTEN LEIGH, M.A. Price is.
(Spottiswoode & Co.)
EXPERIENCES OF PROHIBITION IN THE UNITED
STATES, CANADA, &c., AND ALSO OF THE GOTHENBURG
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Limited.)
A LARGE SELECTION OF BIBLES AND PRAYER BOOKS
of all classes and in different styles of binding from the well-known Bible
Warehouse of Messrs. EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE.
THE MERCANTILE NAVY LIST AND MARITIME DIREC-
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THE OFFICAL REPORT OF THE MISSIONARY CON-
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Visitors from the Colonies may have their letters addressed to the
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the use of Colonists sojourning in London.
TELEPHONE No. 15197.
EUROPEAN MAIL,' London, is sufficient address for Letters or Telegrams.

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
11
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INTUIT
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