a Cornell University 
 J Library 
 
 The original of tinis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924090015698 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 090 015 698 
 
In compliance with current 
 
 copyright law, Cornell University 
 
 Library produced this 
 
 replacement volume on paper 
 
 that meets the ANSI Standard 
 
 Z39.48-1992 to replace the 
 irreparably deteriorated original. 
 
 2001 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY 
 
THE ISLANDS 
 
 of the 
 
 PACIFIC 
 
 From the Old to the Ne 
 
 to 
 
 By 
 
 JAMES M. ALEXANDER 
 
 Second Edition : Revised and Enlarged 
 with New Illustrations 
 
 American Tract Society 
 New York 
 

 fei 
 
 \fy: 
 
 PRONUNCIATION OF POLYNESIAN WORDS. 
 
 The European pronunciation of the vowels of the 
 alphabet has been adopted in this volume. The letter 
 a is pronounced as in arm ; e as ey in they ; i as in 
 machine ; u as in rule. The diphthong ai resembles the 
 English ay ; au has the sound of ow. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1895. 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1908. 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 
 
 t^^^ 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 This new edition of the Islands of the Pacific is issued 
 to meet the steady demand for information concernmg 
 those Islands. The book is thoroughly revised and 
 brought down to the present date. Additional matter 
 has been inserted, considerable sections have been re- 
 written, and the arrangement of the old edition has been 
 largely changed. New illustrations have also been in- 
 serted. 
 
 In view of the increased interest in the Islands of the 
 Pacific by reason of the far-reaching political changes in 
 that part of the world by the events of the present de- 
 cade, the publishers feel confident that this new edition 
 will place in the hands of the reading public just the 
 things they wish to know and which they could not learn 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The book is a continuous argument, showing, first, ■^le 
 failure of mere influences from civilization without Chris- 
 tianity and of Roman Catholic Missions to uplift the 
 Islanders, and then the success of genuine Christian 
 Missions. It shows also that this success indicates the 
 truth and value of Christianity, and the certainty that 
 Christianity will prevail over the world. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book has grown out of an effort to sketch briefly 
 the history of the Mission Enterprise in Hawaii. It was 
 found difficult to do this properly without recounting 
 considerable of the history of other islands of the Pacific, 
 inasmuch as all the missions of that ocean have been so 
 co-related in their origin and results that to describe 
 one of them it was necessary to describe all. And so 
 difficult was it to obtain information about these mis- 
 sions from numerous books, some of them rare and costly 
 and others out of print, that a brief and comprehensive 
 resume of all the missions in the Pacific seemed desir- 
 able. 
 
 The aim of this book is to promote interest in Chris- 
 tian Missions. While great interest is now awakened re- 
 specting the islands of the Pacific by descriptions of their 
 enchanting scenery, by investigations of their geology, 
 natural history, ethnology and antiquarian treasures, and 
 by advertisement of industrial and commercial enter- 
 prises for developing their resources, it seems desirable 
 that fuller description be given of the enterprises for 
 lifting their inhabitants from their primeval paganism 
 into Christian civilization ; enterprises which are sub- 
 limely above the almost universal greed and selfishness 
 of mankind, and which by their already achieved suc- 
 cess kindle prophecy of a new era of light and blessing 
 for all the Pacific Ocean and all the world. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In publishing this book the author gratefully acknowl- 
 edges the permission of the following authors to use 
 pictorial illustrations from their publications, and also 
 indebtedness to them and others for some of the infor- 
 mation given in this book : Miss C. F. Gordon-Cum- 
 ming, author of "At Home in Fiji" and "Cruise in a 
 French Man-of-war;" George Palmer, author of "Kid- 
 napping in the South Seas ;" A. H. Hallam Murray, 
 publisher of Erskine's " Islands of the Western Pacific ;'' 
 Macmillan and Company, publishers of Siemens' "Mis- 
 sion to Viti ;" Geo. Reel and Sons, publishers of Ellis' 
 "Polynesian Researches;'' D. Appleton and Company, 
 publishers of "Fiji and the Fijians ;" the American 
 Tract Society, publishers of Williams' "Enterprises in 
 the South Sea Islands ;'' Pacific Press Company, pub- 
 lishers of "The Story of Pitcairn's Island;" Arthur 
 Inkersley, attorney at law, and Prof W. D. Alexander, 
 author of "A Brief History of the Hawaiian People." 
 
 J. M. ALEXANDER. 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Pacific Ocean, its Islands and Peoples page I 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 Uncivilizing Influences from Civilized Countries 12 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 Influences of Spurious Christianity ; The Marquesas Islands. 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Origin of Christian Missions in the Pacific 53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Society Islands en 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Austral Islands 88 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Pearl Islands ng 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Hervey Islands no 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Hawaiian Islands 131 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Samoa. 194 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Micronesia 220 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 The Tonga, or Friendly, Islands 249 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 New Zealand 263 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Fiji Islands 294 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Melanesia 308 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Melanesia continued 331 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Pitcaim and Norfolk Islands 339 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Conclusion 361 
 
THE 
 
 Islarids of the Pacific. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PACIFIC OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 
 
 In the year 15 13 the Spanish adventurer, Vasco 
 Nunez De Balboa, crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and 
 from the summit of the Sierra De Quarefua caught the 
 first glimpse ever obtained by European eyes of the 
 ocean that washes the western coast of America. In 
 joy at his discovery he fell on his knees, rough bandit 
 though he was, and gave thanks to God. 
 
 In the year 1521 Fernao de Magalhaes passed through 
 the strait now known by his name, and first of Europe- 
 ans voyaged upon this ocean. In admiration of its calm 
 beauty, as contrasted with the stormy waters of the South 
 Atlantic, he named it the Mar Pacifico. 
 
 Afterwards for many years this ocean had a peculiar 
 fascination for explorers. Magalhaes and Sir Francis 
 Drake each sailed across it to the Moluccas. It is prob- 
 able that in the year 1555 Juan Gaetano ventured far 
 north over its unexplored waters and visited Hawaii ; 
 but he concealed his discovery for the benefit of Spain. 
 
2 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 In 1606 Pedro Fernando De Queros discovered the New 
 Hebrides, and in the following year Tahiti. In 1768 
 Capt. James Cook was sent by the British Government to 
 observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti, and in subse- 
 quent voyages discovered the Antarctic Continent, New 
 Caledonia, some of the Harvey Islands, and finally, in 
 January, 1778, the Hawaiian Islands, where he was killed 
 in an affray with the natives. 
 
 These and other voyagers in a few years made known 
 to the world the contour and extent of the Pacific Ocean 
 and the number and situation of most of its islands. 
 But they had little idea of the importance of this ocean, 
 of the vast commerce that would traverse its waters, or of 
 the imperial civilizations that would spring up along its 
 borders. Nor can we even now fully realize the impor- 
 tance of this part of the world. Senator Wm. H. Seward, 
 after his journey around the world, remarked that "the 
 Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast regions 
 beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the 
 world's great hereafter. " This remark, though somewhat 
 rhetorical, correctly points to a wonderful future era of 
 this ocean. Already the great nations of the old world 
 are turning their attention thither, considering its routes 
 of commerce, seeking its strategic points for military 
 operations, and, with the rapacity with which they have 
 partitioned amongst themselves the dark continent of 
 Africa, grasping for its islands. Already higher enter- 
 prises than theirs have far advanced ; and the pagan 
 populations are rising out of their primeval degradation 
 into Christian civilization ; and now, as Balboa from the 
 
THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 3 
 
 Isthmus discovered a new ocean, we from our present 
 standpoint may behold, not far distant, a new age of en- 
 lightenment and benevolence, a Pacific Age, about to 
 dawn over all this ocean. 
 
 Of all the matters that attract attention to this part 
 of the world none are more important than these philan- 
 thropic enterprises. To understand them it is necessary 
 first to take a brief survey of the physical features of this 
 ocean and of its islands, and of the character and history 
 of its peoples. 
 
 The Pacific Ocean is the largest expanse of water in 
 the world, covering an area of 67,810,000 square miles : 
 more than a quarter of the earth's surface. Its greatest 
 dimensions are 10,000 miles east and west along the 
 Equator, from South America to Asia, and 9, 000 miles 
 north and south, from Behring Strait to the Antarctic 
 Circle. Its average depth is 2, 500 fathoms, and its 
 greatest depth yet discovered 4,475 fathoms, or about 
 five and a quarter miles, a depth found between the 
 Caroline and Ladrone Islands. 
 
 The islands of this ocean are classified as the Conti- 
 nental and Oceanic. The Continental islands lie near 
 and parallel to the continents of Asia and Australia, from 
 the Aleutian Islands on the north to Sumatra and New 
 Zealand on the south. The Oceanic islands occupy the 
 rest of the ocean. They lie in lines or ranges trending 
 from southeast to northwest, a few in lines tranverse to 
 this direction ; and each island is elongated in the same 
 direction with the group to which it belongs. These 
 ■lines of the islands are generally parallel to the outlines 
 
4 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of the continents and to the great mountain ranges of the 
 world ; which indicates that the same cosmic forces that 
 lifted the continent and their mountain ranges upheaved 
 these islands. 
 
 The Oceanic islands are of two kinds ; the coral and 
 the volcanic. The coral islands consist of atolls and 
 elevated islands. The atolls are mere sand-banks, formed 
 by accumulations of debris washed by the ocean upon coral 
 reefs, and are generally not more than ten or twenty feet 
 in height above high water-mark. They are narrow, 
 varying from a few yards to a hundred yards in breadth. 
 They generally inclose lagoons, into which the ocean 
 washes from the leeward sides. The coral polyps, that 
 have formed these atolls, cannot live at greater depths 
 than one hundred feet below the ocean's surface. There- 
 fore they must have worked either in shoal waters around 
 subsiding islands, till the islands sank, leaving lagoons in 
 their places, or on rising islands, till lagoons were enclosed 
 by reefs on the rims of the submarine craters. 
 
 Both processes have prevailed. Prof. Alexander Agassiz, 
 in making artesian borings on Funati of the Fiji Group, 
 found that coral was there continuous to six hundred feet 
 below the ocean-level. By such borings at Honolulu coral 
 and bits of wood were brought up from depths of eight 
 hundred feet below ocean-level. In the Fiji Oroup there 
 are hills of coral, varying from twenty to six hundred feet 
 in height, and on Vavau of the Tongan Group a mountain, 
 Talau, nine hundred feet in height, consists entirely of 
 coral. These facts indicate that there have been both a 
 subsidence and an elevation of the islands. These geologic 
 
THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 5 
 
 changes may be ascribed to the processes of wrinkling of 
 the earth's crust, as it has undergone contraction by reason 
 of its gradual loss of heat, and to cosmic influences perhaps 
 of the sun and moon. The lagoons do not fill with coral, 
 because the coral polyps thrive only in the pure aerated 
 water on the outsides of reefs. 
 
 On these strips of sandy soil seeds, borne thither by 
 winds and waves and birds, have produced considerable 
 vegetation. But the flora does not comprise more than 
 fifty species. The atolls are subject to drouths, being too 
 low to intercept the clouds and draw from them rainfalls ; 
 and, for this reason, they are called " the deserts of the 
 Pacific." Their inhabitants subsist on cocoanuts, pandanus 
 and fish. 
 
 The elevated coral islands, which are few in number, 
 are situated among volcanic islands, to which class they 
 belong, and consist partly of volcanic rocks and soil. 
 They are very fertile, and many of them are veritable 
 Edens of beauty and fruitfulness, being covered with a 
 luxuriant and varied vegetation. 
 
 The volcanic islands are so called, because of their 
 volcanic origin. Their whole framework is volcanic 
 rock. On nearly all of them there are extinct craters, 
 and on some of them there are active volcanoes. 
 They vary in height from a few hundred to fourteen 
 thousand feet. Most of them are very picturesque, 
 being deeply cleft with valleys, and crowned with 
 peaks, pinnacles and crags; and over most of them 
 there spreads the richest tropical vegetation of every tint 
 and shade of green. Vines so overrun the cliffs and trees 
 
6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 that their appearance has been compared to waterfalls of 
 foliage. Tourist have described some of these islands 
 as like earthly paradises, and have remarked that " it is 
 difiScult for the most glowing imagination to conceive of 
 places more enchanting." 
 
 Around most of these islands are barrief- reefs, extend- 
 ing parallel with the shore at distances varying from a 
 few yards to several miles. Opposite the large valleys 
 there are openings through these reefs ; for the coral 
 polyps cannot live in the muddy waters that are poured 
 forth by the streams of the valleys. These openings 
 form good entrances to excellent harbors, while the 
 barrier-reefs protect the shores from the violence of ocean 
 waves in time of storms, and thus enclose quiet waters 
 that are of great value for fishing, and for voyaging from 
 village to village. 
 
 The climate in all these islands has less extremes of 
 heat and cold than occur at similar latitudes on the 
 continents, as it is modified by the winds and currents 
 of the ocean. In the extreme South Pacific these 
 currents flow with the winds to the east, and send north 
 along the Patagonian coast a stream which trends with 
 the trade winds to the northwest, and moderates the 
 heat of the Southern Tropics. In the Western Pacific 
 the Japanese Gulf Stream flows northeast to the Aleutian 
 Islands, and then south along the coast of North America, 
 and trending with the northeast trade winds to the 
 southwest moderates the heat of the Northern Tropics. 
 Where these currents do not moderate the heat the 
 temperature of the ocean sometimes rises to 85° Fahren. 
 
THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 7 
 
 heit ; as is the case near Mexico and near Sumatra. In 
 the South Pacific, especially in the neighborhood of the 
 Samoa Islands, violent hurricanes sometimes occur during 
 the period from December to April. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Oceanic islands are of four 
 races, Polynesians, Papuans, Fijis and Micronesians. 
 
 The Polynesians are a brown people, the finest in physical 
 development of the Pacific races. They are naturally of 
 amiable, affectionate and happy temperament. Their 
 origin is traced to the Dravidians of India. 
 
 Of the many evidences of their derivation from the 
 Dravidians the strongest are the facts that their language 
 and the Dravidian language have causative prefixes of 
 verbs, and inclusive and exclusive pronouns, as well as 
 many similar words, and that their traditions point to 
 India as their mother country. That they did not originate 
 from the Aryans is proved by the fact that the Aryan 
 languages lack these causative prefixes and inclusive and 
 exclusive pronouns. That they did not originate from the 
 Malays is proved by the utter difference of their language 
 from the Malayan, which is largely Mongolian. 
 
 The Dravidians originated from the Turanian race, a 
 branch of which, in veiy ancient times, invaded India. 
 There 2,000 years B. C, the Dravidians were invaded by 
 Aryans from the northwest, and by them driven to the 
 ocean coasts. Thence, fleeing from enemies, or dreaming 
 of Elysian islands, they ventured forth on the ocean, and 
 became the greatest navigators of the ancient world. 
 They voyaged around more than three-fifths of the circum- 
 ference of the globe, sometimes going in mere hollowed- 
 
8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 logs over two thousand miles; as between Tahiti and 
 Samoa on the south and Hawaii on the north. They 
 colonized most of the islands between Madagascar and 
 Easter and between New Zealand and Hawaii. The New 
 Zealanders and the Hawaiians kept carefully genealogies 
 of their rulers ; and these genealogies coincide in the 
 names of two very ancient kings and their queens, who, 
 according to their traditions, reigned in Hawaiiki, the 
 chief island of Samoa, or a district in one of the Society 
 Islands. In one of these places, probably seven hundred 
 years ago, they were one nation. 
 
 Their language is mellifluous, consisting chiefly of 
 vowels. Dwelling indolently and listlessly in the comforts 
 of the Tropics, they expressed their few, simple ideas by 
 soft vowel sounds and abbreviated words. They thus so 
 contracted their words and dropped their consonants 
 that at Hawaii only twelve letters are needed to spell all 
 the Hawaiian words. Very remarkably throughout the 
 Pacific they have the same language, similar traditions, 
 and worship the same deities. 
 
 The Papuans occupy the New Hebrides and the ad- 
 jacent islands on the southwest. They are a black, frizzly- 
 haired people, small in stature and in every respect inferior 
 to the Polynesians. Their languages abound in con- 
 sonants and closed syllables, and are divided into many 
 dialects. The Fijis are a mixed race, part Polynesian 
 and part Papuan, inferior to the Polynesians, and superios 
 to the Papuans. The Micronesians, also, are a mixec 
 race, derived from the Japanese, Polynesian and Papuar 
 races. They are darker in complexion and smaller ik. 
 
THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 9 
 
 Stature than the Polynesians ; but in the western Mi- 
 cronesian islands they are of lighter complexion, and 
 more like the Japanese. 
 
 For ages these oceanic races lived secluded on the is- 
 lands of their watery domain, a world by themselves, 
 with a romantic history of voyages from island to is- 
 land, of pagan orgies, and savage wars. They labored 
 under disadvantages, for advancing in civilization, from 
 their lack of metals, of which to make tools, and from 
 the very salubrity of their climate and productiveness of 
 their soil, which obviated the need of labor for a liveli- 
 hood. They had but to throw the net into the still 
 waters inside their reefs to catch fish, and to reach out 
 the hand to pluck the ripe plantain or breadfruit, and 
 in the perennial mildness of their climate could live al- 
 most without clothing. With great skill they made 
 dwellings, canoes, and household fabrics, by the use of 
 stone adzes and knives of bones and shell, and beat out 
 a poor kind of clothing from the bark of trees ; but in 
 their primitive condition they were generally little better 
 in appearance than herds of wild animals. 
 
 In their social condition they were not much better. 
 Though occupying regions of enchanting beauty, they 
 were by no means, as represented by some writers of 
 fiction, mere sinless creatures of love and light. The 
 popular author, Hermann Melville, has humorously 
 written of the felicity of their condition, with "no 
 taxes to pay, no mortages to be foreclosed, without the 
 everlasting strife of civilized nations for money." But 
 they did not merely enjoy freedom and frolic and love- 
 
lO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 making. Savage strife often embittered their lives. 
 Wars among them were almost incessant and most cruel. 
 Rev. John Williams once visited Hervey Island, and 
 found that its population had been diminished by war 
 from two thousand to sixty. Seven years afterwards he 
 again visited this island, and found that there were only 
 five men and three women surviving ; and these were 
 still contending who should be king. 
 
 In all these islands immorality was appalling, and 
 frightful crimes of frequent occurrence. Infanticide was 
 so common that from one fourth to two thirds of the 
 children were strangled or buried alive. The sick and 
 the aged were so commonly killed that few persons died 
 natural deaths. Cannibalism was practiced in many 
 of the islands. In Hawaii and in a few other islands it 
 was unknown ; but in the Marquesas and the Fiji Is- 
 lands it prevailed with horrors unsurpassed elsewhere in 
 the world. Distressing superstitions darkened all the 
 lives of the natives and held them in iron bondage. In 
 the long night of their isolation from enlightening in- 
 fluences they had come to worship innumerable gods 
 and demigods and demons, with which they supposed 
 the sky and earth and sea to swarm. With this wor- 
 ship were combined painful restrictions, called tabu, div- 
 ination, sorcery, the use of charms to cure sickness, 
 and black arts to employ evil spirits in destroying their 
 enemies. Their worship was also accompanied with 
 human sacrifices and wild carousals that have been 
 described as like orgies of the infernal regions. 
 
 It should be noted that these races were not utterly 
 
THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. II 
 
 evil nor utterly wretched. Paganism does not make men 
 fiends. Some remnants of man's nobler nature survive 
 his fall. In the wild barbarism of these islanders some 
 forms of social order and civil government existed, and 
 beautiful instances occurred of friendship and parental 
 and conjugal affection ; and there was much of com- 
 fort and enjoyment in their beautiful surroundings, with 
 their balmy climate and profusion of delicious fruits. 
 But with the best that may be said of their condition it 
 must be admitted that it was not to be envied, but was 
 calculated only to excite pity and call for benevolent en- 
 terprise in their behalf. 
 
12 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES FROM CIVILIZED COUNTRIES. 
 
 Deplorable as was the primitive condition of the 
 Pacific Islanders, it was rendered even worse by evil in- 
 fluences that came to them from enlightened nations. 
 Among the early voyagers to the Pacific were indeed 
 some worthy men, who led irreproachable lives and ex- 
 erted good influences. But most of the new-comers 
 plunged into every form of dissipation. It became pro- 
 verbial that in coming to this far-away ocean many men, 
 even from the best circles of society, "hung up their 
 consciences ofi" Cape Horn," and seemed to conclude 
 that "God did not rule west of America." Some of 
 these adventurers were from the worst classes of civilized 
 communities ; from the dark corruption that seethes in 
 great cities, and pours forth only to blight and blast 
 wherever the ships of commerce sail. The histories of 
 some of these men would be darker than those of the 
 heathen themselves. 
 
 The first to sail on the waters of this ocean were the 
 explorers, who, after Magalhaes' discovery of the strait 
 at the southern extremity of South America, went thither 
 in great numbers to search for gold. Foremost among 
 these were the Spaniards ; and these, with many other 
 early navigators, belonged chiefly to the same class of 
 buccaneers who under Cortes devastated Mexico, and 
 
UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. I3 
 
 under Pizarro did sad work in Peru. As might be sup- 
 posed, many of these navigators were guilty of great 
 excesses and atrocities in the Pacific Islands. The fact 
 that the colony formed by them at Tahiti in those early 
 times gave to that island the name, " Isla D'Amat," in- 
 dicates the style of life they led. 
 
 After these Spaniards came navigators from other 
 nations, among whom was the English Lieutenant Bligh, 
 whose mutinous crew, after setting him adrift in a boat, 
 led a wild life of drunkenness and murder on Pitcairn 
 Island. No one of these navigators ranked higher in 
 scientific attainments and character than Capt. James 
 Cook ; yet one of the historians of his voyages, Mr. 
 George Foster, who accompanied him as a naturalist, 
 narrates that at Tahiti and other islands further west 
 his vessels were sometimes the scene of indescribable 
 debaucheries with the natives, and that often these 
 were cruelly treated and more than once killed by his 
 officers for trivial offences. A murder of this kind at 
 Hawaii was doubtless the chief cause of the massacre of 
 the great navigator himself From the conduct of this 
 expedition, led by so respectable a man, it can be in- 
 ferred how scandalous must have been the behavior of 
 the seamen of ships commanded by sensual and brutal 
 captains. 
 
 The next class of adventurers to visit this ocean was 
 the traders, who came to search on the northwest coast 
 of America for furs and in the islands of the Tropics for 
 sandal-wood, bSche-de-mer (a marine slug), copra (dried 
 cocoanut), and pearl shells. The sandal-wood was 
 
14 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 sought for sale in China, where it brought high prices 
 for use as incense in idol-worship ; the bSche-de-mer 
 also was sold to the Chinese, who used it for food ; and 
 the furs and copra and pearl shells were taken to Europe. 
 Sometimes one vessel would engage in all these forms 
 of trade, going first to the Arctic for furs, then to the 
 Tropics for sandal-wood, and finally taking silks and 
 tea from China to Europe. The profits of these trades 
 were very great, but the conduct of the traders towards 
 the islanders was even worse than that of the explorers. 
 They often gave sad lessons of treachery and cruelty, 
 which all too well the natives practised in return. 
 
 "In 1842 three English vessels visited the island 
 Vate, of the New Hebrides, and there took by force a 
 large quantity of fruits and vegetables and two hundred 
 hogs. The natives made resistance, and a fight ensued 
 in which twenty-six natives were killed and the remain- 
 der of the natives driven to take refuge in a cave. The 
 crews of the ships then piled wood at the mouth of the 
 cave, and set it on fire and suffocated all within. The 
 next year the crew of the Cape packet were massacred 
 at this island. 
 
 "At Mare, of the New Hebrides, three natives once 
 swam off to a vessel that called for sandal-wood, and 
 while bargaining got into an altercation with the captain. 
 He fired on them, killing two ; the third swam ashore. 
 A few months afterwards the crew of the Lady Ann 
 were massacred at this island." 
 
 It was to avenge such outrages as these that the mis- 
 sionary. Rev. John Williams, was murdered by the na- 
 
UNCrVILIZING INFLUENCES. 15 
 
 lives of Erromanga. The early missionaries at Hawaii 
 remarked of some of these traders that they made their 
 vessels "like floating exhibitions of Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah," and that their influence was only "to make the 
 Hawaiians a nation of drunkards. " 
 
 The infernal spirit of some of these traders was shown 
 by an outrage they committed at Tanna, of the New 
 Hebrides, which is recounted by Rev. John G. Paton in 
 his interesting Autobiography. During the year i860 
 three captains came to Port Resolution, of Tanna, and 
 gleefully informed Mr. Paton that to humble the Tan- 
 nese and to diminish their number they had put on shore 
 at diff^erent ports four young men ill with the measles. 
 As Mr. Paton remonstrated they exclaimed, "Our watch- 
 word is, ' Sweep these creatures away and let white men 
 occupy the soil.' They then invited a chief by the name 
 of Kapuku on board one of their vessels, promising him 
 a present, and confined him for twenty-four hours with- 
 out food in the hold among natives ill with the measles, 
 and finally sent him ashore without a present to spread 
 the disease. "The measles thus introduced spread fear- 
 fully, and decimated the population of the island. In 
 some villages men, women and children were stricken 
 down together, and none could give food or water to the 
 sick or bury the dead. " 
 
 The sandal-wood trade was followed in 1828 by the 
 whale fishery. The ships engaged in this business often 
 visited the islands to obtain supplies or to spend the win- 
 ter. The writer has seen as many as a hundred of them 
 at one time at the port of Lahaina, of the Hawaiian 
 
l6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Islands. When the crews of these ships took their fur- 
 loughs on shore they easily had everything their own 
 way, and sometimes made bedlam of the quiet villages 
 of the natives. 
 
 When the whale fishery declined, on account of the 
 discovery of coal-oil, numerous agricultural enterprises 
 were started in some of the islands and vessels were sent 
 to the western part of the Pacific to procure laborers for 
 these enterprises. These vessels were sometimes sent 
 out under trustworthy officials, who took care that the 
 laborers were taken only with their voluntary consent 
 and with well-explained contracts for wages and for their 
 free return to their island homes. But irresponsible par- 
 ties sometimes undertook to supply plantations in Aus- 
 tralia and Fiji by methods as infamous as the slave-trade 
 of Africa. A captain of a small vessel would sometimes 
 get clearance-papers from Sydney for trading in copra 
 and trepang, and then cruise to kidnap the natives who 
 would come off in canoes with supplies. Sometimes he 
 would assume the guise of a missionary. Painting his 
 vessel white, that it might resemble the mission packets, 
 he would approach an island with a white flag flying, and 
 on arriving at port go ashore dressed like a respectable 
 gentleman, wearing spectacles, carrying an umbrella over 
 his head and a Bible under his arm. As the natives joy- 
 fully flocked to meet him, he would invite them aboard 
 his ship and into his cabin, and then suddenly seize and 
 manacle them, and put his vessel to sea amid the cries 
 of their relatives and friends in the surrounding canoes. 
 
 An outrage of this kind occasioned the death of 
 
UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. \J 
 
 Bishop Patteson, of the Melanesian Mission. "Some 
 traders once painted their ship in imitation of his, and 
 by this artifice were able to kidnap some natives from 
 the island of Nakapu, of the Swallow Group, for the pur- 
 pose of sending them to plantations in Queensland and 
 Fiji. When the missionary ship, as it cruised among 
 the islands, again approached Nakapu, the natives, mis- 
 taking it for the kidnapping craft, determined to avenge 
 themselves. The bishop, unsuspicious, lowered his boat 
 and went to meet them coming in their canoes. Accord- 
 ing to their custom they asked him to get into one of 
 their boats, which he did, and was taken to the shore. 
 He was never seen alive again. Immediate search was 
 made and his body was found, pierced with five wounds 
 and wrapped in a coarse mat, with a palm-leaf laid on 
 his breast. " 
 
 This infamous traffic in human flesh has been recently 
 carried on for furnishing laborers to plantations in Gua- 
 temala and South America. In 1890 the ship Alma 
 took 400 natives of Micronesia to Guatemala, and two 
 years afterwards only 180 of them were living, the rest 
 having died of fevers contracted in the malarious swamps 
 of the plantations. In 1892 the brig Tahiti took 300 
 natives from the Gilbert Islands to labor on plantations 
 in America, and was capsized near the coast of Mexico, 
 and afterwards found floating bottom up. Not one of 
 its living freight was ever heard of 
 
 On the 23d of April of the same year the steamer 
 Monserrat, Capt. W. H. Ferguson, manager, and Capt. 
 Blackburn, sailing-master, cleared from San Francisco 
 
l8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ostensibly for a trading voyage to Nanaimo, but really 
 for a kidnapping expedition to the Gilbert Islands. 
 The publishers of the newspaper "Examiner," of San 
 Francisco, secretly sent a reporter, Mr. W. H. Brom- 
 mage, as one of the crew, from whose narrative the fol- 
 lowing items are culled. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson had made a bargain with the planters 
 of San Jos6 de Guatemala that they should pay him $ioo 
 per head for laborers. With such an inducement he 
 " shipped " all he could get by fair means or foul, wheth- 
 er little children, or men and women bent over with age 
 and hardly able to walk up the gangway of the steamer. 
 The chief inducement of the natives to embark on 
 the steamer was the hope that they might earn money on 
 the plantations to pay the heavy debts of their king, on 
 account of which their lands were held by treacherous 
 traders. Many of the natives had died of starvation 
 because they were forbidden by the traders to gather 
 their own cocoanuts. They "shipped" for seven dol- 
 lars per month for labor for five years. The form of the 
 contracts that were made with them was legitimate, but 
 they were entrapped into making them by deceit, vio- 
 lence and cruelty, and the amount of wages contracted 
 for was entirely inadequate to yield them the profit they 
 expected, while most of them would die in the fever- 
 stricken marshes to which they were going. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson arrived first at the island Marakei, of 
 the Gilbert group, and here for awhile was unable to ship 
 any adult natives. He therefore seized four boys, and 
 locked them up over night. Three of them escaped ; 
 
UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. ig 
 
 and the fourth was taken aboard the steamer. The 
 parents begged piteously for his release and, not obtain- 
 ing it, finally "shipped" to accompany him. This ruse 
 was again tried. Children were kidnapped and held till 
 their heart-broken parents, rather than leave them to be 
 carried forever away, embarked to go with them. The 
 parting of others from their parents was heart-rending. A 
 chief of Apaiang went off to the steamer with his wife to 
 bid good-by to their son and give him presents. Capt. 
 Ferguson, seeing cocoanuts in the chief's boat, applied 
 for them, but was informed that they were for the chief's 
 son. Furious with rage he drove back the parents from 
 ascending the gangway and cut their boat adrift. The 
 chief offered to bring cocoanuts for him, if he might be 
 permitted to see his boy, but was refused. With the 
 mother weeping bitterly they were forced to leave, never 
 to see their boy again. Several times some of the natives 
 tried to escape, but were fired upon while swimming away 
 and generally were recovered. Some of them piteously 
 offered beads and necklaces, all the valuables they had, 
 to be permitted to escape, but in vain. 
 
 By these and other perfidious and violent methods 
 Capt. Ferguson obtained 400 natives, of whom 388 were 
 laborers and the remainder children. They were secured 
 as follows : 3 from Butaritari, 40 from Marakei, 6 from 
 Tarava, 8 from Miana, 40 from Apaiang, 107 from Non- 
 outi, 97 from Tapiteuea, 22 from Peru, and 5 from 
 Nukuwor. 
 
 On their voyage to America they suffered greatly from 
 uncomfortable accommodation, lack of drinking-water, 
 
20 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 and exposure to the weather. After their arrival at Guate- 
 mala it was remarked by the planters that within a year 
 seventy-five per cent, of them would die of fevers. 
 
 Rev. John G. Paton, of the New Hebrides Mission, 
 has stated that "the Kanaka labor-traffic has destroyed 
 many thousands of the natives in colonial slavery, and 
 largely depopulated the islands either directly or indirect- 
 ly, by spreading disease and vice, misery and death, 
 among them even at the best, at the worst tasking many 
 of them till they perished at their toils, shooting down 
 others under one or other guilty pretence, and positively 
 sweeping thousands to an untimely grave. A common 
 cry on the lips of the slave-hunters was, ' Let them perish, 
 and let the white man occupy these islands.'" He has 
 estimated that 70,000 Pacific Islanders have been taken 
 from their homes by slave-hunters. 
 
 Besides transient visitors, there were many men from 
 civilized countries who made their permanent home in 
 the Pacific Islands and exerted a more abiding influ- 
 ence. Frequently seamen were attracted by the enchant- 
 ing beauty of the islands to desert their ships and live 
 with the natives. Some of these "run-away sailors" 
 were worthy men and exerted excellent influences. Some 
 of them became missionaries, and greatly promoted the 
 .good of the natives. But the greater number of them 
 led sensual and brutal lives, and some of them became 
 even worse than the natives ; for civilized men turned 
 savage become the worst of savages. 
 
 In the year 1834 the American missionaries found on 
 the island of Nukuhiva, of the Marquesas group, one of 
 
UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 21 
 
 these " run-away sailors," a man by the name of Mellish, 
 who claimed to be the son of an English nobleman and 
 that he had been sent to sea as a bad boy to be reformed. 
 He was tattooed all over except on his face, and was al- 
 most entirely nude. His chief delight was in attending 
 native feasts ; for which he would often climb over the 
 steepest and highest ridges of the island. He remarked 
 that this was the "happiest period of his life." On the 
 same island another of these "run-aways," by the name of 
 Morrison, formed a diabolical plan to massacre the mis- 
 sionaries in order to obtain their few articles of property ; 
 but before he could accomplish his purpose he suddenly 
 died in consequence of excessive gluttony. It has been 
 ascertained that many piracies of vessels and massacres 
 of seamen in the Southern Pacific have been instigated 
 and conducted by men of this stripe. 
 
 One of these men was the notorious pirate, called 
 "Bully Hayes," who began his career by kidnapping 
 from San Francisco a vessel loaded with lumber. He sold 
 the lumber in Mexico, and then sailed to China, and there 
 took aboard his vessel a large number of coolies for New 
 South Wales. As a capitation tax of five dollars a head 
 was required to be paid for introducing coolies into New 
 South Wales he was supplied with money for paying it. 
 He skilfully contrived to retain this money and get rid 
 of the coolies. On arriving off New South Wales he put 
 up a flag of distress and flooded the hold of his vessel 
 from his fresh-water casks, and when a vessel came to his 
 relief he showed by the fresh water that his vessel was 
 rapidly leaking, as he was pumping clear water, and re- 
 
22 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 marked that he could take care of his vessel if he could 
 be relieved of his coolies. The captain who had come 
 for his assistance kindly took the coolies aboard his ves- 
 sel ; whereupon Hayes put to sea, and soon was out of 
 sight. The captain who took the coolies was afterwards 
 obliged to pay the tax for landing them. 
 
 Hayes was next heard of at the Micronesian Islands, 
 where he undertook to buy a larger vessel loaded with 
 rice. Being permitted to try the vessel before purchasing 
 her, he put to sea on her, and was not again seen by the 
 owner. Hayes had wives and children on many of the 
 islands. Once he upset a boat with one of his wives and 
 some of his children, in order to get rid of them ; but as 
 they could swim as well as he they all escaped to land. 
 Rev. John G. Paton tells how "the notorious Ha3es 
 once sent an armed band inland on Tanna, who night 
 after night robbed and plundered whatever came to hand. 
 The natives, seeing the food of their children ruthlessly 
 stolen, made objection, and were shot down without 
 mercy. Glad were we, " says Mr. Paton, ' ' when a ves- 
 sel carried away these white heathen savages. " Hayes led 
 a wild life of sensuality, cruelty, and piracy, and at last 
 was killed by one of his mates, whom he had maltreated, 
 on one of the vessels he had stolen from San Francisco. 
 
 The most desperate class of settlers in the Pacific 
 Islands were the convicts from Europe. In 1804 a num- 
 ber of these escaped from New South Wales, and settled 
 at Mbau and Rewa of the Fiji group, Viti Levu. Because 
 of their use of firearms they were regarded by the natives 
 as supernatural beings, and thereby gained unbounded in- 
 
UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 23 
 
 fluence. They made no effort to acquire dominion over 
 the island, but sought only to gratify their vilest passions. 
 There were twenty-seven of these lawless men ; but in a 
 few years most of them had fallen in the wars of the 
 natives and in quarrels with each other. Their dissipation 
 and cruelty amazed even the cannibal Fijis. 
 
 The dark record that has been given of the conduct of 
 enlightened races in the Pacific affords only a faint view of 
 the mischiefs they have done. Besides their barbarities 
 and felonious conquests and usurpations of dominion over 
 the islands, they have introduced intoxicating liquors and 
 new diseases, and thereby caused a terrible mortality of 
 the native races. Rev. John Paton has reported that 
 recently on one of the New Hebrides Islands the pop- 
 ulation was suddenly diminished sixty per cent by the 
 introduction of poisonous gin. The native population of 
 the Hawaiian Islands had diminished, since their discovery 
 in 1778, from 400,000 to 32,000; that of the Marquesas 
 from 50,000 to 4,500 and that of Strong's Island, in 
 Micronesia, from 6,000 to 600. A similar diminution has 
 occurred in almost all the islands of the Pacific. 
 
 A cheap way of explaining this diminution has been to 
 attribute it to the influence of civilization and Christianity. 
 It has been said that the mistakes made by the islanders 
 in adapting themselves to the changed conditions in 
 Christian civilization caused them to contract many 
 diseases which produced great mortality. 
 
 It may be answered that, if any natives died because of 
 mistakes in adopting Christian civilization, the number of 
 them is too small to account for the awful diminution of 
 
24 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACn<'IC. 
 
 the population ; that Christian civilization, with its in- 
 centives to industry and morality, does not destroy com- 
 munities, but, as is shown in the following chapters, con- 
 serves them ; and that it has been proved beyond question, 
 by physicians, that diseases introduced by the vices and 
 intemperance of the white races have been the causes of 
 the decimation of the native populations. 
 
 More deplorable than the diminution of these populations 
 has been the deeper barbarism caused by the influences 
 from civilized countries. The result of the untold outrages 
 perpetrated by foreigners, in return for the generous 
 hospitality of the natives, and of the introduction of 
 firearms and ardent spirits, has sometimes been that the 
 simplehearted islanders have been changed almost into 
 fiends. The saddest thing for a heathen people is to 
 come into contact with civilization without Christianity. 
 
I 
 
 140 13ft i?.a 
 
 MARQUESAS 
 
 Chanul Ir ?^~'*^ WASHINGTON IP- 
 
 ' ^Masseor 
 Hiavl. 
 
 0* Mar cKantfL^ . <» l*"ashmgton 1. 
 
INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. THE MARQUESAS 
 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 The Influence of Roman Catholic Missions have been 
 little better for uplifting pagan races than have been those 
 of non-Christian civilizations. Of this we have in the 
 Marquesas Islands one of the best illustrations. Of all the 
 tribes in the Pacific islands the natives of this group were, 
 by their external environment and their racial charac- 
 teristics, the best fitted to withstand deleterious influences, 
 to hold their own in struggles for existence, and to rise 
 into civilization. 
 
 The islands, they occupied, did not resemble the low 
 atolls on which there are hardly any food-producing 
 plants, and on which sometimes many of the natives die 
 of starvation, nor were they like some of the southwest 
 Pacific islands that are infested with malaria, and on which 
 the natives are a puny, emaciated and effeminate people. 
 The Marquesas Islands are high, picturesque, salubrious, 
 and very productive. 
 
 These islands lie in two parallel groups, thirteen in all, 
 trending from southeast to northwest, between latitudes 8° 
 
26 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 and 11° south, and longitudes 133° and 150° west. The 
 southern group was discovered July 21, 159S, by Alvaro 
 Mendana de Neyra, as he was voyaging with four ships to 
 colonize the Solomon Islands, and by him named Mar- 
 quesas de Mendoca, in honor of the Viceroy of Peru. The 
 northern group, though near by, was not discovered until 
 1 79 1, nearly two hundred years later, when they were seen 
 by Capt. Ingraham, of Boston, and named Washington 
 Islands. But the term, Marquesas, now embraces both 
 groups. 
 
 It seems to be the rule that in the Eastern Pacific the 
 mountains are more wild, broken and picturesque than in 
 the Western Pacific. The terrific storms of the western 
 part of that ocean have not reached the eastern part with 
 sufficient violence to cause excessive erosion, nor have 
 frosts prevailed to disintegrate the beetling cliffs, the sharp 
 ridges and the spire-like crags, but all the mountain forms, 
 even the most frail and fragile, still stand almost as when 
 originally upheaved and rent by volcanic forces. 
 
 The coasts of these islands rise abruptly from the ocean 
 with frowning precipices, rugged promontories and rocky 
 crags. The inland portions are deeply cleft by valleys, 
 many of which are separated by ridges so precipitous and 
 lofty that they cannot be crossed by man, and from the 
 summits rise lofty rocks and sky-piercing peaks. Over 
 almost every pinnacle a carpet of vines, ferns and pampas- 
 like grasses extends, and adown the perpendicular preci- 
 pices a tapestry of verdure hangs. Between the rugged 
 ridges there are valleys filled with the richest vegetation 
 of palms, breadfruit, hibiscus, banyans, and other trees. 
 
INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. 2^ 
 
 The cocoanut extends far up the mountain slopes, and 
 waves its plumes at heights of two thousand feet above 
 sea-leveL 
 
 The largest of these islands is Nukuhiva, named by its 
 discoverer Marchand. It is seventy miles in circumfer- 
 ence, and 4,000 feet in height at its highest peak. On its 
 southern side is the bay, Taiohse, or Anna Maria, " which 
 is shaped like a horseshoe and is two miles deep, a mile 
 broad at the centre and half a mile at the entrance, where 
 it is flanked by two grand headlands over 500 feet high." 
 Says H. MelvUle ("Typee"): "No description can do 
 justice to the beauty of the scenery of this bay. The 
 mountains shut in a vast amphitheatre of deep glens, over- 
 grown with vines and gleaming with cascades. I felt 
 regret that a scene so enchanting was hidden from the 
 world in these remote seas." 
 
 About forty miles south of this island is Uapou, or Adam 
 Island, a vast amphitheatre of rugged hills which send 
 down their spurs to the shore, buttressed by lofty preci- 
 pices. From its spine, three thousand feet high, rise, 
 like the spires of a cathedral, seven shafts of rock nearly 
 eight hundred feet higher. 
 
 East of this island, about sixty miles distant, is Hivaoa, 
 named La Dominica by Mendana, because discovered on 
 the Sabbath Day. On the northeast side of this island is 
 the valley Puamau (Ever-blooming), " one mile in length 
 and one-half mile wide, a paradise of natural loveliness, 
 charming forever with the music of its rippling stream." 
 On its southern side is Atuona, the most verdant valley in 
 the Marquesas. 
 
28 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 At a little distance south of Hivaoa is Tahuata, or 
 Christiana. Its valley, Vaitohu, at Resolution Bay on the 
 West, one-half mile wide by one-half deep, is shut in by 
 rugged precipices 2,000 feet high, and filled with bread- 
 fruit, cocoanut, guava, and other trees. 
 
 The southernmost island of this group is Fatuhiva, called 
 also Magdalena. Its chief valley is Onoa, one mile wide 
 and three miles deep, having five lateral branches one-half 
 a mile deep, all walled in by towering precipices and filled 
 with magnificent vegetation. 
 
 Such islands were well adapted to develop a sturdy, 
 athletic and independent spirited race. And such were 
 the Marquesans. Of them Capt. Cook, who visited them 
 in 1774, wrote, " the people of these islands are, without 
 exception, the finest in this sea. For admirable shape 
 and regular features they perhaps surpass all nations." 
 Capt. Belcher, of the British ship Sulphur, described them 
 as " well-formed, active, powerful, their gait and carriage 
 easy, independent, proud, reminding one of the high- 
 bred horse." 
 
 Another writer has described them as physically the 
 most perfect of the human species, many of them six feet 
 high, muscular, symmetrical, agile, graceful, and lighter in 
 complexion than the Tahitians." The American mis- 
 sionaries remarked that " they were more noble in form 
 and stature than the Hawaiians, and the women, vile 
 though they were, more comely, though some of the people 
 were horribly tattooed." Rev. Hiram Bingham, of Hawaii, 
 said of them : " The men were distinguished more for 
 pride and independence of feeling than any other natives 
 

 
 
 Marquesan in Ancient Costume. 
 
INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. 29 
 
 of the Pacific isles. Our missionaries were struck with 
 the lofty air with which these swarthy sons of ignorance 
 would pace the deck of a foreign vessel, as if the ship 
 and the ocean were at their command, though they were 
 as poor as Robinson Crusoe's goats." 
 
 In character the Marquesans were simply, like the other 
 races of the Pacific, pagan, degraded, barbarian. Because 
 of the alarming appearance they acquired by disfiguring 
 their persons, and because of their constant warfare, their 
 cannibalism, and the swift vengeance they visited upon 
 foreigners that abused them, they acquired the reputation 
 of being the wildest and fiercest savages of the Pacific. 
 They disfigured themselves by tattooing their faces with 
 broad black bands, or with pictures of sharks, lizards and 
 other animals with open mouths and distended claws. 
 Mrs. Alexander has remarked of her first view of them : 
 " They made me think of devils. They had long hair tied 
 in two bunches on top of their heads. Strings of shark's 
 teeth were strung around their necks, and tufts of human 
 hair bound around their waists and ankles. Their chiefs 
 wore chaplets binding on the brow a mother-of-pearl shell, 
 and on top tall bird feathers." 
 
 Separated into clans, as they were, by almost impassable 
 ridges, they were continually at warfare ; for 
 
 " Mountains interposed 
 Make enemies of nations, who had else, 
 Like kindred drops, been mixed into one." 
 
 The chief cause of their wars was their cannibalism. 
 Sometimes a band of them would go at night by canoe to 
 a distant bay, land, stealthily surround a house, kill all 
 
30 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 within, and then flee with the dead bodies to their home, 
 and there conduct a cannibal feast. The people of the 
 distant bay would retaliate by a similar act, and thus a 
 savage war would be occasioned. 
 
 Their primitive immorality and ferocity were increased 
 by their intercourse with people from civilized countries. 
 At first they welcomed the foreigners ; but the murders 
 committed by their first discoverer, Mendaria, in firing 
 volleys of shot among them, because of petty thefts, by 
 Capt. Cook in killing one of them for a similar offence, by 
 Commodore Porter in needlessly raiding Typee Valley, 
 because of a tribal war, and many other outrages by 
 foreigners, rendered them fierce to wreak vengeance on 
 every white man coming to their shores. In this they 
 acte4, not so much from savagery, as from a ssnse of 
 justice, and were hardly worse than the other tribes of the 
 Pacific, not as bad as some of them. Their superiority in 
 physique and mentality caused them to display greater 
 boldness, spirit and fierceness in their wickedness ; but 
 this same superiority rendered them the more capable of 
 resisting abuse, overcoming evil influences, and attaining 
 a high development. 
 
 In this group spurious Christian Missions had full op- 
 portunity ; for here genuine Christian Missions were not 
 prosecuted with vigor, and here they achieved almost no 
 success. To clearly and fully understand this, a brief 
 review of the history of these missions is necessary. In 
 considering this history we must anticipate somewhat 
 the account of the origin of Christian Missions, givea in 
 the following chapters. 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 31 
 
 Missionary work was commenced on these islands 
 about as early as anywhere in the Pacific. When, in 
 1797, Capt Wilson of the Duff brought the first mission- 
 ary company to the South Seas he landed two of them, 
 Messrs. Harris and Crook, on June 5, 1797, at Vaitohu 
 on the island of Tahuata (Christiana). 
 
 The chief, Tenai, welcomed them, and gave them 
 each a house. The native women flocked around them 
 and, being astonished that they were repelled, dealt so 
 roughly with Mr. Harris in the night that the next morn- 
 ing he returned to the ship, protesting that he would not 
 reside among such a people. 
 
 " His partner, Mr. Crook, remained alone on Tahua- 
 ta eight months. At the end of that time, May 22, 1798, 
 Capt. Fanning of the brig Betsy arrived off the island ; 
 and several canoes went to hail him and pressed him to 
 anchor, which he was unwilling to do, being ignorant 
 of the harbors. A heavy shower of rain coming on, the 
 vessel was deserted in a moment by the visitors, when a 
 small canoe darted out to meet it, manned by only two 
 persons. As it drew near, it was with profound aston- 
 ishment that the captain heard a man, dressed in Mar- 
 quesan style and nearly as dark as the natives, call out, 
 ' Sir, I am an Englishman, and I have come to you to 
 save my life.' This was the Rev. Wm. Pascoe Crook. 
 No sooner had he reached the deck than, yielding to his 
 emotion, he kneeled down and thanked God for his de- 
 liverance. Then he stated that he was a missionary, and 
 that the disposition of the natives towards him had been 
 most alarming. Twice he had owed his life to the pro- 
 
32 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 taction of the chief who accompanied him on board ; 
 and had it not been for him he would long before have 
 been killed and eaten. His chief persecutor had been 
 a runaway sailor, an Italian, who deserted a merchant- 
 man soon after the departure of the Duff and by the use 
 of a gun gained great power over the natives. This man 
 had sought to murder Mr. Crook, as being an obstacle to 
 his influence, and now proposed to capture the Betsy in 
 order to renew his stock of ammunition. Mr. Crook's 
 movements had been watched ; and it was only under 
 cover of the rainstorm that he had been able to hail the 
 Betsy and warn her captain. Liberal presents were 
 made to the chief, who had brought off Mr. Crook at 
 the risk of his life. The parting between the two friends 
 was very touching. 
 
 "Three days later the Betsy arrived at Taiohae Bay 
 in Nukuhiva, and here Mr. Crook found the natives so 
 friendly that he left the ship and took up his residence 
 among them. But again he was obliged to flee for his 
 life to a passing ship, and returned to Tahiti. 
 
 " For twenty-seven years now these islands remained 
 without missionaries. In January, 1825, Mr. Crook 
 went thither in the Lynx, Capt. Sibrill (son-in-law of 
 the missionary Henry, of Tahiti), with two native teach- 
 ers from Huahine, and was joyfully welcomed by the 
 natives of Tahuata. The women recited a ballad in his 
 honor as the adopted son of the late chief Tenai. He 
 left the two teachers at Hanatete, on the east side of the 
 island, but at the end of two months they fled to Ta- 
 hiti. 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. JJ- 
 
 "Again, in October, 1828, four teachers were con« 
 veyed by the same Capt. Sibrill in the ship Minerva to 
 these islands. Two of them landed at Tahuata, but 
 soon after fled from the island just as the natives were 
 about to sacrifice them to their gods. The other two 
 settled at Uapoa but were expelled by the natives, who 
 declared them hypocrites, and that their lives did not 
 accord with their teachings. 
 
 "In 1829 Messrs. Pritchard and Simpson, of the 
 Tahiti Mission, went to renew their mission work or 
 these islands, but 'did not like the looks of things,' and 
 letumed to Tahiti." (Maile Wreath.) 
 
 Not long after this Rev. Charles Stewart, who had 
 been seamen's chaplain at Lahaina, Hawaiian Islands, 
 visited Nukuhiva while chaplain of the United States 
 war-ship Vincennes, and afterwards urged the American 
 Board to undertake mission work in these islands. In 
 compliance with his suggestions Rev. Messrs. R. Arm- 
 strong, B. F. Parker and W. P. Alexander were sent 
 thither in 1833. The detailed narratives of these mis- 
 sionaries give vivid pictures of the people, and well por- 
 tray the condition of missionaries laboring among a sav- 
 age race. 
 
 On the loth of August, 1833, they arrived at Taio- 
 hae, Nukuhiva. "As soon as we arrived," says Mrs. 
 Armstrong, "the natives came off in great numbers, the 
 women swimming and holding by one hand their white 
 tapas, their only garment, out of the water. The deck 
 was soon crowded with men, women and children, most 
 of them entirely naked, a few having only a strip of tapa 
 
34 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 around the waist, all making a deafening noise. At 
 sight of the women and children of the mission families 
 they were greatly excited, jumping on the deck with loud 
 shouts of laughter, and all the talk fore and aft was 
 'vahine' and 'pikanini' (women and children)." 
 
 The ladies remained below in the cabin until the 
 captain, by throwing hard bread to the front of the ves- 
 sel, gathered the natives forward, and then put up a 
 board fence, and through an interpreter informed them 
 that the ladies would come on deck, and could be seen, 
 if they would remain at the fore part of the vessel. As 
 soon as the ladies had come on deck the natives shouted 
 "Moalake" (good). Mrs. Alexander had a babe three 
 months old whom the women admired and begged for. 
 Swimming beside the ship they showed how they could 
 hold him out of water, and proposed to make him their 
 king. Most probably they would have put him into one 
 of their baking-ovens. 
 
 At evenmg the captain persuaded the natives to go 
 ashore, with the promise that the next day the mission- 
 aries would land. Some of the wild men immediately 
 proposed to exchange wives with the missionaries. "As 
 we gazed at the island," says Mrs. Armstrong, "it baf- 
 fled comprehension that beings so vile should be placed 
 in scenes so beautiful." 
 
 On the 1 2th of August the missionaries went on 
 shore and visited Hape, the chief He was sick, but 
 was pleased to see them, and said he would give them 
 the house he was then occupying. The savages every- 
 where followed them shouting, the women sometimes 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 35 
 
 coming close and lifting the bonnets of the ladies for a 
 fuller view, and exclaiming "Moaiake/" 
 
 On the 15th of August they all took up their abode 
 in a house near the shore, furnished by Hape. It was 
 fifty feet long, open all the length on one side to four 
 feet above the ground, and thatched with breadfruit 
 leaves shingled over each other. The floor was paved 
 with smooth round stones. They closed the open side 
 of the house with boards, made doors four feet high, 
 formed windows by cutting away part of the breadfruit 
 leaves from the bamboo framework, and partitioned the 
 house by calico and sheeting into four rooms ; one of 
 these rooms at the end was used for a store-room, the 
 next was occupied by Mr. Parker's family, the next by 
 Mr. Alexander's, and the next, near the beach and almost 
 in the roaring surf, by Mr. Armstrong's family. At first 
 the doors and windows were crowded almost to suffoca- 
 tion by the savages gazing at them. Their cooking was 
 done outside, under a spreading breadfruit tree, by pla- 
 cing kettles on stones over the fire. It was the rainy 
 season, so that out-door cooking was difficult. Some- 
 times the natives would take the food out of the kettles 
 by hooks and carry it away. 
 
 The first work of the missionaries was to build com- 
 fortable homes. The natives were hired by knives and 
 fish-hooks to bring timber of breadfruit and cocoanut 
 trees, and breadfruit leaves ; but they were very tantaliz- 
 ing by their indolence. At length three houses were 
 completed, placed so near together that the missionaries 
 ^ould call from one to the other. They were often 
 
$6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 made to tremble at night, when the savages would pass 
 close by with flaming torches on their way from fishing. 
 One touch of their torches would have set the houses all 
 a-blaze. 
 
 The missionaries were much troubled by the thievish 
 propensities of the natives ; and for this reason set apart 
 a special room in each house for receiving their visits. 
 The natives would often thrust bamboo sticks with hooks 
 through their lattice windows to take whatever they 
 could reach ; and the missionaries often awoke at night 
 to find them, with their poles thrust through the win- 
 dows, taking clothing or anything they could get, or 
 pulling up the thatch to take whatever they could reach; 
 sometimes not one native only, but a gang of thieves 
 stealing at the same time at different parts of the house. 
 "It was most annojdng,'' says Mrs. Alexander, "to see 
 their black faces peering through the windows, and 
 through openings they tore through the thatch. I dared 
 not look at them ; for I was sure to see a look that 
 would fill me with disgust and horror.'' 
 
 The missionaries went out every day among them 
 with pencil and paper to learn words, and afterwards 
 compared notes, and as they roamed about were de- 
 lighted with the rich and beautiful scenery. The groves 
 of breadfruit, cocoanut, and papaia, and a great variety 
 of thick vines and shrubbery, formed one almost un- 
 broken shade. At almost every house they were hospi- 
 tably received, and invited to eat breadfruit pot. 
 
 On the fifth Sabbath after their arrival Mr. Alexander 
 preached the first sermon, telling the natives of the van- 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 3/ 
 
 ity of their gods, and of the true God. The big bread- 
 fruit tree that had been used as a cook-house was now 
 used as a church. The ladies sat under its shade on 
 chairs, while the natives rushed around in noisy confu- 
 sion. The preaching was no easy task, for the natives 
 would smoke and talk and mimic ; some would lie and 
 sleep, some laugh and talk, some mock and excite 
 laughter ; here one would sit smoking a pipe, there one 
 twisting a rope ; often there was such confusion that the 
 preacher could hardly hear himself speak, and not unfre- 
 quently the half of those present would arise and go off 
 laughing and mocking. They were ready to gnash on 
 the preacher with their teeth when told that their gods 
 were false, and would often say " Trvava" (it is a lie). 
 "Your God is good for you," they would say, "ours 
 are good for us." When the preacher shut his eyes they 
 asked, "Is your God blind, that you shut your eyes?" 
 When an axe had been stolen they said, "You tell us 
 your God is great and good, let him find the thief, if he is 
 so great. " One preacher, when describing heaven, was 
 interrupted by the remark, ' ' That will be a good place 
 for cowards and lazy folks, who are afraid to fight and 
 too lazy to climb breadfruit and cocoanut trees. " 
 
 Afterwards the missionaries preached by rotation 
 every Sabbath, and after the 8th of December twice. 
 They also preached in English to the few foreigners on 
 the island. After four months' residence they were able 
 to translate into Marquesan four hymns, which much 
 pleased the natives and enlisted their attention. The 
 last three months of their stay they were able to pray 
 
38 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 extempore in Iffarquesan. Generally only twenty natives 
 attended their meetings. Once one hundred and fifty 
 attended. Mrs. Armstrong and the other ladies con- 
 ducted a school for the children ; but only a few attend- 
 ed, and that very irregularly ; and not more than half a 
 dozen learned the alphabet. 
 
 Mr. Alexander and Mr. Parker once undertook to 
 explore the valley of Typee, with a view to make a mis- 
 sion station there. With much difficulty they found a 
 man who was a sort of neutral, that is, one permitted 
 to go unharmed from one valley to another. Immedi- 
 ately on arriving at the valley of Typee they were sur- 
 rounded by a multitude of the savages vociferating 
 fiercely. Seeing the white missionaries the natives 
 called to mind how, in 1813, Capt. Porter of the United 
 States ship Essex had attacked them, and one of them 
 exclaimed, "Porter killed my father." Another said, 
 ' ' Porter killed my brother. ' Another, clapping his 
 hand on his shoulder, said, "Porter shot me here." 
 The missionaries were expecting to be killed, when their 
 guide said to the natives, "These men are not like 
 Porter. He came to fight ; but these men have come 
 to teach us not to fight. " He then repeated very cor- 
 rectly the sermons which the missionaries had preached. 
 The natives then shouted " Moatake" and conducted 
 them to a house, where they spent the night, fearing 
 that they would be clubbed before morning. But they 
 were not disturbed, and the next morning were allowed 
 to return home ; which they did, by the advice of their 
 guide, by a different route from that of the previous day. 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 39 
 
 During their absence their wives suffered much from 
 fear of the natives. Says Mrs. Parker, "Mrs. Alexander 
 proposed that I should come to her room and sleep with 
 her, to beguile loneliness and share anxiety. About 
 midnight we were startled by terrible savage yells, and 
 the sounds came nearer and nearer. Whatever it might 
 be it was headed in the direction of our homes. Our 
 first anxiety was lest Mrs. Alexander's babe should 
 awake frightened, and attract the attention of the sav- 
 ages. Mrs. Alexander said to me, 'Our only refuge 
 now is our God; we will pray.' The child slept on 
 between us ; the sounds were deeper and nearer for 
 a short period, and then grew fainter ; the crowd 
 passed the house and went on in another direction, and 
 we went to sleep undisturbed, under divine protection. 
 In the morning we found that it was a religious proces- 
 sion that had passed by. A shark had been taken by 
 the fishermen ; and this was a god, to be worshipped in 
 the only way they knew. '' 
 
 The hostility between the different valleys made the 
 situation of these missionaries very insecure. They 
 were several times informed that the Typees were com- 
 ing in the night to kill them, and to take their property. 
 But their most serious danger was from the foreigners, 
 civilized men turned savage, who resided among the 
 natives and were more dangerous than the natives. 
 Such a man was a convict from New Zealand, known 
 by the name of Morrison, of whom mention has been 
 made. One night the misaonaries were hastily sent for 
 because he had suddenly become ill. The day previous 
 
4.0 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACnrTC. 
 
 a great school of porpoises had come into the bay, and 
 the natives had caught them in such quantities that their 
 bodies were piled up on the shore ; and for many days, 
 even after putrefaction had begun, every one helped 
 himself to their flesh as he pleased. This man gave his 
 appetite full rein, and the consequence was that he 
 had an attack of apoplexy and died at eleven o'clock at 
 night. The natives now informed the missionaries that 
 he had planned to fire their houses and murder them all, 
 in order to obtain their few articles of property. Their 
 hearts overflowed with gratitude to God for this provi- 
 dential deliverance. They however determined to give 
 the body a burial in Christian style, the first such burial 
 on the island. They made a coffin out of their boxes, 
 dug a grave, and with prayer lowered the body into it. 
 A native then threw in a baked hog. Mr. Armstrong 
 threw it out, and it was again thrown in, and again 
 thrown out. The native then said, "The soul of that 
 man will come to me in the night and will say, ' You 
 are stingy. I am hungry. ' " It was supposed that he 
 afterwards dug into the grave and buried the pig along- 
 side of the corpse. 
 
 The chief, Hape, at length became quite unfriendly, 
 for he was disappointed that the missionaries did not 
 cure him of his illness and did not give him more pres- 
 ents, for which he daily begged, and he urged the natives 
 not to attend the meetings. 
 
 On the fourth of December, 1833, he died. "The 
 hills then echoed with wailing, the thumping of drums 
 and the blawing of conch shells."' The body was hung 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 41 
 
 high in a canoe over the heiau (rock platform for wor- 
 ship) and the first wife was obliged to remain continually 
 in care of it, to provide food for the spirit, until the 
 body had so far decayed that the bones could be picked 
 out, which it was the privilege of the wife or the nearest 
 relative to do. Mr. Alexander has given a description 
 of the scenes he then witnessed. "The funeral rites," 
 he says, "beggared description for obscenity, noise, 
 cruelty, and beastly exposure. They lasted seven days, 
 and were the darkest days I ever saw. Companies came 
 from all parts, filling the air with loud wailings, dancing 
 in a state of perfect nudity around the corpse like so 
 many furies, cutting their flesh with shells and sharp 
 stones till the blood trickled down to their feet, the wo- 
 men tearing out their hair, both men and women knock- 
 ing out their teeth, indulging in the most revolting 
 licentiousness, and feasting to excess, while muskets were 
 fired and sea-shells were kept a-blowing with a long deep 
 sepulchral sound during the whole night. Verily I 
 seemed to be for the time on the borders of the infernal 
 regions." Mrs. Parker mentions that "Hape soon 
 became a nuisance except when the wind favored us, 
 blowing in another direction." 
 
 After the missionaries had resided eight months 
 on this island they were visited by Mr. Orsmond, a 
 missionary from Tahiti, who had been making a mis- 
 sionary tour looking after native missionaries in the 
 Paumotu group. He informed them that the London 
 Society had sent six missionaries for the Marquesas Isl- 
 ands, that they had already sailed and would occupy th» 
 
42 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 southern part of the group, and that it would be much 
 easier for their mission to send supplies to missionaries 
 here than it would be for the Hawaiian Mission ; since 
 they, the English missionaries, had a mission packet that 
 made regular trips to their out stations and the American 
 missionaries had none. It was very plain that he desired 
 the field to be given up to the London Missionary So- 
 ciety. The American missionaries spent a day in fast- 
 ing and p raying over the matter, and decided that it 
 would be a wasteful expenditure for two distinct so- 
 cieties each to employ a vessel annually to visit their 
 missionaries in so small a field, and as the London So- 
 ciety were unwilling to surrender the whole field they 
 determined to leave it to them. Mrs. Alexander has re- 
 marked, "It was very trying to us to leave, although 
 we knew that missionaries were on their way to take our 
 place. The people were in gross darkness, and I, for 
 one, was willing to spend my life among them." 
 
 About this time some of the natives (Tais) among 
 whom these missionaries were residing went in the night 
 to the bay of the Taipis and killed two or three of them 
 and offered them in sacrifice. The Taipis now threatened 
 to invade the valley of the Tais and exterminate the 
 missionaries. 
 
 While the missionaries were expecting their attack two 
 whale-ships came to the island for supplies and the mis- 
 sionaries engaged passage on one of them, the Benjamin 
 Rush, Capt. CoflBn, to the Hawaiian Islands. They 
 now had to contrive to get aboard the ship without the 
 ©position of the natives. They secretly packed their 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 43 
 
 /oods, darkening their windows lest they should be ob- 
 served ; and then the ladies with their infants, two of 
 whom had been born during their stay on the island, 
 suddenly went to the boat with a file of sailors on each 
 side. They were quickly surrounded by a great multi- 
 tude of the savages, armed with spears and clubs, but 
 they conciliated them by presents, and thereby succeed- 
 ed in getting away from the shore. Their husbands 
 came afterwards with the baggage. 
 
 "Oh what a sense of relief we felt," says Mrs. Arm- 
 strong, "when we were all on board ! It was a critical mo- 
 ment, for the natives were like friction-matches, ready to 
 explode on the slightest provocation ; and when (on the 
 i6th April, 1834) the sails were spread, and the shores 
 of Nukuhiva receded from view, we gave thanks to God 
 that during a residence there of over eight months he 
 had saved us from the fury of that heathen race. " 
 
 In October, 1834., the English missionaries, Mr. 
 Rodgerson and his wife and Mr. Stallworthy, with four 
 Tahitian teachers, arrived at the Marquesas Islands, and 
 landed on Tahuata at Hanatete. After three years of 
 labor and suffering Mr. and Mrs. Rodgerson abandoned 
 the field, "being convinced that the islands were unfit 
 to be the residence of civilized females. " Their books, 
 furniture and clothing had been stolen piecemeal, their 
 house once set on fire, and at times they had to go to 
 other valleys to get breadfruit for food. During their 
 residence two persons were killed and eaten near their 
 houses. 
 
 Mr. Stallworthy remained until 1841, a buttj as a 
 
44 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 French writer says, for the ridicule of the Tahuatans, 
 " What will we get," they would say, " for hearing your 
 lessons? You seem to wish to make speeches to us. 
 Well, give us power; we will hear you afterwards.'' 
 
 In 1839 another missionary, Mr. R. Thompson, arrived ; 
 but in r84i they all abandoned the field and returned to 
 Tahiti, not having achieved any success. 
 
 In 1853 a great interest for missionary work in the Mar- 
 quesas was awakened by a Marquesas chief, Matunui of 
 Fatuhiva, who, having embarked with his son-in-law, a 
 Hawaiian, on a whale ship, was stranded in Hawaii, and, 
 to secure help, pitifully asked that missionaries should be 
 sent to his benighted people. The Hawaiian churches 
 were greatly moved, made large contributions, chartered a 
 vessel, and sent with this chief two ordained Hawaiian 
 ministers. Rev. James Kekela and Rev. Samuel Kauwea 
 loha, and two deacons, with their wives, to Fatuhiva, 
 where they arrived August 26, 1853. These missionaries 
 labored together a while at Omoa on Fatuhiva, and finally 
 separated to different islands. Rev. J. Kaivi, who had 
 subsequently arrived with several other Hawaiians, and 
 Rev. J. Bicknell, son of a missionary at Tahiti, remained 
 at Omoa. Kaivi, after nineteen years of labor, in which 
 he had conducted a small school and organized a small 
 church, became deranged, and was removed to Hawaii. 
 At about the same time Mr. Bicknell, also, removed to 
 Hawaii, and there died. Rev. Samuel Kauwealoha went 
 to Hivaoa, and there gathered a school of sixty pupils 
 and a congregation of one hundred and forty-nine ; but in 
 a war with the savages his house was torn down, and he 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 45 
 
 and his wife barely escaped with their Hves. They then 
 went to Uapou, and there formed a female seminary which 
 was spoken of as "the brightest gleam of light in the 
 Marquesas." When once it was proposed in Hawaii to 
 relinquish this mission, because of its cost and lack of 
 success, Kauwealoha wrote back that he would continue 
 at his work, and that, if his salary was discontinued, he 
 would still labor, even though in so doing he should be 
 obliged to resume the costume, or undress, of his fathers 
 in their barbarous state. Now, in 1907, he still survives, 
 over ninety years of age, with the exception of the wife of 
 Kaukau, the only survivor of the Hawaiian missionaries in 
 the group. 
 
 Rev. James Kekela settled at Puamau on Hivaoa, where 
 there were immense rock platforms on which stood six 
 stone idols nine feet high. To this place sometimes a 
 thousand savages gathered for barbaric sports, pagan 
 orgies and cannibal feasts. 
 
 It was to this place that, in r864, Mr. Whalon, first of- 
 ficer of the American ship. Congress, was brought, bound 
 hand and foot, to be devoured by the savages. " A Peru- 
 vian vessel had kidnapped from this region several natives, 
 and the people were looking for an opportunity for revenge, 
 and seized Mr. Whalon when he went ashore to trade for 
 pigs, fowls, etc., stripped him of his clothing, and took him 
 to this place of infernal rites, to be cooked and eaten. The 
 savages then began to torment him, bending his thumbs and 
 fingers backward, pulling his nose and ears, and brandishing 
 their hatchets and knives close to his head. The following 
 morning Kekela hastened thither, and begged for the life 
 
46 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of the poor man. The savages were inexorable, saying 
 that they relished human flesh, and that they were now to 
 feast on a white man. Finally, for a gun and other articles 
 Mr. Whalon was released. Kekela took him to his house 
 and, with his intelligent wife, showed him the greatest 
 kindness and attention, and finally restored him to his ship. 
 
 " Mr. Lincoln was then President of the United States, 
 and, hearing of this deed of Mr. Kekela, sent out the 
 value of ^500 — a gold watch, etc. — with a letter of com- 
 mendation, as a reward for the rescue of an American 
 citizen from death at the hands of Marquesan cannibals." 
 
 At Hanatita, on the north side of this island. Rev. A. 
 Kaukau made his residence, and at Atuona, on the south 
 side, Rev. Z. Hapuku was located, and at these places 
 small schools were established. 
 
 From the inception of their work these missionaries 
 were strenuously opposed by French Roman Catholic 
 priests, whose operations we are now to consider. By the 
 French Government the Hawaiian missionaries were for- 
 bidden to conduct schools, except in the use of the French 
 language, and in many other ways hindered in their work. 
 For this reason the Hawaiian Evangelical Association 
 committed the field to the Evangelical Missionary As- 
 sociation of Paris ; but it continued to sustain these 
 Hawaiian missionaries. The Paris Association was unable 
 to take charge of the field, and the Hawaiians, unaided 
 and harassed, were unable to accomplish anything. Thus 
 genuine Christian Missions have accomplished almost 
 nothing in the Marquesas Islands, and the Roman Catholics 
 have there had a free hand and full opportunity. 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 47 
 
 To clearly and fully understand the nature and work of 
 the missionary enterprise of these Roman Catholics we 
 need to consider the origin of their missionary enterprise 
 and the method by which it gained a foothold in this group. 
 About the year 1825 the French Government entered into 
 an arrangement with the Roman Catholic Order, named 
 " The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and 
 Mary," (having its headquarters in the Picpus Street of 
 Paris, and for that reason called " The Picpusian Order,") 
 for securing to France and to Catholicism the various 
 island-groups of the Pacific. Priests of this order were to 
 go to the islands, gather converts, obtain lands and political 
 influence, and the French Government was -to protect 
 them, and establish colonies where they labored. Under 
 this arrangement Picpusian priests went to New Zealand, 
 Hawaii, Tahiti and many other islands. 
 
 The style of zeal with which th&se priests sought to save 
 the souls of the savages is indicated by one of their reports 
 from Tahiti, telling how they were accustomed to carry two 
 flasks, one of perfumed water and the other of holy water, 
 and how, in meeting a native mother with her babe, they , 
 would divert the attention of the mother by the perfumed 
 water, and then secretly sprinkle on the babe a few drops 
 of the holy water that would work its regeneration. In 
 Hawaii they pretended to show miraculous power. An 
 image of the Virgin was made to bow its head at the 
 " Ave Marias " of a priest, but at length, in spite of 
 repeated salutations, it would not bow ; and finally a 
 native thrust out his head from a curtain in the rear and 
 exclaimed " Ua moku ka kaula ! " (The string is broken !) 
 
48 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 In Hawaii the priests were expelled, because of their 
 effort to dethrone the Regent Queen, Kaahumanu, and 
 because their worship of crucifixes was considered a viola- 
 tion of a Hawaiian law forbidding idol-worship. They 
 were brought back and a French warship extorted a heavy 
 indemnity. Fortunately Hawaii was able to pay the in- 
 demnity, and by skilful diplomacy to bind France and 
 Great Britain jointly to respect her independence. In 
 Tahiti also the priests were expelled for promoting re- 
 bellion, and were brought back, and the consequences 
 there, as will be shown, were worse than in Hawaii. At 
 the northern end of the South New Zealand Island the 
 priests established another mission, and a French frigate 
 convoying a vessel carrying colonists was sent thither, to 
 raise the French Flag, and declare French possession. On 
 its way the frigate entered the Bay-Of- Islands in North 
 New Zealand, and there its commander made known to 
 an old friend of his, a captain of a British ship, his errand. 
 This captain hastened with the news to Governor Hobson 
 of North New Zealand, and by him was directed to go 
 with all possible speed to the settlement of the priests, and 
 there raise the British flag. This he did, and when the 
 French frigate arrived the British flag had there been three 
 days floating in the sunlight. The frigate then went with 
 its colonists to Tahiti, and there its commander made 
 such demands on the Queen, Pomare, for indemnity, 
 because of her expulsion of the priests, that she surrendered 
 to France her sovereignty. She asked assistance from 
 Great Britain, which country had engaged to uphold her 
 independence ; but that country, in view of its rude action 
 
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 49 
 
 toward France in South New Zealand, refused to interfere ; 
 and in a few years, by many battles, France acquired 
 possession of all the Society, Tuamotu, Gambler, Austral, 
 and Marquesas Islands. 
 
 The seizure by France of the Marquesas Islands occurred 
 over sixty years ago. In those islands, ever since, the 
 dominant power has been the Roman Catholic Religion, 
 and during this long period that religion has afforded a 
 striking illustration of its nature and effects. 
 
 The illustration is important, because in that group the 
 Roman Catholics have been at a distant remove from the 
 restraining influences that prevail in Christian countries, 
 and thus free to act forth the true nature and produce the 
 true results of their religious system. 
 
 The illustration is important, because, also, the Roman 
 Catholics have labored for this people with a strong force 
 of missionaries. They have maintained in the group forty 
 priests, as many lay brothers, and about as many nuns ; 
 and these have been aided by the wealth, the Civil Govern- 
 ment, the police, and the military power of France. 
 
 The natural effects of the Roman Catholic religion, thus 
 displayed, are to be seen, first, in the Roman Catholic 
 missionaries themselves and in the Government officials 
 and other foreigners in the group. A few of these mis- 
 sionaries have exhibited sincere, if not genuine piety. 
 Such was a Sister, Marie, who in France relinquished to 
 the Jesuits a fortune of a million francs, and went to this 
 group, to spend her life in labor for the savages ; and such 
 was a lay-brother, who for fourteen years wore, welded 
 around his waist, an iron chain ; but nearly all of these 
 
so THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 missionarieslhave led impure lives, and their Bishop, Martin, 
 has had a very unenviable reputation for immorality. 
 With a few exceptions, the civil officials and the other 
 foreigners have been little, if any, better. Of them the 
 Resident, Louis Tautain, remarked to the writer, that it 
 was astonishing how soon after arriving in the islands nearly 
 all of them degenerated. So far from overcoming the 
 pagan barbarism, they were overcome by it. 
 
 In some respects the French Civil Government has 
 worked well for the good of the Marquesans. It has sup- 
 pressed their intertribal wars, their barbaric practices, their 
 pagan orgies, and their cannibalism ; it has compelled the 
 natives at the seaports to wear clothing; and it has 
 afforded opportunities for trade and industrial enterprises. 
 But neither this Government, nor the Roman Catholic 
 missionaries, have changed the character of the natives, or 
 uplifted them from their degradation. The natives still 
 lead lives of utter indolence. Except when compelled by 
 the Government to work in serving out sentences for 
 crime, or when induced by exorbitant wages to labor for 
 foreigners, they perform almost no work. The writer did 
 not find a single acre of land in the group that was under 
 voluntary cultivation by them for themselves. The result 
 is that they are in deep poverty ; their houses are the same 
 wretched hovels that were built by their ancestors ; and in 
 the interior of the islands they wear almost no clothing. 
 Many of them have been deprived by the priests of their 
 lands, and, to a considerable degree, are dependent on 
 the priests for subsistence. 
 
 The Roman CathoHcs have not only failed to improve 
 
The MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 5 I 
 
 the natives, but also have in some respects made them 
 worse. By hbidinous and licentious lives and by traffic in 
 intoxicants, they have rendered them even more immoral 
 and wretched than they previously were. The Govern- 
 ment at first allowed them the free use of ardent spirits, 
 and sold to Chinamen for forty thousand francs a license 
 to sell to them opium. The natives seemed likely to 
 become a nation of drunkards and opium-fiends. The 
 Government, therefore, forbade the sales to them of liquors 
 and opium, and checked the sales so suddenly that several 
 natives died for lack of these intoxicants. The natives 
 then resorted to the use of cocoanut toddy. This also the 
 Government forbade, and, to make the prohibition ef- 
 fective, it assigned to the gendarmes one-third of the fines 
 imposed for use of the toddy. The result was that the 
 gendarmes acquired great profits. Sometimes one of them 
 would put on his epaulets, bind a sword on his side, as- 
 cend a mountain, and suddenly descend into a valley and 
 arrest a hundred natives at a toddy feast. These he would 
 fine twenty dollars apiece, one-third of which would be 
 his reward. For the payments of such fines one-third of 
 the money acquired by the natives has been taken. 
 
 Thus the work of the Roman Catholics for the Mar- 
 quesans has been a failure, and in some respects worse 
 than a failure. The Sister Marie, referred to, who at the 
 time of the writer's visit was the Lady Superior of the Girls' 
 Seminary at Taiohae, Nukuhiva, stated that during the 
 thirty-two years of her labor in that institution she had 
 seen no good results from her labors. The writer inquired 
 of the Resident, Louis Tautain, what would be the result. 
 
52 THE ISLANDS Of I'HE PACIFIC. 
 
 if the French police should be withdrawn from the group. 
 He replied, that in three weeks the natives would become 
 howling savages, and that they would return to cannibalism. 
 He stated that one Marquesan was at that time serving 
 out a sentence for cannibalism in New Caledonia, and 
 that two other natives, then at large, were undoubtedly 
 guilty of the same crime. He said that the population, 
 which at the discovery of the group was probably fifty 
 thousand, had diminished to four thousand five hundred 
 and was diminishing at the rate of seven per cent per 
 annum. Such is the result of the influence of sixty years 
 of liie Roman Catholic Religion ! 
 
 In the year 1898 the Paris Missionary Society sent to 
 this group Rev. Paul L. Vernier, a son of Rev. Frederick 
 Vernier of Tahiti, and several Tahitian clergymen and 
 teachers, and these missionaries were joyfully welcomed 
 by the natives. They settled in the valleys formerly oc- 
 cupied by the Hawaiian missionaries, at Atuona and 
 Puamau on Hivaoa, at Hatatehau on Uapou, and at a 
 valley on Uahuka, thus occupying three islands. In 1906 
 they had three churches, five out-stations and three hundred 
 and fifty church members. They had not formed Prot- 
 estant schools, for the previous schools of the Hawaiian 
 missionaries had beens uppressed by the Administration, 
 which, on its part, had started several good institutions in 
 the group. Rev. Paul Vernier writes, " The missionary 
 work is very difficult, and apparently without a great 
 future. But God is here. The rapid decrease of the 
 population is very alarming, and a very distressing 
 subject." 
 
CHRISTiAiN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The rise of the islands of the Pacific through the ages 
 of the past from the depths of the ocean, and their 
 transformation from wastes of rock and volcanic fire into 
 Edens of beauty, was hardly more wonderful and sublime 
 than the elevation, proposed through Christianity, of the 
 inhabitants of those islands from their primeval degrada- 
 tion into the highest character of which human nature 
 is capable, and finally to the glories of heaven. The en- 
 terprise to accomplish so great and glorious a work was 
 not devised through the promptings of mere human mo- 
 tives, nor through confidence in mere human strength. 
 Captain Cook, in commenting on the conduct of the 
 Spaniards in erecting the cross on Tahiti, wrote that in 
 his opinion nothing would ever be done to Christianize 
 the Pacific Islanders ; "since there were no motives in 
 public ambition nor in private avarice for such an under- 
 taking.'' He was correct in the view that neither avarice 
 nor ambition would prompt to such an enterprise. But 
 he knew little of the motives which Christianity supplies, 
 and of the power it exerts to lift up the lowest races of 
 men. 
 
 The enterprise of foreign missions originated only in 
 the highest developments of Christianity. When the 
 
54 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 long political conflicts in Great Britain between the 
 Roman Catholics and the Protestants had ceased the 
 churches in that country became free to rise into the 
 highest philanthropic activities. The remarkable revivals 
 of religion that then occurred resulted in the sending 
 forth of missionaries to evangelize heathen nations, just 
 as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in ancient Antioch 
 resulted in the sending forth of the great missionary- 
 apostle Paul, and his companion, Barnabas, to labor 
 among the Gentiles. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the particular occasion 
 of the enterprise in England for foreign missions was the 
 publication of the narratives of Cook's voyages in the 
 Pacific. A young man by the name of William Carey, 
 while preaching in the small town of Moulton, and at 
 the same time working as a cobbler for the support of 
 his family, read these narratives, and with a large map 
 and a leather globe, which he himself had made, de- 
 scribed Cook's voyages to his pupils, and at length was 
 fired with a desire to carry the good news of God to the 
 islanders — who had most hospitably entertained Cook 
 and had been maddened by his injustice to kill him. So 
 interested did Carey become in the Pacific Islanders that 
 in a gathering of Baptist ministers he proposed a dis- 
 cussion of the duty of the Church to evangelize heathen 
 countries. To this proposition Dr. Ryland, an aged 
 minister, replied, "Sit down, young man. When God 
 proposes to convert the heathen he will do it without 
 your help or mine." Dr. Ryland further remarked that 
 ' ' nothing could be done for such an object until another 
 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. $5 
 
 Pentecost, when an effusion of miraculous gifts, includ- 
 ing the gift of tongues, would give effect to the commis- 
 sion of Christ as at first. " But the young man was not 
 silenced, and at length succeeded, bj' impassioned ap- 
 peals to the public and by sermons preached before the 
 Baptist Association, in persuading twelve ministers to 
 unite with him in organizing at Kettering, on October 2, 
 1792, the first Foreign Missionary Society of Great Brit- 
 ain. Fifty years afterwards thousands of people gath- 
 ered at Kettering to celebrate the jubilee of that organi- 
 zation, and in 1892 a more notable gathering celebrated 
 its centennial. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the first wish of Mr. 
 Carey was to go as a missionary to the Pacific Ocean, to 
 Tahiti, and that the first plan of this society was to send 
 him thither. But about this time a Mr. John Thomas, 
 a surgeon who had engaged in missionary work while in 
 the employ of the East India Company, arrived in Lon- 
 don seeking a missionary assistant, and so set forth the 
 needs of India that the plan of the society was changed, 
 and William Carey and John Thomas were sent to India. 
 
 The sublime act of faith of these two men, in going 
 as voluntary exiles from home to labor for u. heathen 
 race, kindled a fire of missionary enthusiasm throughout 
 England. It was remarked that the Baptist Society had 
 "a gold mine in India," but that it seemed almost as 
 deep as the centre of the earth. Carey replied, " I will 
 go down into the mine ; but the Society at home must 
 hold the ropes." Others besides the Baptists soon de- 
 sired a.part in working this gold mina 
 
56 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 On November 4, 1794, a company of ministers of 
 various denominations united in London in issuing a 
 circular calling for a convention of the delegates of the 
 churches to meet in London on the 2 2d, 23d, and 24th 
 days of the ensuing month, to consider the project of 
 forming an undenominational missionary society. At the 
 time appointed great multitudes met together, and two 
 sermons were preached each day by eminent divines upon 
 themes pertinent to foreign missions. In these meetings 
 "Christians of all denominations for the first time met 
 together in the same place, using the same hymns and 
 prayers, and feeling themselves to be one. Two hundred 
 ministers sat together in the galleries. One of the lead- 
 ers of these meetings said, ' We are called together for the 
 funeral of bigotry ; and I hope it will be buried so deep 
 as never to rise again.' Whereat the whole vast body 
 could scarce refrain from one general shout of joy.'' The 
 London Missionary Society was then formed, composed 
 of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Independents. 
 
 It was declared in the constitution of this Society 
 that "the design of the Society was not to send Presby- 
 terianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form 
 of church order and government (about which there may 
 be difference of opinion among serious persons), but the 
 glorious gospel of the blessed God to the heathen ; and 
 that it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of 
 the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of 
 his Son from among them to assume for themselves such 
 form of church government as to them shall appear most 
 agreeable to the Word of God. " 
 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. $7 
 
 It is interesting to note that the first foreign mission- 
 ary society in America, the American Board, was in like 
 manner undenominational at its origin. It may be said 
 that, as at the origin of Christianity the infant Church set 
 forth with the gift of tongues and a blessed fellowship 
 and community of property, pointing forward to the fu- 
 ture union of all mankind in fraternity and love, so the 
 foreign mission work began with a fellowship of all Chris- 
 tians, pointing forward to the future church-union in 
 which alone foreign missions will finally be completely 
 successful. 
 
 The attention of the London Missionary Society was 
 drawn at its very origin to the islands of the Pacific 
 Ocean as a promising field for missions. Glowing ac- 
 counts were given of the South Sea Islands as "very ter- 
 restrial paradises, the people loving and lovable children 
 of nature. " Rev. Dr. Thomas Haweis, one of the found- 
 ers and most liberal supporters of the Society, delivered 
 an address upon the question " In what part of the world 
 they should commence their work, " and drew a compar- 
 ison between the climates, the governments, the lan- 
 guages, and the religions of heathen countries ; and con- 
 cluded that of all the dark places of the earth the South 
 Sea Islands presented the fewest difficulties and the fair- 
 est prospect of success. Dazzled by the pleasing picture 
 he had drawn, the London Society resolved without delay 
 to commence a mission to the South Sea Islands. 
 
 For this purpose this Society purchased a ship at a 
 cost of $24,375, and equipped her and furnished supplies 
 for her long voyage at an additional expense of $34,000. 
 
58 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Capt. James Wilson, "a worthy Christian gentleman who 
 had retired in affluence from the East India service," 
 volunteered his services to command the vessel. Twenty 
 chosen missionaries were then set apart for the mission 
 to Tahiti. Six of them were married men, with whom 
 were two children. Only four of them were ordained 
 ministers. One was a physician and the others were 
 artisans. "Thousands of people joined in the novel 
 and most impressive services of their consecration to the 
 missionary enterprise ; and no less than ten clergymen, 
 Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Independent, Seceder, and 
 Methodist, shared in the exercises. It was remarked 
 that in no instance had such a spirit of prayer and sup- 
 plication been poured out upon the churches, or such 
 general approbation been discovered, as in the inception 
 of this mission enterprise." 
 
 On the 23d of September, 1796, the Duff, flying an 
 ensign with a figure, on a blue field, of a dove with an 
 olive branch in her mouth, sailed from Portsmouth with 
 these first missionaries for the islands of the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
<o sa/Udura n tuAoP 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 59 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 
 
 The island of Tahiti, to which the first missionariee 
 of the Pacific were sent, is one of a group called the 
 Society Islands ; so named by Capt. Cook in honor of 
 the Royal Society of London. This group is situated 
 between latitudes 16° and 18° South, and longitudes 
 148° and 155° West. It consists of thirteen islands and 
 several small islets, and is divided by a channel sixty 
 miles wide into two clusters ; the eastern, called the Wind- 
 ward or Georgian Islands, comprising six islands, the 
 western, called the Leeward or Society Islands, comprising 
 seven islands. Their aggregate area is 650 square miles. 
 
 With the exception of the coral islets in the extreme 
 northwest these islands are of volcanic origin ; as is 
 indicated by their lavas, basalt, and pumice-stone. In 
 general appearance the volcanic islands resemble each 
 other. A high mountain crowned with steep peaks 
 occupies the interior ; on all sides steep ridges descend 
 to the sea or to sloping plains ; and over all, mountains, 
 valleys and plains, spreads a most luxuriant robe of 
 tropical vegetation. Around most of these islands are 
 barrier reefs, situated from a few yards to five miles from 
 the shore. 
 
 Tahiti lies in the southern part of the Windward or 
 Georgian cluster, and is the largest island of the group. 
 
6o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 having an area of 4 1 2 square miles. It is composed of 
 two distinct portions, united by an isthmus which is a 
 mile wide and of only fifty feet elevation above the 
 ocean. The southern portion is called Tairabu, and 
 measures six by twelve miles. The northern portion is 
 called Porionuu, and measures twenty by twenty-three 
 miles. At the northeast extremity of Porionuu is the 
 chief town of the group, Papeete, which is the capital of 
 the French possessions in the Pacific and the emporium 
 of the commerce of all the surrounding groups. It lies 
 on the crescent-formed shore at the head of the Matavai 
 Bay, embowered in beautiful tropical vegetation, with a 
 background of enchanting woods and grand mountains. 
 From a beach of white sand a continuous forest of wav- 
 ing palms and vine-clad trees spreads to verdant ridges 
 and deep ravines, and on to the mountains, Orohena, 
 7,1 12 feet high, and Aorai, 6,579 feet high. The latter is 
 jagged at its summit with rocky spires so as to resemble 
 a royal crown, and for this reason called "La Diademe." 
 A broad green road, called the "Broom Road,'' runs 
 around this island close to the sea, through districts 
 "which seem like one vast orchard of mango, bread- 
 fruit, /eis, orange-trees, sugar-cane, papayas and cocoa- 
 nut-palms, together forming a succession of the very 
 richest foliage it is possible to conceive. " The valleys 
 of this island, especially Hautana, Matavai and Apai- 
 ano, are very beautiful. 
 
 In all the Society Islands it is diflScult to travel out- 
 side of the roads, so dense is the vegetation and so im- 
 passable are the gorges and precipices. It is said also 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 6 1 
 
 that travelling on horseback is unsafe because "the 
 land-crabs have literally riddled the by-paths. '' These 
 crabs are sometimes found in the huts of the natives and 
 under the mats of sleepers at night. 
 
 To voyagers who for weeks had no surroundings but 
 the blue ocean and the sky above the wonderful beauty 
 of this island is quite enrapturing. One writer says, 
 ' ' The scenery of that island will live for ever in my 
 thoughts as some splendid dream of beauty, as early one 
 morning I entered the port of Papeete. Before me were 
 great mountains of ever)' shade of blue, pink, gray, and 
 purple, torn and broken into every conceivable fantastic 
 shape, with deep, dark, mysterious gorges, showing 
 almost black by contrast with the surrounding bright- 
 ness, precipitous peaks and pinnacles rising one above 
 the other until lost in the heavy masses of clouds they 
 impaled, while below, stretching from the base of the 
 mountains to the shore, was a forest of tropical trees 
 with the huts and houses of the town peeping out be- 
 tween." 
 
 Two miles west of Tahiti is Moorea, or Eimeo, a 
 small but lofty and very picturesque island. Its moun- 
 tain, Afareaitu, 3,986 feet in height, has formerly been 
 rent asunder by violent volcanic convulsions, leaving 
 stupendous upright splinters which have been jocosely 
 called "Asses' ears." 
 
 Mr. Ellis says of this island : " In the varied forms of 
 its mountains, the verdure with which they are clothed, 
 and the general romantic and beautiful character of 
 its scenerj Moorea surpasses every other island of the 
 
62 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Georgian or Society groups. A reef, like a ring, ex- 
 tends around it two miles from the shore. On this 
 reef are small verdant islets, appearing like emerald gems 
 of the ocean, one opposite Afareaitu on the east side, and 
 two south of Papetoai. " 
 
 The author of "South Sea Bubbles" says : " As seen 
 from Tahiti, Moorea is a wonderfully beautiful island, 
 peaked and jagged in a way seldom seen. The harbor, 
 Openohu, is a gorge, and one of the wildest gorges I 
 have ever seen. Green precipices rise upwards of two 
 thousand feet sheer from the water, fringed round their 
 feet by cocoanut and orange-trees. Far up in the 
 green cliffs may be seen the large leaves of the/ei, or 
 wild plantain. One of the highest and most acute peaks 
 is perforated right through, just below the summit, the 
 natives say by an ancient hero throwing his spear 
 through the moutain peak." 
 
 Several of the Leeward Islands are described as no 
 less picturesque and beautiful. Huahine and Raiatea 
 are noble islands encircled by one coral reef In this 
 reef, at the northeast point of Raiatea, opposite the 
 harbor, Utumaoro, are three green islets. Raiatea con- 
 sists of two parts connected by an isthmus, and is com- 
 pletely covered with verdure, from the sea to the sum- 
 mits of the mountains ; the hibiscus and other shrubs 
 overhanging the salt water of the harbor. 
 
 Of Borabora the writer just quoted says: "This 
 splendid island rises like a giant's castle out of the sea. 
 At a distance it seems split into two parts, a tower and 
 a steeple ; but when approached the two blend into ona 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 6^ 
 
 There is an extinct volcanic crater in its summit. The 
 harbor is most magnificently beautiful, overhung by a 
 heap of rock 3,000 feet high, noble basaltic cliffs stand- 
 ing from a perfect cascade of verdure. Nowhere but 
 in these islands have I ever seen positively richly green 
 cliffs. I think Borabora is the most magnificently 
 beautiful piece of rock-scenery I have ever seen." 
 
 The inhabitants of the Society Islands are the Poly- 
 nesian race, who, as has been mentioned, occupy the 
 eastern portion of the Pacific. They are physically a 
 very fine people. De Quatrefages, in a table giving the 
 stature of different races of men, puts the natives of 
 Samoa and Tonga as the largest people in the world. 
 He gives the average height of this race as 5 feet, 9.92 
 inches. The Society Islanders compare well in size with 
 the Samoans and Tongans, while in general symmetry 
 of form they are unsurpassed. 
 
 A brief description of the Tahitians will answer for 
 that of all the Polynesians of the Pacific. The Tahitians 
 are a brown race, varying in color from a light olive to a 
 swarthy brown according to the amount of their previous 
 exposure to the sun. Their hair is usually raven black, 
 and straight, wavy, or curly ; their eyes are black and 
 expressive ; their lips of a little more than medium 
 thickness ; their noses rather wide ; their foreheads 
 fairly high and rather narrow. " Their women rank with 
 the most beautiful in the Pacific.'' 
 
 In disposition the Tahitians are affable, light-hearted, 
 and generous, but fickle, and under provocation deceit- 
 ful, irritable, and brutal. 
 
64 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 At the time of the arrival of the missionaries the 
 Tahitians were wearing their primitive costume, which 
 consisted of an oblong piece of bark-cloth, the tipuia, 
 with a hole in the centre for the head, a plain piece of 
 cloth around the loins, and a Tnalo, or T bandage. 
 
 The women wore the parau, which was one piece of 
 cloth, two and a half yards wide by eleven long, wrapped 
 several times around the waist so as to hang down to the 
 knees. They also wore a shawl, called the ahaifara, over 
 the shoulders. They often wore brilliant flowers in their 
 hair and fragrant garlands and necklaces. In the heat 
 of the day they were uncovered to the waist, and the 
 men wore only the malo. In times of rain they wore 
 matting instead of cloth. At night their clothing served 
 for bedding. The children went naked until six or seven 
 years old. "The chiefs wore also short feather-cloaks 
 and beautiful semicircular breastplates dexterously in- 
 terwoven with the black plumage of the frigate-bird, 
 with crimson feathers, and with sharks' teeth." 
 
 Mr. George Foster tells of having once witnessed, in 
 1777, what he called a most magnificent sight. Entering 
 one of the harbors of Tahiti he saw "a fleet of 159 large 
 war-canoes with 170 small canoes arrayed along the 
 shore, manned with 1,500 warriors dressed in their 
 robes, targets and towering helmets ; while on the beach 
 were 4,000 warriors about to embark. The targets 
 were of wicker-work covered with feathers and sharks' 
 teeth ; the helmets were five feet high, closely covered 
 with glossy bluish green feathers of a sort of pigeon, with 
 an elegant border of white plumes, and with a prodigious 
 

 A TAHITIAN. 
 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 65 
 
 number of the long tail-feathers of tropic-birds diverging 
 from its edges in a radiant line resembling that glory of 
 light with which painters commonly ornament the 
 heads of angels or saints. " These warriors were prepar- 
 ing for an expedition against Moorea. The expedition 
 failed and nearly all the fleet was captured. 
 
 The Tahitians showed no little skill in manufactur- 
 ing bark-cloth, mats, fishing-tackle, canoes, and house- 
 hold furniture. They sometimes made bales of cloth, 
 all in one piece, two hundred yards long and four yards 
 wide, from strips of bark one and a half inches wide and 
 four feet long. 
 
 Their canoes were made of logs of trees, hollowed 
 out by sharp stones and by fire, and were either double 
 or single, with outriggers. The sterns were sometimes 
 from 15 to 18 feet high, ornamented with figures of 
 birds or gods. 
 
 Their houses were little more than thatched roofs 
 supported by posts and rafters. There were three rows 
 of posts — one in the centre and two at the sides. Pan- 
 danus leaves were used for thatch, and the ridge-pole was 
 bound over with ferns or grass. The lower part of the 
 house was open to the height of about four feet above 
 the ground. The floors were covered with long dried 
 grass or mats. The houses generally measured 1 1 by 
 24 feet. One of the king's houses at Waitowate was 
 397 feet long and 48 wide and 21 high. 
 
 The staple food of the Tahitians was the breadfruit ; 
 but besides this they subsisted on yams, taro, sweet- 
 potatoes, plantains, and a few varieties of fruit. The 
 
66 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 quiet waters inclosed by their reefs afforded an abun- 
 dant supply of fish. They cooked their food by burying 
 it, well-wrapped with leaves, on heated stones in the 
 ground. They obtained fire by rubbing together sticks 
 of wood. 
 
 Like the rest of the Polynesians, the Tahitians wor- 
 shipped innumerable idols with horrid orgies and human 
 sacrifices. Almost every man had his special god, but 
 there were several principal gods : Taaroa (corresponding 
 to Kaneloa of Hawaii), Tane (corresponding to Kane of 
 Hawaii) and Oro, the national god of Tahiti (correspond- 
 ing to Lono of Hawaii). The idols measured from a 
 few inches to six feet long, and were ornamented with 
 sennit and red feathers. It was supposed that the gods 
 entered them at certain seasons, and in consequence of 
 certain ceremonies. 
 
 The Tahitians also worshipped the spirits of their 
 deceased ancestors, called Oromatuas (in Hawaii, Auma- 
 kuas). These they invoked in sickness, and for ven- 
 geance against their enemies ; in which latter case they 
 sought to obtain something from the victim they would 
 destroy — parings of the nails, locks of hair, or saliva — by 
 which to set the demon on the track of the victim ; a 
 method followed in Hawaii, the New Hebrides, and 
 other Polynesian Islands. 
 
 The places of Tahitian worship were piles of stones, 
 called moral, built in pjTamidal form, with flights of steps 
 at the sides ; on these the idols were erected and the of- 
 ferings laid. A morai at Atahuru measured 270 feet by 
 ninety-four wide and fifty high. Other sacred places were 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 6^ 
 
 the platforms on which, under sheds, they exposed the 
 bodies of the dead ; for they did not bury their dead, 
 but partially embalmed them, and placed them on these 
 platforms with provisions. 
 
 By the Tahitian religion the women were forbidden 
 to eat with the men. The husband and the wife made 
 separate fires, kept their food separate, and ate apart, the 
 wife generally in another hut. The women were also 
 tabooed from eating pork, fowls, bananas, and several 
 kinds of fish. 
 
 Immorality, polygamy and infanticide prevailed in 
 Tahiti to an incredible extent. It was estimated by the 
 first missionaries that two-thirds of the children were 
 put to death at birth. This was generally done by 
 strangling, or by piercing with a bamboo. Rev. John 
 Williams once asked three women, whom he casually 
 met, whether they had killed any of their children. One 
 replied that she had killed nine, another seven, and the 
 other three. After the abolition of idolatry, a chief con- 
 fessed in a large assembly that he had been the father of 
 nineteen children, and that he had murdered them all ; 
 and he wept at remembrance of their deaths. A chief- 
 tainess was bitterly troubled in the hour of death by remem- 
 brance of having put to death her sixteen children. 
 
 Wars were almost incessant in Tahiti, and were most 
 cruel and destructive. During the first fifteen years of 
 the mission there were ten wars. Just before the arrival 
 of the missionaries there was an inter-tribal war which 
 resulted in the conquest of the whole island by Pomare 
 and his son Otu. 
 
68 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The immorality of the Tahitians reached its climax in 
 a strange organization of men and women, called Areoi, 
 who lived together indiscriminately without marriage, 
 spent their time in licentious dancing and feasting from 
 village to village, and killed all their children. They 
 kept up their organization only by initiating new mem- 
 bers. 
 
 The vices of the Tahitians were vastly increased by 
 the coming of the white men, who gave free rein to their 
 avarice and sensuality. The women thronged every ship 
 to obtain trinkets and baubles, and especially bits of iron 
 hoop and nails, which were considered more precious 
 than gold. 
 
 Captain Cook said of the immorality of the Tahiti- 
 ans, for which his crew were partly responsible, " There 
 is a scale of dissolute sensuality which these people have 
 ascended, wholly unknown to every other * nation, and 
 which no imagination could possibly conceive. " Rev. 
 William Ellis remarked, "Awfully dark, indeed, was 
 their moral character, and notwithstanding the apparent 
 mildness of their disposition, and the cheerful vivacity of 
 their conversation, no portion of the human race was 
 ever perhaps sunk lower in brutal licentiousness and 
 moral degradation than this isolated people." 
 
 Such were the islands and such the people to whom 
 the missionaries on the Duff were voyaging. These 
 missionaries were obliged by violent gales in the South 
 Atlantic to change their course and to round the Cape of 
 Good Hope instead of Cape Horn, and did not arrive at 
 Tahiti till March 4th, 1797, after a voyage of six months 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 
 
 69 
 
 and nineteen days. Because of their course around the 
 Cape of Good Hope their reckoning of the days of the 
 week differed by one day from that of the American 
 missionaries of Hawaii, their Sunday coming on the 
 Saturday of the American missionaries. 
 
 Hardly had their little vessel come to anchor off the 
 shores of Tahiti when seventy-four canoes came off to 
 her, and soon a hundred savages were capering with de- 
 light upon her decks. It was the Sabbath-day; and 
 therefore the missionaries, instead of bartering with the 
 natives, held a service of song and prayer, while the na- 
 tives looked on in silent wonder. 
 
 On the next day several of the missionaries went in 
 a boat to examine the island. About five hundred natives 
 gathered on the shore to receive them, and, wading into 
 the sea, dragged the boat up on the beach, and carried 
 them ashore on their backs. The king, Otu, and his 
 queen, Tetua, came to welcome them, borne on the 
 shoulders of natives ; for, according to their customs, 
 whatever the king set foot upon became his, whether it 
 was land or the deck of a vessel. There were two white 
 men residing on the island, dressed, or rather undressed, 
 like the natives. By the aid of one of these, a Swede, 
 who had escaped from shipwreck to the island, Captain 
 Wilson informed the king, Otu, of the purposes of the 
 missionaries. The king expressed himself as pleased, 
 and gave them a building one hundred and eight feet long 
 by forty-eight wide, and assigned them a large district, 
 called Matavai, in which to reside without dispossessing 
 the natives. As soon as the lower, unthatched, part of 
 
70 
 
 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 the house was enclosed, the missionaries disembarked, 
 and entered the house with prayer and thanksgiving to 
 God. The Duff soon afterwards sailed away, taking ten 
 missionaries to the Tonga Islands. After her return she 
 took one missionar)- to the jMarquesas Islands, and one, 
 by his own request, to England. 
 
 The missionaries located on Tahiti were Revs. James 
 Cover and wife, John Eyrie and wife, John Jefferson, 
 Thomas Lewis, and Messrs. Henr}- Bicknell, wheelwright, 
 Benjamin Broomhall, harness-maker, John Cock, car- 
 penter, Samuel Clode, gardener, John Gilham, surveyor, 
 William Henry, carpenter, and wife, Peter Hodges, bra- 
 zier, and wife, Rowland Haffell, weaver, and wife, Ed- 
 ward IMain, tailor, Henr}- Nott, bricklayer, Francis 
 Oakes, shoemaker, James Puckey, carpenter, William 
 Puckey, carpenter, and William Smith, linen-draper. 
 There were also two children — ^James Cover, twelve years, 
 and Thomas Haffell, two years old. 
 
 The report made b}- Captain ^^'ilson about his voy- 
 age, after his return to England, excited so much enthu- 
 siasm that in the latter part of the following year the 
 Duff was again sent forth with twenty-nine more mis- 
 sionaries for the Pacific. But the Duff was captured by 
 a French privateer, and all the missionaries on board of 
 her, except one who died, after many distressing adven- 
 tures found their way back to England. 
 
 However romantic it may have seemed to engage in 
 this benevolent enterprise in the beautiful islands of the 
 Pacific it must have soon seemed hardly endurable, under 
 the privations and perils the missionaries experienced. 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 71 
 
 At that time the wars of Great Britain with Napoleon 
 Bonaparte made it difficult for the London Society to 
 communicate with them ; and for five years no supplies 
 nor letters from England came to them. During the 
 seven following years letters and supplies came only twice, 
 and once the supplies, when they arrived, had been spoiled 
 by salt water. During these years they suffered from 
 want of the very necessaries of life. "Their shoes wore 
 out, their clothes became threadbare, tea and sugar 
 were only remembered as luxuries of the past." Their 
 situation was made worse by the neglect of the king, who 
 was disappointed in his hope of getting presents from 
 them, and ceased to provide them with food. He re- 
 marked that they gave him plenty of the Word of God, 
 but very few axes, knives, or scissors. Sometimes 
 they could obtain food only by sending a boy to the 
 mountains for wild fruit or to the breadfruit trees of a 
 friendly chief The Swede, Peter Hagerstine, whom they 
 had employed as an interpreter in their conference with 
 the king and in their preaching, sought to influence the 
 king against them. Once when passing with the king 
 near their house, while they were kneeling in prayer, he 
 suggested that it would be easy at such a time to destroy 
 them all and appropriate their property. Their situation 
 also, without weapons of defence and with tender wives 
 and children, amongst the warring natives, was about as 
 perilous as that of a child in a menagerie of wild 
 animals. 
 
 Soon after their arrival the chiefs of the opposite 
 side of the island revolted against the king ; the war was 
 
72 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 carried into the district of Matavai, and the half-clad 
 savages, appearing in their disfigurement of paint and with 
 their fierce war cries more like devils than men, made 
 their beautiful surroundings resemble the infernal regions. 
 Once four of the missionaries were seized and stripped 
 by the natives, and dragged into the river, and they bare- 
 ly escaped to the opposite banks. 
 
 Alarmed by these perils, and discouraged also because 
 there were no signs of success in their work, all but two 
 of the missionaries now proposed to leave the islands. 
 The king besought them to remain, and seven of them 
 did so ; while the rest went by way of Huahine to New 
 South Wales. 
 
 Only five missionaries now remained. But they per- 
 severed in their unpromising work, and soon succeeded 
 with the aid of a few chiefs in building the first chapel 
 erected for Christian worship in the Pacific. It was dedi- 
 cated on March 5th, 1800; three years after their arrival. 
 King Pomare, desiring to show favor on this occasion, 
 sent a fish as an offering to Jesus Christ, requesting that 
 it should be hung up in the chapel. 
 
 In June, 1801, a reinforcement of eight more mission- 
 aries arrived in the Royal Admiral, Capt. Wilson, making 
 the whole number now twelve. Mr. Nott had mastered 
 the language sufficiently to be able to preach, and now 
 with Mr. Elder made the first tour of the island, preach- 
 ing in thirty villages. Some of the natives seemed quite 
 affected by the preaching, especially the accompanying 
 servants, who by attending the meetings at every village 
 gained considerable knowledge of gospel truth. 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 73 
 
 But unhappily, when now a faint gleam of encourage- 
 ment was appearing, a fierce civil war again broke out. 
 King Pomare had forcibl}' removed the national idol called 
 Oro, a mere shapeless log six feet long, from the district 
 Atehuru, where it had always been kept ; and the natives 
 of this district, with other tribes, went to war to recover 
 it. Providentially, there were twenty-three English sea- 
 men on the island, most of whom had recently escaped 
 from shipwreck ; they came together to the house of the 
 missionaries to make common defense against the rebels. 
 With their aid the missionaries pulled down their chapel, 
 to prevent its being set on fire or used as a place of refuge 
 for the enemy, cut down their breadfruit trees, and made 
 a stockade around their house. Four brass cannon, ob- 
 tained from a wrecked ship, were placed in the upper 
 rooms of the house ; and by turns the seamen and the 
 missionaries stood guard. The rebels at length, seeing 
 the preparation for defense, desisted from the war. 
 
 In 1803 King Pomare died; and his son, Otu, be- 
 came king, and assumed the title, Pomare II. The first 
 Pomare had been a most vicious and inhuman savage. 
 It was estimated by the missionaries that during his 
 reign of thirty years he had sacrificed two thousand human 
 victims as offerings to his idols. Pomare II. at first ap- 
 peared to be little better, and committed so many acts of 
 violence that in 1805, after eight years of apparently 
 fruitless labor, six missionaries removed from Tahiti to 
 Huahine. 
 
 On the 6th of November, 1808, another rebellion 
 broke out ; and finally Pomare was defeated, the house 
 
74 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of the missionaries destroyed, and their printing types 
 were melted for bullets. By Pomare's advice the mission- 
 aries now fled to the other islands ; and on the 26th of Oc- 
 tober, 1 809, they all, except Mr. Nott and Mr. Hayward, 
 went to Port Jackson, New South Wales. The mission 
 now seemed to be broken up, only two missionaries re- 
 maining as "the forlorn hope." These felt more than 
 ever before that there was no success for them except 
 through divine aid. 
 
 But light was about to dawn. The reading of trans- 
 lations of the New Testament was having an effect on 
 the people. As a missionary once read the words, "God 
 so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life,' a native exclaimed, " Is that true ? " 
 When assured that it was true he replied, " Your God 
 is unlike our gods. Your God has love ; our gods 
 have only cruelty ; and we make offerings to them only 
 to propitiate them. But," he continued, "your God 
 has love for you, not for us." The missionary assured 
 him that the proffers of the gospel were for him and all 
 his people. He was greatly affected, and remained long 
 in deep meditation. 
 
 King Pomare also now became interested, and attend- 
 ed the preaching more regularly, and sent a message to 
 the missionaries at Port Jackson expressing deep sorrow 
 at their absence and entreating them to return. In the 
 latter part of the year, 181 1, five of them, Messrs. Bick- 
 nell, Davies, Henr}', Scott and Wilson, returned, and re- 
 sided with Messrs. Nott and Hayward at Moorea, in the 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLAND;-:'. 75 
 
 district of Papetoai, whither King Pomare had fled from 
 Tahiti. 
 
 About this time King Pomare made a striking test of 
 the power of his false gods. When a turtle, which was 
 considered a sacred animal, was brought to him for food, 
 instead of making the customary offering of a part of it to 
 the idol in the temple before eating it, he gave orders to 
 bake it at once, and when it was prepared proceeded to 
 eat it. The natives watched him with horror, expecting 
 to see him writhe in convulsions, and when they saw that 
 no harm came to him were much shaken in their belief re- 
 specting idolatry. 
 
 King Pomare now urged Tapoa, king of Raiatea, and 
 several chiefs of' that island, who were visiting Tahiti, to 
 unite with him in renouncing idolatry. One of these 
 chiefs, a brother of Tapoa, went a step further than Po- 
 mare, and burnt his idol, and ate breadfruit baked in its 
 ashes. 
 
 Pomare now returned by invitation to resume the 
 government of Tahiti, and there labored to dissuade the 
 people from worshipping idols, and to enlighten them 
 about the true religion. When the missionaries heard 
 what he was doing they sent two of their number, 
 Messrs. Scott and Hayward, to aid him. In the morn- 
 ing after their arrival Mr. Scott heard a native among the 
 bushes near their lodging engaged in prayer. It was 
 the first native voice in praise and prayer that he had 
 ever heard, and he listened almost entranced and with 
 tears of joy. The name of the native was Oito. He was 
 awakened to interest about the Christian religion by re- 
 
•j6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 marks made by the king, and had applied for counsel to 
 a man by the name of Tuahine, who had been a servant 
 of the missionaries, and with him and a number of others 
 had renounced idolatry and commenced the practice of 
 secret prayer. 
 
 The missionaries now took Tuahine and Oito to 
 Moorea, and with them made a tour of that island. On 
 the 25th of July, 1813, they dedicated a new chapel, 
 which they had built at the request of Pomare. During 
 the ceremony of dedication they gave notice that on the 
 following day a meeting would be held for those who 
 would be willing to renounce idolatry and worship the 
 true God. The result was that thirty-one natives made 
 Christian confession ; and in a few days eleven more 
 forsook their idols and covenanted to worship Jehovah. 
 A priest now, by the name of Patii, announced that on 
 the following day he would bum his idols. At the time 
 appointed a great number of the natives came together 
 to witness the performance, and were deeply impressed, 
 as he brought out his images one by one, tore off their 
 coverings of cinet and red feathers, and burned them, 
 calling upon the people to witness their inability to help 
 themselves. 
 
 These first successes of the missionaries occurred after 
 a long "night of sixteen years of toil." But the tri- 
 umphs that followed throughout all the Pacific were 
 worth all the toil and suff'ering they cost. 
 
 The devil of idolatry, however, did not go out of the 
 Tahitians without some tearing. In almost every in- 
 stance of the overthrow of idolatry in the Pacific the 
 
TAHITIAN BELLES. 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. T7 
 
 overthrow has been opposed by war. In this case the 
 heathen soon began to persecute the Christians. "It 
 had been customary for the priests to name certain 
 families from whom to select victims for sacrifice. 
 These selections were now made from the number of the 
 Christians. Many of the Christians fled to other islands, 
 and many who did not flee were sacrificed. At length 
 a midnight attack was planned for surprising and massa- 
 cring all the Christians. But a few hours before the 
 time appointed for the attack a secret hint was given to 
 the Christians, and they launched their canoes and fled 
 to Moorea." 
 
 Soon afterwards, by invitation of the idolaters, the 
 Christians, eight hundred in number, returned to Tahiti. 
 On the following Sabbath, November 12, 181 5, as they 
 were engaged together in prayer at Narri near Bunauia, 
 the idolaters attacked them in great force. The Chris- 
 tians had barely time to seize their arms and form three 
 columns, two near the beach and one in the rear to- 
 wards the mountains. In the latter column Mahine, the 
 king of Huahine, assisted, wearing a helmet covered 
 with plates of spotted cowrie, and ornamented with 
 plumes of tropic birds. His sister fought beside him, 
 clothed in strongly twisted native flax. The idolaters 
 drove in the first ranks, and pressed on towards Mahine 
 and his sister, when one of Mahine's men, Raveae, with 
 a spear killed Upufara, the leader of the heathen. On 
 learning of the death of their leader the pagan army fled. 
 Pomare now forbade pursuit and murder, and sent a 
 select band to Tautina to destroy the temple, altars. 
 
78 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 idols, and every appendage of idolatry they could find. 
 The idol, Oro, was now made a post for the king's kitch- 
 en, and finally cut up for fire-wood. Nearly all the 
 other idols on the island and also the temples and altars 
 were destroyed. Pomare sent twelve of the idols to the 
 missionaries in Moorea, with the request that they should 
 be sent to the Missionary Society in London. 
 
 The clemency Pomare now displayed, in pardoning 
 his defeated enemies, who according to ancient customs 
 would have been put to death, greatly affected the hea- 
 then ; and they almost universally abandoned idolatry 
 and united with the Christians in worshipping the true 
 God. 
 
 The missionaries at Moorea were overjoyed at hear- 
 ing of these events, and sent one of their number to Ta- 
 hiti ; and he was occupied for many days from morning 
 till night in religious conversation with the people. 
 Schools were now established everywhere, the worship of 
 idols renounced, infanticide and other abominations 
 of idolatry discontinued, and peace and prosperity 
 reigned. 
 
 While these encouraging events were occurring, the 
 directors of the London Missionary Society were discuss- 
 ing whether they should not recall these missionaries and 
 give up their mission in Tahiti, because of its apparent 
 failure. But Rev. Thomas Haweis, one of the founders 
 of the society, earnestly protested against this proposi- 
 tion, and made a new donation of $i,ooo for this mis- 
 sion. Rev. Matthew Wilkes remarked that he would 
 sell the clothes from his back rather than abandon the 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 79 
 
 mission, and proposed that a special season of prayer 
 should be observed in behalf of the Society-Islanders. 
 While these discussions were going on a vessel was on 
 her way from Tahiti bearing the news of the complete 
 downfall of idolatry in Tahiti and Moorea, and convey- 
 ing the rejected idols of the people. 
 
 The missionaries were unable to fully meet the de- 
 mand that now arose for books and translations of the 
 Bible. Especially was this the case when, in 18 17, Rev. 
 William Ellis arrived with a printing-press. The wonder 
 and delight of the natives at the marvellous machine 
 knew no bounds. They gathered from the surrounding 
 districts and from the other islands ; they filled the 
 houses of the district to overflowing, and temporary 
 sheds were erected for their accommodation ; and they 
 crowded together around the building in which the press 
 was operated, climbing on each others' shoulders and 
 darkening the windows, so eager was their curiosity to 
 see the wonderful machine and so desirous were they to 
 procure books. Some of them waited five or six weeks 
 before returning home rather than return without 
 books. 
 
 The natives now also aided the missionaries with 
 great enthusiasm in building school-houses and churches. 
 King Pomare provided the materials, and erected a house 
 of worship at Papaoa, on Tahiti, which measured 712 
 feet in length by 54 in breadth. This building contained 
 three pulpits, 260 feet apart. A watercourse five or six 
 feet wide crossed it in an oblique direction. It was a 
 natural stream from the mountains to the sea, and 
 
8o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 could not be diverted. For a church bell a thick 
 iron hoop was used, which was struck by an iron bolt. 
 In the same year, on the 6th of June, the first bap- 
 tism at the Society Islands was performed, when in the 
 presence of 4,000 people the king, the first subject of 
 this sacrament, was baptized, and after him many other 
 natives. 
 
 With new views of duty, derived from Christian expe- 
 rience, Pomare now began to feel the need of a better 
 S3'stem of governing his islands, and sought the aid of 
 the missionaries in making a written code of laws. 
 When this code was prepared he called a great assembly 
 of 7,000 of the natives and read it to them ; and they 
 unanimously voted to accept it. Copies of it were sent 
 to all the chiefs and it was afterwards rigorously enforced ; 
 so rigorously that the Queen-Dowager was afterwards 
 arrested for cutting down a tree of a poor man, and 
 made to pay restitution, which, however, the man 
 gallantly refused to receive. The result of the estab- 
 lishment of the code was a greater peace and order and 
 prosperity of the islands. 
 
 In the year 1821 King Pomare died in joyful Chris- 
 tian hope. He was succeeded by his son, who was only 
 four years old ; but the boy lived only a little over a 
 year, and was succeeded by his sister, who reigned with 
 the title, " Queen Pomare. " 
 
 The good work that had been accomplished in 
 Tahiti soon extended to the Leeward Islands ; for mis- 
 sionaries had occasionally labored in these islands from 
 the beginning of their work in Tahiti. Those of them 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 8 1 
 
 who fled from Tahiti in 1808 spent several months on 
 Huahine preaching the gospel. In 18 14 Mr. Nott and 
 Mr. Hayward visited Huahine and Raiatea, and made 
 the circuit of these islands preaching to the people. 
 The news of the downfall of the great national idol, 
 Oro, was carried to these islands, and shook the faith 
 of the natives in their idols. After the victory over the 
 heathen in Tahiti King Mahine sent Vahaivi, one of 
 his chiefs, to destroy the idols on his island of Huahine. 
 The other chiefs on that island at first opposed this, but 
 finally submitted. King Tapoa of Raiatea also, and 
 some of his chiefs, visited Tahiti, and listened to the 
 instructions of the missionaries, and on returning to their 
 islands publicly renounced idolatry, and persuaded many 
 of their people to follow their example. In the year 
 18 18 four missionaries removed from Moorea to Raiatea 
 and Borabora, and there found that many of the in- 
 habitants had renounced idolatry. But the idolatrous 
 chiefs in Raiatea, like those of Tahiti, resorted to arms 
 to maintain their paganism, and vowing vengeance on 
 the Christians for the destruction of the national idol, 
 Oro, erected a house of cocoanut and breadfruit trunks 
 in which to burn the Christians alive, and attacked the 
 Christians while they were engaged in prayer. A des- 
 perate conflict followed, in which the heathen were de- 
 feated. 
 
 The Christians followed up their victory with kind- 
 ness, instead of the customary barbarities, and pro- 
 claiming forgiveness for their prisoners conducted them 
 to a sumptuous feast. The heathen were so amazed 
 
82 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 at this clemency that they at once destroyed their idols 
 and temples. 
 
 In 1820 a house of worship was erected, on Hua- 
 hine, which was one hundred feet long and sixty wide, 
 and was plastered within and without with lime made 
 of coral from the reefs. Rustic chandeliefs were made 
 for it of light wood and cocoanut shells, and sliding 
 shutters for its windows. 
 
 From this time for many years the Mission greatly 
 prospered. In the year 1836 there were in Tahiti 2,000 
 natives in church fellowship, and in the other islands 
 969. To voyagers who had witnessed the former de- 
 graded condition of the natives the transformation they 
 had undergone was very surprising. Capt. Harvey, of 
 a whale-ship, made the following statement in 1839 re- 
 specting Tahiti : "This is the most civilized place I 
 have been at in the South Seas. It is governed by a 
 dignified young lady twenty-five years of age. They have 
 a good code of laws, and no liquors are allowed to be 
 landed on the island. It is one of the most gratifying 
 sights the eye can witness, to see on Sunday in their 
 church, which holds about five thousand, the Queen 
 near the pulpit, with all her subjects around her, decently 
 apparelled and seemingly in pure devotion. " 
 
 In all these islands idolatry was soon entirely abol- 
 ished, codes of law were established, and the natives 
 adopted the outward forms of Christian civilization. 
 
 And now to these islands, just rising out of the 
 night of heathenism and receiving a little of the light of 
 heaven, came in 1836 two cowled emissaries of the Ro- 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 83 
 
 man Catholic church. These priests soon contrived, as 
 has been described, to embroil the Windward Islands 
 with France, and to bring them under usurpation by 
 that country. The result was, that here one of the 
 most promising missions in the world was wrecked, and 
 in its place a sad reign of violence, intemperance and 
 lust was instituted. The French abolished the laws 
 against the importation and sale of ardent spirits to the 
 natives, placed the mission schools under the supervision 
 of their own officials, required that no language but 
 French should be used in the schools, and forbade con- 
 tributions to any foreign missionary society. 
 
 Under these circumstances the London Missionary 
 Society could only withdraw from its enterprise in 
 these islands. As the best alternative, it transferred its 
 missions in these islands to the Evangelical Society of 
 France. French priests have made great efforts to win 
 over the natives to the Roman-catholic religion ; but the 
 natives have been so well instructed by the English mis- 
 sionaries, and are so fortified by the translations of the 
 Bible they possess and use, that they have continued 
 firmly Protestant. 
 
 There are now in Tahiti sixteen churches with 1,663 
 members, in Moorea four churches with 360 members, 
 and in the Leeward Islands about i, 500 church-members. 
 But in all the Society Islands there has been a sad phys- 
 ical deterioration and mortality of the natives through 
 the intemperance and vice forced upon them by the 
 French. It is one of the miracles of missions that 
 there are still any churches at all in these islands, and 
 
84 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 one of the saddest facts of history that the rapacity of 
 an enlightened country has forced back into darkness 
 this poor people who were just groping their way out of 
 pagan night. The spirit of remorseless greed, thus 
 shown, differs from the self-sacrificing benevolence that 
 animated the missionaries as darkness from light. 
 
 The history of the Society Islands, subsequent to the 
 events recorded above, has been of a sad social and 
 religious relapse under the Roman Catholic jegime, and 
 finally of a happy revival through the labors of the Evan- 
 gelical French missionaries. At first the Paris Evan- 
 gelical Missionary Society was unable to prosecute with 
 vigor the work in this group committed to it by the 
 London Missionary Society. The Roman Catholic priests 
 and their lay-brothers and nuns could not exert any in- 
 fluence for good, since the natives believed that they had 
 been the chief agency for the subjugation of their group 
 to France. The French Government seemed to seek 
 rather to make of the group an enjoyable resort, than to 
 uplift the natives. The Government enacted good laws, 
 and ably executed them, constructed admirable roads and 
 bridges and wharves, but did little else for developing the 
 resources of the islands. A French Admiral once pro- 
 tested against the establishment of factories, because their 
 unsightly walls would mar the scenic beauty and the 
 screams of their steam whistles would break the delightful 
 stillness of the islands. Most of the government officials, 
 the priests, and other foreigners exerted on the native- 
 deplorable influences by their dissolute lives. It was gen- 
 erally remarked that France regarded the group as a 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 85 
 
 convenient place to which to send her dissipated young 
 men. With the influences of these residents and visitors 
 there was combined that of the warships, which were con- 
 tinually noored at Papeete, and which conducted every 
 two weeks gala-days of dissipation on shore. The French 
 Courts ruled that, inasmuch as the Tahitians did not 
 rebel, as the Marquesans did against France, after their 
 submission to that country, they were entitled, equally 
 with Frenchmen, to the privilege (?) of using intoxicating 
 liquors. The result was that the natives almost univer- 
 sally became intemperate, were greatly demoralized, and 
 rapidly diminished in number. 
 
 Amidst these discouraging circumstances, the evan- 
 gelical missionaries persevered, and in process of time 
 they were better sustained by the Paris Evangelical 
 Missionary Society, for this society gained strength by the 
 increasing growth of the Evangelical Church of France. 
 With the aid of this society the missionaries succeeded in 
 influencing the government to forbid the prolonged moor- 
 ing of war-ships at Papeete and the celebration of gala-days 
 on shore, to decree that French officials going for service 
 to the group should take with them their wives, and to 
 repress the drunkenness of the natives and the orange-rum 
 feasts they were accustomed to conduct in the mountains. 
 The government was also induced to subsidize steamers 
 for promoting the commerce of the islands with San Fran- 
 cisco, New Zealand and Australia. The French Courts 
 ruled that, inasmuch as Pomare ceded to France only 
 her Sovereignty, the lands belonged to the natives, and the 
 natives, feeling secure in the possession of them, labored 
 
86 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 more industriously to cultivate them and to improve their 
 homes. In the year 1896 and several subsequent years, 
 the vanilla pods, produced by the natives, brought fabu- 
 lous prices, and the natives realized from the production 
 of them Ln a small district sixty thousand dollars. What 
 to do with this suddenly acquired wealth they at first 
 hardly knew. Many of them invested their portions of it 
 in little cottages built of foreign lumber, others in horses, 
 carriages, sewing machines, melodeons, or buried their 
 portions of it in the ground under their huts, or committed 
 their portions to the care of merchants. Realizing thus 
 that they could live in the style of the white people, they 
 became more earnest to so do, and thus by the acquisi- 
 tion of new wants became more industrious. 
 
 As the natives are now engaging to a greater extent in 
 useful emplo3Tnents, and receiving encouragement from 
 the government, they are leading more quiet and orderly 
 lives ; their women, who formerly resorted to Papeete 
 rather from poverty than from evil impulses, now remain 
 at home ; and both men and women better attend and 
 better sustain their churches. Under the labors of the 
 French missionaries the membership of their churches 
 has increased from 3,000 to 5,000. From these churches 
 ordained native ministers have gone forth as foreign mis- 
 sionaries, of whom three have settled in the Marquesas 
 Islands, two in the Tuamotu Islands, one in the Gambler 
 Islands, and one in New Guinea. During the past year 
 the birth-rate in the group slightiy exceeded the death- 
 rate. Said a prominent Roman Catholic priest recently 
 to one of the missionaries : " It devolves on you and your 
 
THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 87 
 
 fellow-laborers to Christianize the Tahitians ; we cannot 
 do it." 
 
 Besides laboring for the natives in their churches and 
 in their schools and in an admirable collegiate institute 
 at Papeete, the French evangelical missionaries are sus- 
 taining successfully a church for the foreign residents at 
 Tahiti, and thus they are developing in both the native 
 and foreign populations a stable and prosperous Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 In 1902 the population of Tahiti was 9,613, of Moorea 
 1,530, of the Leeward Group, 4,53 r, the total of both the 
 Leeward and Windward Group 15,674. The exports, 
 consisting chiefly of copra, vanilla, mother-of-pearl shells, 
 oranges, pineapples and other fruits, are annually of the 
 value of $360,000. Sugar is produced, but only in suf- 
 ficient quantities for use in this French colony, since here 
 it has the advantage of a high tariff. The exports can 
 be greatly increased, for the islands are Eldorados of 
 resources for wealth, as well as Paradises of beauty. 
 
THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 
 
 Where the first missionaries landed in Tahiti great 
 cocoanut-trees bent over the bay and often dropped into 
 the waves ripened nuts, which, borne by ocean currents 
 to distant reefs, sometimes germinated and grew, and 
 aided in forming little Edens where previously had been 
 only the dreary expanse of ocean and shifting coral 
 sands. Thus from the same place the truths proclaimed 
 by the missionaries were conveyed by various agencies to 
 distant islands, and caused the blessings of Christianity 
 where had been only the evil and gloom of paganism. 
 Before the missionaries had gone to labor beyond the 
 Society Islands natives of the Austral group visited 
 them and listened with intense curiosity to their in- 
 struction, and on returning home persuaded their coun- 
 trymen to renounce idolatry and begin Christian wor- 
 ship. 
 
 The Austral Islands are situated 350 miles south of 
 Tahiti, between 21° and 22° south latitude and 145° 
 and 150° west longitude. They are of volcanic forma- 
 tion, and covered, like Tahiti, with a luxuriant tropical 
 vegetation. The island Rurutu, the most interesting of 
 this group, is five miles long and two wide, and rises to 
 1,200 feet elevation above the ocean. 
 
 In the year 1820 a fearful epidemic prevailed on 
 
THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 89 
 
 Rurutu, and two chiefs, believing that it was caused by 
 the anger of their gods, fled to the adjacent island, Tu- 
 buai, and there remained several months. In returning 
 home they were driven by a storm more than 300 miles ; 
 one of their canoes was lost, and the other, with a chief 
 by the name of Auura, safely reached Maurau, the most 
 westerly of the Society Islands. This chief and his com- 
 panions were surprised to find that here the pagan tem- 
 ples had been thrown down and the idols destroyed, and 
 that the natives were engaged in a new form of worship. 
 Learning that white men, who had come in ships, had 
 introduced the new religion and were residing on the 
 other Society Islands, they embarked in their canoe, and 
 on March 5, 1 821, arrived at Borabora, where they found 
 the missionaries, and continued four months under their 
 instruction. Auura was exceedingly diligent in the 
 mission-school, and soon was able to read the Gospel of 
 Matthew and to repeat the greater part of the catechism. 
 He now publicly renounced idolatry and accepted the 
 true religion, and as he began to think of returning to 
 his islands entreated that teachers should be sent with 
 him for his countrymen. Two native deacons, Maha- 
 mene and Puna, at once volunteered to go with him. 
 The Boraborans enthusiastically supplied them with the 
 necessary outfit and school-books and copies of the gos- 
 pel in Tahitian. They took passage for the Austral 
 Islands on July 5, 1821, taking with them a boat by 
 which to send back a report of their work. On the 9th 
 of the ensuing August, after a little more than a month, 
 the boat returned, bringing fourteen of the idols of Ru- 
 
go THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 rutu, to indicate that idolatry had been overthrown in 
 that island. 
 
 A meeting of the Borabora Church was at once 
 called by the missionaries, and a great multitude of the 
 people came together to hear the reports from Rurutu 
 and to see the idols. The boatmen related that as soon 
 as the chief, Auura, reached Rurutu, the people gathered 
 in great numbers to welcome him, and that he immedi- 
 ately informed them of the abolition of idolatry in the 
 Society Islands and of his conversion to Christianity, 
 and urged them to destroy their idols. At the same 
 time one of the teachers. Puna, proposed that, for a test 
 of the power of their idols, they should prepare a feast 
 in a place considered sacred, and of articles of food which 
 their religion forbade to women. They agreed, and pre- 
 pared the feast, and Auura, with the Tahitian teachers 
 and their wives, partook of it, while the natives looked 
 on expecting to see them fall in the agonies of death. 
 When on the next day they perceived that they contin- 
 ued unharmed they exclaimed that their priests had 
 deceived them, and hastened to destroy their temples. 
 The teachers from Borabora were now welcomed to give 
 instruction, and a chapel was built which measured 80 
 feet long and 36 wide. In this chapel "the railing 
 around the table in front of the pulpit and by the sides 
 of the stairs was composed of the handles of spears ; for 
 they had resolved to learn war no more, but to submit 
 to the Prince of Peace." 
 
 Among the idols exhibited in the meeting was one 
 called "Taaroa" (Kaneloa of Hawaii), the ancestral 
 
THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 9 1 
 
 god of Rurutu. It was a rude figure made of sennit in 
 the shape of a man, with an opening down the front, 
 through which it was filled with twenty-four small idols, 
 the family gods of the chiefs. 
 
 In the meeting in which this report was given the 
 Borabora people were roused to great enthusiasm to send 
 the gospel to other islands, and the missionaries re- 
 marked that they "felt some foretaste of the joy the 
 angels will feel when it is announced that the kingdoms 
 of our world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
 his Christ. " 
 
 As soon as the inhabitants of the neighboring island, 
 Tubuai, heard that idolatry had been abolished on Ru- 
 rutu they sent a deputation to Tahiti to obtain teachers 
 for themselves also. This deputation arrived at Tahiti 
 at a time when all that island was preparing for war. 
 They now requested the contending parties to postpone 
 hostilities till their application for teachers could be con- 
 sidered. The hostile chiefs assented and came together, 
 and in conferring about this mission enterprise became 
 reconciled to each other; the war was terminated and 
 messengers of the religion of peace sent to Tubuai. 
 
 From other islands of this group natives now went in 
 canoes, some of them a distance of 300 miles, to Tahiti, 
 to obtain books and teachers. Thus mission work was 
 commenced on Rimatara, Rapa, and Raivavai. The 
 English missionaries afterwards often visited these islands 
 to direct the work, which was wholly carried on by na- 
 tive teachers, and in a few years the entire population 
 renounced heathenism and embraced Christianity. 
 
92 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 In 1822 the missionary inspectors, Rev. Daniel Tyer- 
 man and Mr. George Bennet, visited these islands. They 
 reported of Rurutu as follows : "At daybreak, Septem- 
 ter 30, 1822, we distinguished an island seven miles 
 long which reminded us of the lovely scenery of Tahiti. 
 As we drew near we saw a high central peak with lower 
 eminences sloping towards the shore, and intervening 
 valleys through which ran fertilizing streams and luxuri- 
 ous tropical foliage, and at the head of a bay several 
 neat white houses built in English style. A pier one- 
 fourth of a mile long had recently been made of huge 
 coral blocks for a landing-place. Nearly the whole pop- 
 ulation were standing on the beach to receive us, and 
 they welcomed us with great joy and affection, the king 
 among them, Teuruarii, a young man sixteen years old, 
 of light complexion, and the two teachers from Borabora. 
 Mr. Ellis preached to two hundred people and baptized 
 thirty-one. The chief, Auura, now guardian of the young 
 king, said, "We have given up our island to Jesus Christ, 
 to be governed by him as our King. We have given our- 
 selves to him that we may serve him. We have given our 
 property to him for the advancem«nt of his glory ; we 
 have given him our all, and desire to be entirely his." 
 
 At Raivavai (High Islands) they found a chapel of 
 plastered wicker-work 180 by 40 feet, with forty- three 
 windows, eight doors, and with fifteen pillars — three 
 of which were ornamented with wreaths of human beings 
 carved out of solid wood. Here Mr. Henry preached 
 to 2,000 people and baptized fifty-two adults, among 
 whom were the king and queen. 
 
THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 93 
 
 At Tubuai, where eighteen months previous there had 
 been war, they found peace, and were welcomed by the 
 king. Here they held a meeting with a congregation of 
 270 persons. 
 
 On September24, 1832, Messrs. Whitney, Tinker and 
 Alexander, a deputation from Hawaii, visited Rurutu 
 on their way to the Marquesas Islands. 
 
 An account of their visit was published by Mr. Alex- 
 ander, from which the following quotations are made : 
 
 "When about six miles from Rurutu we were boarded 
 by six natives who came to us in a double canoe, the 
 whole exterior of which exhibited very neat carved work. 
 The sides and stem were tastefully ornamented with 
 feathers, and the whole was calculated to give a favor- 
 able impression of the ingenuity and enterprise of the 
 natives of Rurutu. They informed us that they were 
 in the enjoyment of peace and plenty, and that they 
 would be glad to receive a visit from us. We accord- 
 ingly lowered our boat and followed the canoe, which 
 led the way through the entrance between the reefs. 
 This entrance is quite intricate and dangerous, being 
 not more than ten feet wide. As the swell was heavy 
 the surf broke entirely across it ; we however reached 
 the shore in safety. Just at the landing a large flag of 
 white tapa was streaming in the wind, indicative of 
 peace. About thirty natives had assembled on the beach, 
 decked in the best their wardrobes could supply ; and 
 they welcomed us to their shores with many an ' / 
 orana,' 'Happiness attend you.' We were conducted 
 to a large framed house, neatly plastered, in which we 
 
94 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 found two large comfortable settees, a dining-table, and 
 several well-made boxes. Having seated ourselves till 
 some cocoanuts should be brought, almost the whole 
 population of the village came to say ' I orana.' All 
 the women that I saw were wearing bonnets, which the 
 wives of the Tahitian teachers had taught them to make. 
 
 "After being refreshed with the milk of the cocoa- 
 nut I took a stroll through the village, and was as 
 much surprised as delighted to find most of the houses 
 neat, substantial, framed buildings, well plastered, fur- 
 nished with settees, tables, bedsteads and boxes — all of 
 which, as well as their houses, the Tahitians had taught 
 them to make. Most of the people can read, and having 
 several copies of the Scriptures they still meet regularly 
 for worship, and read and pray together. 
 
 "Having procured a guide we set out to cross 
 over to the opposite side of the island, where was the 
 largest settlement. Before we reached the ascent we 
 passed through a delightful grove of tamanu, chestnut, 
 breadfruit, ironwood, hala, papaya, cocoanut, paper-mul- 
 berry, sugar-cane, bananas, etc. We passed by a large 
 bed of taro, tracts of sweet-potatoes, and a large orchard 
 of pineapples. We found the ascent steep and tiresome, 
 the part over which we passed being probably 800 feet 
 above the level of the ocean, the highest part of the 
 island being 1,200 feet high. The thick brakes and tall 
 grass which overhung our path sometimes almost covered 
 us. After resting awhile on the summit, under the shade 
 of the hau, we had just begun to descend when we met 
 a company from the village to which we were going. 
 
THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 95 
 
 loaded with spears and paddles, curiously wrought 
 iapas of various patterns, and paroquets, which they 
 were bringing over to trade with us. Before we reached 
 the foot of the hill we met several other parties who were 
 also loaded with similar articles for barter. Exchang- 
 ing the salutation, ' I or ana ,' we proceeded, entering as 
 we descended groves still more dense than those through 
 which we had first passed. 
 
 "The inhabitants of the village gave us a cordial 
 welcome. The first object that attracted our attention 
 was the church, which is a framed building, eighty by 
 thirty-six feet, the upright posts painted red, the interven- 
 ing spaces lathed and plastered. It has two windows in 
 front, one on each side of the door, one in each end, 
 and one on each side of the pulpit — which is really a 
 neat piece of workmanship. The railing on each side 
 of the stairs by which you ascend it is supported by 
 eighteen spear-handles. In front of the pulpit is a 
 neat painted desk for the clerk. It has a good floor 
 of the breadfruit wood and seats of the same material. 
 A large number of bamboos of oil are deposited at one 
 end of the house, and a pile of tapa in the pulpit, which 
 the natives have contributed to the London Missionary 
 Society to aid in sending the gospel to the heathen. 
 While we were surveying the church a large number 
 of the people assembled ; and though they could not 
 understand our language we did not consider it im- 
 proper to pray with and for them. Mr. Tinker there- 
 fore entered the clerk's desk sapng, 'E pule iatou, ' ' Let 
 us pray ;' and the whole assembly kneeled and behaved 
 
96 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 with iiiuch decorum while prayer was offered. The 
 church is in the centre of a yard enclosed by a neat 
 wooden fence, through which up to the door is a raised 
 pavement eight feet wide. Opposite the church we en- 
 tered a house of similar construction in which we were 
 pleased to find several copies of the Tahitian Bible, six 
 or eight well-made chests, two very comfortable bed- 
 steads, and two settees. After passing through several 
 similar habitations we were led, by one who seemed to 
 be the highest chief, to his house. Taking us into a 
 back room he presented each of us with a piece of iapa. 
 
 "There are in this village twenty-five frame houses 
 besides others, after the original fashion, made of bam- 
 boos. Taking it as a whole, I have seen no village in the 
 Pacific where the generality of the houses are so good, 
 or where the people appear more kindly disposed to- 
 wards missionaries. They were very anxious that one 
 or both of us should stop and live among them. Bid- 
 ding them an affectionate farewell we returned to the 
 other side of the island, and found the people assem- 
 bling to hear a sermon from Mr. Whitney. 
 
 When we reached the house where we first stopped 
 after landing we found a good dinner awaiting us, for 
 which our walk had sharpened our appetites. It con- 
 sisted of roast pig, taro, yam, breadfruit, and cocoanut- 
 milk. 
 
 "Just as we were embarking, to return to our vessel, 
 we were surprised with the salutation, ' How do you 
 do, gentlemen V from one who looked like a native. She 
 told us that she was a native of Pitcairn Island, from 
 
THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 97 
 
 which she had been absent eight years. She perhaps 
 could have given us more satisfactory information re- 
 specting the islanders than any one we had met ; but we 
 were necessarily in such haste that we could ask but few 
 questions. We therefore bade the people farewell and 
 pulled away to the schooner, passing through the reefs 
 much more easily than we had expected. 
 
 "The number of inhabitants on the island is some- 
 where between two and three hundred. The readiness 
 with which they parted with their spears showed their 
 present disposition for peace and good order. We trust 
 that their desire for a missionary to instruct them will 
 not long be indulged in vain, and that some one who 
 loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity will be sent to show 
 them the way of life. " 
 
 In 1846 these islands were again visited by Mr. Barff, 
 missionary of Huahine, who was greatly encouraged by 
 what he witnessed. Peace and purity prevailed among 
 the native believers ; the native agents were faithful and 
 zealous in their work, and their labors appeared to have 
 been crowned with the divine blessing. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Richards, of the London Society's 
 mission at Raiatea, gives an interesting account of a visit 
 which he made at Rurutu, Tupuai and Rimatara, in 
 company with Rev. Mr. Pearce, of New Guinea, in the 
 John Williams, in 1887. The object of the tour was 
 not merely to visit the native churches, but to secure 
 recruits for the mission in New Guinea. At Rurutu the 
 population is increasing, now amounting to seven hundred 
 and sixty; and their stone church, with walls two and one- 
 
98 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 half feet thick, will seat five hundred. The church mem- 
 bers number three hundred and eleven, somewhat less than 
 one-half the population. Everything indicates thrift and 
 careful cultivation, and the people are honest and indus- 
 trious. The chief trader said, "I could leave most of 
 them alone in my store without any fear of being robbed." 
 When their church was being built the Rurutans heard 
 that a large log of foreign wood had been washed ashore 
 on an island two hundred and twenty miles distant. They 
 at once put to sea, found and purchased the log, and 
 brought it to Rurutu, to make seats for their new church. 
 The Church gladly gave up one of their members and his 
 wife to go as missionaries to New Guinea. 
 
 The increase of the population of Rurutu, from 200 or 
 300 in 1833 (at the time of the visit of Mr. Alexander) to 
 750 (at the time of the visit of Mr. Richards), and the 
 morality and religious prosperity of the natives illustrate 
 the advantage of seclusion from the baneful influences of 
 unworthy civilized people ; for these islands lie away 
 from the usual routes of ships. 
 
 In the year 1890 the London Missionary Society 
 gave this mission into the care of the Paris Missionary 
 Society ; for these islands had passed under French rule. 
 French Protestant missionaries are already at work in 
 these islands ; and there will probably be a peaceful 
 development of the native churches on Protestant lines. 
 
THE PEARL ISLANDS. 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PEARL ISLANDS. 
 
 The influence of the Tahitian Mission extended, as 
 by a sort of electric induction, to other distant islands 
 besides the Austral group. Natives from remote parts 
 of the Pacific either visited Tahiti and returning home 
 bore tidings about the true religion, or heard the rumor 
 of the change of religion in Tahiti, and were thereby in- 
 fluenced to abandon idolatry and accept Christianity. 
 Thus in the Tuamotu, or Pearl, Archipelago, of which 
 an account will now be given, also in the splendid 
 island of Rarotonga, and even in far-away Hawaii, most 
 delightful results followed the "long night of toil " in 
 Tahiti. 
 
 The Tuamotu Islands are situated between 14° and 
 24° south latitude, and 134° and 148° west longitude. 
 At the southeast extremity of this group are the four 
 Gambier Islands, and further south Pitcairn Island, 
 famous for the Christian descendants of the mutineers of 
 the Bounty. 
 
 The Tuamotu Islands are of coral formation, and 
 have little vegetation but cocoanut and pandanus trees. 
 The fruits of these trees are the main reliance of the 
 inhabitants for subsistence. 
 
 " The Indian's nut alone 
 Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can. 
 Boat, cable, sail and needle, all in one." 
 
lOO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 What these islands lack in vegetable productions 
 and attractions of scenery is in a measure compensated 
 for by the products and beauties of their reefs and la- 
 goons, which yield an almost inexhaustible supply of 
 fish, and also pearls ; which latter have given them the 
 name, ' ' Pearl Islands. " At the time of their discovery 
 bags of pearls were found in the idol temples and pur- 
 chased with muskets. The pearls of the splendid neck- 
 lace of Empress Eugenie, and Queen Victoria's pearl 
 which is valued at $30,000, were obtained from these 
 islands. The pearl-shell itself, as well as the pearl, is 
 now an article of traffic. The cost of collecting the 
 shells is about $30 per ton ; and the amount realized for 
 them in London is $500 per ton. About 200 tons of 
 these shells are annually collected here. "The colonies 
 of pearl-shells are recruited every year by infant pearl- 
 shells, half an inch in diameter, like fairy coins, which 
 float in with the tide from the stormy outer seas during 
 the months from December to March. " 
 
 The phenomena of the lagoons and reefs of these isl- 
 ands are a ceaseless delight to all who visit them. Poetic 
 rhapsodies have been written about these aqueous gar- 
 dens, where the weird and the fantastic mingle with the 
 beautiful, where strange sea-urchins, hermit-crabs and 
 sea-centipedes roam among scarlet corallines, and bril- 
 liant fish flit like butterflies among polyp-anemones and 
 coral groves. 
 
 In the warm ocean of this latitude the coral polyp 
 grows to the highest perfection and with great rapidity. 
 "The French war-vessel, Dayot, once spent two months 
 
THE PEARL ISLANDS. loi 
 
 in the lagoon of Manga Rewa (of this group) and then 
 sailed to Tahiti ; and there specimens of living coral 
 were found attached to its copper sheathing, one of 
 which, discoidal in shape, with the upper and lower sur- 
 faces respective!}' convex and concave, measured nine 
 inches in diameter, and weighed two pounds and four 
 ounces. " 
 
 To view these islands and reefs, rising from depths of 
 four or five miles to the surface of the ocean through an 
 extent of more than 1,500 miles against the long sweep 
 of the fiercest billows of storms, is to be profoundly im- 
 pressed with the greatness of the work of the inert and 
 apparently insignificant polyps that have built them up. 
 Thus apparently unimportant agencies sometimes pro- 
 duce the vastest results. Thus in the higher realm of 
 human life forces despised as weak and insignificant have 
 prevailed against the greatest evils, and in these islands 
 the gentleness and love of Christianity have overcome 
 primeval heathenism and caused the blessings of the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The first missionaries to these islands were their own 
 inhabitants returning fiom exile. In the early part of 
 the reign of Pomare II. a number of these fled from their 
 homes because of war and landed in Tahiti, and there 
 came under the instruction of the London missionaries. 
 When the Tahitians renounced idolatry they too cast 
 away the idols which they had brought with them and 
 accepted the true religion. In the year 1827 they re- 
 turned home ; and one of them, Moorea, undertook to 
 instruct his countrymen respecting the true religion. At 
 
I02 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 first his people could hardly credit his account of the 
 abolition of idolatry in Tahiti, and charged him with de- 
 ception ; and he was obliged to flee for his life. But 
 soon afterwards others coming from Tahiti confirmed his 
 statements, and then the natives burned their idols and 
 destroyed their temples. 
 
 The natives of the neighboring islands now hearing 
 of these events went by hundreds a distance of 300 miles, 
 to Tahiti, to obtain books and to receive instruction, and 
 some of them before leaving Tahiti were received by the 
 missionaries into church fellowship. The missionaries 
 remarked that they seemed to be witnessing a fulfilment 
 of the promise, "The isles shall wait for his law." 
 
 In the year 1832 Moorea and another native, Teraa, 
 were ordained as evangelists and sent to Anaa, or Chain 
 Island, of this group. Not long afterwards a canoe from 
 this island brought to Tahiti the tidings that war, canni- 
 balism and idolatry had ceased, and that a house of wor- 
 ship had been erected in every district. 
 
 In 1839 Mr. Ormond, of the Society Islands Mission, 
 visited these islands, and addressed congregations of 300 
 or 400 persons and organized churches. 
 
 During the same year Commodore Charles Wilkes, 
 commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, 
 visited several of these islands, and was much impressed 
 with the good work that had been accomplished by the 
 native teachers. He said: "Nothing could be more 
 striking than the difference that prevailed between these 
 natives (those of Raraka, 15° 42' south, and 144° west) 
 and those of the Disappointment Islands (of the same 
 
THE PEARL ISLANDS. I03 
 
 archipelago). The half civilization of the natives of 
 Raraka was very marked, and it appeared as though we 
 had just issued out of darkness into light. They showed 
 a modest disposition to give us a hearty welcome. We 
 were not long at a loss what to ascribe it to : the 
 missionary had been at work here and his exertions had 
 been based on a firm foundation ; the savage had been 
 changed to a reasonable creature. Among the inhabi- 
 tants was a native missionary who had been instrumental 
 in this work. If the missionaries had effected nothing else 
 they would deserve the thanks of all those who roam over 
 this wide expanse of ocean and incur its many unknown 
 and hidden dangers. Here all shipwrecked mariners 
 would be sure of kind treatment and a share of the few 
 comforts the people possess." 
 
 In the year 1880 France took possession of this 
 Tuamotu Archipelago, and shortly afterwards the mis- 
 sion of this group was transferred by the London Soci- 
 ety to the Paris Missionary Society. The change of gov- 
 ernment was not as disastrous to the Pearl Islanders as 
 it was to the Tahitians. It is to be hoped that, in the 
 greater seclusion of these islands from the demoralizing 
 influences of enlightened races, the natives will continue 
 to grow in Christian civilization, and that, infinitely 
 more precious than the pearls for which traders visit their 
 lagoons, many of these dark-hearted natives will be up- 
 lifted to adorn the mission enterprise, and to shine at last 
 as jewels in the Redeemer's crown. 
 
 Since the subjugation of this group by France it has 
 grown in prosperity, and now it has a commercial impor- 
 
104 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ance that could not have beem dreamed of at the time 
 of its discovery by white men. At that time it seemed 
 to be, of all the groups in the Pacific, the most unsuitable 
 for the residence of mankind. It had no food-producing 
 plants but the pandanus, which yields an almost inedible 
 fruit, and almost the only subsistence of its inhabitants was 
 derived from its lagoons and the surrounding ocean. But 
 its dreary, almost submerged sand-banks, which seemed 
 fit only to be eyries of sea-birds or haunts of crabs and 
 turtles, have been found to have in proportion to their 
 area, the greatest resources for wealth of any of the French 
 insular possessions. The London missionaries introduced 
 the cocoanut, and this tree was propagated, and now it 
 yields abundance of food and very valuable copra for ex- 
 port. But a greater source of wealth has been found in 
 the pearl and pearl shells of which mention has been made. 
 When the McKinley tariff shut off from the United States 
 the pearl fabrics of Europe, factories for making such fabrics 
 were started in the United States, the price of the pearl 
 shells rose, and to procure them traders flocked in great 
 numbers to these islands. 
 
 The pearl shells abound in the shallow waters of the 
 lagoons, as oysters in the shoals on the American coasts. 
 "They bind themselves to the coral rocks by muscular 
 filaments, of the thickness of packthread and of irridescent 
 hues which change from dark green to golden bronze." 
 So strong are these filaments that only a strong man can 
 break one of them ; but the natives cut them with knives. 
 In the strong muscles out of which they grow pearls are 
 found. These do not abound in clean, well-conditioned 
 
THE PEARL ISLANDS. 105 
 
 shells, but in scabby, ill-appearing ones. Sometimes the 
 mistake is made of throwing away shells, because of their 
 worthless appearance. A native once left a homely shell 
 several days on the beach, thinking it worthless, and on 
 opening it found within it a pearl worth a thousand dol- 
 lars. An Englishman cooked such a shell, and after- 
 wards, as he was eating its contents, feeling a lump in his 
 mouth, took out a pearl that would have been wort hve 
 hundred dollars, if it had not been spoiled by the cooking. 
 In diving for the shells a native looks through a circular 
 glass, held just under the surface of the water to prevent 
 reflections of light by ripples, and, when he spies a shell 
 at the bottom of the lagoon, he dives downward for it, 
 descending to depths of from six to twenty fathoms. He 
 will remain under water from one ■ to two minutes ; but 
 the work is so exhausting that he can engage in it only 
 every other day. Those who do this work are short- 
 lived, and often die of heart disease or of congestion of 
 the brain. Recently diving machines have been intro- 
 duced, but the French Government objects to their use. 
 Ye: it has been proved that by them the beds in which 
 the shells lie are cleaned, as a garden may be cleaned of 
 weeds, and thus the quality of the shells is improved and 
 their quantity increased. It has been estimated that the 
 yield of the lagoons may thus be doubled. After a lagoon 
 has been fished, the French Government shuts it up for 
 five years, that a new crop may grow. Only about one 
 third of the lagoons have pearl shells ; but by a little 
 enterprise the French Government might plant those that 
 have none, and thus treble the yield of the group. 
 
I06 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Those who dive for the shells tell of singular sights they 
 see in the subaqueous regions, of strange avenues formed 
 by ocean currents through forests of coral, of splendid 
 masses of shells hanging in clusters from pendant rocks 
 and of curious and beautiful fishes that swarm around 
 them. They tell also of dangers attending their work. 
 Unless they are exceedingly careful their air-tubes become 
 entangled with the rocks, and their supplies of air cut off, 
 and they become unable to ascend. Sometimes they 
 unwittingly insert their feet between the valves of the 
 huge shells, tridacnas, and the valves close and hold 
 them till they are drowned ; and sometimes they are 
 annoyed and terrified by sharks. A diver was once 
 approached by one of these monsters, and it persistently 
 circled around him, drawing nearer and nearer. He 
 backed up against a rock, and when it was alarmingly 
 near, squeezed his helmet, so as to send forth bubbles 
 and scare it away ; but it returned again and again, and 
 finally drew so close that he placed his basket as a buffer 
 under his feet, signalled to his partner, and was quickly 
 drawn to his boat. 
 
 Formerly the natives had little conception of the value 
 of the pearls and shells, and traded them away for paltry 
 trinkets. A Mr. Brander of Tahiti, seeing a native with 
 a remarkably large pearl, induced him to sell it for ten 
 pounds of tobacco, and afterwards found that it was worth 
 a thousand dollars. He stationed a trader on one of the 
 atolls to buy shells, offering a yard of calico, worth about 
 twelve cents, for a cubic yard of shells, worth about five 
 hundred dollars. Returning to the atoU the following 
 
THE PEARL ISLANDS. 107 
 
 year, he found a great pile of shells collected -for himself. 
 He leaped upon the pile, swung his hat in the air, and 
 exclaimed " Good-bye, poverty ! " The pile brought him 
 a hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 The natives now know the value of the pearls and shells, 
 and charge for them all they are worth. By diving for 
 them they earn from ten to fifteen dollars a day. By 
 finding a pearl they sometimes realize much more. They 
 are therefore becoming wealthy, as compared with the 
 natives of the other groups. In place of their former 
 hovels of cocoanut thatch, they are constructing sub- 
 stantial houses of foreign lumber, and they are supplying 
 themselves with the comforts and luxuries of civilization. 
 
 Most of the natives have been brought into heavy 
 indebtedness to the traders. These, to oblige them to 
 collect shells, have sold to them at exorbitant prices and 
 on credit at high interest whatever merchandise they have 
 desired. The indebtedness, into which they have brought 
 them, amounts in the aggregate to a million dollars. 
 
 Some of the natives have displayed remarkable energy 
 in paying off debts. One of these, Napue, a half-caste 
 of Hakaroa, entered into partnership with a merchant of 
 Tahiti, and, by the merchant's recklessness, became in- 
 volved in a debt amounting to ?6o,ooo, due the firm of 
 McArthur, London. He arranged to settle for his share 
 of the debt by a payment of ^25,000. By desperate ex- 
 ertions he succeeded in making the payment. He still 
 contiuues to labor industriously. He employs five- 
 hundred natives in propagating cocoanut trees and in 
 planting the choicest varieties of tropical trees. For the 
 
I08 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 latter he imports rich soil by vessels that bring it as bal- 
 last, and take away cargoes of copra and shells. He has 
 become quite wealthy, and is virtually the king of his 
 island. 
 
 In the year 1896 the exports of this group were 450 
 tons of pearl shells, valued at ^225,000, and 6,000 tons 
 of copra, valued at ^66,000. Were the resources fully 
 developed the exports would probably amount in value 
 to a million dollars per annum. The population has been 
 diminishing. In r8g2 it was 3,600. 
 
 The people of this group and of Easter Island use in 
 their language many words not found in the languages of 
 the other Pacific Islanders. This fact, and the fact that 
 in Easter Island many of the ancient idols were repre- 
 sentations of alligators — animals not found in any islands 
 east of the Solomon Group — indicate that in ancient times 
 people of South America migrated to this group and to 
 Easter Island. 
 
 For many years after the seizure of this group by the 
 French the Evangelical Missionary Society of Paris was 
 unable to send missionaries thither. The result is that 
 the great mass of the people are in about equal numbers 
 Roman Catholic or Mormon. There are about three 
 hundred Evangelical Christians, and about the same 
 number of Seventh-Day Adventists. 
 
 Yet the good work performed in this group by the 
 London missionaries has had abiding results. It has pre- 
 vented the natives from becoming as degraded and 
 wretched as are the Marquesans who have been almost 
 solely under Roman Catholic training. The natives of 
 
THE PEARL ISLANDS. lOg 
 
 this group are a peaceful, law-abiding, and industrious 
 people. Few of them are ever convicted of crimes of 
 violence ; cases of murder are unknown ; the chief con- 
 victions are for drunkenness. The work of the London 
 missionaries made possible for them their present econ- 
 omic prosperity. Recently the evangelical missionaries 
 of Tahiti have here maintained two Tahitian missionaries. 
 
 In the middle of January, 1903, this group was swept 
 by a terrific storm from the northeast. The tremendous 
 surges, raised by the wind, overwhelmed the atolls and 
 swept away almost every house. Only the natives who 
 climbed to the tops of the cocoanut trees escaped. The 
 total number of deaths was five hundred and fifteen. 
 Eight hundred canoes and one hundred sail-boats were 
 wrecked or lost. 
 
 In February, 1906 a similar tempest swept over the 
 jroup and caused two hundred deaths. Because of these 
 ,;torms many of the natives have migrated to the Society 
 islands. 
 
no THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 
 
 After the influence of the Tahitian mission had 
 caused the wonderful changes that have been recounted 
 in the Austral and Pearl Islands the missionaries made 
 direct efforts to evangelize other groups. It had early 
 entered into their plans to make the Society Islands ra- 
 diating centres for mission enterprises to the rest of the 
 Pacific. In 1878 a great meeting was held at Tahiti in 
 which King Pomare proposed the formation of a society 
 to be auxiliary to the London Missionary Society, and 
 the assembly, to the number of 3,000, unanimously and 
 enthusiastically voted assent ; and the society was duly 
 organized. A few months afterwards a similar society 
 was organized in Raiatea. But these societies continued 
 inactive until the arrival of the boat bringing tidings of 
 the overthrow of idolatry in Rurutu, when they earnestly 
 proposed to send missionaries to other islands. 
 
 The first person to lead off in this new movement 
 was Rev. John Williams ; who had remarked that it did 
 not seem to him to fulfil his missionary obligation 
 for him to quietly labor for a few hundreds of people on 
 a single island while multitudes were in the darkness of 
 heathenism on other islands. With this view he took 
 the occasion of being obliged to go for his health to 
 New South Wales, to take native teachers to the Hervey 
 
1?JP 
 
 Heathen Village at Aitutahi, Hekvev Island. 
 
 Christian Village at Aituiahi, Hek\'ly Island. 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. m 
 
 Islands, and persuaded the captain of the vessel on 
 which he took passage to turn a little from his course 
 and convey them thither. 
 
 The Hervey Islands are fifteen in number, consisting 
 of six principal islands and nine small coral islets. They 
 are situated from 500 to 600 miles southwest of Tahiti, 
 between 18° and 22° south latitude and island 1630 
 west longitude. They are of three kinds : i. low coral- 
 line islands, rising but a few feet above the sea, having 
 little vegetation except cocoanuts, pandanus and stunted 
 hibiscus, of which class are the islands Hervey, Mauke, 
 and Mitiaro ; 2. elevated coral islands, which average 
 from 100 to 500 feet in height and are very fertile and 
 covered with luxuriant vegetation, of which class are 
 Aitutaki, Atiu, and Mangaia ; and, 3. one island of vol- 
 canic formation, the high and mountainous Rarotonga, 
 an island so picturesque and beautiful with its rocky 
 peaks and tropical vegetation that it has been well called 
 " the Queen of the South Seas. " 
 
 The inhabitants of these islands, unlike those of the 
 Society group, were somewhat addicted to cannibalism 
 and even more continually engaged in savage wars, and 
 in other respects equally depraved and barbarous. As 
 has been mentioned, in the year 1823 Mr. Williams vis- 
 ited Hervey Island and found that by frequent and ex- 
 terminating wars the population there had been reduced 
 to sixty in number ; six years afterwards he again visited 
 this island and found that the fighting had continued till 
 the only survivors were five men, three women, and a 
 few children, and these were still contendmg as to which 
 
112 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of them should be king. The island Mitiaro also was 
 almost depopulated by war and famine. 
 
 The history of the mission enterprises in these islands, 
 as told by Mr. Williams, from whose book the following 
 accounts are taken, reads like a romance. When Mr. 
 Williams arrived at Aitutaki the natives came off to his 
 vessel like the escaped inmates of an insane asylum, 
 dancing, shouting, and making frantic gestures. Mr. 
 Williams soon found that he could readily converse with 
 them in the Tahitian language, and informed them of 
 the downfall of idolatry in Tahiti and easily persuaded 
 them to receive two teachers to reside among them. 
 
 These teachers, on landing, were taken to a marae 
 (temple) and presented to idols and then robbed of their 
 property, and for many months afterwards were in great 
 privation and peril. After they had labored several 
 months a native of Raiatea brought them a supply of 
 school-books and hymn-books, with which he swam 
 ashore from a passing vessel. This native, on landing, 
 was taken to a marae and presented to an idol. Look- 
 ing up at the huge image he struck it, and asked the 
 people why they did not bum it, and advised them to 
 listen to their teachers. They replied that if Mr. Wil- 
 liams would return they would bum their idols. 
 
 The teachers finally gained an advantage by the fail- 
 ure of the priest to cause the recovery from sickness of 
 the king's favorite daughter, who died in spite of extraor- 
 dinary offerings to the idols. Disappointed and enraged 
 by her death, he ordered that all the idols and temples 
 should be destroyed. But the teachers persuaded him. 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 113 
 
 instead of destroying the idols, to send them as trophies 
 to Tahiti ; whereupon the whole popuJation, district by 
 district, the chiefs and priests leading the way, came and 
 cast down their idols at their feet. 
 
 The natives now proceeded to erect a chapel for the 
 worship of the true God, the teachers instructing them 
 how to build it ; also how to make lime from coral for 
 plastering its walls. The latter process at first amused 
 them, and some of them exclaimed in ridicule, "Let 
 hurricanes now blow down our breadfruit and banana 
 trees, we shall never suffer from lack of food ; for these 
 strangers are roasting stones. " But when they saw the 
 use made of the lime in forming the white walls of the 
 chapel they were filled with admiration and moved to 
 employ the same process in building houses for them- 
 selves. The chapel then built measured 300 feet by 30. 
 Its roof was completed in two days, and the whole build- 
 ing soon after. 
 
 Mr. Williams again visited Aitutaki eighteen months 
 afterwards, accompanied by a brother missionary, Mr. 
 Bourne, and by a number of native teachers for new 
 mission work on other islands. On arriving at this isl- 
 and, where not long before he had seen wild savages, he 
 was surprised and delighted to be greeted by the excla- 
 mations, " Good is the Word of God. It is now well 
 with Aitutaki. The good Word has taken root at Aitu- 
 taki." And his wonder and delight grew as he saw the 
 large chapel and the collections of discarded idols. In 
 passing through the village he saw two idols in use as 
 posts to support the roof of a kitchen, and bought them 
 
114 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ■with two fish-hooks. The owner gave them a kick as he 
 parted with them, saying, "Your reign is now over." 
 Mr. Williams preached in a chapel to a congregation of 
 2,000 people from the words of John 3:16. 
 
 It is delightful to imagine what must have been the 
 effect on those islanders of the truths proclaimed in that 
 discourse as well as in the instructions of the native 
 teachers. A little information from the outside world 
 had occasionally been brought to them by natives in 
 canoes driven by storms from other islands, and much 
 more by Capt. Cook and other navigators ; but never 
 had such a light dawned on them as came in that mes- 
 sage of God's love. "The people that sat in darkness 
 saw great light, and to them in the region and shadow 
 of death light sprang up." 
 
 Taking now on board his vessel a strange cargo of 
 the thirty-one discarded idols of Aitutaki, Mr. Williams 
 continued his missionary voyage, and soon came to the 
 island Mangai?, which is an elevated coral island twenty- 
 five miles in circumference, and has a population of 
 about 3,000. Here the natives were persuaded to re- 
 ceive two teachers ; but no sooner were they landed 
 than they were seized, robbed, and treated with great 
 brutality. The vessel then fired two cannon, which 
 frightened the natives away and gave the teachers an op- 
 portunity to escape to the vessel. 
 
 Soon after the departure of Mr. Williams an epidemic 
 on this island caused many deaths, which the natives 
 attributed to the wrath of the God of the white men be- 
 cause of their abuse of the teachers. They therefore 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 
 
 "5 
 
 gladly welcomed two unmarried Tahitian teachers who 
 were brought to them during the following year. 
 
 From Mangaia Mr. Williams and his companions 
 went to a little coral island called Atiu, and persuaded 
 the king of this island to come aboard the vessel, in- 
 formed him of the overthrow of idolatry at Tahiti, and 
 showed him the rejected idols of Aitutaki. " He was 
 profoundly impressed by what he heard and saw, and 
 especially by the reading of the following words of 
 Isaiah, ' With part thereof he roasteth roast and is satis- 
 fied, and the residue thereof he maketh a god, and wor- 
 shippeth it, and saith. Deliver me ; for thou art my 
 god.'" In the language of this island two words simi- 
 lar in sound expressed opposite ideas : moa, meaning 
 things sacred to the gods, and noa, things profane or 
 common, such as food. The chief now saw the folly of 
 making a god and cooking food from the same tree, 
 uniting the moa and the noa. His wonder grew as he 
 spent the night in conversation with the teachers ; and 
 he frequently arose and stamped with his feet in aston- 
 ishment. In the morning he informed the missionaries 
 that he would destroy his idols and welcome teachers. 
 
 Learning from this king that there were two more 
 islands under his dominion, Mitiaro and Mauke, islands 
 that had never yet been seen by civilized men, the mis- 
 sionaries persuaded him to pilot them thither. On arri- 
 ving at these islands they exhorted the people to renounce 
 idolatry, and by the aid of the king succeeded in per- 
 suading them to do so and to receive teachers. 
 
 Mr. Williams often afterwards visited these three isl- 
 
Il6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ands and was always gratified by the steady improve- 
 ment of the natives, and sometimes preached to congre- 
 gations of from 1,500 to 2,000 people. 
 
 Learning from the king of Atiu that there was an- 
 other island further south, Rarotonga, which had never 
 yet been seen by white men, the missionaries sailed to 
 search for it ; but baffling winds retarded their course, 
 their supply of provisions nearly gave out, and finally 
 they were about to give up the search when a sailor 
 from the mast-head descried this island in the distance. 
 It is thirty miles in circumference, very attractive with 
 lofty mountains and verdant valleys, and has a large area 
 of land under high cultivation between the mountains 
 and the ocean. The population at that time was about 
 7,000. 
 
 On the arrival of the vessel the king of this island 
 came on board and readily consented to receive two 
 teachers and their wives. But the next morning these 
 teachers returned in a canoe in a pitiable condition, with 
 a sad tale of brutal treatment they had received ; for a 
 chief of a neighboring district had endeavored to take 
 the wife of one of them for his harem, in which he 
 already had nineteen wives, and she was rescued only 
 after a desperate struggle. One of the unmarried teach- 
 ers, Papeiha, now oflfered to go ashore alone, if another 
 teacher, whom he named, should be sent to labor with 
 him, and the project was approved ; and with nothing 
 but a Testament and a few school-books he swam ashore, 
 and after a little rough treatment was permitted to dwell 
 in peace among the people. 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 11/ 
 
 A beautiful illustration was now discovered of the 
 influence of the Tahitian Mission on distant groups. A 
 woman from Tahiti had come to this island and informed 
 its people of the arrival at Tahiti of white men from for- 
 eign lands, of their superior utensils, of their knives, 
 axes, and looking-glasses, and of their new form of re- 
 ligion, and had made such an impression on them that 
 one of their chiefs had named one of his children Te- 
 hova (Jehovah), and another Jelu Terai (Jesus Christ) ; 
 and thus they were partly prepared to receive Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 It was a delightful thought to Mr. Williams that the 
 first message from the outside world to this island and 
 to Mitiaro and Mauke was the gospel ; which was al- 
 most as wonderful and joyful to the natives in their deep 
 darkness as the glad tidings that angels sang to the an- 
 cient shepherds in Bethlehem. 
 
 Overjoyed at having discovered these islands and 
 introduced the gospel as the first message to them Mr. 
 Williams and his companion now returned to Raiatea, 
 and as they approached that island hung out on the 
 yard-arms of their vessel, as tokens of the success of 
 their voyage, the thirty-one idols which they had taken 
 from Aitutaki. "The natives of Raiatea were greatly 
 moved by these visible evidences of the downfall of idol- 
 atry in Aitutaki. " 
 
 The assistant teacher who was asked for by Papeiha 
 was soon afterwards sent to him, and they together 
 visited all the chiefs on Rarotonga and reasoned with 
 them about the folly of idolatry. Impressed by their ex- 
 
Il8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 hortations, one of the priests at length brought a great 
 idol to destroy it. A crowd of the natives followed him, 
 calling him a madman, and when he applied a saw to 
 the head of the idol they fled in terror into the thick- 
 ets. When however they saw that no harm came to the 
 priest they returned, and when he proceeded to roast 
 bananas in the ashes of the idol and to eat them they 
 were convinced of the folly of their superstitions. Hear- 
 ing of these acts of the priest the chiefs now renounced 
 idolatry, and proceeded to erect a chapel for Christian 
 worship. And so it happened that, within a year after 
 the discovery of this island, its idols were abandoned, 
 and a church-building 600 feet in length erected for the 
 worship of the true God. 
 
 When Mr. Williams returned to this island, as he did, 
 accompanied by his wife, in 1827, for a permanent resi- 
 dence, he was treated to a novel public reception. By 
 request of the teachers he took a seat in front of one 
 of their homes and then the natives came in procession 
 from different districts and deposited fourteen idols at 
 his feet. "Some of these idols were torn to pieces be- 
 fore his eyes ; others were used to decorate rafters of a 
 chapel, and one was sent to England." 
 
 Mr. Williams now gained a new influence with the 
 people by the wonder that was excited by the art of 
 writing. Having one morning forgotten to take a car- 
 penters square to his work of building a chapel he wrote 
 on a chip a message to his wife, requesting her to send 
 the square to him, and asked a chief to take the chip to 
 her. The chief at first incredulously refused to do so, 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. HQ 
 
 but after a little urging complied, and was greatly 
 amazed when Mrs. Williams handed him the square. 
 Holding up the chip, he ran through the village exclaim- 
 ing, "These Englishmen make chips talk." The con- 
 sequence was that, when the matter was explained, the 
 natives were very eager to learn to read and to receive 
 the other instructions of the missionaries. 
 
 A touching illustration of their eagerness to learn the 
 way of life was afforded in the case of a cripple, who by 
 disease had lost his hands and feet but was exceedingly 
 industrious in tilling the ground and raising food for 
 his wife and three children. As he was unable to 
 go to hear Mr. Williams preach he sat beside the road 
 and inquired of one and another of the natives, as they 
 were returning from the meetings, what Mr. Williams 
 had said, and thus acquired enough knowledge to be- 
 come a sincere Christian. 
 
 On the 2 1 St of December, 1831, Rarotonga was vis- 
 ited by a terrific hurricane, which lasted three days and 
 destroyed nearly every house on the island, and pros- 
 trated thousands of breadfruit trees and hundreds of 
 thousands of banana trees. The ocean increased the 
 destruction, rolling in great waves far up on the land, 
 and carried the missionary vessel several hundred feet 
 inland. It was only with great difficulty afterwards drag- 
 ged back to the ocean and repaired. In this storm the 
 families of the missionaries suffered greatly ; but they 
 found refuge with the natives in the sheltered nooks of 
 the mountains. 
 
 In many other respects it was not all sunshine for 
 
I20 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Mr. Williams and the other missionaries who afterwards 
 came to aid him in this beautiful island. Clouds more 
 appalling than those of hurricanes sometimes gathered 
 over them. Their lives were repeatedly darkened by dire 
 bereavement, graves were made for their little ones and 
 wives near their homes, there were defections of hopeful 
 converts and occasional outbreaks of fiendish character 
 in their churches. As the rocks loomed up throiigh the 
 bright foliage around them so griefs and discouragements 
 rose through the triumphs of their heaven-like enterprise. 
 But the holy joy they experienced in their work far sur- 
 passed their sorrows. 
 
 The London Missionary Society at length located 
 two missionaries, Messrs. Buzacot and Pitman, on 
 Rarotonga to labor in conjunction with Mr. Williams, 
 and by their joint labors churches were organized in all 
 parts of the island, the chiefs were influenced to form 
 codes of law for governing the people, and the Avarua 
 Institution was established, from which many native 
 missionaries went to other groups of islands. 
 
 Of the progress of the mission work in the island Mr. 
 Bourne testified in 1825 : "Much has been said concern- 
 ing the success of the gospel in Tahiti and the Society 
 Islands ; but it is not to be compared with its progress 
 ii. Rarotonga. In Tahiti European missionaries labored 
 (ill- fifteen years before the least fruit appeared. But two 
 years ago Rarotonga was hardly known to exist, was 
 not marked on any of the charts, and we spent muc)i 
 time in traversing the ocean in search of it. And now I 
 scruple not to say that the attention of the people of 
 
mil 
 
 J 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 121 
 
 this island to the means of grace, their practice of fami- 
 ly and private prayer, equals whatever has been witnessed 
 in Tahiti and the neighboring islands. And when we 
 look at the means it becomes more astonishing. Two 
 native teachers, not particularly distinguished among 
 their own countrymen, have been the instruments of 
 effecting this wonderful change, and that before a single 
 missionary had set his foot upon the island. " 
 
 The last visit Mr. Williams made to this island was 
 in 1834. Of the change in the condition of the people 
 he said, "When I found them, in 1823, they were igno- 
 rant of the nature of Christian worship ; and when I 
 left them, in 1834, I am not aware that there was a 
 house in the island where family prayer was not observed 
 every morning and every evening. '' 
 
 In 1 84 1 the directors of this mission reported "that 
 in Rarotonga the Christian churches presented a most 
 impressive and animating aspect, both as to numbers 
 and character ; and the social and moral character of 
 the people, a few years previous loathsome and terrific, 
 was then pure and peaceful. One of the most consist- 
 ent members of the church, and an active evangelist, 
 was in the days of his youth a cannibal. An institution 
 was commenced about this time at Avarua for the train- 
 ing of native missionaries, in which young men are in- 
 structed in Christian theology and other branches of use- 
 ful knowledge." 
 
 In 1888, Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, in a meeting in Lon- 
 don, gave a statement of his work as a missionary in the 
 Hervey Islands since 1851. "He spoke of the former 
 
122 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 condition of the people, of their love of revenge and 
 of their human sacrifices, of the bloody feuds that existed 
 among them, of the rule, followed by all, of keeping 
 alive only two children in a family, and of the whole 
 aspect of their life as something fearful ; and stated that 
 all this had been changed through the influence of 
 Christianity. He remarked that to see a people who 
 once were cannibals partaking of the Lord's Supper 
 has been most delightful. Looking around upon this 
 assembly gathered for this purpose he had seen the 
 bread administered by one to a man whose father that 
 man had murdered, or the reverse. He stated that 
 the work of evangelization in many of the South Pacific 
 Islands had been done almost entirely by natives trained 
 in the Avarua school ; that hundreds of these natives 
 have sacrificed their lives to carry the gospel to their 
 brethren, and that sixty of Mr. Gill's own church have 
 been killed while acting as missionaries." 
 
 In the year 1853 the writer, while on a voyage from 
 Hawaii to the United States by way of Cape Horn, 
 visited Aitutaki and Rarotonga in company with a son 
 of the missionary Rev. D. B. Lyman, of Hawaii. At 
 Aitutaki we landed on a coral pier which measured 600 
 feet in length and eighteen in breadth, and which had 
 .been constructed by the natives in 1826. A great mul- 
 titude of the natives had come together on this pier to 
 shake hands and to give the friendly greeting, " Orana" 
 (happiness to you), a reception quite unlike that once 
 previously given to a company of shipwrecked sailors 
 who, before the coming of missionaries, landed at this 
 
THE IIERVEY ISLANDS. 1 23 
 
 place and were immediately seized by the natives, 
 dragged into the thickets, and killed. 
 
 About the first object that attracted our attention was 
 a handsome church built of hewn coral, not far from 
 the beach. Inquiring for the missionary, we were con- 
 ducted to the residence of Rev. Mr. Royle, who occu- 
 pied a comfortable building embowered under noble 
 orange trees. Very kindly Mr. Royle provided horses 
 and a guide, by which we went across the island (only 
 three miles wide and nine long.) In our ride we passed 
 through a continuous garden of great beauty and fruit- 
 fulness. Great forest-trees, a species of banyan, the hau, 
 and the kukui, grew beside the path, while cocoanut, 
 breadfruit, orange and banana trees everywhere abound- 
 ed. The interior was covered with jungle, but there 
 were clearings planted with potatoes, yams, tare, and 
 pineapples. The houses of the natives were substantial 
 buildings, constructed with hewn coral and masonry, 
 and surrounded by delightful gardens enclosed with 
 coral walls. 
 
 We scarcely saw a woman on the island ; for they 
 had well learned to conceal themselves when ships ar- 
 rived. Mr. Royle informed us that often seamen, en- 
 chanted by the beauty of this island, would desert their 
 ships, but invariably in a few weeks they would be 
 wearied of the monotony of life in this quiet island, and 
 eager to embark on any vessel coming thither. 
 
 Just as we were about to return to our ship we were 
 sent for by the natives, and going with them found a 
 great crowd assembled who opened a way for us to 
 
124 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 come into their midst. We were then addressed by the 
 chief of the island, who presented us with an immense 
 quantity of fruit, vegetables and curios, as a token of 
 the regard he and his people entertained for missiona- 
 ries and their children. We thanked them for their 
 generosity, and bade them a frienly adieu. 
 
 We found the island Rarotonga even more attractive 
 than Aitutaki. It combined with the beauty of luxuriant 
 tropical vegetation the grandeur of lofty mountains and 
 magnificent valleys, and was strikingly picturesque, with 
 rocky spires and jutting crags rising out of its sea of 
 foliage. Here, too, we found a fine church ; and en- 
 joyed the kind hospitality of the veteran missionary 
 Rev. Mr. Buzacot. He informed us that a few years 
 previous a great hurricane had blown down one-half the 
 trees of this island. Yet, as we went about with him 
 along the shore and far up one of the valleys, we seemed 
 to be walking under a continuous shade of orange, 
 banana, and other trees. The natives were a fine-looking 
 people, and seem to lack little more than the color, the 
 wealth, the outward garb of enlightened races to rank 
 with civilized communities. It was a great pleasure 
 to meet these veteran missionaries, witness the wonder- 
 ful results of their labors, and pass for a few brief hours 
 from the tedium of a long sea voyage into the enchant- 
 ment of these tropical islands. 
 
 In 1889, by the invitation of the chiefs and people of 
 the Hervey group, a British Protectorate was proclaimed 
 over their islands. This at present means simply that no 
 other nation is to be allowed to annex these islands. 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 1 25 
 
 In the Report of 1891 of the London Missionary 
 Society it is stated that "with the increase of their 
 wants in their growing intelligence there has been an in- 
 crease of thrift and industry ; that they are building 100- 
 ton vessels, and extensively engaged in planting coiTee 
 and cotton." 
 
 A correspondent of a newspaper of Auckland testifies 
 that "the Rarotongans are the most advanced of all the 
 South Sea islanders in European industrial civilization. 
 They have become efficient artisans and mechanics ; they 
 build houses after the colonial type, also wagons and 
 boats ; they work extensive plantations and cotton gin- 
 ning machines ; they are good seamen, valued for their 
 docility, industry, and contented disposition. They 
 cultivate largely oranges and limes : of the former they 
 export millions ; from the limes they express the juice 
 and ship it in small barrels, some 2,000 gallons yearly 
 being sent away from the island. They also export cot- 
 ton, coffee, bananas, arrow-root, and copra. Thus they 
 thrive, are contented and happy, because free and unop- 
 pressed, and at liberty to enjoy the fruits of their labors. " 
 
 One instance of the benevolence of the natives of 
 Mangaia illustrates the Christian character of the people 
 of the Hervey Islands. In the Report of the London 
 Missionary Society for the year 1892 it is stated that the 
 people of Mangaia, in number about i,goo, after paying 
 all their school and church expenses and the stipends of 
 three native pastors, contributed for general missionary 
 enterprises upwards of $1,700. 
 In the year 1906 the author re-visited this group, going 
 
126 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 thither by a steamer plying between Auckland and Tahiti. 
 The steamer touched first at Mauke, an island two miles 
 wide, and at its highest point one hundred and twenty 
 feet high. It is called an elevated coral island, but it is 
 as truly of volcanic formation as the other islands of this 
 group and those of the Tonga and Fiji groups. Like them 
 it is composed at its centre of volcanic rocks and soil, and 
 has between the centre and the shore an expanse of 
 elevated coral reef fifty feet high and from a quarter of a 
 mile to a mile in breadth. In the centre of this island 
 there is an extinct crater, three hundred feet broad and 
 sixty feet deep, from which several caves, the ancient 
 conduits of lava-flows, extend to the ocean. 
 
 The Ex-Resident, Mr. Exham, told of an exciting ex- 
 perience he once had in such a cave on the adjacent island, 
 Atiu. He entered the cave to catch eels, two feet long, 
 in a stream flowing through it, and stumbled and fell and 
 extinguished his torch in the water. As the cave had 
 many branches, he was obliged to remain in it till noon of 
 the next day, when his friends came and guided him out. 
 
 The plain of elevated coral reef along the shores of this 
 island has been fertilized by soil, washed by rain torrents 
 from the volcanic area, and is covered with a dense jungle 
 of trees, all mantled with vines and parasitic ferns. 
 
 This island and the other islands of this group are of 
 great interest, because here Christian Missions have had 
 their best opportunity. As has been mentioned, the first 
 message from enlightened countries to this group was the 
 Gospel. By its isolation away from the usual routes of 
 ships, this group has escaped the contaminating and de- 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. \2J 
 
 structive influences that come from civilized countries ; and 
 now, as it is more frequently visited by ships, it has secured 
 the protection and assistance of Great Britain. In 1888 
 the chiefs, fearing that the group would be seized by 
 France, sent Queen Makea, of Rarotonga, to New Zealand, 
 to apply for a British Protectorate. A British warship 
 was at once dispatched, and its Commander raised the 
 British Flag at Rarotonga, proclaiming the Protectorate 
 over the entire group. This Act was a great surprise to 
 the French, who at that time were far advanced in intrigues 
 for possession. In 1901 the group was incorporated with 
 Great Britain ; a British Resident was stationed at Raro- 
 tonga ; and it was arranged that a Legislature and Judiciary, 
 conducted mostly by natives, should rule the group, subject 
 to the New Zealand Government. 
 
 In the island, Mauke, there has been an illustration of 
 the ancient savage ferocity of its people. Its present in- 
 habitants are not descendants of its original people. 
 Many years ago a tribe from Atiu, went thither and killed 
 every man, woman and child on the island, and the present 
 inhabitants are descendants of that tribe. 
 
 At the time of our arrival a great multitude of the natives 
 were assembled on the beach, awaiting opportunity to ship 
 freight by the steamer. They were clothed in the style of 
 the Tahitians, and many of them wreathed with flowers 
 and alyxia vines. Their King indicated his royalty by a 
 black alpaca suit with brass buttons and a red sash around 
 his waist. All day the men waded in shallow water over 
 a coral bench five hundred feet, carrying great crates of 
 oranges, two men to a crate, to boats tossing in the surf 
 
128 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 on the outer edge of the reef. Fifteen hundred crates 
 were thus taken off to the steamer ; and this seemed to be 
 only a beginning of shipping the fruit of this little island. 
 The passengers of the steamer were in the same way 
 conveyed ; but the natives cheerfully did the service, for 
 the pay they received. 
 
 A broad road led from the beach to the settlement, 
 which consisted of houses of white-washed coral, covered 
 with pandanus thatch or with corrugated sheets of iron. 
 Amidst the houses was a massive church and a fine school- 
 house. The floors, pews, pulpit and ceiling of the church 
 were of breadfruit and callophyllum timber. In the 
 dwelling-houses were foreign furniture, neat matting on the 
 floors, and large Bibles on the tables, and around the 
 houses orange, cocoanut, coffee and banana trees. 
 
 Leaving this island in the evening, we passed by the 
 islands Atiu and Mitiaro, and the next morning arrived at 
 Aitutaki, an island three miles wide, nine long, and three 
 hundred and sixty feet high. Before us was an extensive 
 lagoon over which fishing canoes were gliding to and fro ; 
 at the extremities of the island were charming islets covered 
 with cocoa palms ; and over all the island there was a 
 magnificent forest, plumed with cocoanut fronds. On this 
 little island there are three massive churches, one of them 
 one hundred and forty feet long and forty feet wide. We 
 are informed that this supply of churches was not excessive 
 for so small an island, and that these churches were often 
 filled to overflowing. 
 
 We arrived at Rarotonga during the celebration of the 
 Centennial of the London Missionary Societ)'. The 
 
THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 129 
 
 natives were hastening in great numbers to their six large 
 churches for attendance at the celebration. They were 
 admirably attired, even the children were neatly clothed, 
 tlie iittle lads with white suits and red sashes around their 
 waists, and the little girls with dainty pink and white 
 dresses. At Avarua an immense assemblage were listening 
 with rapt attention to accounts of the great work of God 
 throughout the world during the previous century. The 
 singing was singularly enlivening, a combination of their 
 ancient chants with foreign melodies. 
 
 We secured a carriage drawn by a fine span of horses, 
 and made the circuit of the island, which is only eighteen 
 miles in circumference, in two hours. Much of our route 
 was through luxuriant forests growing on the elevated 
 bench of coral. We passed through six towns of white- 
 washed coral houses, surrounded by attractive lawns, and 
 observed in each of the towns a large church and a school- 
 house. At the base of a ridge waving with palm plumes 
 we found the missionary's house and the Avarua Institute, 
 near together, in an extensive lawn of bermudas grass, 
 interspersed with clusters of blooming oleander. 
 
 The natives of this group have the reputation of being 
 the most industrious and enterprising of the Pacific 
 islanders. They build vessels of a hundred tons burthen, 
 and gather from their remote ports and from the Austral, 
 Gambler and other islands freight for the steamers plying 
 between their ports and New Zealand. They generally 
 own the lands on which they reside, and they are forbidden 
 to sell the lands without special permits "Tom their legis- 
 lature. The result is that they are in independent cir- 
 
130 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 cumstances, and are secure against becoming "hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water " to the foreign population 
 coming into the group. 
 
 The exports are chiefly copra, oranges, pineapplesj 
 coffee, bananas, vanilla, and lime-juice. The lime-juice is 
 extracted by trampling the limes in canoes, and is used in 
 New Zealand for cleaning wool. The most profitable 
 product is copra. The cocoanut costs little to plant and 
 cultivate, comes into bearing in five years, yields annually 
 seventy to two hundred nuts, and a profit of ;?4o to ^80 an 
 acre. In 1904 the total exports were worth ^191,000. 
 For a group, only 142 square miles in area, and with only 
 one-third of that area under cultivation, this is not a bad 
 showing. 
 
 The Government has strictly forbidden the sale of in- 
 toxicating liquors to the natives, except in cases in which 
 a physician and a missionary jointly recommend it. Since 
 foreigners must have stimulants, sales to them of intoxicants, 
 kept in bond by the Government, are permitted, by orders 
 on the Government for three bottles apiece per week. 
 
 The natives are peaceful, law-abiding and prosperous. 
 There is not a pauper among them. The foreign residents 
 testified to the author that the natives could more generally 
 read and write, and were on an average more moral and 
 more religious than are the people of England and the 
 United States, and that they were increasing in number. 
 
 In 1905 the population was 5,961, the number of 
 church-members 2,430, and of ordained ministers 20. 
 Many of the natives are laboring heroically as missionaries 
 in New Guinea. 
 

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 13 1 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers, who left their native land and 
 crossed the ocean and braved the horrors of the Ameri- 
 can wilderness to obtain civil and religious liberty, 
 founded the most prosperous and progressive nation of 
 human history and created a new era in the world. 
 But a higher movement began when there went out 
 from the United States and other enlightened countries 
 pilgrims seeking not so much to establish their own 
 rights as to promote the welfare of others, and even to 
 lift up and save the most unworthy and degraded of 
 mankind — a movement which promises to transform the 
 whole human race and bring in the latter-day glory of 
 the world. 
 
 In America this movement began by the organiza- 
 tion of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
 eign Missions, which was formed on September 5, 18 10, 
 at Farmington, Conn. This Society, like the Lon- 
 don Missionary Society, was at first undenominational. 
 For many years after its organization it was connected 
 with the Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed 
 and Reformed German Churches. Its first mission enter- 
 prise was to India in 1813 ; its next was to Palestine in 
 1819 ; and almost simultaneous with the latter began its 
 mission to the Hawaiian Islands. As the British socie- 
 
132 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ties had undertaken the evangelization of the islands of 
 the South Pacific this American Association directed its 
 attention to those of the North Pacific ; and in process 
 of time there was an agreement that the Equator should 
 be the boundary between their respective missions. 
 
 So many descriptions of the Hawaiian Islands have 
 been published in the United States that to describe 
 them to Americans is like describing parts of their own 
 country. But a brief description seems necessary for a 
 clear understanding of their history. 
 
 The name, Hawaiian Islands, has recently taken the 
 place of that of Sandwich Islands, which was given by 
 Capt. Cook in honor of his patron, Lord Sandwich ; 
 and sometimes this group is called simply Hawaii, a 
 name derived from its principal island. 
 
 The Hawaiian Islands are the only important islands 
 in the North Pacific east of Micronesia. The cosmic 
 forces that upheaved the lands from the ocean seem to 
 have been exerted in the North Pacific in forming this 
 one principal group, which, perhaps for that reason, is 
 the larger, loftier, and better adapted for a great popula- 
 tion. But in the North Pacific there is a system of nu- 
 merous islands like that of the South Pacific, only in the 
 North Pacific the islands have not been fully developed, 
 or many of them have been lost by subsidence. Chains 
 of embryo or rudimentary islands are found extending 
 from southeast to northwest throughout the North. 
 Thus near the Equator are the coral islands, Christmas, 
 Fanning, Washington and Palmyra ; and the Hawaiian 
 group extends on northwest about twenty degrees be- 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 33 
 
 yond Kauai in several rocks or coral islets, and in the 
 other direction from the other extremity, from Hawaii, 
 in submarine islands, one of which, discovered by deep- 
 sea soundings, is 200 miles from Hawaii, and two miles 
 high where the ocean above it is a mile and a half deep. 
 
 The Hawaiian Islands are therefore "the summits 
 of a gigantic submarine mountain range, their highest 
 mountains rising to nearly 14,000 feet above the ocean, 
 and their bases extending downwards to from 15,000 
 to 18,000 feet below it. Referred to the bottom of the 
 ocean these islands are higher than the Himalayas." 
 (Capt. C. E. Button.) 
 
 The Hawaiian Islands are situated between the par- 
 allels 18° 50' and 23^ 5' north latitude, and between the 
 meridians 154° 40' and 160" 50' west longitude. They 
 extend 380 miles from southeast to northwest. The dis- 
 tance of their chief seaport, Honolulu, from San Fran- 
 cisco is 2,080 miles; from Auckland, 3.800 miles ; from 
 Sydney, 4,500 miles ; and from Hongkong, 4,800 miles. 
 
 The importance of this group arises quite as much 
 from this advantageous location as from its resources. 
 Lying at the ' ' cross-roads of the North Pacific, " at 
 about the centre of the great lines of commerce from 
 British Columbia, San Francisco, Nicaragua and Pana- 
 ma on the east, to Japan, China, New Zealand and Aus- 
 tralia on the west and south, it will largely conduce to 
 the naval and commercial supremacy of whatever coun- 
 try gains possession of it. 
 
 The Hawaiian group originally consisted of ten 
 Islands, but in 1894 the Hawaiian government annexed 
 
134 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 several rocky islets far to the northwest of Kauai. Only 
 five of the Hawaiian Islands are of much importance. 
 Their aggregate area is 6, 200 square miles — a little less 
 than that of the State of Massachusetts. 
 
 Much of this area is unfit for agriculture. Only nar- 
 row strips of land near the shores and portions of the 
 valleys are cultivated ; but the interior is occupied by 
 rugged mountains and profound gorges of the wildest 
 description, and is fit only for pasturage. Yet the arable 
 portions are very fertile. When their resources are fully 
 developed these islands will be able to support a million 
 inhabitants and maintain a commerce worth more than 
 forty million dollars per annum. 
 
 In the Hawaiian Islands the climate is ten degrees 
 cooler than in the same latitude elsewhere. The ocean 
 current from the Arctic moderates the heat, so that at 
 the sea-level it rarely rises to 90° F. , and rarely sinks to 
 60° F. The climate is therefore like a mild summer, 
 and, "relatively to human comfort, a perfection of cli- 
 mate, the climate of Paradise." During the summer 
 months the trade-winds blow from the northeast ; during 
 the winter months occasional storms with heavy rains 
 blow from the southwest, and these storms sweep on 
 with their rains over the west coast of North America, 
 and over the Rocky Mountains, into the Mississippi Val- 
 ley. A remarkable difference of climate is noticeable in 
 passing from the northeast side of the islands, that are 
 expKDSed to the trade-winds and are cool and rainy, to the 
 southwest portions, that are sheltered by high mountains 
 and are warm and arid. Thus in Honolulu, on the 
 
TRAVELLER S PALM. 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 135 
 
 south side of Oahu, the average rainfall is thirty-eight 
 inches, while in Hilo, on the north side of Hawaii, it is 
 nearly twelve feet. At higher elevations on the moun- 
 tains cooler climates are found, and at the highest sum- 
 mits snow falls in winter. 
 
 The Hawaiian Islands are less verdant than the isl- 
 ands of the South Pacific, but grander, with loftier moun- 
 tains. To one voyaging thither expecting to see islands 
 of tropical beauty, with orange-trees growing at the very 
 beach and birds of paradise flitting through the forest, 
 the first view is rather disappointing. In some parts are 
 rather to be seen extensive plains with little verdure, 
 high rugged ridges, and vast tracts of lava rock ; but 
 on the windward sides of these islands there is as won- 
 derful a beauty of verdure as in the islands of the South 
 Pacific. The glories of this vegetation are indescribable. 
 Its most striking features are its vines, especially the 
 palm-like leie {/reycinetia scandens) that festoons the for- 
 ests, its parasites that make strange hanging gardens 
 high on the trees, and its ferns, of which there are 300 
 species, varying from gem-like forms, exquisite as butter- 
 fly wings, to trees thirty feet high, as graceful in figure 
 and delicate in pattern as the finest palms. The sides of 
 the ravines that are covered with these ferns have the ap- 
 pearance of being clothed with a gigantic plumage, in 
 comparison with which the most gorgeous feather-man- 
 tles of the Hawaiian kings were like beggars' garments. 
 
 The process of upheaval of the Hawaiian Islands, it 
 is conjectured, proceeded from northwest to southeast, 
 for Kauai, at the northwest extremity, seems to be the 
 
136 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 oldest island of the group. It has the greatest amount 
 of fertile soil, the largest streams of running water, and 
 the most verdure, and on this account is called "The 
 Garden Island." It is twenty-five miles long by twenty- 
 two wide, has an area of 500 square miles, and rises in 
 the centre 5,000 feet high. Its northwest coast, Na 
 Pali (the precipices), juts out in rocky cliffs that are 
 destitute of both soil and verdure ; but the opposite side 
 consists of sloping well-watered plains of great fertility, 
 on which are very productive plantations of sugar. On 
 the north side is the romantic valley, Waioli (singing- 
 water), called also Hanalei (wreath-making), of which 
 Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop has written, "It has every 
 element of beauty, and for mere loveliness exceeds any- 
 thing I have ever seen." 
 
 Sixty-four miles southeast from this island is Oahu, 
 which measures forty-six by twenty-five miles, has an 
 area of 530 square miles, and two mountain ranges, one 
 on the west 4,030 feet high, and another at the eastern 
 extremity 3, 106 feet high. On this island is Honolulu, 
 the capital of the group, a city of 25,000 inhabitants. 
 It is situated on a sloping plain that is formed of the 
 partially decomposed lava cinders, about fourteen feet 
 deep, of the extinct volcano. Punchbowl, in the rear. 
 Near by is the magnificent inlet. Pearl Harbor, which 
 the United States has sought for a naval station. This 
 harbor will admit of twenty miles of wharves, and is 
 large enough to accommodate at once all the navies of 
 the world. Here and at Honololu artesian water has 
 been obtained by a hundred wells. On the other islands 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 37 
 
 artesian borings seem more likely to bring up molten 
 lava than water ; but here in former ages there have been 
 successive elevations and depressions of the land, as is 
 shown by fragments of wood that have been brought up 
 by well-borers from great depths, and in these geological 
 changes a hard stratum has been deposited at great 
 depth which retains the water that percolates from rain- 
 falls. Water has also been piped from splendid valleys 
 in the rear of Honolulu, and thereby this city has been 
 made as beautiful with the choicest ornamental vegeta- 
 tion of the Tropics as any city in the world. 
 
 Southeast from Oahu, twenty-three miles distant, is 
 Molokai, which is forty miles long and seven wide, has 
 an area of 190 square miles, and rises to the height 
 of 2,500 feet. This island seems to have had its eastern 
 side rent away by some violent convulsion of nature ; so 
 that its mountain on this side rises sheer in awful preci- 
 pices from the ocean, while on the other side it slopes 
 gradually to the shore. From the precipitous side of this 
 island juts out the peninsula Kalauwao, where lepers, 
 1,000 in number, have been segregated. So fertile is 
 this tract of land, and so well are these wretched crea- 
 tures provided for by the Hawaiian government and by 
 religious associations, that natives in good health have 
 been known to endeavor to pass themselves off as lepers 
 in order to gain admission to the privileges of this 
 asylum. 
 
 About eight miles southeast from Molokai is Maui, 
 which measures forty-eight miles long and from eight to 
 twenty-five wide and has an area of 620 square miles. This 
 
138 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 island resembles Tahiti in being of two parts that are 
 connected by a low sandy isthmus. A captain of a ship 
 once, when approaching this island in the night, mistook 
 this isthmus for a channel of water and undertook to 
 pass through it, and left the bones of his ship on the 
 beach. The western portion of this island, 5,820 feet 
 high, is deeply cieft into ridges and valleys, among which 
 is the valley lao, which is well compared for its grandeur 
 to Yosemite. This valley expands in the heart of the 
 mountain to a breadth of two miles, and is surrounded 
 with precipices 4,000 feet in height, which are covered, 
 even over their most rocky walls, with an enchanting robe 
 of vegetation. 
 
 The eastern portion of this island is occupied by one 
 great dome-like mountain, Haleakala (house of the sun, 
 or, the ensnaring of the sun). The latter name is de- 
 rived from the tradition of a hero who is said to have 
 caught the sun, while it was making its daily circuits in 
 only two or three hours, and compelled it to go slower, a 
 tradition found also in New Zealand. 
 
 The northern portion of this mountain has been 
 deeply grooved by the action of water ; for this side 
 of the island has received the full dash of the trade-wind 
 rains, and the mighty torrents thereby caused have torn 
 out the deep volcanic throats of the old crater hills and 
 the long empty caverns through which the lava once 
 flowed, and thus eroded grand valleys that are now 
 clothed with unbroken vegetation. 
 
 The wonder of this mountain is the crater at its sum- 
 mit — at an elevation of 10,000 feet above the ocean ■ a 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 139 
 
 vast cavern seven miles long, three miles broad and two 
 thousand feet deep. This crater has evidently grown 
 out of a congeries of craters that have broken into each 
 other, as has been the case with Mokuaweoweo on 
 Mauna Loa. Its floor consists of the congealed lava 
 streams of ancient eruptions, which appear almost as 
 fresh and lustrous as though they had flowed but yester- 
 day. Within it there are sixteen cones, ranging one 
 after the other from southeast to northwest, some of 
 them 900 feet in height, covered with cinders and vol- 
 canic gravel. Of the appearance of this crater Capt. C. 
 E. Button has written, "Of all the scenes presented in 
 the Hawaiian Islands this is by far the most sublime and 
 impressive. Its grandeur and solemnity have often been 
 described, but the descriptions have not been over- 
 wrought. " 
 
 The largest island of the group is Hawaii, which :s 
 situated southeast of Maui, and is ninety miles in length, 
 seventy in breath and 3, 950 square miles in area. It has 
 the highest mountains in the Pacific, Loa and Kea, each 
 14,000 feet in height ; besides which it has Mt. Hualalai, 
 8,275 feet high, and the Kohala mountain, 5,505 feet high. 
 On this island there are three volcanoes ; and for this 
 reason much of its surface is unattractive, with the black 
 desolation of lava flows, which nature has yet done little 
 to cloth with vegetation. 
 
 These flows are of two kinds: the Pahoehoe, consisting 
 of lava which has flowed smoothly and cooled in forms of 
 billows, coils and hummocks, and Aa, sometimes called 
 clinkers, consisting of lava which has broken up while 
 
140 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 flowing and been piled in a horror of ruggedness like ice- 
 packs in rivers. 
 
 In these flows there are long caverns — ^the conduits 
 through which the lava once flowed from the mountains 
 to the ocean. In many places these caverns have been bro- 
 ken in from above, forming pitfalls dangerous to unwary 
 travellers and to ranging animals. In one of these caverns 
 at an elevation of 6,000 feet (on Mauna Loa) the writer 
 once found eighty carcases of goats that had leaped in 
 for shelter from storms, or for refuge from dogs, and had 
 been unable to leap out. A vaquero once, while chas- 
 ing cattle, came suddenly with his horses at full gallop 
 on one of these caverns that was hidden by tall ferns, and 
 spurred his horse to leap over it, but fell short of the 
 opposite brink. His horse was killed by the fall of 
 thirty feet on sharp rocks ; and he had one arm broken 
 and was unable to climb out. His companions twenty- 
 four hours afterwards found him and rescued him. Pit- 
 falls of another kind, equally dangerous, are found where 
 the lava has flowed through forests and has been m.ould- 
 ed by the trunks of trees into pits of their own shape and 
 size. The early missionaries used the name of these pits, 
 meke, in rendering the word hell ; and this name, with its 
 suggestion of volcanic fire, proved quite expressive. 
 
 In some parts of this island these lava-flows have de- 
 composed into very fertile soil and formed, in place of 
 their former desolation, most attractive tropical forests. 
 Such a region is Hilo, than which hardly a more inviting 
 place can be found, with its beautiful bay, its cascades 
 pouring into the ocean, its island of cocoanut, its town 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I41 
 
 embowered in tropical foliage, and its mountains crowned 
 with shining snows. 
 
 On the islands that have been particularly mentioned 
 sugar plantations and extensive live-stock ranches have 
 been established ; a good beginning also has been made 
 in the culture of coffee, rice, fibre-bearing plants, ba- 
 nanas, pineapples, and other tropical fruits, and immense 
 tracts are still uncultivated. On Hawaii alone seventy- 
 thousand acres of land, untouched as yet by the planter, 
 are finely adapted to the culture of coffee and almost all 
 tropical fruits. The soil is excellent, except on the 
 steep declivities, where the rains have leached out its 
 best ingredients and left a stiff clay heavily impregnated 
 with iron. Such lava rocks as in Europe are ground up 
 and used as ferilizers have here almost wholly formed the 
 soil, and on the low lands, where they are mingled with 
 decayed vegetable matter or ocean sand, constitute a soil 
 of extraordinary fertility. On such land at Makaweli, 
 Kauai, and Ewa, Oahu, sugar-cane has yielded from five 
 to nine tons of sugar per acre. 
 
 The volcanoes of Hawaii are Kilauea, Mauna Loa, 
 and Hualalai, and are of surpassing interest to tourists 
 and scientists. Here is an opportunity to behold the 
 operations of that power which under cosmic influences, 
 it is supposed, reared the islands, the continents, and 
 the mountain ranges of our world, having raged with 
 devouring fire over all the face of nature. Here at al- 
 most all times one may look into nature's crucible and 
 imagine the formation of the crude fabric from which 
 by flood and fire and glacial action have been developed 
 
142 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 all the minerals and metals of earth, and by forces of 
 life the varied and beautiful forms of the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms. 
 
 Kilauea is situated at an elevation of 4,000 feet, 
 on the slopes of Mauna Loa, about 10,000 feet below 
 its summit. It is a vast pit sunk into the plain, and 
 measures seven and a half miles in circumference. The 
 centre of its activity is at its southeastern extremity, 
 where there has long been a lake of fire varying from 
 a thousand feet to half a mile in diameter. Frequent- 
 ly this lake has overflowed the black floor of the crater, 
 and sometimes its fiery torrents have burst through the 
 surrounding walls and poured down from the slope of 
 the mountain to the ocean. Twice within recent years 
 its fires have subsided and its lava sunk away, leaving a 
 pit five hundred feet deep. It is supposed that at these 
 times the down-plunge has been caused by outbreaks and 
 outflows below the level of the ocean. After a few weeks 
 or months the fires have alwa3's returned, beginning at 
 first feebly, and waxing more and more violent. 
 
 This volcano has had successive C3'cles of activity. 
 The process has been, first, a rising of the lake with the 
 formation of a congealed crust over its surface swelling 
 upward in the form of a mound ; then an eruption, 
 through this mound, of fountains of fire playing to the 
 height of from fifteen to one hundred feet ; then a sub- 
 sidence, and sometimes at last an extinction of the 
 fires. Then the same process has been repeated, and 
 thus continually. With each cycle the floor of the 
 crater has risen higher. In 1830 it was 1,500 feet be- 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 143 
 
 low the rim of the crater ; now it is only 350 feet below 
 the rim. 
 
 A hotel has been built near this crater where tour- 
 ists are very comfortably accommodated, and guides 
 are furnished who lead to the very brink of the fiery 
 lake. It is generally safe to approach near enough to 
 dip up the molten lava ; but extreme caution is neces- 
 sary, as sometimes the banks give way or sudden out- 
 bursts of fire occur. The missionary Dr. G. P. Judd 
 once descended into a pit of this crater and was en- 
 gaged in dipping up the lava when the fiery flood sud- 
 denly rose and cut off his retreat. A native hurried at 
 his call and drew him out, and immediately the pit 
 was filled with molten lava and began to throw up foun- 
 tains of fire. 
 
 The volcano of Mauna Loa is at the summit of the 
 mountain of that name, at an elevation of 14,000 feet 
 above the ocean, in the crater Mokuaweoweo, a crater 
 which measures 19,000 by 9,000 feet and about 800 feet 
 in depth. This mountain, though about a hundred feet 
 lower than Kea, is the grander mountain, being vastly 
 broader. As referred to its base at the bottom of the 
 ocean it is 19,000 feet in height. The upper portion, from 
 the summit to four miles down its sides, is a region of 
 utter desolation, without a vestige of vegetation even of 
 moss or lichen ; a frightful waste of congealed streams, 
 cataracts, and tufa cones of lava. But during the winter 
 season its black horrors are covered with a beautiful 
 mantle of snow. 
 
 The eruptions of this volcano generally begin without 
 
144 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 any premonition of earthquakes or subterranean noises, 
 " as quietly as the moon rises." A hght is first seen on 
 the summit of the mountain, and this increases till it 
 turns night to day to a distance of forty miles. Then 
 fires burst forth lower down from the side of the moun- 
 tain, and play like a fountain to a height of from 500 to 
 1,000 feet ; and a river of lava pours down the moun- 
 tain side, spreading from half a mile to two miles in 
 breadth and twenty or thirty miles in length, overwhelm- 
 ing forests and villages, and sometimes reaching the 
 ocean. Such a stream in 1855 broke out on this moun- 
 tain at an elevation of 12,000 feet and flowed for fifteen 
 months, reaching within eight miles of the beautiful town 
 of Hilo, when the eruption ceased and the town escaped. 
 Again, in 1880, a fiery stream from a point on this moun- 
 tain 1 1, 100 feet above the ocean flowed nine months, and 
 reached within three quarters of a mile of Hilo. Real 
 estate in Hilo for the time being fell in value, and the 
 inhabitants prepared to flee with their movable property, 
 when the flowing of the lava ceased. 
 
 The magnificence of these volcanic displays is inde- 
 scribable. Rev. T. Coan visited an eruption on this 
 mountain in 1852 and spent a night beside it, and wrote 
 that no tongue, no pen, no pencil could portray the beau- 
 ty, the grandeur, the terrible sublimity of the scenes he 
 witnessed on that memorable night. Mrs. Isabella Bird 
 Bishop thus described an eruption she saw at the sum- 
 mit : "A perfect fountain of pure yellow fire was regu- 
 larly playing in several united jets, throwing up its glori- 
 ous incandescence to a height of from 150 to 300 feet. 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I45 
 
 You cannot imagine such a beautiful sight. The sunset 
 gold was not purer than the living fire. Suddenly a 
 change occurred. The jets, which for long had been 
 playing at a height of 300 feet, became quite low, and 
 for a few seconds appeared as cones of fire wallowing in 
 a sea of light ; then with a roar, like the sound of gath- 
 ering waters, nearly the whole surface of the lake rose 
 three times, with its whole radiant mass in one glorious 
 upward burst, to a height of 600 feet, while the earth 
 trembled and the moon and stars withdrew abashed into 
 far-off space. " 
 
 This volcano, considered as to the size of its moun- 
 tain, the noblest of the Pacific, as to the height of the 
 columns of fire it lifts upward, 14,000 feet, as to the 
 power of its eruptions, throwing fountains from 100 to 
 1,000 feet in height, and as to the amount of lava poured 
 forth, ejecting at one eruption as much as Vesuvius has 
 thrown forth in 2,000 years, is the grandest volcano in 
 the world. 
 
 The volcano of Hualalai has had only one eruption 
 in historical time, which occurred in 1801, and over- 
 whelmed an extensive plain and fish-pond and poured 
 into the ocean. 
 
 It would be interesting to consider the current theo- 
 ries respecting the causes of these volcanic phenomena 
 and the laws of their action, if it were compatible with 
 the plan of this sketch. Suffice it to say that the pre- 
 vailing opinions, as set forth by geologists, are that the 
 internal heat of the earth may be ascribed to the crush- 
 ing of rocks in the contraction of the earth and in its 
 
146 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 changes, like those of ocean tides under lunar and solar 
 influences ; and that the eruptions of lava may be as- 
 cribed to the force of vapors formed by the percolation 
 of water from rain or from the ocean, a percolation that 
 is sometimes very local and causes very local eruptions, 
 as those of Mauna Loa while Kilauea is quiet, and those 
 through the mountain rim of Mokuaweoweo while the 
 crater eight hundred feet below does not fill up. It is 
 profoundly interesting to observe that the lines of direc- 
 tion of this volcanic action, like those of mountain chains 
 and ocean coasts throughout the world, have been from 
 northwest to southeast, or at right angles to this line — 
 the former line tangential to the Polar Circle and having 
 the same angle to the Equator as the Ecliptic — suggest- 
 ing that cosmic forces have directed the cleavage through 
 which volcanic discharges have burst forth ; also to note 
 that the distances apart of centres of volcanic action, as 
 of islands and mountains elsewhere in the world, have 
 generally been twenty miles or multiples of twenty, sug- 
 gesting that the crust of the earth above volcanic fires is 
 twenty miles in thickness ; also to note the correspond- 
 ence in time of volcanic action here with similar action 
 in other parts of the world. 
 
 Looking at these volcanic phenomena and also at the 
 marvellous struggle life is everywhere making to gain a 
 foothold in its rocky desolation and to overcome it, 
 sometimes sending forward its heralds in the form of 
 hardy plants into lava streams only a few weeks after 
 they have cooled, we are prepared to consider the higher 
 phenomena of the condition of the people of the Ha- 
 
<! 
 X 
 
 6 
 
 X 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 47 
 
 waiian Islands, their primitive paganism, and the strug' 
 gle that has been made to introduce Christianity among 
 them, and thereby to overcome their barbarism and 
 transform them into a civilized people. 
 
 The ancient condition of these islanders was like that 
 of the natives of the South Pacific, to whose race they 
 belonged. Many ages ago a company of Polynesians, 
 driven by storms, drew near in canoes to these islands, 
 and joyfully beheld their beautiful mountains, and finally 
 landed, and gained a livelihood from the spontaneous 
 productions of their forests and the fish of their seas. In 
 remembrance of their former home, Savaii, they named 
 the largest island of this group Hawaii. Through un- 
 counted ages the descendants of this company roamed 
 over this little oceanic world, knowing of no land beyond 
 the blue horizon of the surrounding waters but Tahiti, 
 which their most daring navigators sometimes visited. 
 
 The primitive condition of this people has been well 
 described by the apostle Paul in his account of the an- 
 cient heathen world, which, because of its aversion to 
 the knowledge of the true God, had been given over to 
 the most senseless idolatry and the most revolting im- 
 morality. The Hawaiians worshipped three chief gods, 
 Kaneloa, Ku and Lono, and besides these a multitude 
 of lesser gods and demi-gods and spirits of their ances- 
 tors, with whom they supposed the whole earth, sky and 
 sea to swarm. These gods, they supposed, were induced 
 by human sacrifices to enter their idols. They also sup- 
 posed that they entered plants and animals. A native 
 who inadvertently stepped on a lizard would run scream- 
 
148 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ing with terror, not because he was afraid of the little 
 reptile, but because he was horrified at having enraged a 
 god that he supposed had entered into it. 
 
 To these gods they ascribed evil passions like their 
 own. Says Rev. S. E. Bishop: "The Hawaiian pan- 
 theon was an embodied diabolism. A loathsome filthi- 
 ness is not mere incident, but forms the groundwork of 
 character, not merely of the great hog-god Kamapuaa. 
 but even of the more humanlike Ku and Kane of the 
 chief trinity. " 
 
 As might be supposed, the worship of such gods was 
 most demoralizing, oppressive and distressing. Under 
 it, to be cruel, false, lewd, licentious, vile and most des- 
 picable was to be godlike ; and the rites of worship, the 
 dances, the sacrifices, and all the orgies were indescriba- 
 ble expressions of evil passions. 
 
 The priests (the kahunas) brought all this paganism 
 with terrific power into the every-day life of the natives. 
 They did this first by the tabu system, as they alleged 
 that the presence of the gods, or the necessity of propi- 
 tiating their favor, made certain articles, places and 
 times tabu — that is, forbidden for secular use. This sys- 
 tem rested with the greatest weight upon the women, 
 who by it were forbidden to eat many kinds of fish and 
 fruit, or to eat with the men, and in many other ways 
 painfully restricted — a cunning device whereby the " lords 
 of creation " monopolized whatever was choicest in the 
 productions of the islands. 
 
 The priests constantly applied frhis paganism also by 
 the practice of sorcery. Whenever any one became seri- 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 149 
 
 ously ill they extorted a large price to exorcise the evil 
 spirit, which they declared was the sole cause of the ill- 
 ness. Sometimes they practiced sorcery to destroy their 
 enemies. Like the natives of Southern Polynesia and 
 Australia, they endeavored to obtain something from their 
 victims — remnants of their food, portions of their clothing, 
 parings of their nails, or collections of their saliva — by 
 which to send demons for their destruction. For this 
 reason the chiefs kept trusty attendants with spit-boxes 
 who should prevent any exuviae of their persons from 
 coming into the possession of their enemies. The vic- 
 tims of the priests died either from terror, or from poi- 
 son, or from violence. And so it came to pass that by 
 threats of sorcery the priests, as instruments of the chiefs, 
 ruled the people with despotic power and kept them in 
 a constant terror. Sometimes the natives died from this 
 terror. This was once shown in a striking way when a 
 priest informed a white man that he was about to pray 
 him to death, and the white man replied that he too 
 could pray. The priest, supposing that the white man 
 was practising black arts against him, sank into despond- 
 ency and despair and finally died. 
 
 The priests made their severest requisitions on great 
 public occasions, and then not only imposed rigorous 
 tabus, but also required human sacrifices. When war 
 was to be declared, a temple dedicated, an idol made, a 
 new house built for a chief, a new canoe launched, or 
 when a chief was seriously sick or died, human sacrifices 
 were offered. Then for fear of being sought by the 
 executioner the natives fled to the mountains and lay 
 
150 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 hid till the danger had passed. The victims were secret- 
 ly assassinated by a blow with a club from behind, and 
 were then laid before the idol on the heiau to putrefy in 
 the sun. The heiau was an oblong platform of stones, 
 sometimes over 200 feet long, 100 feet wide, and from 
 eight to twenty feet high, on which within a high sur- 
 rounding wall was a paved court for idol-worship. (W. 
 D. Alexander's "History of the Hawaiian People.") 
 
 The paganism of the Hawaiians took on its worst 
 aspects at the funerals of their chiefs. Then besides 
 making human sacrifices they utterly abandoned them- 
 selves to sensuality and violence. They ' ' threw off their 
 clothing and the restraints of decency, filled the air with 
 loud and long-continued wailings and the noise of shell- 
 trumpets, knocked out their front teeth, lacerated their 
 bodies, set fire to houses, danced in a state of nudity, 
 and appeared more like demons than human beings." 
 
 Although, as might be supposed, the influence of 
 this paganism was utterly brutalizing, the Hawaiians did 
 not become as degraded and inhuman as many of the 
 tribes in the South Pacific ; nor did they, like those 
 southern tribes, practice widow-murder, patricide and 
 cannibalism. Patricide is said to have once been com- 
 mon in Hawaii, but was discontinued in consequence 
 of a remark of an old man when his son was about to 
 throw him over a precipice to escape the trouble of 
 caring for him. The old man said, ' ' If you throw me 
 over this precipice your son will throw you over it 
 when you become old." Startled by this warning the 
 son spared the old man ; and others hearing of the inci- 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 151 
 
 dent desisted from patricide. But in Hawaii immoral- 
 ity, war and infanticide were as prevalent as in the 
 South Pacific. Probably one-third of the children were 
 put to death. One woman once said to a missionary, 
 "I have had thirteen children, and I have buried them 
 all alive. Oh that you had come sooner to teach me 
 better!" The missionaries once rescued a boy by the 
 name of Kuaea from a grave in which he had been 
 placed to be buried alive ; and he grew up in their care 
 to become the most popular preacher in Hawaii. 
 
 To this people in their primitive degradation the ad- 
 vent of white men from civilized countries was like the 
 coming of beings from another planet. The first of 
 these visitors was the Spanish navigator, Juan Gaetano, 
 who discovered part of this group in 1555 but in jeal- 
 ousy of other countries concealed the discovery. His 
 ancient chart, marking the situation ten degrees too far 
 east, has been found in the Spanish archives. Little is 
 known of his coming, so long ago, but more is known 
 of that of the English navigator, Capt. James Cook, who 
 made this group known to the world. He had been 
 sent to the Pacific to observe the transit of Venus from 
 Tahiti, and in a subsequent voyage went north to search 
 for a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and on the 
 i8th of January, 1778, discovered the island of Kauai, 
 and afterwards the other Hawaiian islands. 
 
 When he landed on Kauai all the multitude of 
 natives who had gathered to see the strange phenomena 
 of his ships fell flat on the earth, and remained so until 
 he made signs to them to rise. They took him for their 
 
152 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 god Lono, who they supposed had left the islands and 
 was now returning ; and the ships they took for floating 
 islands covered with trees. They called him and his 
 crew Haolis (white hogs) ; and this was ever afterwards 
 their name for foreigners. They meant no disrespect, 
 but gave this name because the hog was their largest 
 animal, and it was their custom to give such names to 
 each other ; as for instance the common name Puaahiva 
 (beloved hog). Cook and his crew did not belie the 
 name given them, but proved it to be more appropriate 
 than that of gods. 
 
 Although at first Cook sought to restrain his men, 
 because of the terrible effect of their vices at Tahiti, his 
 visits degenerated into mere sensual carousals, with con- 
 nivance at the heathenism of the natives and harsh 
 returns for their generous hospitality. On landing he 
 was induced to ascend a heiau and there receive the 
 worship of the priests, who prostrated themselves before 
 him with long prayers and offerings of baked hogs. 
 Taking advantage of this superstitious reverence for 
 himself he exacted from them immense supplies of food 
 and took the sacred fence of their temple for fuel. The 
 king gave him six splendid feather cloaks, which were 
 worth in the labor of their construction over a million 
 dollars. They were made of the very beautiful golden- 
 yellow feathers of a rare bird, the Oo {Moho nobilis), 
 which has under each of its wings two of these feath- 
 ers. In return for these gifts he gave the king a linen 
 shirt and a cutlass. 
 
 Finally, presuming on the dread the natives had of 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 153 
 
 him as a god, Cook endeavored to take their king aboard 
 his vessel, to compel him to restore a boat that had been 
 stolen and broken up for its nails. He ordered his offi- 
 cers meanwhile to allow no canoes to enter the harbor, 
 and they fired on and killed a chief who, in ignorance of 
 this order, was crossing the harbor in a canoe. When 
 the news of this murder came to the attendants of the 
 king they began to throw stones at Cook, and he fired 
 upon them. A chief then seized him from behind, and 
 he called for help ; whereupon the chief exclaimed, " He 
 cries ; he is not a god," and killed him. The sailors 
 then fled to their boats and pulling off" a little distance 
 from the shore fired volleys of musketry upon the na- 
 tives, and the ships fired cannon shot upon them. The 
 natives, seeing the smoke of the firearms, hung up wet 
 mats to protect themselves, till seventeen of their num- 
 ber had been shot, and then fled to the mountains. 
 Thus Cook paid with his life for his complicity with the 
 idolatry of the natives. It was a rare opportunity he 
 had enjoyed of giving to the wondering natives their first 
 knowledge of civilization ; but his coming among them 
 was rather like the springing of a wolf into a sheep-fold 
 to slay some of the flock and be slain himself. 
 
 After this disastrous termination of Cook's visit no 
 ships went to the Hawaiian Islands for seven years, so 
 bad a reputation had their people acquired for barbarism. 
 At length the fur-trade with the northwest coast of Amer- 
 ica began, and vessels on their way from Nootka Sound 
 to China put in to the island for supplies. After this 
 trade declined that in sandal wood commenced, and 
 
154 THE- ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 continued till 1826. This fragrant wood was taken to 
 China and sold at ten dollars perpicul of 133 J pounds 
 for incense in the temples. This trade brought great 
 wealth to the Hawaiian chiefs, and enabled them to pur- 
 chase vessels, guns, liquors, and Chinese goods. Thus 
 Kamehameha I. was able to pay for one vessel, the 
 Niu, 151,750, and Liholiho for the yacht Cleopatra 
 $80,000, also for the brig Thaddeus $40,000, for a small 
 schooner $16,000, and for ammunition $11,000 ; and in 
 1826 the Hawaiian government undertook to pay off its 
 debts of $500,000 chiefly with sandal wood. But the 
 work of procuring this wood from the mountains was a 
 terrible drudgery to the common people, who carried it 
 on their shoulders or dragged it on the ground. After 
 this trade ended the whale-oil business began ; and 
 whale-ships went to the Hawaiian Islands for supplies 
 and to spend the winters. When in later times, about 
 the year i860, the whaling business declined, new agri- 
 cultural enterprises were started, and sugar, rice and 
 other tropical productions brought great wealth to the 
 islands. 
 
 The influence of the many adventurers who visited 
 the islands in these various enterprises was most deplor- 
 able. While some of them, like the British Capt. Van- 
 couver, exhorted the natives to refrain from war, and 
 foretold the future coming of missionaries, others were 
 little better than the savages themselves, and committed 
 most cruel outrages. Such an outrage was the massacre 
 perpetrated by Capt. Metcalf because a native of Mauri 
 had stolen one of his boats and broken it up for the 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 155 
 
 nails. He caused the natives, as they came off in canoes 
 for trade, to gather near the sides of his vessel, in the 
 range of his guns, and then fired broadsides of cannon 
 and muskets upon them, killing a hundred of them and 
 wounding many more. About two weeks after his 
 departure his son, a lad eighteen years old, arrived at 
 the same place and was suddenly attacked by the na- 
 tives, and with all but two of his men killed ; and his 
 vessel was dragged up on the beach. 
 
 Some of these foreigners provided the natives with 
 firearms, and cooperated with them in the wars which 
 raged after the death of Kalaniopuu, who was the king 
 of Hawaii at the arrival of Capt. Cook. A strife then 
 arose among the chiefs for the rule of Hawaii ; and from 
 that time, in 1792, like the storms that in winter blow 
 over this group, wars raged till 1 796. First, Kamehame- 
 ha, a chief of the district of Kona, Hawaii, contended 
 against the chief of the adjoining district. The elements 
 of nature seemed to come to his aid, for a cloud of vol- 
 canic cinders from Kilauea destroyed a portion of the 
 army of his enemies and the natives concluded that the 
 gods were aiding him. Then sixteen foreigners joined 
 his army, and mingled the thunders of their muskets 
 and cannon with the savage yells of his barbaric warriors 
 and made him master of Hawaii. The storm of war 
 then swept over to Maui and like a cloud-burst raged 
 awhile in the beautiful valley of lao ; the king of Maui 
 was defeated and the streams of that valley choked with 
 the bodies of the slain. Not long after this a naval bat- 
 tle of hundreds of canoes and several schooners was 
 
156 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 fought between Hawaii and Maui, and again Kameha- 
 meha was victorious. The war then passed on to Oahu, 
 and the army of that island was swept up the valley of 
 Nuuanu and over the frightful precipices of the Pali. 
 Finally, in 18 10, the king of Kauai quietly submitted, 
 and Kamehameha became monarch of the whole group. 
 
 Sadder than the carnage that was caused by these 
 wars, and the tragic deaths of Capt. Cook and other voy- 
 agers, was the frightfully immoral influence of these 
 sensual foreigners, the distillation by them of ardent 
 spirits, and the introduction by them of diseases that 
 destroyed the natives. Their coming was like an inva- 
 sion of wild animals from the continents to ravage, 
 trample and devour. It has been well remarked that, 
 "while there have been no serpents or tigers in these 
 islands, there have been human brutes, worse than ser- 
 pents and tigers, that have greatly destroyed the people. " 
 Capt. Cook estimated the population at the time of his 
 coming at 400,000; in 1832 it was only 130,000; and 
 now, in 1895, the number of native Hawaiians is only 
 33,000. The dark side of the history of the Hawaiian 
 Islands is the record of the influence of these evil classes 
 of foreigners, and their opposition to Christian civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 But the work of foreigners in aiding Kamehameha to 
 conquer the islands unintentionally on their part pre- 
 pared the way for the enterprise of Christian missions. 
 The establishment of one government over all the group 
 and the cessation of inter-island warfare paved the way 
 for the gospel of peace. 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 57 
 
 The occasion of the introduction of Christianity into 
 the Hawaiian Islands was the arrival in the United States 
 of several Hawaiian boys who had been employed as 
 seamen on ships. One of these boys was found one 
 morning by Rev. Edwin Dwight weeping on the steps of 
 a Yale College building, and by him kindly cared for, 
 and at length, at the suggestion of Mr. Samuel Mills, one 
 of the founders of the American Board of Missions, sent 
 with other Hawaiian boys to a school for foreign children 
 at Cornwall, Conn. In this school most of these boys 
 embraced Christianity; and then they entreated that 
 Christian teachers should be sent to instruct their be- 
 nighted countrymen. Their request excited great inter- 
 est in the churches of New England and moved the 
 American Board of Missions to extend their enterprises 
 to the Hawaiian Islands, and finally, on the 23d of Octo- 
 ber, 1 819, a little over forty years after the discovery of 
 Hawaii by Capt. Cook and twenty-three years after the 
 beginning of the London Mission to the South Pacific, 
 the first company of missionaries for the Hawaiian Isl- 
 ands embarked at Boston on the brig Thaddeus with 
 Capt. Blanchard. 
 
 This company consisted of the ordained ministers, 
 Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston, Samuel Whitney — 
 who left Yale College in his sophomore year to engage 
 in this mission and was afterwards ordained at the Isl- 
 ands — Samuel Ruggles, a teacher. Dr. Thomas Holman, 
 Elisha Loomis, a printer, and Daniel Chamberlain, a 
 farmer. All these were married men ; and the farmer 
 took with him his five children. 
 
158 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 From a worldly point of view the enterprise on which 
 these missionaries then entered was not inviting. To go 
 with their tender wives and children from the peace and 
 order and sweet amenities of civilization to dwell among 
 the wild, half-clothed savages of Hawaii was almost like 
 going into infernal regions. But the faith and Christian 
 devotion with which they went forth were rewarded 
 beyond their expectations ; for unknown to them, before 
 their arrival at the islands, idolatry was voluntarily 
 abandoned by the natives. 
 
 And here we have another beautiful illustration of the 
 far-reaching influence of the mission work at Tahiti. 
 The explanation of this overthrow of idolatry is found in 
 the influence of that mission work. Tidings had come 
 to Hawaii of the downfall of idolatry in Tahiti ; and 
 Kamehameha had made inquiries of sea-captains about 
 the astonishing event and about the nature of Christian- 
 ity. The news was very pleasing to the royal women of 
 Hawaii, who felt that the tabu system was an intolerable 
 burden. At the time of the death of Kamehameha I. 
 some of these women were liable to death, one for having 
 eaten bananas, and others fish, contrary to the tabu ; 
 and two of them, Keopuolani and Kaahumanu, wives of 
 Kamehameha, had secretly resolved to do away with the 
 tabu. With this view, in the pompous ceremony of the 
 investiture of Liholiho, Kamehameha II., with the 
 sovereignty, Kaahumanu, after proclaiming him king, 
 publicly exhorted him to abandon the tabu system. On 
 the evening of the same day Keopuolani, the mother of 
 Liholiho, broke over the tabu by eating with Kauikeaouli, 
 
K.OYAL Palms at Honolulu. 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 159 
 
 the younger brother ; and a few weeks afterwards Kaahu- 
 manu succeeded in persuading the young king to disre- 
 gard the tabu by publicly sitting down to eat at a feast 
 with women. As he did so the people looked on in 
 consternation, expecting to see a manifestation of the 
 wrath of their gods, and when they saw that he contin- 
 ued unharmed exclaimed, "The tabus are abolished I 
 The idols are a lie !" Strange to say, the high priest, 
 Hewahewa, was the first to apply a torch to the temples. 
 The natives then with a sort of frenzy went everywhere 
 destroying images and sanctuaries of their paganism even 
 to the most distant islands. 
 
 A brief stand for idolatry was made by a chief by the 
 name of Kekuaokalani (the god of heaven), with a mul- 
 titude of natives, and a battle was fought at Kuamoo, 
 Ha waii, but this chief was killed by a musket-ball fired 
 from a boat, and his fighting wife beside him fell, and 
 his army was vanquished. Then by royal proclamation 
 idolatry was for ever forbidden in the Hawaiian Islands. 
 So strictly was this law observed that when, in 1826, 
 Roman-catholic priests arrived they gained little influ- 
 ence over the people, and they were expelled in 1831 by 
 the regent queen, Kaahumanu, on account of their wor- 
 ship of images. 
 
 The first news, therefore, that came to the missiona- 
 ries on their arrival on March 30, 1820, was that the 
 warrior king, Kamehameha, was dead, and that the idols 
 had been destroyed. It had taken fifteen years of ardu- 
 ous, perilous work to abolish idolatry in the Society 
 Islands, but here, by the providence of God, it was abol" 
 
l6o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ished before the missionaries arrived. They felt that 
 God had gone before them preparing the way for his 
 work. 
 
 But to their great surprise they now found diflSculty 
 in even gaining permission to land and reside in the 
 islands. The degraded foreigners who were dwelling in 
 sensuality among the natives viewed with regret the 
 coming of teachers of a holy religion, and hastened to 
 warn the king that the new-comers would forbid his 
 polygamy and make war upon him and wrest away his 
 kingdom. It was replied that the missionaries would 
 not have brought their wives and tender children if they 
 had come for war ; and in this way the king was barely 
 persuaded to allow them to land for one year on trial. 
 
 It is hard to realize now what it was for these mis- 
 sionaries to take up their residence among the natives. 
 When the ladies of their company first saw the natives 
 they exclaimed, "Can these be human beings? Are 
 they not devils rather.?" And some of them went below 
 into the cabin of their vessel and wept. The owner of a 
 trading vessel, on seeing them land, exclaimed, "These 
 ladies cannot remain here. They will all return to the 
 United States in less than a year. " And with kind solic- 
 itude for their welfare he gave orders that his vessels 
 should give them free passage to the United States when- 
 ever they should apply. The night before they landed 
 there had been a drunken carousal on shore, and the 
 next morning the rocks along the beach were covered 
 with the nude forms of intoxicated natives. 
 
 Sometimes there was something ludicrous, as well as 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. i6l 
 
 revolting, in the appearance of the natives, especially 
 when they endeavored to combine with their own bar- 
 baric style the fashions of civilized people. Not long 
 after the arrival of the missionaries there was a celebra- 
 tion of the accession of Liholiho to the sovereignty. On 
 this occasion the wives of the king were borne in a pro- 
 cession with great pomp. The head queen, Kamamalu, 
 was seated in a whaleboat fastened to a platform of spars 
 and borne on the shoulders of seventy men. The boat 
 and platform were covered with fine broadcloth, relieved 
 by richly-colored native cloth. The bearers marched in 
 a solid phalanx, the outer ranks of which wore scarlet 
 and yellow feather cloaks and superb helmets of the same 
 material. The queen wore a scarlet silk mantle and a 
 coronet of feathers, and was screened from the sun by a 
 huge umbrella of scarlet damask, supported by a chief 
 wearing a scarlet malo and a tall feather helmet. On 
 one quarter of the boat stood the chief Naihe, and on 
 the other the chief Kalaimoku, each similarly clad and 
 holding a scarlet kahili, or plumed staff of state, thirty 
 feet in height. The other wives of the king appeared in 
 similar pomp, and in lieu of a boat were mounted upon 
 double canoes. The dress of the queen-dowager was 
 seventy-two yards of orange and scarlet kersej'mere, 
 which was wrapped around her waist until her arms were 
 sustained by it in a horizontal position, and the remain- 
 der was formed into a train supported by her attend- 
 ants. Meanwhile the king and his suite, nearly naked 
 and intoxicated, rode from place to place on horses 
 without saddles, followed on the run by a shabby escort 
 
l62 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of fifty or sixty men. Eighty dogs were cooked for the 
 feast of this celebration. 
 
 Hardly had the year in which the missionaries had 
 been allowed to remain on probation expired when the 
 vile foreigners renewed their opposition. They now 
 informed the king that in the Society Islands mission- 
 aries had taken away the lands of the natives, and that 
 these American missionaries were offensive to the king 
 of Britain, and that if he did not send them away the 
 British monarch would give him proof of his anger. 
 But this opposition was overcome in a providential way. 
 Thirty years previous the British government had prom- 
 ised to give Kamehameha a vessel on account of his 
 services in rescuing vessels and seamen from the savages, 
 and now it occurred to that government to fulfil this 
 promise, and for this purpose a vessel was sent from New 
 South Wales to Hawaii. This vessel, with another con- 
 voying it, touched on its way at Tahiti, and there took 
 on board English missionaries and Tahitian Christians, 
 who engaged passage by the convoying vessel to the 
 Marquesas Islands. Just at this time, when the foreign- 
 ers were renewing their opposition, these vessels arrived 
 at Honolulu. The English gentlemen at once assured 
 the king of the friendship of the British monarch, and 
 the Tahitians informed him of the good work done by 
 missionaries in their islands, and thereby effectually 
 counteracted the slanders of the foreigners. 
 
 But this opposition was often afterwards renewed, as 
 in 1825 and 1826, when laws had been enacted against 
 intemperance and prostitution, and seamen several times 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 55, 
 
 assaulted the missionaries, and once fired cannon on 
 one of their houses, in order to compel them to use 
 their influence for the abrogation of these laws. Strange 
 to say, this opposition was led by the British Consul, 
 Richard Charlton. 
 
 In 1826 Commodore Thomas Ap Jones arrived, 
 and at the request of the missionaries made a public 
 examination of these matters. He afterwards wrote of 
 the meeting that was then held, "I own I trembled for 
 the cause of Christianity and for the poor benighted 
 islanders when I saw on one hand the British consul, 
 backed by the most wealthy and hitherto influential 
 foreign residents and shipmasters in formidable array, 
 and prepared, as I supposed, to testify against some 
 half dozen meek and humble servants of the Lord, calmly 
 seated on the other, ready and even anxious to be tried 
 by their bitterest enemies. But what was the result of 
 this portentous meeting ? The most perfect, full, com- 
 plete, and triumphant victory for the missionaries that 
 could have been asked by their most devoted friends. " 
 The influence of unprincipled whites in the subsequent 
 history of the islands has been the chief cause of the 
 demoralization of the churches, the corruption of civil 
 government, and the recent fall of the Hawaiian mon- 
 archy. 
 
 From the first inception of this mission several cir- 
 cumstances contributed to its success. That of the 
 voluntary abolition of idolatry by the natives has been 
 mentioned. Besides this was the wonder with which 
 the natives regarded the art of reading and their conse- 
 
164 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 quent zeal to read whatever was published by the mis- 
 sionaries. With the aid of the English missionary, 
 Rev. William Ellis, who came from Tahiti, the language 
 was quickly reduced to writing. Reading was easily 
 taught, as only thirteen letters were necessary to spell 
 the vernacular ; and since each syllable ended with a 
 vowel the natives needed little more than to learn the 
 alphabet to be able to read. The king insisted on being 
 the first pupil, and after he had learned to read gave 
 command that every one in his kingdom should attend 
 the mission schools. Those who learned to read now 
 became teachers to instruct others, and went everywhere 
 forming schools. In a few years thirty thousand of the 
 people were able to read and write. Savage sports were 
 then forgotten in the eagerness of the people to read 
 whatever was published by the missionaries. With great 
 zeal the missionaries now hastened to prepare school- 
 books, tracts, and translations of the Bible. In the year 
 1832 the translation of the New Testament was com- 
 pleted, and in 1839 that of the whole Bible. In a few 
 years twenty thousand copies of the Bible and fifty 
 thousand of the New Testament, and also a great quan- 
 tity of tracts and school-books, were distributed. Sixty- 
 five million pages were sent forth, "which were to the 
 natives like leaves from the tree of life. " 
 
 The missionaries gained a great advantage also by 
 the favor and cooperation of the surviving wives of Ka- 
 mehameha I. and of several high chiefs who were the 
 rulers of the islands. The high rank of these helpers is 
 especially noticeable. One of them, Keopuolani (the 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 165 
 
 gathering of the clouds of heaven), was the grand- 
 daughter of the king who received Capt. Cook, the chief 
 queen of Kamehameha I., and the mother of the kings 
 Kamehameha II. and Kamehameha III. So sacred was 
 her person regarded that whenever she walked abroad 
 all who saw her prostrated themselves to the earth. 
 After Kamehameha's death she was married to Hoapili, 
 governor of Maui. She was one of the first converts and 
 displayed excellent Christian character, and earnestly 
 labored for the schools and churches until her death on 
 September 16, 1823. 
 
 The first convert on Oahu was the Regent Queen 
 Kaahumanu (feather mantle), who had been the favorite 
 wife of Kamehameha I., and who after his death mar- 
 ried Kamualii, the former king of Kauai and afterwards 
 governor of Oahu. She was so changed from a haughty, 
 cruel and besotted savage that the natives spoke of her 
 as the "new Kaahumanu." During her last illness a re- 
 inforcement of nineteen missionaries arrived and she 
 received them with tears of joy. It was remarked at her 
 death, June 5, 1832, that "the mission lost in her a 
 mother, a judicious counsellor, and a firm supporter ; 
 but heaven received a soul cleansed by the blood of 
 Christ from the foulest stains of heathenism, infanticide, 
 and abominable pollution." 
 
 Another distinguished assistant of the missionaries 
 was Kaakini, the brother of Kaahumanu. At the com- 
 ing of the missionaries he was the governor of Hawaii, 
 and afterwards the governor of Oahu. This chief built 
 the first church at Kailua, and in later times vigorously 
 
1 66 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 defended the missionaries against the corrupt foreign- 
 ers. 
 
 Quite as notable was Kapiolani (the captive of 
 heaven), who was descended from a line of kings and was 
 the wife of Naihe, the national orator. In December, 
 1824, she determined to break the spell of the belief in 
 Pele, the dread goddess of the volcano. For this pur- 
 pose she made a long journey to Kilauea. Her husband 
 and a multitude of friends besought her not to provoke 
 the wrath of the supposed goddess ; and a priestess met 
 her at the brink of the crater and predicted her death if 
 she persisted in her course. But she boldly descended 
 into the volcano and walked to the brink of the burning 
 lake, then half a mile in breadth, and there defiantly ate 
 the berries consecrated to the goddess and threw stones 
 into the fountains of fire. As she did this she exclaimed, 
 "Jehovah is my God. He kindled these fires. I fear 
 not Pele." She then knelt in prayer to the true God and 
 united with her attendants in singing a Christian hymn. 
 Rev. C. Forbes said at her death, in 1841 : "This nation 
 has lost one of its brightest ornaments. She was con- 
 fessedly the most decided Christian, the most civilized in 
 her manners, and the most thoroughly read in the Bible 
 of all the chiefs this nation ever had ; and it is saying no 
 more than truth to assert that her equal in these respects 
 is not left in the nation. The hand of God is to be seen 
 in the consistent Christian life for twenty years of this 
 child of a degraded paganism." 
 
 Another important helper was Kinau, daughter of 
 Kamehameha I., wife of Kekuanoa, who in later times 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 167 
 
 was governor of Oahu, and mother of the kings Kameha- 
 meha IV. and Kamehameha V. At the death of Kaa- 
 humanu she became regent during the minority of Kame- 
 hameha III., and afterwards premier. There was a 
 critical time in Hawaiian history when Kauikeaouli 
 (Kamehameha III.) assumed the sovereignty, and it was 
 feared he would appoint as his premier one of his disso- 
 lute favorites, and there was great rejoicing when finally 
 he appointed this Kinau, who proved to be an upright 
 Christian ruler. 
 
 The husbands of these women and many other high 
 chiefs nobly cooperated with the missionaries, as also did 
 Kamehameha III. It is hardly possible now to realize 
 how great was the influence for good when these, the 
 highest rulers of the nation, whose power was despotic, 
 allied themselves with the mission cause. The stars 
 seemed to be fighting against barbarism. 
 
 The mission also derived advantage from the prime- 
 val habit of the people to comply with the requirements 
 of their ancient religion. When idolatry was abolished 
 and Christianity approved by their rulers they earned 
 over their strict observance of religious requirements to 
 Christianity, and observed the Sabbath and Christian 
 ordinances with remarkable earnestness. 
 
 The mission cause was also greatly promoted by suc- 
 cessive reinforcements of new missionaries from the Uni- 
 ted States. The American Board early determined to 
 hasten the evangelization of the Hawaiian Islands, that 
 they might be able to hold them up to the world as an 
 example of the success of Foreign Missions, and for this 
 
1 68 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 purpose sent thither their best men in large numbers. 
 Fifty-two ordained ministers, twenty-one lay helpers, and 
 eighty-three female missionaries, one hundred and fifty- 
 six in all, a strong body of able, consecrated workers, 
 labored for the good of this little nation during the years 
 from 1820 to 1869. 
 
 But notwithstanding all these favoring circumstances 
 the great mass of the people long continued indifferent 
 to the gospel. It took time to beat into their darkened 
 minds the conception of a holy God and a sense of their 
 need of salvation. In 1825 there were only ten church 
 members, and in 1832 only five hundred and seventy- 
 seven in all the islands. The missionaries finally came 
 to realize more than ever before their need of divine help 
 to change the character of the people. 
 
 At length, in the years 1836 to 1839, occurred the 
 great religious awakening by which the Hawaiian people 
 were changed from a heathen to a Christian nation. This 
 revival began first in an increased earnestness of the mis- 
 sionaries themselves. In their annual gatherings in 1835 
 and 1836 they were moved as never before to pray, not 
 only for the conversion of the Hawaiians, but also for 
 that of the whole world. As they then returned to their 
 homes, some of them under sad bereavement, they soon 
 observed an increased earnestness of the church members. 
 Many of these became so active that it was remarked that 
 they would have been ornaments to any church in the 
 United States. There then occurred simultaneously over 
 all the islands such a revival of religion as has rarely been 
 seen in the history of the church. The people were so 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 69 
 
 moved that they could hardly attend to their usual avo- 
 cations. It was remarked that the voices of children 
 were not heard as usual at play upon the beach, but that 
 they were rather to be heard in the thickets and among 
 the rocks at prayer. From early morning till late at 
 night the natives came in crowds to the houses of the 
 missionaries to inquire the way of life. The number 
 attending preaching increased in some of the churches to 
 six thousand. There was not an undue excitement, but 
 a deep and solemn earnestness. The natives received the 
 divine word like little children, with perfect trust, and 
 drank in every word spoken like men dying with thirst. 
 During the years from 1836 to 1840 about twenty thou- 
 sand persons were received into the churches. During 
 the forty subsequent years the average number of annual 
 admissions to the churches was one thousand. 
 
 The result of this revival was a progress and prosper- 
 ity of the islands that has continued with little cessation 
 to the present time. The Hawaiians now awakened 
 with genuine earnestness to adopt the manners and cus- 
 toms of Christian civilization. 
 
 One of the most important results was the change 
 in the form of civil government. Previous to this time 
 the king and chiefs had been savage despots and the 
 people under them like slaves, with no rights and no 
 property, liable at any time to be driven from their 
 homes and deprived of the little all they possessed. They 
 cringed in abject fear before their chiefs, as before supe- 
 rior beings descended from gods. Now, under the in- 
 fluence of the new religious life that was pervading the 
 
170 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 nation, the king and his chiefs came to realize their need 
 of a better system of government. They therefore in- 
 vited one of the missionaries, Rev. William Richards, 
 to deliver lectures before them on the sciences of politi- 
 cal economy and civil government. The result of these 
 lectures was that the king voluntarily relinquished a large 
 part of his lands and of his power for the good of the 
 people. Before this time he had been regarded as owner 
 of all the lands ; he now assigned one third of them to 
 the government and one third to the common people. 
 He appointed a royal commission, who made investiga- 
 tions in the case of every Hawaiian family and gave 
 them titles in fee simple to the lands on which they and 
 their forefathers had lived. He also employed the best 
 legal talent he could obtain to form a code of laws and 
 a constitution of government. This constitution provid- 
 ed for a legislature consisting of nobles appointive by the 
 king and of representatives elective by the people, a judi- 
 ciary of higher and lower courts, and an excellent system 
 of public schools. 
 
 This establishment of a stable and well - ordered 
 government caused a great improvement in the condition 
 of the people. As they now owned their lands they be- 
 came desirous to better cultivate the soil, to build better 
 houses, and to obtain the comforts and luxuries of civiliza- 
 tion. As they had political equality with the chiefs 
 they ventured to contend for their rights in the courts 
 with the higher classes, and even with the king himself, 
 and to take their places in the halls of legislation to 
 Struggle for a proper administration of government 
 
a. 
 
 & 
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 p: 
 o 
 
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THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I/I 
 
 Great industrial enterprises were now inaugurated, for- 
 eign capital was introduced to develop the resources 
 of the country, and the wealth of all classes greatly in- 
 creased. 
 
 And now, because of having an excellent system of 
 government, the Hawaiian Islands obtained recognition 
 from other nations as an independent country. This 
 was needed ; for the felonious usurpations of France in 
 the Pacific had extended to these islands, and a long 
 struggle had been made by Roman-catholic priests and 
 French war-vessels to bring them under the dominion 
 of France, English officials had twice endeavored to 
 bring them under the rule of Britain, and Russia had 
 once sought possession of them. With great skill the 
 Hawaiian government thwarted all these efforts, and 
 obtained a joint treaty from France and Britain by which 
 they reciprocally engaged to forever respect the indepen- 
 dence of the Hawaiian Islands, "and never to take pos- 
 seesion, either directly or under the title of protectorate 
 or under any other form, of any part of the territory of 
 which they are composed. " The United States had pre- 
 viously made a treaty of friendly recognition of Hawaii 
 as an independent country, and thus this little group of 
 islands took a place in the world as entitled to the rank 
 and privileges of a Christianized and civilized nation. 
 
 Unfortunately the American Board now entered on 
 a course which seriously imperilled the results of the fifty 
 years of mission work that had been performed in these 
 islands. Concluding that their object of quickly evan- 
 gelizing the Hawaiians had been accomplished, and that 
 
172 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 they could hold them up to the world as an illustration 
 of missionary success, they determined to withdraw from 
 them, and with this view sent their secretary, Rev. 
 Rufus Anderson, to the islands, in 1863, to arrange for 
 placing native pastors over the churches. Finally, on the 
 15th of June, 1870, a jubilee celebration of fifty 3'ears of 
 labor was held with great pomp in Honolulu ; and in 
 the Kawaiahao church, in the presence of a congregation 
 of three thousand people, of the king and queen, the high 
 ofiicials of the government, and the representatives of 
 foreign powers, memorial addresses were delivered in 
 the Hawaiian and English languages, and the announce- 
 ment made that the work of the American Board in the 
 Hawaiian Islands was completed. 
 
 Delightful though this announcement was to the 
 public abroad, it was received by many people in the 
 islands with sad forebodings. It was evident that the 
 Hawaiian Christians needed to be kept under tutelage 
 many more years before they would be capable of properly 
 managing their churches. Trying times were before the 
 nation, when they would need the help of the best wis- 
 dom and best energy of the American missionaries. The 
 change was like putting a ship under inexperienced offi- 
 cers when breakers are ahead and storms brewing. 
 
 After this time the government of the islands was con- 
 ducted by monarchs who, with the exception of king 
 Lunalilo, were far from friendly to the mission cause. 
 As it had been of great advantage to the missionaries 
 during the fifty previous years for the kings and chiefs 
 to use their influence in their behalf, so now it was a 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 73 
 
 great disadvantage to them for the kings and their offi- 
 cials to use their influence against them. A struggle 
 now commenced in which the successive monarchs 
 sought to override or change the constitution of the 
 government in order to obtain power and money for 
 their dissipation and senseless pomp, and the intelligent 
 portion of the people sought to maintain constitutional 
 government. To overcome the opposition to their plans 
 the kings used bribery at the polls and in the legisla- 
 ture, awakened race prejudices, revived heathen sorcery, 
 and strove to demoralize the churches. The painful 
 history of these political events combines with the story 
 of the missionary operations like the strange blending 
 found on Hawaii of barren lava-flows with tracts of 
 luxuriant vegetation. 
 
 Kamehameha III., styled "The Good King,'' died 
 on December 15, 1854, and was succeeded by Alexander 
 Liholiho, Kamehameha IV. , a very bright but dissipa- 
 ted man. During the reign of the latter the "Queen's 
 Hospital " was built by money raised by his personal 
 solicitations and those of his queen, for which they are 
 gratefully remembered by the people. During this reign 
 also the Anglican Church was introduced from England, " 
 the bishops of which refused to recognize the American 
 missionaries, and publicly gave thanks that "at last the 
 true religion had been brought to Hawaii. " They obtained 
 a small following of Englishmen, but almost none of the 
 natives. They have been sustained chiefly by money sent 
 from England. This king died November 30, 1863, at 
 the age of only twenty-nine years. His death was 
 
174 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 hastened by dissipation. He was succeeded by his 
 brother Lot, Kamehameha V. 
 
 This prince contrived to have himself proclaimed 
 king without swearing to the constitution of the govern- 
 ment, and in an irregular way called a convention to 
 make a new constitution. Finding that he could not 
 control this convention he prorogued it, and taking a 
 cue from the words with which Kamehameha III. had 
 established the previous constitution, ' ' I give this con- 
 stitution to my people," proclaimed a constitution of 
 his own making without submitting it to the suffrages 
 of the people. The chief change he made from the 
 former constitution was in requiring that the nobles and 
 representatives, who had formerly sat separately, should 
 sit and vote together in one chamber, so as to be more 
 powerfully controlled by himself and his cabinet. He 
 then compelled the legislature to enact a law for licens- 
 ing kahunas as doctors and introduced kahunas with the 
 licentious hula dancers into his palace, thereby legalizing 
 the essential elements of heathenism : its loathsome sen- 
 suality, its terrorizing sorcery, and its worship of demons 
 and even of idols. This was like the act of "Jeroboam 
 the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. " After this 
 sorcery became a powerful instrument in the hands of 
 the monarchs for carrying elections. This king died on 
 December ii, 1872, at the age of forty-nine years, and 
 with him ended the line of the Kamehamehas. 
 
 The legislature was now called to elect a king, and 
 made choice of William Lunalilo, a grandson of the 
 chief who killed Capt. Cook and the highest in rank of 
 
*' THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 75 
 
 all the chiefs in the kingdom. The rival candidate for 
 the throne was David Kalakaua, who now instigated the 
 soldiers in the barracks to revolt, in order to gain the 
 throne for himself, but the revolt was skilfully quelled. 
 LunaliJo died on January 18, 1874, after a reign of only 
 one year and twenty-five days. He left a noble monu- 
 ment for himself in his bequest of property worth a 
 quarter of a million dollars for the establishment of a 
 home for aged Hawaiians. 
 
 The legislature was then again summoned to elect a 
 king. There were two candidates — the ex-queen Em- 
 ma, the relict of Kamehameha IV., and the rebel 
 prince, David Kalakaua. The issue in the election was 
 a proposed reciprocity treaty with the United States. 
 As Emma was partly of British extraction, and a patron 
 of the Anglican Church, the foreign community threw 
 its influence for David Kalakaua, and he was elected on 
 February 12, 1874. As soon as the vote was announced 
 a mob of Emma's adherents attacked the legislature, 
 but they were quickly dispersed by marines that were 
 landed by request of the cabinet from American and 
 British war-ships in the harbor. The reciprocity treaty 
 was then negotiated, and went into effect on September 
 9, 1876, and greatly promoted the industrial prosperity 
 of the islands. 
 
 Encouraged by the increasing wealth of the country, 
 Kalakaua now entered on a course of extravagance, 
 usurpation and paganism that to the islands, which had 
 previously enjoyed a tolerably good government, was 
 like one of the mountain torrents that sudden cloud- 
 
176 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 bursts send down their valleys to devastate their culti- 
 vated fields. The scope of this sketch will not admit of 
 more than an allusion to the chief events of his reign : 
 his expensive journey around the world, his costly coro- 
 nation nine years after his accession to the throne, his 
 coinage of a miUion dollars at an expense of $150,000, 
 his scheme for a sort of empire of the Pacific, his promo- 
 tion of the traffic in ardent spirits and opium, and his fre- 
 quent arbitrary changes of his cabinet, which gave it the 
 name of being "kaleidoscopic. " 
 
 Through all the changes of his cabinet one minister 
 was retained, Walter M. Gibson. He had gone to the 
 islands as an emissary of Brigham Young and had en- 
 riched himself by Mormonism, and afterwards renounced 
 that irreligion and had been excommunicated by the Lat- 
 ter-day Saints, "handed over to Satan, to be bufletted 
 for a thousand years," because he would not return a 
 thousand dollars lent to him by Brigham Young. He 
 posed as the friend of the Polynesian race against the 
 white people, and thereby got himself elected to the 
 legfislature, and finally to the leadership of the king's 
 cabinet, and for many years aided the king in his prodi- 
 gality and usurpations. 
 
 The worst influences of Kalakaua were exerted to 
 demoralize the churches, the only remaining bulwark 
 against his corrupt measures. The faithful pastors of 
 these churches found their influence counteracted by 
 sorcerers who were employed by the king, and their 
 support cut off through the exertions of government 
 officials, while large offisrs of help were made if they 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. IJJ 
 
 would favor the king's projects. On one occasion tiie 
 king persuaded the most of them to withdraw from the 
 Missionary Association in order to form a state church 
 under himself as their "Father;" and this scheme was 
 barely defeated by the fierce opposition of Rev. J. Waia- 
 mau, the pastor of the Kaumakapili Church of Honolu- 
 lu. It seemed for a while that there would be a lava- 
 like outbreak of the ancient heathenism like a volcanic 
 eruption through verdant fields. 
 
 The indignation of the better classes against the evil 
 course of the king rose to a white heat when at last he 
 accepted a bribe to sell the license for the opium traflic 
 to a Chinaman for $75,000, and then, retaining this 
 money, gave the license to another Chinaman for another 
 bribe of $80,000. The people of all classes then assem- 
 bled in a great mass-meeting and demanded that he 
 should dismiss the corrupt Gibson cabinet and proclaim 
 a new constitution that would properly limit his power. 
 Although he had troops and munitions of war and the 
 people were unarmed he did not dare to resist the fierce 
 public sentiment, and signed a constitution which pro- 
 vided that the upper branch of the legislature should be 
 elected by the people voting on a property qualification, 
 instead of being appointed by himself; that the cabinet 
 should be removable only by an act of the legislature, 
 and that he could approve or veto acts of the legislature 
 only with the concurrence of his cabinet. 
 
 During these events the king's sister, Mrs. Lydia 
 Liliuokalani Dominis, was in England. On her return 
 she fiercely charged him with cowardice in signing the 
 
178 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 new constitution, and conspired with several prominent 
 men to compel him to abdicate in her favor. Failing in 
 this she formed a secret league of the natives to over- 
 throw the government, and with the aid of Robert Wil- 
 cox, a half-caste, on the 30th of July, 1889, gathered 
 natives to her house and armed them with rifles and 
 cannon. They suddenly seized the government build- 
 ings, the palace and the military barracks, expecting 
 that there would be an uprising of the whole native pop- 
 ulation in their favor. But the white residents surrounded 
 the palace and by continual firing drove the rebels from 
 their cannon, and finally, by dynamite bombs, compelled 
 them to surrender. Wilcox was tried for treason and 
 acquitted by a native jury, and afterwards repeatedly 
 elected by the natives to the legislature. 
 
 After the death in San Francisco of King Kalakaua, 
 on the 20th of January, 1891, his sister reluctantly took 
 the oath to maintain the constitution and therefore was 
 declared Queen, with the title Liliuokalani. It was 
 hoped that she would be restrained by her good cabinet 
 and the requirements of the constitution ; but she strug- 
 gled to overcome all limitations to her power, and at 
 length succeeded in removing her good cabinet and ap- 
 pointing a new cabinet of her own accessaries. She 
 then signed bills for the opium traffic and the Louisiana 
 Lottery, and on the 14th of January, 1893, undertook to 
 proclaim a new constitution which would give her the 
 power of removing, as well as appointing, the judges of 
 the Supreme Court and disfranchise almost all the white 
 population. Even her corrupt cabinet shrank from sus- 
 
HAWAIIAN WOJIAX. WITH HAIR NECKLACE AND WHALE'S TOOTH. 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1/9 
 
 taining her in this eflfort to subvert the government, and 
 turned to the leading citizens for aid in maintaining good 
 order and peace. The community now again assembled 
 in a great mass-meeting and established a provisional 
 government which should seek annexation to the United 
 States. This new government was at once recognized 
 by the United States and the other civilized nations. 
 
 It is delightful to note that during these unhappy 
 struggles the most intelligent native Hawaiians, their 
 leading clergymen and members of the legislature, resist- 
 ed the evil course of the monarchs at no little peril to 
 themselves. The traveller on Hawaii sometimes finds 
 trees of gorgeous bloom rising alone out of the ancient 
 lava-flows, seeming the more beautiful by contrast with 
 their gloomy surroundings. Thus the steadfast integrity 
 of these Hawaiians appears the more admirable because 
 of its continuance amid the almost universal corrup- 
 tion of the people and the wiles and threats of the mon- 
 archs. 
 
 During 1893 a treaty of annexation of Hawaii to the 
 United States was partly negotiated with President Har- 
 rison, but it was withdrawn by his successor on the alle- 
 gation that the influence of American officials and troops 
 aided in the dethronement of the queen. For more than 
 a year the Hawaiian government was harassed by con- 
 spiracies for the restoration of the ex-queen to the throne. 
 
 Finally the provisional government, with the aid of 
 delegates from every district of the islands, formed a con- 
 stitution of republican government ; and on the Fourth 
 of July, 1894, President Dole proclaimed the new Re- 
 
l8o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 public from the steps of the lolani Palace in the presence 
 of a great concourse of the people. As he concluded his 
 brief and appropriate address by raising his hand towards 
 heaven and exclaiming, "God save the Republic I" the 
 intense feelings of the spectators broke forth in immense 
 applause, and a huge flag was raised with salutes of artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Thus the enterprise of Christian benevolence that was 
 begun seventy years before among pagan islanders, and 
 continued with perseverance, forbearance and courage 
 under the trials of monarchy, bore fruit in the establish- 
 ment of a civil government that is equal to the best gov- 
 ernments of enlightened countries. 
 
 In January, 1895, an insane attempt was made to 
 overthrow this government and reinstate Liliuokalani. 
 Taking advantage of the withdrawal of all war-ships from 
 Honolulu, a few former officials of the monarchy and 
 foreign adventurers imported firearms and ammunition, 
 armed over two hundred reckless Hawaiians at a place 
 near Diamond Head, about two miles from Honolulu, 
 and prepared to storm Honolulu by night with dynamite 
 bombs. Providentially in the evening, before the night 
 set for this attack, the 6th of January, some of these co^i- 
 spirators attracted the attention of the police by their 
 disorderly conduct, under the influence of gin, and the 
 plot was discovered. In the struggle that ensued with 
 the police the conspirators killed Charles Carter, one of 
 the leading citizens. They then rushed to attack the 
 city, but fortunately they mistook a small company of 
 citizen guards, that met them in the darkness, for a 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. l8l 
 
 Strong force, and withdrew to the mountains. The gov- 
 ernment immediately called out its troops and volunteer 
 bands of citizens, and after several days of fighting cap- 
 tured all these rebels. They were tried by court-martial 
 and sentenced to various punishments of fines and im- 
 prisonment. As the rebellion had been planned in the 
 house of the ex-queen, and dynamite bombs were stored 
 in this building, she was arrested on a charge of mis- 
 prision. She hastened to abdicate all claims to the 
 throne and to take the oath of allegiance to the Repub- 
 lic. She was tried in court-martial and convicted, and 
 sentenced to five years' imprisonment. 
 
 All this struggle with a pagan monarchy would 
 doubtless never have occurred if the mission work had 
 been continued in the islands, and the natives contin- 
 ually lifted to a higher character and nerved to resist 
 the temptations and threats of corrupt rulers. 
 
 But notwithstanding these demoralizing influences 
 the Hawaiian islands have grown in wealth, culture 
 and material prosperity. The revenue of the govern- 
 ment has increased to $1,570,000, the exports to the 
 value of $13,870,000, and the imports to the value of 
 $5,438,000. There are no poorhouses in the islands, 
 and no occasions for them. All the people are in fairly 
 comfortable circumstances, and have some degree of edu- 
 cation ; all the children are taught the English language 
 in the public schools ; the natives are a peaceful and law- 
 abiding people ; the number of convicts in prison is only 
 one-third of one per cent, of the population, and the 
 greater part of these are Asiatics and Portuguese. 
 
1 82 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The churches of the Hawaiian islands have survived 
 the corrupting influences of the Hawaiian monarchs, 
 but have greatly sufifered, and the type of their piety is 
 lower than it was thirty years ago. 
 
 A happy result of the evangelization of the natives 
 has been the formation of a Christian colony, of the de- 
 scendants of the missionaries and of foreigners who 
 otherwise would never have been attracted to the islands. 
 In this portion of the community there are six churches 
 of the English-speaking people. The largest of these 
 is the Union Church of Honolulu, which in 1893 had a 
 membership of 460, and built, and dedicated without 
 debt, a house for worship at a cost of $125,000, and has 
 always most liberally contributed to the Hawaiian Home 
 and Foreign Mission enterprises. In these enterprises 
 churches have been organized of the Chinese, with 150 
 members, of the Japanese, with 120 members, and of 
 the Portuguese, with about 100 members. Besides the 
 excellent Government schools there is the noble Oahu 
 College, for higher education, and many Christian board- 
 ing-schools for Hawaiian children. One of these board- 
 ing-schools, the "Kamehameha School," was endowed 
 by Mrs. Charles R. Bishop by an investment worth 
 $500,000. There is also the North Pacific Missionary 
 Institute, which has been conducted by Rev. C. M. 
 Hyde, D. D., and Rev. H. H. Parker, for supplying 
 the churches and foreign fields with ordained ministers. 
 Foreign mission enterprises have been carried on with 
 great success by the aid of native Hawaiians in the 
 Micronesian and Marquesas Islands. The Hawaiian 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 83 
 
 islands are thus like a little world by themselves, with 
 their Evangelical Associations, their Young Men's Chris^ 
 tian Association, their Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union, and their Home and Foreign Missions. 
 
 If the reader were to land in Honolulu to-day he 
 might almost think he was in a city in the United States, 
 except for a rare beauty of tropical vegetation. He 
 would see street cars, and telegraph and telephone lines, 
 and electric lights. He would find nineteen steam- 
 ers plying between the islands, and great palatial packets 
 running to America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. 
 He would see the natives dressed like Americans, and 
 engaged in important work as teachers, lawyers, minis- 
 ters and officers of government. Where seventy years 
 ago there was an unclothed race of savages he would 
 find a civilized community, who live as Americans, 
 support their own churches, and with marvellous suc- 
 cess are carrying on foreign missions. 
 
 All this change from barbarism to civilization has 
 cost the American churches, in benevolent contributions 
 through sixty years, a little over a million dollars. This 
 investment has paid, even in dollars and cents. The 
 annual income of the vessels merely carrying the com- 
 merce of these islands is a million dollars, not to speak 
 of the commerce itself, which is worth $20,000,000, and 
 will increase to twice that amount. 
 
 This investment has paid in the security of life and 
 property that has thereby been caused. Instead of 
 these islands being a pirates' lair, as without the mission 
 enterprise they would have been, they are safe and en- 
 
1 84 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 chanting places of resort. The United States spent 
 $6,000,000 in subduing the little tribe of Modocs 
 in California, in ten years $232,000,000 in wars with 
 Indians, and in their whole history $500,000,000 in 
 such wars ; but the Hawaiians are far better renovated 
 by a much smaller expenditure. 
 
 This investment has paid in the social and moral 
 good that has been thereby caused, and which cannot 
 be estimated in money. The United States has spent 
 150,000,000 in feeding and clothing Indians, while by 
 mission enterprise much more could have been accom- 
 plished for them at far less expense. 
 
 This investment has paid also in the 50,000 per- 
 sons who have been received into the churches, the most 
 of them, it may be hoped, redeemed to everlasting life. 
 It is true that these converts have not risen to the high 
 character that has been displayed in countries of older 
 civilization, and that in recent times they have greatly 
 degenerated. As we go to them with high standards of 
 character, to which our race has come through centuries 
 of Christian privilege, we see much in them to regret ; 
 but when we call to mind what they formerly were, and 
 consider from what depths of degradation they have 
 been lifted, we cannot be too thankful to God for what 
 they are. The words that were once uttered by the 
 saintly John Newton of himself might well be adopted 
 by them: "I am not what I was; I am not what I 
 should be ; I am not what I shall be : but by the grace 
 of God I am what I am." All that they are, all their 
 prosperity and progress, all the safety and delight of 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 18$ 
 
 life among them, is because of the grace of God ; be- 
 cause, in answer to prayer, God poured out his Spirit in 
 connection with the labors of the missionaries among 
 them. 
 
 The prospect now is, that in closer relations with 
 the United States and other enlightened countries, and 
 in the increasing commerce that will be stimulated by 
 the future construction of the Nicaragua Canal and the 
 further development of great lines of trans-oceanic navi- 
 gation, the Hawaiian Islands will grow in wealth, popu- 
 lation and prosperity. The present population is esti- 
 mated at about 99,000. It consists of 33,000 Ha- 
 waiians, 8,000 half-castes, 23,000 Japanese, 15,000 
 Chinese, 13,000 Portuguese, and 7,000 foreign and 
 Hawaiian-born Americans and Europeans. The conver- 
 sion of the Hawaiians has not been a mere "deathbed 
 repentance ;" it will continue in their blending with 
 foreign nationalities and in the Christian character of 
 the entire future population, of whatever races it may 
 consist. Though new difficulties will doubtless arise 
 in the way of their Christian progress, it may be be- 
 lieved that the same God, who by wonderful providences 
 and blessed outpourings of his Spirit has been with them 
 in former years, will continue with them in the future, 
 and that the Hawaiian Islands will ever stand as a 
 monument of his blessing on the cause of Christian 
 missions. 
 
 Hawaii's national motto is, " Ua mau ka aea o ka 
 aina ika pono," "The life of the country is in right- 
 eousness. " 
 In April 1900, an Act of the American Congress, 
 
1 86 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 providing for the admission of the Hawaiian Islands, as a 
 Territory, into the American Union, was signed by Pres- 
 ident McKinley, to take effect on the 14 th day of the 
 following June. On the day thus appointed, in the presence 
 of a great multitude of various nationalities assembled at 
 the Executive Building in Honolulu, the Hawaiian flag 
 was lowered, the American flag raised, and Ex- President 
 Sanford B. Dole inaugurated as the First Governor of the 
 Territory. 
 
 By the terms of the annexation the previously existing 
 Hawaiian Legislature and Judiciary and the Hawaiian 
 laws, not conflicting with the American laws, were con- 
 tinued; all persons who had previously been Hawaiian 
 citizens were declared to be American citizens; the 
 Hawaiian national debt, amounting to four million dollars, 
 was assumed by the American Government; and it was 
 provided that the revenues, to be subsequently derived 
 from the Hawaiian lands, should be applied for educational 
 and other purposes in behalf of the Hawaiian people. 
 
 Thus, by the payment of four million dollars, the United 
 States acquired possession of a group, that is more than 
 twice as large as the aggregate area of the Samoan, Tongan, 
 Cook, Society, Tuamotu, and Marquesas Groups ; ' that 
 by its customs yields the American Government more than 
 a million dollars a year ; and that, by its situation at the 
 
 1 The areas in square miles of the above-mentioned South Pacific 
 groups are: Samoa 1,160, Tonga 374, Cook 142, Society 462, 
 Tuamotu 350, Marquesas 480 ; total 2,968 sq. miles. The area of 
 the Hawaiian Group is 6,454 sq. miles. 
 
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 a 
 
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THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 87 
 
 "cross-roads" of the Pacific, is of incalculable importance 
 for the future naval and commercial control of that ocean. 
 
 By the annexation the Hawaiian Islands secured pro- 
 tection against other nations, and economic and other 
 privileges in better relations to the United States. It was 
 not well for this little group to continue liable to be seized 
 by one of the cormorant nations seeking it. Its continued 
 autonomy was impossible. For defence, as well as for 
 many other advantages it needed, like the Fijian, Cook, 
 Samoan, Tongan, and Solomon Groups, to be united to 
 one of the great countries on the continents. For many 
 years union with the United States had evidently been its 
 destiny. Its Moho Nobilis of golden plumage was to nestle 
 under the wing of the American Eagle. 
 
 Yet to the Hawaiian Islands the annexation was in some 
 respects disadvantageous. According to the American 
 system the revenues from customs, amounting ta $1,- 
 200,000 a year, were to go to the Federal Government. 
 This revenue the Hawaiian Islands needed, because of 
 their mid-ocean situation, to defray the expenses arising 
 from their increasing commerce with other countries. The 
 Federal Government did not need this revenue. By it 
 that Government in the first four years after the annexation 
 received back more than the four million dollars it paid for 
 the Hawaiian Group. For these reasons the Hawaiian 
 Government petitioned Congress to enact that three- 
 fourths of this revenue should be applied in the Hawaiian 
 Islands for. military and naval defenses, harbor improve- 
 ments and Government and educational buildings. To 
 this petition Congress has not yet made any response. 
 
l88 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The annexation was disadvantageous to the Hawaiian 
 Islands, because, also, by it universal suffrage was esta- 
 blished in those islands. Previously the Hawaiian Govern- 
 ment had required a small property qualification for the 
 exercise of the elective franchise. Against the removal of 
 this requirement the Hawaiian Government and also the 
 Committee of Congress, that was sent to determine the 
 propriety and proper terms of the annexation, protested ; 
 but Congress, influenced by the popular sentimentalism 
 concerning universal suffrage, disregarded the protest. 
 The result is that, to a great extent, the lower classes of 
 the people have been able to determine who shall be the 
 members of the Legislature and shall occupy the subordi- 
 nate offices of the Government. 
 
 With this power the lower classes have been able to 
 secure a great extension of the traffic in intoxicating 
 liquors. Hardly a worse calamity could have befallen 
 them. It is to be regretted that the American Govern- 
 ment, in estabhshing its rule over this group, did not as 
 stringently restrict this traffic, as has Great Britain in the 
 Fijian, Cook, Tongan, and Solomon Islands, and as has 
 Germany in its Samoan possessions. 
 
 The annexation produced in the Hawaiian Islands a 
 wonderful economic prosperity. The establishment of a 
 stable, well-ordered Government, and the perpetuation of 
 the privilege of free trade with the United States, caused 
 a great development of industrial and commercial enter- 
 prises. 
 
 This development is best illustrated by the following 
 accounts of the sugar industry, the chief enterprise of the 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 89 
 
 group. In 1900 the output of this industry was 172,265 
 tons; in 1906 it was 373,302 tons. The aggregate value 
 of the exports of sugar in 1905 was $35,113,430. The 
 greatest mill of the group, that of the Hawaiian Com- 
 mercial and Sugar Company, produced, in the year 1906, 
 43)652 tons of sugar. This mill in one week produced 
 2,100 tons of sugar, an average of 350 tons a day. The 
 present value of the plants for irrigation of the sugar 
 plantations is $70,000,000. The water for irrigation is 
 obtained from mountain streams and artesian wells. One 
 of the largest plantations, obtaining water from artesian 
 wells, lifts daily, by pumping from forty wells, to the height 
 of one hundred and fifty feet 69,750,000 gallons of water. 
 The plantations expend annually in fertilization twenty to 
 forty dollars per acre. The amount thus expended may 
 be inferred from the fact that the plantations each have 
 from a thousand to seven thousand acres under cultivation. 
 The fertilization almost doubles the yield of sugar. The 
 aggregate number of laborers on the plantations is 45,000. 
 The skilled laborers are chiefly Americans and Europeans. 
 The unskilled laborers are chiefly Japanese, Chinese and 
 Portuguese. The unskilled laborers receive as wages about 
 twenty dollars a month, are freely provided with houses, 
 small plots of land for cultivation for themselves, fuel, 
 medical attendance, and school and church privileges. 
 
 Besides this industry, there are profitable enterprises for 
 the production of pineapples, bananas, coffee, rice, sisal, 
 honey and live stock ; and a very promising beginning 
 has been made in the production of rubber and vanilla. 
 In 1905 the total exports amounted in value to $36,1 12,055 
 and the imports to $26,882,199. 
 
igo THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The prosperity of the islanders is illustrated by their 
 massive commercial and public buildings, attractive pri- 
 vate residences, and systems of steam locomotion, electric 
 power, electric lighting, telephony and wireless telegraphy. 
 Very delightfully the islanders are uniting the comforts 
 and charms of civilization with the rarest beauties of the 
 Tropics. 
 
 Since the annexation, as before that event, the mis- 
 sionary cause in the Hawaiian Islands has been seriously 
 beset by the adverse influences of the non-Christian 
 peoples that have gone thither. In these respects the 
 history of this group differs from that of the groups in the 
 Southern Pacific, where there has been, in various degrees, 
 seclusion from foreigners, and where the missionary en- 
 terprise has prospered in proportion to that seclusion. In 
 Hawaii there has been no seclusion. As has been men- 
 tioned, the reckless and dissolute adventurers, who had 
 gone thither before the arrival of the missionaries, sought 
 to prevent the missionaries from securing the privilege of 
 settling in the group, and afterward, when the missionaries 
 induced the King to enact laws forbidding immorality, 
 they menaced and attacked the missionaries, and strove to 
 obstruct their work. Subsequently the work of the mis- 
 sionaries was seriously hindered by the influence of the 
 depraved men in the crews of the ships that continually 
 visited the group. The late Rev. Benjamin Snow, mis- 
 sionary at Micronesia, once stated that the coming of one 
 ship to an island would there set back the missionary work 
 a year. During the period when the whale-fishery was 
 very prosperous whale-ships were continually visiting the 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I9I 
 
 group, or remaining there for shelter in the winter. 
 Sometimes fifty to a hundred of these ships were at one 
 time at a single port. It may be inferred how deplorably 
 the natives were demoralized by the frequent visits of these 
 ships and their prolonged mooring at the island ports. 
 Recently the work of the missionaries has been still further 
 hindered by the multitudes of Asiatics who have gone to 
 the group for employment on the plantations. According 
 to the census of 1900 there were at that time in the group 
 6r,ii5 Japanese, and 25,762 Chinese, also 15,675 Portu- 
 guese, most of the latter Roman Catholics. Thus there 
 was a total of 102,437 alien people, unfriendly to the 
 missionary cause. At the same time the number of the 
 Hawaiians was only 29,787, and of part Hawaiians 7,848, 
 a total of 37,635. Nearly all these Orientals are pagans 
 and are maintaining or propagating their paganism. The 
 Japanese have erected twenty-two Buddhist temples and, 
 in imitation of the Christian Churches, are conducting 
 Day and Night Schools, Sunday Schools, and Young Men's 
 Buddhist Associations. Thus the work of the missionaries 
 in this group has been to overcome not only the primeval 
 paganism of the Hawaiians, but also the anti-Christian 
 influences powerfully exerted by reprobate white men and 
 by these pagan and Roman Catholic races. 
 
 Very remarkably the natives have withstood these evil 
 influences. Those of them that are not connected with 
 Churches have, indeed, been sadly drawn into intemperance 
 and immorality; but the church members have generally 
 stood firm, and recently they have awakened to greater 
 interest in their Churches and in all good enterprises. 
 
192 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 During the recent sessions of the Legislature the native 
 members of that body displayed more wisdom and better 
 character than did most of the white members. To this 
 people Christianity has been, indeed, an uplifting and 
 conserving power ; but it could not wholly prevent their 
 decimation by the new diseases introduced by the multi- 
 tude of foreigners coming to them ; and yet it has retarded 
 this decimation ; and now, counted with their half-caste 
 progeny, who are an improvement on the parent stock, 
 they are no longer decreasing in number. The fact, that 
 they have been making Christian development while beset 
 by evil foreign influences, indicates that they will hereafter 
 hold their own against demoralizing influences and con- 
 tinue to advance in Christian civilization. 
 
 Because of this encouraging condition of the Hawaiians 
 the missionary enterprise in their group is no longer spe- 
 cially for them. A new era has there begun. The mis- 
 sionary enterprise there is now for the hordes of Asiatic 
 pagans and European Roman Catholics entering the group. 
 The work for these peoples is urgently necessary. They 
 are not only numerous, but also rapidly multiplying. 
 Their children will soon be claiming the elective franchise, 
 and perhaps eventually gaining political control of the 
 group. 
 
 To the necessity of working for these races the Christian 
 portion of the community are fully awake ; and with the 
 missionary spirit, they have inherited from the missionary 
 Fathers who uplifted the Hawaiians from their paganism, 
 they are laboring faithfully and making large contributions 
 for the evangelization of these races. They have gathered 
 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I93 
 
 more than six thousand of the children into pubhc and 
 private schools, conducted in the English language, and 
 they are developing for them and for the children of the 
 Hawaiians the cosmopolitan Pacific Institute, which is 
 giving Christian as well as secular education. With the 
 aid of American missionaries procured from China and 
 Japan and of Chinese and Japanese clergymen from those 
 countries they are conducting in all parts of the group 
 religious services for these races. The same divine 
 blessing that attended the labors for the Hawaiians is 
 attending the labors for these races. Already the Con- 
 gregationalists have organized sixteen Japanese churches, 
 five Chinese churches, and two Portuguese churches ; the 
 Methodist seven Japanese churches and one Korean 
 church, and the Episcopalians one Japanese church. 
 
 Very delightfully the churches of the various races in 
 each of these Denominations are united in Christian 
 fellowship, and, as a result of this, there is throughout the 
 group a harmony and friendliness between all the people 
 of these races. 
 
 In 1907 the population of the group was about 150,000; 
 the number of members in the Congregational churches 
 was 6,325, in the Episcopalian churches 2,500, in the 
 Methodist churches 1,000, in the German Lutheran 
 churches 150. The number of the Roman Catholic ad- 
 herents was 10,000, of the Buddhist 40,000, of the 
 Mormon 5,133. 
 
194 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SAMOA. 
 
 No sooner did Mr. Williams gain a foothold in the 
 Hervey Islands than he determined to push on in the 
 missionary enterprise to the numerous islands farther 
 west, and with this view began to build a vessel to be 
 used exclusively for missionary purposes ; for it was 
 difiBcult to obtain passage to other islands by passing 
 vessels. In the construction of this vessel he displayed 
 a genius for mechanical contrivance hardly to have been 
 looked for in a missionary apostle. With the aid of the 
 chiefs of Rarotonga he obtained from the mountains the 
 timber needed, which he split into planks. To fashion 
 the ironmongery required he made a forge with bellows 
 of goat skins, but the innumerable rats on the island de- 
 voured the goat skins ; whereupon he made an apparatus 
 with two boxes and valves with which, with the aid 
 of eight or ten powerful men, he was able to make the 
 blasts of air required for his forge. He supplied the 
 vessel with sails made of mats, calked her with cocoanut 
 fibre and breadfruit gum, and furnished her with a rud- 
 der adjusted with a piece of a pick-axe, a cooper's adze, 
 and a large hoe. It measured sixty by eighteen feet, 
 and was of seventy or eighty tons burden, and named the 
 " Messenger of Peace." 
 
 The first voyage of this vessel was successfully made 
 
SAMOA. ig5 
 
 to and from Aitutaki, and then Mr. Williams went in her 
 to Tahiti. No little curiosity and wonder were excited 
 among the seamen at Papeete when this strange-looking 
 craft came in sight, and still more when it was closely 
 examined. With the aid of competent ship-carpenters it 
 was then partly made over and rendered seaworthy. 
 
 In July 1830 Mr. Williams, with his colleague, Mr. 
 Barff, and seven native teachers, embarked on this vessel 
 for the Samoa, or Navigator's, Islands, two thousand 
 miles distant. 
 
 The Samoa Islands are situated between 1 3° 30' and 
 14° 30' south latitude and 163° and 173° west longitude, 
 and consist of thirteen islands, only four of which are of 
 much importance. The most easterly is Manua, a 
 dome-like island, rising to the height of 2, 500 feet. It 
 is sixteen miles in circumference, and covered with luxu- 
 riant vegetation. Near it are the two islets, Oloosinga 
 and Ofoo. 
 
 About sixty miles further west is Tutuila, an island 
 seventeen miles long and five wide. It is cut almost in 
 two from the south side by the inlet Pagopago, the safest 
 harbor of the group. The coasts of this island are bold 
 and without reefs except at the mouths of the harbors. 
 Along the shores there is a beautiful growth of cocoa- 
 nut, breadfruit and banana trees ; and a continuous 
 forest extends to the summits of the mountains, which 
 are crowned with grand perpendicular lava cliifs. 
 
 About thirty-six miles further northwest is Upolu, an 
 island forty miles long and fourteen broad, on the north 
 side of which is Apia, the chief town of the group. This 
 
196 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 town extends in a semicircular form around the head of 
 a small bay that affords a safe anchorage for ships in 
 ordinary weather but is open to the full violence of the 
 northwesterly storms. The mountains of this island are 
 not lofty but very picturesque, with varied forms of deep 
 gorges, high ridges and rocky precipices, and with an 
 indescribable beauty of tropical vegetation. "The 
 plumes of the cocoanut wave from many a high hill 
 almost as profusely as from the groves at the shore." 
 Back of Apia, at an elevation of 750 feet, is a grand wa- 
 terfall, which is a valuable landmark for ships. At the 
 west end of Upolu are two islets, Apolima, which is rocky, 
 and inaccessible except through an entrance just wide 
 enough for a boat to enter, and Manono, which is cov- 
 ered with breadfruit trees. 
 
 About twelve miles west of Upoli is Savaii, an island 
 that has been compared to Hawaii, to which it probably 
 gave a name and like which it is, in comparison with the 
 rest of its group, the largest island, of the latest volcanic 
 formation, and has the highest mountains and the great- 
 est areas of rocky land. It measures forty miles by 
 twenty, and rises to the height of four thousand feet. 
 
 The Samoas have substantially the same flora as the 
 islands further east and north, but some different species 
 of fauna. Here are to be found elegant varieties of pig- 
 eons and parrots, also innumerable bats, called "flying- 
 foxes, " which often hang in multitudes from the branches 
 of the trees, "giving the appearance of some curious 
 fruit ;" and small insectivorous bats, which cluster in 
 thousands among the rocks, "clinging to one another 
 
A Samoax WuMAX. 
 
SAMOA. 197 
 
 till they appear like brown ropes ; also giant crabs, 
 sometimes three feet long, which climb the cocoanut- 
 trees and tear open and feed on their nuts ; and harm- 
 less snakes, which grow sometimes to about four feet in 
 length. The missionary, Williams, during his first visit 
 to Savaii expressed a desire to see some of these snakes, 
 and in a few minutes some girls came to him with sev- 
 eral of them twined around their necks. ' ' The natives 
 sometimes enclose the snakes in their bamboo pillows, 
 that their noise of crawling and hissing may induce 
 sleep. " 
 
 On their way to the Samoa Islands the missionaries 
 on the Messenger of Peace turned aside to visit the Ton- 
 ga Islands, in order to confer with the Wesleyan mis- 
 sionaries in that group, and there took on board a 
 Samoan chief, Fauea, who desired to return to Savaii, 
 having been absent from his home eleven years. This 
 chief had a Christian wife and was friendly to the mis- 
 sionaries, and engaged to assist them in their work. On 
 arriving at Savaii they received a warm welcome from 
 the people through his influence. As yet the Samoans 
 had seen but few people from civilized lands, and they 
 gathered in great numbers to see the white missionaries, 
 some climbing the cocoanut-trees and gazing at them by 
 the light of torches as in the evening they went to pay 
 their respects to the chief of the district ; and finally 
 they took the missionaries on their shoulders and carried 
 them with blazing flambeaux to the chief He gave them 
 a royal welcome, supplied their vessel with abundance of 
 vegetables, fruit and pigs, and gave permission for the 
 
igS THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 teachers to reside among his people. Messrs. Williams 
 and BariT promised, as they left the island, to return in 
 ten or eleven months. 
 
 After the departure of the Messenger of Peace, Fauea 
 assisted the Rarotongan teachers according to his prom- 
 ise ; and soon the chief Malietoa was induced to make a 
 trial of renouncing idolatry. But he requested his fam- 
 ily to wait six weeks to see the consequences before they 
 should imitate his example. After three weeks his sons, 
 who were eager to escape the requirements of their pa- 
 ganism, gathered their friends together and defied their 
 gods by eating the kind of fish called anae (mullet), in 
 which their tutelary gods were supposed to reside, and 
 which were regarded as labu to them. Their immunity 
 in this conduct encouraged the people to renounce their 
 idolatry ; a great meeting was called, and it was decided 
 to send their chief idol, which was a mere piece of old 
 rotten matting, to sea to be drowned ; but by the request 
 of the teachers it was preserved and afterwards given to 
 Mr. Williams, and by him sent to the missionary muse- 
 um at London. The news of these events brought na- 
 tives in canoes from the neighboring islands to seek 
 instruction from the teachers, and these natives, after 
 returning home, destroyed their idols and erected chap- 
 els for Christian worship. 
 
 Mr. Williams was obliged to defer his return to the 
 Samoa Islands about two years, until the nth of Octo- 
 ber, 1839. In returning he went first to Manua, the 
 most easterly of the group. Here a delightful surprise 
 awaited him. The natives came oif in canoes to his 
 
SAMOA. 199 
 
 vessel exclaiming that they were "people of the Word,'' 
 Christians, and were waiting for a missionary ship. 
 They had received Christian instruction from some Tahi- 
 tians who while voyaging among the Society Islands had 
 been storm-driven to this island. They had already 
 erected a chapel, were regularly observing the ordinances 
 of Christian worship, and were able to read the Tahitian 
 Scriptures. They were much disappointed that Mr. 
 Williams could not give them a missionary. 
 
 Mr. Williams next went to Tutuila, and endeavored 
 to land in a boat on the south side of this island at a 
 place called Leone, where not long before a boat's crew 
 of the La Perouse Expedition had been massacred. See- 
 ing a large crowd on the shore he hesitated to land, when 
 a chief waded out towards the boat and urged him to 
 visit them, saying that his people had become Christians 
 through the instruction of teachers who were left by a 
 great white chief twenty months previous at Savaii. Mr. 
 Williams informed him that he was the chief referred to ; 
 whereupon the chief joyfully gave a signal to his people 
 and they instantly rushed into the sea, seized the boat, 
 and carried it, with Mr. Williams within, high up on the 
 land. Here already a chapel had been erected and a 
 considerable number of Christian worshippers gathered 
 together through the instruction of one of their number, 
 who had made frequent voyages in a little canoe to Sa- 
 vaii and thereby gained a little knowledge with which to 
 instruct his people. 
 
 Continuing his voyage Mr. Williams visited Upolu, 
 and there found that through acquaintance with the 
 
200 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 teachers on Savaii one hundred of its people had re- 
 nounced idolatry and were earnestly desiring to obtain 
 the instruction of a missionary. 
 
 Arriving at last at Savaii he was joyfully welcomed 
 by the chiefs and people, and found a chapel, and held 
 several meetings, addressing audiences of over a thou- 
 sand people. 
 
 In the year 1835 the London Missionary Society sent 
 six missionaries, five of whom were accompanied by their 
 wives, to the Samoa Islands. From this time the pro- 
 gress of the mission was rapid : the Bible was translated, 
 schools and theological seminaries were formed, almost 
 the entire population embraced Christianity, and many 
 graduates of the schools went forth as foreign missiona- 
 ries to the New Hebrides, the Gilbert group, and other 
 neighboring islands. 
 
 In 1844 Rev. Charles Hardie, with Rev. G. Turner — 
 who in the previous year had been obliged to flee for his 
 life from the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides — 
 established a self-supporting boarding-school for higher 
 education at Malua, on the island of Upolu. They pur- 
 chased three hundred acres of land covered with wild 
 jungle and bordering on a lagoon, erected buildings, and 
 enrolled one hundred students, in classes of twenty-five, 
 for a four years' course of study. With the aid of the 
 students the land was cleared of brush and planted with 
 "ten thousand breadfruit and cocoanut trees, thousands 
 of bananas, and yams, taro, maize, manioc and sugar 
 cane, and a road was made in circuit around the tract 
 and shaded by the cocoanut palm. " Besides cultivating 
 
SAMOA. 20I 
 
 the soil and catching fish from the lagoon the students 
 learned useful mechanical arts. The produce of the 
 land and the fish of the lagoons supplied all their wants. 
 In this school pupils were received from the New Hebri- 
 des, New Caledonia, and Savage Island, as well as from 
 the Samoa Islands. The graduates of this school have 
 become the teachers of the common schools, the pastors 
 of churches, and foreign missionaries ; and here over 
 2,000 teachers and native ministers have been trained. 
 In the year 1891 ninety-five graduates of this school were 
 acting as ordained pastors in the Samoa and other groups 
 of islands. The Malua institution has been rated as 
 foremost in importance of the missionary agencies in 
 Samoa. 
 
 Besides this school there is a Normal Training School 
 at Leulumoenga ; five other schools are conducted by 
 missionaries on Savaii and Upolu, and arrangements 
 were about perfected in 1892 for the establishment of a 
 central boarding-school for girls. 
 
 The result of the work in these schools is that the 
 number of native pastors in Samoa is increasing while 
 the London Missionary Society refrains from appointing 
 many more English missionaries for this group of islands. 
 Some apprehension has been expressed lest the appoint- 
 ment of new foreign missionaries for Samoa may be 
 suspended before the natives have advanced sufficiently 
 in knowledge and character to wisely manage their 
 churches and religious enterprises. It is to be hoped 
 that warning will be taken from the mistake made by 
 the American Board in Hawaii. 
 
202 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 In recent years the attention of the whole world has 
 been drawn to Samoa because of the unhappy struggles 
 of its people and foreign nations respecting its sovereign- 
 ty. To understand these struggles it is necessary to 
 glance at a long history of dissensions of the natives and 
 encroachments on their rights by foreigners. From time 
 immemorial there have been in Samoa intertribal disputes 
 and wars in which it has been no difficult matter for 
 foreigners to intervene for their own emolument. Thus 
 a firm presided over by John Csesar Godefifroy, of Ger- 
 many, artfully and by fraud obtained twenty-five thou- 
 sand acres of the finest alluvial land of Samoa. Back of 
 Apia they put ten thousand acres of this land into use, 
 inclosed them partly with hedges of limes and other 
 trees, intersected them with avenues of palms, and cul- 
 tivated them with cotton, cacao, coffee, cocoanuts, pine- 
 apples and other fruits. In process of time Godeffroy 
 went into bankruptcy, owing $5,000,000, and this 
 Samoan estate passed into other hands, and was placed 
 under the management of one Theodor Weber (Misi 
 Ueba). Another firm, called "The Polynesian Land 
 Company," obtained 300,000 acres on four islands. 
 The result of this land-grabbing was that the poor natives 
 were to a great extent dispossessed from their ancestral 
 estates and from their means of a livelihood. 
 
 To put an end to incessant disputes of the natives 
 with each other and with the foreign traders the Samoan 
 chiefs, in 1875, with the aid of Col. A. B. Steinberger, 
 who had been sent by President Grant to secure a naval 
 coaling station in Samoa, formed a written constitution 
 
SAMOA. 203 
 
 of government and a code of laws; and in 1879, with 
 the aid of Sir A. H. Gordan and the German consul, 
 established the "Municipality of Apia," the Americans 
 in Samoa objecting. This municipality was an arrange- 
 ment that Apia, the emporium of Samoa, should be 
 governed by a Board consisting of the consuls and per- 
 sons nominated, one apiece, by them. At about the 
 same time a convention of commissioners of England, 
 Germany and the United States was held at Washington, 
 and an agreement partly made by these nations to mutu- 
 ally respect each other's rights in Samoa. 
 
 All would now have gone well with Samoa if there 
 had not been a deeply laid plot of the German govern- 
 ment in conjunction with the German residents at Apia 
 to obtain possession of these islands. An opportunity 
 for carrying out this scheme was afforded by the dis- 
 agreement of the natives in the appointment of their 
 king. According to Samoan custom, the electors of the 
 king were the "Taimura," a senate of seven chiefs 
 chosen every two years by the other chiefs and repre- 
 senting the different districts, and the suffrages were 
 given in the form of names or titles. A chief by the 
 name of Laupepa (sheet of paper), a man of excellent 
 character, who had been educated for the Christian 
 ministry, received three names, Malietoa, Natoaitele, 
 and Tamasoalii ; another chief, Tamasese, obtained the 
 title Tuiana ; and another, Mataafa, the title Tuiata. 
 Laupepa was therefore declared king, and Tamasese and 
 Mataafa vice-kings. 
 
 The German firm now under the lead of Mr. Weber 
 
204 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 made a stand against Laupepa and in favor of Tama- 
 sese, and trumped up demands against Laupepa for 
 $i,ooo on account of alleged disrespect of natives to the 
 German nation, and of $12,000 for cocoanuts stolen by 
 famishing natives from the German plantations. The 
 German consul combined with Mr. Weber in making 
 these demands and expelled Laupepa from his residence 
 in Apia. Five German war vessels were brought to 
 enforce the demands, and they hoisted the flag of Tama- 
 sese and declared him king. 
 
 Laupepa, being of peacable disposition, readily com- 
 plied with advice given by the American and British 
 consuls to avoid war, and trusted promises made by 
 them to restore his rights. At length from a hiding- 
 place in the forest he sent a message to the consuls, 
 reminding them of their promises, and calling upon 
 them to redeem them and to cause the lives and liberties 
 of his people to be respected. Finally, to prevent blood- 
 shed, he delivered himself to the German war- vessels, 
 and with touching farewells to his people was conveyed 
 away, first to Australia, then to Cape Town, then to 
 Germany, and finally to Jaluit, a low lagoon island of 
 the Marshall group, and there put on shore and kept on 
 coarse fare of beef, tea, and biscuit. After his deporta- 
 tion the chief Mataafa gathered six hundred troops in 
 the forest and fought several desperate battles against 
 Tamesese, who was in a fort under the protection of the 
 Germans. German marines were now sent to enforce a 
 disarmament of Mataafa. A combat ensued, and twen- 
 ty Germans were killed and thirty wounded. The Ger- 
 
SAMOA. 20S 
 
 mans now declared war against Samoa, placed Apia 
 under martial law, suppressed the English newspaper, 
 imprisoned several English and American residents, and 
 bombarded some villages. 
 
 This high-handed course of Germany excited intense 
 indignation in the Samoa Islands and also in England 
 and the United States. The American consul at Apia, 
 Harold Marsh Sewall, and the trader. Moors, sent forci- 
 ble despatches about the state of affairs to Washington, 
 and finally went thither themselves to give fuller informa- 
 tion. The result was that the government at Washing- 
 ton telegraphed to Minister Pendleton to notify the 
 German minister of Foreign Affairs "that the United 
 States expected that nothing would be done to impair 
 their rights under their existing treaty with Samoa." 
 Thereupon Count Bismarck telegraphed to the German 
 consul at Apia that "annexation was impracticable, on 
 account of the diplomatic agreement with England and 
 the United States." 
 
 These contentions about Samoa were now hurried to 
 a settlement by a hurricane that wrecked all but one of 
 seven war-ships of Germany, the United States and 
 England that were congregated at Apia to stand guard 
 over the interests of their respective countries. Of these 
 ships three were American, the Nipsic, the Vandalia, and 
 the Trenton ; three German, the Adler, the Eber, and 
 the Olga ; one British, the Calliope ; and there were also 
 in the Apia harbor six merchantmen and nine smaller 
 craft. It was considered unsafe for more than four ships 
 to be anchored in this harbor at one time ; and for this 
 
206 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 reason two of the war-ships, the Trenton and Vandalia, 
 had taken their position just outside of the reef. 
 
 The extreme peril of remaining in this harbor when a 
 northerly storm was blowing into it was well known ; 
 and it was the custom of sea-faring men, at the first 
 indications of such a storm, to put to sea and seek 
 shelter in the lee of the islands. A captain of a smaller 
 vessel once, when unable to get away at such a time, 
 scuttled and sank his vessel in shoal water as the only 
 method of saving her, and after the hurricane raised her 
 again. During the previous month a storm had blown 
 from the north and the Eber had barely been rescued by 
 a hawser from the Olga, and the ship Constitution and 
 a small vessel, the Tamesese, had been wrecked. But 
 now these war-ships, like angry bull dogs, were obliv- 
 ious to every thing but their quarrels with each other, 
 and remained at Apia notwithstanding sure indications 
 of a coming tempest. 
 
 The first sign of the storm was the falling of the 
 barometer to 29° 11' at 2 p. m., on March 15, 1889. At 
 night-fall on this day the heavens to the north grew 
 black, and heavy rain began to fall. At midnight a 
 cyclone was blowing and mountain waves were rushing 
 into the small harbor and, like vast behemoths, spring- 
 ing upon the ships and almost wrenching them from 
 their moorings. The ships steamed with the utmost 
 power of their machinery to the aid of their anchor- 
 cables, but steadily drifted towards the reefs. Before 
 morning the Eber struck twice on the reef and then 
 sank, stern foremost, carrying down all of her eighty 
 
SAMOA. 207 
 
 men but four, who were rescued by the very natives with 
 whom they had been at war. At seven a. m. the Nip- 
 sic fortunately drove upon the sand beach, losing only a 
 few of her men. At eight a. m. the Adler drifted near 
 the reef ; but the captain, when she was about to strike, 
 watched for the coming of a mountain wave, suddenly 
 slipped his cables, and his ship was lifted high on the 
 reef and laid over on her beam ends, with a loss of twen- 
 ty of her men. The remainder of her crew clung many 
 hours to her wreck, till they were heroically rescued by 
 the Samoans. At nine a. m. the Trenton and the Cal- 
 liope were about coming into collision with each other 
 when the captain of the latter, as the only means of 
 safety, slipped his cables, put on all possible steam and 
 slowly worked to sea. The Americans near by on the 
 doomed ship Trenton gallantly cheered as this ship 
 almost imperceptibly worked her way against the torna- 
 do. The Trenton now, with fires gone out, her rudder 
 and propeller gone and all her anchor-cables but one 
 broken, was drifting on to the reef when her captain set 
 storm sails, slipped his cable, and endeavored to drive 
 her on the beach. Just before this the Vandalia had 
 struck the reef and sunk, and most of her crew had 
 climbed to her masts, and now the Trenton, "as 
 unmanageable as a wild mustang," drove against these 
 masts and shook off many of the men, while some of 
 them clambered on her decks. Forty-three men were 
 drowned in this way and by the sinking of the Vandalia. 
 But the Trenton continued on her course, and finally 
 settled in shoal water, with a loss of only one of her 450 
 
2o8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 men. The Olga now loosed from her moorings, and 
 with all steam on safely reached the sand beach. All 
 the merchantmen and smaller craft in the harbor were 
 wrecked. It was afterwards ascertained that this hurri- 
 cane extended more than 1,200 miles, and destroyed 
 three ships in the Hervey Islands. 
 
 • The news of this hurricane made a profound impres- 
 sion all over the world ; and Germany, England and the 
 United States, awe-struck, as if a higher Power had in- 
 tervened against their rapacity for the islands of the poor 
 Samoans, hastened to settle their disputes by an interna- 
 tional conference at Berlin. The result of the conference 
 was that Germany brought Malietoa back to Samoa, and 
 he was reinstated as king. The contending nations 
 agreed to respect the autonomy of Samoa, and provided 
 for the appointment of a Land Commission to settle land 
 claims, and of a Supreme Judge to be elected by the 
 treaty powers or, in case they should fail to agree, by the 
 king of Norway and Sweden. This judge should adju- 
 dicate questions arising between the treaty nations or 
 between the natives and foreigners. It was also ar- 
 ranged that the government of Samoa should be carried 
 on by a senate, called Taimura, consisting of the king, 
 vice-king, and the chiefs of the diiferent tribes, and by a 
 house of representatives, called the Faipule, elected by 
 the people. A Swedish jurist, O. K. W. von Ceder- 
 crantz, was appointed Chief Justice, at a salary of $6,000 
 per annum, a German, Baron Von Pilsach, President of 
 the Municipal Council, at a salary of $5,000, and a 
 Commission sent out to settle land-claims at an aggre- 
 
SAMOA. 
 
 209 
 
 gate annual expense of $15,000, while King Malietoa 
 had a nominal salary of only $1,000, which he was un- 
 able to wholly collect. Part of the customs receipts of 
 Apia were assigned for payment of the salary of the 
 President. A capitation tax of one dollar per annum 
 was imposed on each man, woman and child in Samoa 
 to raise money to pay the other salaries and to defray 
 the expenses of bridge-building, road-repairing, and all 
 other public works. 
 
 The Samoans led such free and easy lives, " plucking 
 their food from trees, sheltering themselves with banana- 
 leaf thatch, and clothing themselves with bark cloth," 
 that they did not see the necessity of taxes, nor were able 
 to give more for their payment than "small contribu- 
 tions of taro, pigs, cocoanuts and chickens," and soon 
 revolted against the tripartite government. When Malie- 
 toa was reinstated his old companion, Mataafa, met him 
 in a friendly way, and sought to engage his help to 
 throw off this expensive foreign government, but found 
 that the Samoan king could do no more than a child 
 against the great treaty powers. He then withdrew from 
 him and became decidedly hostile, encamping with his 
 warriors at Malie, two miles from Apia. Finally, on the 
 seventh and eighth of July, 1893, he attacked the gov- 
 ernment troops and was repulsed. Three ships of the 
 joint protectorate then steamed to the place of conflict 
 and with threats of bombardment compelled him and his 
 chiefs to deliver themselves up to them, and in a few 
 days he and ten of his chiefs were deported to the 
 Marshall Islands, twenty-four of his followers were sen- 
 
2IO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 tenced to three years of penal labor, and eighty-seven 
 fined. 
 
 This banishment and punishment of the revolting 
 chiefs did not stop the rebellion, and consequently the 
 high officials, Cedercrantz and Pilsach, seeing that they 
 could accomplish no good, but rather were exciting the 
 natives to war by imposing the burden of their own sup- 
 port upon them, resigned, and H. C. Ide, of Vermont, 
 U. S. A. , was sent out as Chief Justice, and Mr. Schmidt, 
 a German resident of Samoa, made President. Judge 
 Ide began his career in Samoa by inviting seventeen of 
 the chiefs to a friendly conference, and imprisoning 
 them, and putting them to work with convicts on the 
 road, because they refused to pay the capitation taxes. 
 The natives were enraged at this ignominious treatment 
 of their chiefs, which they claimed was a violation of an 
 agreement for safe conduct, and they flew to arms. 
 They expressed a desire that Malietoa should continue to 
 be their king, but opposition to the burdensome foreign 
 government, and with nightly prayers and psalm-singing 
 marched against the forces of the king. They fought 
 a fierce and indecisive battle, and by the last accounts 
 were still making war. 
 
 Thus the tripartite protectorate of Samoa, which was 
 not designed so much to protect the Samoans or pro- 
 mote their welfare as to protect the respective interests of 
 the great contracting nations from each other's rapacity, 
 has been imposed for pecuniary support on the poor 
 Samoans, and has only maddened them to deplorable 
 war against their king. The greatest boon the Samoans 
 
SAMOA. 211 
 
 conld receive would be to be delivered from these pro- 
 tectors and permitted to govern themselves. 
 
 As may be supposed, the turmoils in Samoa have had 
 a sad influence on the churches and powerfully operated 
 to reduce the people to their former barbarism. Yet it 
 is a remarkable fact that only one pupil of the Malua In- 
 stitute has relinquished his studies to engage in these 
 wars, and that the various Home and Foreign Mission 
 enterprises of the churches have continued through all 
 the dissensions. The patience of the Samoans in endur- 
 ing the long series of outrages which they suffered before 
 resorting to war, their comparatively humane method of 
 conducting the war, and their magnanimity in rescuing 
 the shipwrecked Germans, are certainly very creditable to 
 a people just emerging from paganism and rudely tram- 
 pled upon by wealthy and intelligent races. 
 
 The whole population of the Samoa Islands may 
 now be styled as nominally Christian. On the largest 
 islands there are probably not fifty families that fail to 
 observe family worship ; and the genuineness of their 
 piety is shown by their benevolence and missionary en- 
 terprise. In 1890, besides supporting the gospel at 
 home they sent $9,000 as a thank-offering to the London 
 Missionary Society for foreign mission work. But many 
 years of religious culture and development of the educa- 
 tional institutions, now organized, are needed to estab- 
 lish the churches on stable foundations and best promote 
 their mission enterprises for the neighboring islands. 
 
 In the year 1897 the Tripartite Government, at the 
 request of a majority of the Samoan chiefs, brought back 
 
212 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 from Jaluit of the Marshall group the exiled chief, Mataafa. 
 This chief had been won over by kind treatment during 
 his four years' exile, to favor the ascendancy of the Ger- 
 mans. A few months after his return. King Malietoa 
 died, having contracted typhoid fever, and the old struggle 
 for the throne was renewed. The King was to be elected 
 by representatives of the various districts. There were 
 three candidates, and of these Mataafa received the 
 majority of the votes, as he was a favorite of the people, 
 and a partisan of the Germans and Roman Catholics. 
 According to the Constitution of the Tripartite Govern- 
 ment the returns of the elections were to be passed upon 
 by the Chief Justice, who at that time was Judge William 
 Chambers of the United States. He ruled that Mataafa, 
 as previously a rebel, and as barred by a previous stipula- 
 tion of Germany, was ineligible, and that Tanumafili, a son 
 of Malietoa, was to be accepted as King. 
 
 The German Consul, Mr. Rose, assured Mataafa that 
 the stipulation of Germany was not binding, being a mere 
 matter of the past, and Mataafa, thereby emboldened, 
 marched with five thousand warriors to attack Tanumafili 
 who with one thousand warriors was encamped near Apia. 
 The chiefs of Mataafa then went into Tanumafili's army 
 and won over a third of his troops. A combat ensued, in 
 which Tanumafili was defeated, and he fled to Tutuila. 
 Mataafa's men then pillaged Apia, and under the lead of 
 Roman Catholics destroyed the Foreign Protestant Church 
 at that place. The British and American warships 
 bombarded his army, landed forces, and finally brought 
 back Tanumafili and installed him as King. 
 
SAMOA. 213 
 
 The Powers then sent a Joint Commission to investigate 
 and determine what should be done. The Commission 
 reported that the continuance of the Tripartite Govern- 
 ment and of the Kingship was undesirable, and recom- 
 mended that the controversies between the Powers should 
 be submitted for arbitration to King Oscar of Sweden and 
 Norway. Great Britain had waived her claims, in con. 
 sideration of compensation by Germany in Africa and the 
 Solomon Islands. King Oscar finally decided that Samoa 
 should be divided ; the portion west of the Meridian 171° 
 East Longitude to belong to Germany, and the portion 
 east of that Meridian to belong to the United States. 
 
 The western part of the group was apportioned to 
 Germany, because in it Germans owned extensive planta- 
 tions and were conducting valuable mercantile establish- 
 ments ; the eastern part was apportioned to the United 
 States, because that country had claims on the Pangopango 
 Harbor. The grounds for these claims were the facts, 
 that the United States had secured in 187 1 from the chiefs 
 of Tutuila the exclusive right for a coaling station at that 
 harbor, that in 1873 a Samoan chief, Mamea, had gone as 
 a representative of the other chiefs to Washington, and 
 negotiated an American Protectorate over Tutuila, and 
 that during 1891 to 1892 the United States had purchased 
 of the Tutuila chiefs two tracts of land ont he shores of 
 that harbor and the island at its entrance. 
 
 German Samoa is 1,250 square miles in area. It con- 
 sists of the islands Upolu and Savaii, and the adjacent 
 islets. One-third of its area is adapted to agriculture, and 
 can be made to produce in abundance and in perfection 
 
214 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 all the fruits of the Tropics. Most of the land belongs to 
 the natives, and is inalienable ; but the natives can lease 
 portions of it, by special consent of the Government, for 
 periods of forty years. Several thousand acres were ac- 
 quired by the foreigners before the annexation, and these 
 the foreigners are allowed to sell. 
 
 In 1905 the exports of German Samoa were worth 
 $482,976. They consisted of copra $471,116, cacao 
 ^7,202, coffee $397, tobacco $1,225, kava $1,568, 
 cocoanuts $552, and pineapples $916. The exports will 
 be hereafter greatly increased. A million acres of cocoanut 
 and cacao trees, planted by natives, through Government 
 compulsion, on their own inalienable lands, are just coming 
 into bearing, several plantations of rubber, not yet pro- 
 ductive, are very promising, and hardly half of the 
 cultivable area has yet been utilized. 
 
 German Samoa is ruled by a Governor and Supreme 
 Judge appointed by Germany. As far as feasible, the 
 Government is administered by the old Samoan methods. 
 Sales of intoxicating liquors to the natives are prohibited 
 but not to foreigners. 
 
 In 1905 the population of German Samoa was 32,932. 
 It consisted of 32,312 natives, 300 half-castes, and 320 
 whites. The number of the adherents of the London 
 Mission was 19,852, of the Wesleyan Mission 6,000, of 
 the Roman Catholic Mission 1,000. 
 
 In 1903 the volcano of Savaii, which had been for a 
 hundred years inactive, broke forth, and for five months 
 ejected molten lava. In August 1905 there was another 
 eruption, this time fifteen miles east of the previous one. 
 
SAMOA. 215 
 
 Torrents of lava filled ravines five hundred feet deep, over- 
 flowed twenty thousand acres of land, destroyed three 
 villages, and finally reached the ocean and formed con- 
 siderable new land. Another eruption occurred in 
 November, r907. 
 
 The aggregate area of the islands of American Samoa is 
 only sixty square miles, and very little of it is of any value 
 for agricultural purposes. But American Samoa is of great 
 value because of its Pangopango Harbor, situated on the 
 southern side of the island, Tutuila. As this island lies at 
 the centre of the northern border of the vast archipelago 
 of island groups, which, with little intermediate ocean 
 areas, stretches from the Marquesas to Asia, its harbor is 
 in an important strategic position for the naval and com- 
 mercial control of the South Pacific Ocean. 
 
 This harbor is of great value, 'also, because of the pro- 
 tection it affords from storms. Unlike Apia Harbor, it 
 does not lie open to the northern hurricanes, but is 
 completely land-locked by surrounding mountains, a 
 thousand feet high, and an island at its entrance. The 
 result is that during the fiercest storms its waters are as 
 smooth as a mill-pond. Except at two points, there is 
 between its shores and the mountains very little level land. 
 At one of these points, near the entrance, the United 
 States has constructed a steel pier, docks, and immense 
 coal sheds. 
 
 Tutuila is the most beautiful of the Samoan Islands. 
 Its eastern portion, comprising two-thirds of its area, is 
 very picturesque, but, except along its shores where 
 cocoanuts thrive, it is too rugged for agriculture. In the 
 
2l6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 western portion there are, on the south, twenty-five 
 thousand acres of level, well-watered, fertile land, and, at 
 Leone, there is a fairly good anchorage. Near this island 
 on the south-east is the islet, Aunu'u, and further south- 
 east the Manua Group, consisting of three islands, Ta'u, 
 Olosega, and Ofu, and still further south-east is the un- 
 inhabited atoll. Rose, so named by its discoverer, Frey- 
 cinet, after his wife. 
 
 The United States deferred the proclamation of its 
 sovereignty over Eastern Samoa until its inhabitants should 
 accept it ; for they were capable of judging rightly of the 
 matter. To secure their acceptance, Benjamin Tilley was 
 sent thither, as Commander of the U. S. A. ship, Abarenda, 
 under appointment to be their first Governor. On 
 arriving at Tutuila he explained to the chiefs of that 
 island the proposed annexation, and they cordially wel- 
 comed the Government by the United States. At Manua 
 the Tut Manua (King) appointed a fono (meeting) in 
 which to give his reply. "Wit fono was opened by prayers 
 and singing conducted by the Tui Manua himself. Then 
 the Tui Manua handed Commander Tilley a document, 
 accepting gracefully for himself and his people the 
 sovereignty and protection of the United States. Com- 
 mander Tilley then returned to Pangopango Harbor, and 
 there proclaimed the sovereignty of the United States over 
 Tutuila, Aunu'u, Manua, and Rose. A salute was then 
 fired by the Abarenda and a German warship that had gone 
 thither to participate in the ceremony ; and " for two days 
 the natives indulged in dances, feasts, and sports, and ate 
 so much pig that it seemed a wonder they survived." 
 
0, 
 a 
 o 
 « 
 o 
 
 z 
 
 <: 
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SAMOA. 217 
 
 The Government of American Samoa is administered 
 by officials similar to those of German Samoa, and with 
 similar laws concerning the disposition of land and the 
 prohibition of sales of intoxicants to natives. Sales of 
 liquors to foreigners are forbidden, nor are foreigners 
 allowed to import liquors for themselves without written 
 permission from the Governor. 
 
 In 1905 the population of American Samoa was 6,040. 
 It consisted of 5,900 natives, 70 half-castes and 70 whites. 
 The exports were worth $•] i ,644. They consisted of copra, 
 ;?6o,si6, curios ?i,554, and cocoa ^574. There were 
 5,396 adherents of Evangelical Churches, 469 Roman 
 Catholics, and 170 Mormons. 
 
 Under both the German and the American Govern- 
 ments the condition of the Samoans is improving. During 
 the previous long period of warfare there was such in- 
 security of property that they neglected the cultivation of 
 their lands, indolently subsisting on the spontaneous 
 products of their fruit trees and going in their ancient 
 semi-undress. It was remarked that the men in Apia, 
 four hundred in number, did not perform a half day's 
 work per month. They were also demoralized by the 
 barbarities of the wars, and injured in health by exposure 
 to inclement weather while encamping in the mountains. 
 "What the missionaries built up the wars broke down." 
 The death rate of the natives was greater than their birth- 
 rate, though previously their population had been in- 
 creasing. Now, in peace, and under strong, wise and 
 benign Governments, they are becoming more industrious 
 prosperous and moral, and are increasing in number. So 
 
2l8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 extensively have they been induced to cultivate their lands 
 that the foreign residents in German Samoa remark that 
 the natives will in a few years be in more affluent circum- 
 stances than are any other tribes on the Pacific Islands. 
 
 In both American and German Samoa nearly all the 
 churches are under the care of native pastors, and for this 
 reason the missionaries do little in the way of preaching, 
 and are devoting their attention to primary schools, and to 
 several noble institutions for higher education, thus laying 
 the foundation for a permanent Christian civilization. 
 There are in the group two hundred primary schools, in 
 which eight thousand boys and girls are receiving instruc- 
 tion. From these schools the best pupils are promoted to 
 high schools, or to boarding-schools, and from the latter 
 schools those proposing to become teachers, ministers or 
 foreign missionaries are sent to the Malua Training Insti- 
 tution. The London Mission is conducting on Upolu, 
 besides this Malua Institute, a Girls' Boarding School, and 
 a Boys' High School, on Savaii a High School, and on 
 Tutuila the Faasamani Boys' Boarding School, and the 
 Girls' Atauloma High School. 
 
 Throughout Samoa (German and American) " religion 
 is respectability ; all are church-goers ; in almost every 
 home family worship is conducted. It would be difficult 
 for the natives to be more religious (outwardly). They 
 display much formality, as must be expected of com- 
 munities that formerly were simply like higher animals, 
 but they are gaining insight into spiritual things." ' 
 
 It would be difficult also to find in civilized countries a 
 
 ' Rev. E. N. Hawker, L. M. S. missionary at Tutuila. 
 
SAMOA. 219 
 
 community that, in proportion to its population, is pro- 
 ducing as many Christian workers and sending forth as 
 many foreign missionaries. The aggregate native and 
 half-caste population of both American and German 
 Samoa is 38,722, the number of native ordained ministers 
 at work in the group is 180, the number of native mis- 
 sionaries laboring in other groups is 70. Of the latte r48 
 are in New Guinea, 10 in the Gilbert Islands, and 12 in 
 the Tokelau and Ellice Groups. The native missionaries 
 have heroically performed pioneer work among the savages 
 of other groups and several of them have suffered 
 martyrdom. 
 
 Important as is this group by its strategic position for 
 controlling the naval and commercial operations in the 
 South Seas, it is more important as a radiating centre of 
 missionary influences for promoting Christian civilization 
 in that part of the Pacific. 
 
220 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MICRONESIA. 
 
 Micronesia, as its name imports, consists of numer- 
 ous little islands, which are situated in the far western 
 part of the Pacific, and classified as the Gilbert, Mar- 
 shall, Caroline and Ladrone groups. Voyaging south- 
 west 2,500 miles from Hawaii we come to the eastern 
 group of this Archipelago, the Gilbert Islands ; so named 
 after Capt. Gilbert, who went thither in 1788, and whose 
 fellow-voyager, Capt Marshall, at the same time gave 
 the name Marshall Islands to the group near by on the 
 north. The Gilbert Islands lie on both sides of the 
 equator, between 3° north and 30 south. Their appear- 
 ance to one approaching them is of plumes of cocoanuts 
 apparently growing out of the ocean ; on going nearer a 
 white sand beach is to be seen and brown huts nestling 
 in shrubbery, and beyond through the trees glimpses 
 may be caught of still waters of lagoons ; for these isl- 
 ands are low coral atolls. They consist of strips of reef, 
 varying from a few yards to twenty miles in length, and 
 from a few feet to half a mile in breadth, covered with 
 sand and encircling lagoons, appearing with their bright 
 vegetation "like green beads" on the blue expanse of 
 the ocean. The atoll Apaiang has islets averaging a 
 quarter of a mile broad, the largest of which is twenty- 
 three miles long ; and this atoll encloses a lagoon eigb- 
 
MICRONESIA. 22 1 
 
 teen miles long, six miles wide, and a hundred feet deep. 
 The islets of Apemama stretch along in a semicircular 
 form twenty-five miles, and average half a mile in breadth. 
 Those of Tapiteuea extend thirty-three miles, and cover 
 an area of six square miles. The largest, most fertile, 
 and most populous atoll of this group is Butaritari at the 
 north. The other atolls, to the south, have little fertil- 
 ity of soil, and only twelve species of plants, of which 
 only the cocoanut and the pandanus yield food for the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 These atolls are the "tiny deserts of the Pacific;" 
 for they are situated in the region of the least rains, in 
 the "doldrums," where calms and variable winds pre- 
 vail, and they have so little elevation above the ocean, 
 generally only about five feet, that they do not catch the 
 rain-clouds that pass over them. Though the cocoanut- 
 tree can grow even where its roots are washed by the 
 briny waters of the ocean, it does not thrive well where 
 there is little rain, here yielding only six or eight nuts to 
 a tree, and these only two or three inches in diameter ; 
 while where much rain falls it yields from 200 to 300 
 nuts, and these of the largest size. 
 
 But the poorest cocoanut-trees yield considerable 
 food by the flow of sap from their flower-stalks. The 
 islanders here do not live so much on the nuts as on this 
 sap. Before the nuts form they cut off" the flower-stalks, 
 and with large shells as containers catch the sap that drips 
 from the pruned stems, emptying the shells twice a day. 
 When this sap is kept several days it becomes an intoxi- 
 cating drink, but when fresh it is healthful and nutri- 
 
222 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 tious. One cocoanut-tree will feed a man ; and a grove 
 of cocoanut-trees is as valuable to a family of natives as 
 a herd of milch cows to a Bedouin tribe in Arabia. 
 
 The poor provision afforded by these trees is supple- 
 mented by the kind ocean, which pours over the reefs 
 and into the lagoons profuse supplies of fish, and with 
 these most beautiful decorations of shells, corals, and 
 marine vegetation. The value of these lagoons has been 
 much appreciated by the Hawaiian missionaries, who 
 have compared them with the small fish-ponds construct- 
 ed with great labor in their islands. Here by the work 
 of nature better fish-ponds have been made. The Sea of 
 Galilee did not yield more fish, nor would a thousand 
 acres of tropical forest yield more food, than these natu- 
 ral fish-ponds. 
 
 Yet seasons of famine sometimes prevail in these 
 islands, when long-continued storms prevent fishing, or 
 war causes destruction of trees. Mr. E. Bailey, the del- 
 egate of the Hawaiian Board, reported that during his 
 visit to these islands several natives died of starvation. 
 The American missionaries who have resided here have 
 not been able to keep in good health while living on the 
 poor fare of the natives, just as the trees of their country 
 will not thrive in the hot sands and briny waters of these 
 islands ; and these missionaries have been obliged to im- 
 port nearly all their food, as well as their other supplies, 
 as though they were living on board of ships. 
 
 Northwest of this group, like an extension of it, is 
 the Marshall group, consisting of two nearly parallel 
 chains of atolls, from loo to 300 miles apart, the eastern 
 
HEAIMEN MlCKONESIAN WOMAN. 
 
 HtAlHEN MlCKONLblA:;^. 
 
MICRONESIA. 223 
 
 known as the Ratak, the western as the Ralik, Islands. 
 In each of these chains of islands are about sixteen atolls, 
 measuring from two to fifty miles in circumference. One 
 of these atolls, Ebon (A-bone), is a ring-reef of twent}'- 
 five miles' circumference, broken into eighteen islets, the 
 largest six miles long and half a mile wide. The great- 
 est and most populous atoll is Arno, the most important 
 Jaluij, which, on account of its excellent anchorage for 
 ships, has been made the commercial emporium of the 
 group. This island has been called the "Naturalist's 
 Paradise ;'' for here on a reef-floor 200 feet broad and 
 many miles in length, covered with only a few inches' 
 depth of water, one may gather the choicest of shells, the 
 " Orange Cowries," worth $50 a pair, the most beautiful 
 of corals, and innumerable other rare curiosities. 
 
 In the Marshall group there is more rain than in the 
 Gilbert Islands, and therefore more various and abun- 
 dant vegetation. Here the trunks of the trees are partly 
 covered with bright green moss and ferns, and here 
 breadfruit and jackfruit trees are found. In Mille some 
 of the breadfruit trees measure twelve feet in diameter 
 four feet above the ground, and are eighty feet in height. 
 A few of these trees would yield more food than many 
 acres of wheat and com. 
 
 In the centre of these islands, as also in the Mort- 
 lock group, there are depressions in which fresh water is 
 found ; and here taro, arrow-root, and in some places 
 bananas, are cultivated, also a caladium, the ape of Ha- 
 waii, which has leaves measuring five feet by three, and 
 rising on their stems twelve feet high. 
 
224 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Voyaging on westward from the Marshall group we 
 come to the Caroline Islands, so named by the Spanish 
 Admiral Lazeano, in 1686, in honor of the royal consort 
 of Charles II. ; and first we arrive at Kusaie, an island of 
 volcanic formation, 2, 200 feet in height, covered from its 
 beach to the summits of its mountains with dense vegeta- 
 tion. On this island rain is so abundant that everywhere 
 there is a splendid jungle of palms, tree-ferns and giant 
 forest trees, and the trunks of the trees are covered with 
 moss and wreathed with climbing ferns and blooming 
 vines. The vegetation does not stop at the shore, but 
 reaches out in the shoal waters of the bays in the form 
 of great mangrove-trees, which grow only in salt water. 
 To those coming from the low coral atolls the beauty of 
 this island and of Ponape is very striking. For this rea- 
 son these islands have been called "The Gems of the 
 Pacific." Kusaie has fringing reefs that are scarcely 
 anywhere separated from the shore. 
 
 West of Kusaie are two islands of coral formation, 
 Pingelap and Mokil, which rise twenty feet in height 
 above the ocean, and resemble the Marshall Islands 
 in their vegetation ; and a little further west is Pona- 
 pe, an island, like Kusaie, of volcanic formation, and 
 having mountains 2,858 feet in height. This island has 
 barrier reefs separated from the land by from two to 
 eight miles of water. In the waters thus enclosed the 
 largest ships might sail entirely around it. There are 
 also twelve small islands, the " miniatures of Ponape," 
 in these enclosed waters, and fifteen islets, many of them 
 of coral formation, in the barrier reef. This reef mea- 
 
MICRONESIA. 225 
 
 sures eighty miles in circumference and the main island 
 sixty miles. On the west of Ponape is the small island, 
 Pakin, having forty inhabitants, and on the southwest 
 the small Ant Islands. Ponape has a fine harbor on the 
 east, called Owa, which is completely land-locked ; near 
 by is the Metalanim Harbor, which has within it a re- 
 markable peak of prismatic basaltic rocks, called Sugar- 
 loaf; and on the northwest is the Kenan Harbor, which 
 is faced by a great precipice of basaltic rocks ; and on 
 the south the Kiti Harbor, at the mouth of the Ran-Kiti 
 River. 
 
 The flora of Ponape is as rich as that of Kusaie. 
 Here is found the ivory palm, which has a fruit re- 
 sembling ivory, and rises with a trunk twelve inches 
 thick to a height of eighty feet. Mr. E. Bailey says, 
 "Its crown of immense graceful fronds would be the 
 despair of any green-house in the world. I have seen 
 many graceful palms, but none comparable to this." 
 Here are also banyan trees, which are said to begin their 
 growth from seeds lodged by birds high up on trees, and 
 which spread over extensive regions, sending down innu- 
 merable aerial roots. Mr. Bailey saw one of these trees 
 beginning its growth from the lofty top of a breadfruit 
 tree, which it doubtless in a few years destroyed. An- 
 other remarkable tree is the durion, which has been 
 imported from Yap, and grows to the height of seventy 
 feet, and is loaded with pear-shaped fruit nine inches in 
 length and five in thickness, most offensive in odor and 
 most delicious in taste. The English scientist, Mr. 
 Wallace, has called it "The King of Fruits," and has 
 
226 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 remarked that it is worth a journey across the ocean to 
 taste it. 
 
 As might be supposed, the scenery of Ponape is very 
 delightful. Rev. E. Doane has said of his home on this 
 island, "It is built in a wonderfully beautiful spot, 
 where from all sides I have views of almost enchanting 
 loveliness — of mountains and valleys, the lagoon with its 
 wonderful colors in the water, the long line of snowy, 
 rolling, roaring breakers, and beyond that the great blue 
 ocean always beautiful! " One of the missionary dele- 
 gates from Hawaii has written, ' ' A visit to this island is 
 like wandering in fairy land. The verdure is excessive. 
 We cannot get through the bush except along paths. 
 The people carry knives to cut their way. Breadfruit, 
 oranges, taro, bananas, pine-apples, papaias, arrow-root, 
 and sago-palms abound, also cheremoias, guavas, man- 
 gos, and other tropical fruits. " 
 
 In this same Caroline group, 300 miles southwest 
 from Ponape, are the Mortlock Islands, named after 
 Capt. Mortlock, of the ship Young William, who discov- 
 ered them in 1793. The Mortlocks consist of three 
 atolls : Satoan, which has sixty islets around its lagoon, 
 Etol, which has many islets, and Lukunor. Mr. Bailey 
 remarks of these islands that their soil is the most fertile 
 that he saw in Micronesia, and their inhabitants the 
 richest ; but they are so low that they have sadly suflfered 
 from overflows of the ocean. In 1874 a hurricane drove 
 great waves over the Lukunor Island and destroyed the 
 breadfruit trees, and many of the natives died of starva- 
 tion. 
 
MICRONESIA. 227 
 
 Two hundred miles northwest of the Mortlocks is 
 Ruk (Hogolu) which has a lagoon 100 by forty miles in 
 extent, surrounded by ten large islands, some of them 
 300 feet in height, all very fertile and abounding in fruit 
 and vegetables. The population of Ruk alone is 12,000. 
 Further on northwest are numerous atolls and two more 
 high islands ; for, as has been beautifully remarked, this 
 whole region "is studded with ocean gems, as if to 
 mirror the starry sky above. " 
 
 The climate of all Micronesia is probably the mildest 
 
 in the world ; too mild to be wholly enjoyable. Living 
 
 here is like living near a furnace ; for here are brewed 
 
 the hot airs and vapors that are swept by westerly winds 
 
 to the northwest coast of America, and which there 
 
 moderate the cold and yield copious rains. The heat 
 
 here is not excessive, but is too unvarying for comfort, 
 
 hardly changing more than twelve degrees in a year, 
 
 ranging from 75° to 87° Fahrenheit ; a climate like that to 
 
 which the fabled Lotus-eaters went, where 
 
 " It seemed always afternoon ; 
 All round the coast the languid air did swoon, 
 Breathing like one that had a weary dream." 
 
 During the months from October to May the north- 
 east Trade Winds oscillate south, and blow over the 
 northern part of this Archipelago ; and during the rest 
 of the year the westerly winds prevail, with occasional 
 heavy gales, and bring much rain to the high islands but 
 little to the coral islands, that reach up no mountains to 
 seize the treasures of the clouds. 
 
 It would seem that islands like these, in the full sweep 
 
228 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of the ocean winds and currents, would be very healthy 
 places of residence ; but, strange to say, malaria prevails 
 in some of them. It is developed on the high islands 
 from the decaying vegetation in the swamps under the 
 mangrove trees, and on some of the low islands because 
 perhaps in some places the tides do not flow in and out 
 the lagoons with sufficient force to keep them pure. 
 Many American missionaries have here fallen victims to 
 malaria as well as to the enervating climate ; about as 
 many as in other groups have been killed by the savages. 
 
 The population of Micronesia has been estimated at 
 80,000 ; consisting of 25,000 in the Gilbert group, 15,000 
 in the Marshall group, 5,000 in Ponape and its adjacent 
 islands, 4,000 in the Mortlock Islands, 12,000 in Ruk, 
 and 19,000 in the islands further west. Probably the 
 population has greatly diminished since this estimate was 
 made; as that of Kusaie was estimated at 1,500 forty 
 years ago and now is only 400. It is remarkable that in 
 the most barren islands, the Gilberts, the population is 
 the densest, there being in Butaritari 6,000 inhabitants to 
 an area of six square miles, 1,000 to a square mile, and 
 in the other islands of this group about the same propor- 
 tion. 
 
 The Micronesians are a mixed race, derived from 
 Polynesians, Papuans, and Mongolians. In the Gilbert 
 and Marshall Islands the Polynesian element predomi- 
 nates ; in the Caroline Islands " occasionally the oblique 
 Mongolian eye is noticed," and features of real beauty 
 are sometimes seen. The languages of the natives are 
 distinct in different groups, and yet sufficiently similar to 
 
MICRONESIA. 22g 
 
 indicate a common origin. In the eastern part of the 
 Archipelago the syllables of the words are generally open, 
 in the western closed syllables abound. 
 
 Few people in the world give appearance of greater 
 poverty and degradation than these isolated races ; espe- 
 cially is this true of the Gilbert Islanders. In their 
 perpetually warm climate they need little clothing, and 
 wear little. The Gilbert men formerly wore none, and 
 the women wore only a fringed skirt ten or twelve inches 
 in breadth. Says Mr E. Bailey, "They considered 
 clothing a badge of shame, and were as unconscious of 
 their nakedness as cattle." In the other Micronesian 
 islands the men wore skirts twenty-five or thirty inches 
 broad, and the women two mats, each a yard square, 
 belted at the waist. 
 
 The Gilbert Islanders dressed their hair to stand 
 straight out at great length in every direction, "a fash- 
 ion by which they had some protection from the sun." 
 The Marshall Islanders tied their hair in knots on the 
 tops of their heads, and ornamented it with feathers and 
 iiowers. The Mortlock men wore their hair in rolls on 
 the back of their necks, and the women let it fall in 
 ringlets on each side of the face ; making their appear- 
 ance "decidedly comely." In most of these islands a 
 curious custom prevails of slitting the lobe of the ear 
 and stretching it so as to make an aperture eight inches 
 long, in which a C3'linder of leaf or tortoise shell is 
 placed. In this cylinder ornaments and valuables are 
 carried, sometimes two or three pounds' weight to each 
 ear, 
 
230 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The Micronesians have not dung to their little is- 
 lands, like echinoderms to reefs and limpets to rocks, but 
 have been ever voyaging to and fro on their lagoons and 
 far out on the ocean. Where large trees abound they 
 have easily made "dug-outs," and by binding wide 
 boards together considerable-sized canoes ; but in the 
 Gilbert Islands, where the only trees are the cocoanut 
 and pandanus, their only resource has been to sew 
 together with sinnet small strips of cocoanut wood and 
 thus make canoes ; and yet in the frail canoes thus 
 constructed they fearlessly venture over the greatest 
 waves of the ocean, as the Tartars ride the wildest 
 steeds of the desert. 
 
 The Marshall Islanders boldly go 300 and even 500 
 miles to other groups, guiding themselves by the stars. 
 Capt. Gillett of the Morning Star once found a compa- 
 ny of these natives in a canoe beating their way home 
 300 miles against a head wind, and gave them a com- 
 pass, and taught them how to direct their course by it ; 
 but one of them pointed to an old man with a great 
 shaggy head of hair, and said, "His head all same 
 compass." 
 
 The religion of the Micronesians, if it may be called 
 a religion, is spiritism. They have no idols, no temples, 
 and no priests. They do obeisance to certain trees, 
 rocks, or slabs of coral, into which they suppose spirits 
 have entered ; and they are very particular in the care 
 of the bodies of their deceased friends, whose spirits 
 they would conciliate. With this view the Gilbert Isl- 
 anders formerly kept the dead bodies of their people. 
 
a 
 
MICRONESIA. 
 
 231 
 
 anointed with oil and covered with mats, many weeks, 
 and sometimes over a year, and after they were decayed 
 away carried their skulls as charms, a custom that illus- 
 trates the uncleanness and revolting horrors of nearly all 
 pagan religions. 
 
 This religion, like all pagan superstitions, exerted no 
 restraint on immorality, but rather fostered it. The 
 Micronesians lived continually in strife, carried weapons 
 at all times, and most of them were covered with scars 
 of wounds received in battle. Hardly an adult Micro- 
 nesian is living who has not seen some of his relatives 
 killed in savage combats. 
 
 An illustration of the brutal character developed 
 under their superstitions was afforded by the late king 
 of Butaritari, Nakaiea, who "was famous for having 
 hanged one of his wives and shot three Hawaiian sailors. 
 He was jealous of this wife ; and on one occasion, as 
 he was playing with her on a schooner, he made a 
 noose with a rope and proposed to her to put her head 
 into it. She complied, thinking he was joking ; but 
 he immediately made his men hoist her up and kept her 
 swinging till she was dead. He afterwards had twenty 
 wives, whom he kept like prisoners in jail. When the 
 king of Hawaii remonstrated with him for killing Ha- 
 waiians, he sent word he would fight him in single com- 
 bat. He weighed 200 pounds, was a great drunkard, 
 and passionately fond of heathen dances. " 
 
 At first view so degraded a people as this would 
 seem fit only for destruction, like reptiles or ravenous 
 beasts, or like the Canaanites of old. But deep as is 
 
232 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 the ocean surrounding their reefs and high as the heavens 
 above them, so deep and high, and more glorious, is the 
 Divine Mercy that would save so wretched a race ; and 
 the hearts of Christian people were moved to seek to 
 save and reform them. 
 
 The first suggestion of the mission enterprise to this 
 people was made by Rev. John D. Paris and Rev. C. 
 B. Andrews, of the Hawaiian Mission, who in 1850 vis- 
 ited the United States and persuaded the American 
 Board to send Hawaiian missionaries to them, in order 
 to awake the Hawaiian churches to new activity. Adopt- 
 ing this plan the American Board sent Rev. Luther H. 
 Gulick, M. D., son of the missionary Rev. P. J. Gulick, 
 of Hawaii, Rev. Benjamin Snow, and Rev. Albert A. 
 Sturgis, to labor in Micronesia in conjunction with 
 Hawaiian missionaries. On their arrival at Honolulu 
 two Hawaiian ministers, Rev. Messrs. Opunui and 
 Kaaikaia, with their wives, were appointed to accompany 
 them. A meeting was then held by the Hawaiian 
 Board, formally organizing the Mission to Micronesia 
 by appropriate exercises of a consecrating prayer, charges 
 to the missionaries, addresses of fellowship, and a dis- 
 course by Rev. L. H. Gulick. The children of the mis- 
 sionaries in Hawaii then organized themselves into a so- 
 ciety, and undertook to support Rev. L. H. Gulick. The 
 Hawaiian king Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha HI., placed 
 in the hands of these missionaries a letter greeting all 
 the chiefs of the islands in the great ocean to the west- 
 ward of Hawaii, telling of the errand of the missionaries 
 going to them, commending the missionaries to their 
 
MICRONESIA. 233 
 
 care and friendship, exhorting them to listen to their 
 instructions, testifying of the enlightenment, peace and 
 prosperity resulting in Hawaii from the influence of 
 the Bible, and advising them to renounce their idols 
 and acknowledge, worship and love Jehovah. 
 
 On the 15th of July, 1852, these missionaries with 
 their wives, and Rev. E. W. Clark as an accompanying 
 delegate from Hawaii, embarked on the chartered 
 schooner Caroline, Capt. H. Holdsworth, for Micro- 
 nesia. After visiting two of the Gilbert Islands they 
 arrived at Kusaie on the 2 1 st of August, and were piloted 
 into the harbor by a Mr. Kirkland, one of the three 
 foreigners residing on the island. They found the king 
 dressed in a faded flannel shirt, while his wife wore a 
 cotton gown ; and they observed that the natives treated 
 him with great respect, crouching on their knees as they 
 approached him. The foreigners called him "Good 
 King George," and had reason to thus name him ; for he 
 ruled his people well, and forbade the manufacture of 
 intoxicating toddy from cocoanuts. Kamehameha's 
 letter was interpreted to him, presents were given to 
 him (red shirts, turkey red, and scissors), and it was 
 explained to him that the missionaries came, not to rule, 
 but to command all to "fear God and honor the king." 
 He was pleased with this explanation, and consented to 
 the residence of Mr. Snow among his people, and said, 
 " I will be a father to him." After conveying the other 
 missionaries to Ponape, the Caroline, on her return 
 voyage, brought Mr. Snow and his wife to this island 
 and they were welcomed by the king. 
 
234 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The mission work on Kusaie was successful from the 
 very beginning. The king faithfully assisted Mr. Snow 
 and the other missionaries who subsequently came to 
 aid him, built a house for worship, and finally himself 
 united with the church. A Girls' Seminary and a Train- 
 ing School have been many years successfully conducted 
 on this island ; and pupils from the Gilbert and Marshall 
 Islands have been educated here for missionary work. 
 
 The Caroline arrived at Ponape on the 6th of Septem- 
 ber, and entered the Metalanim harbor. There were lOO 
 foreigners at that time residing on this island, who 
 on account of their dissolute character might well have 
 been called, according to the Chinese style, "Foreign 
 Devils. " It was a fortunate thing that the natives soon 
 distinguished the missionaries from them, as the Chinese 
 also have learned to do, calling them "Jesus men." 
 Twelve of the foreigners came on board the Caroline and 
 begged for tobacco, and were much disappointed that 
 they could not obtain it. The missionaries were wel- 
 comed by the chiefs of the five tribes on the island, and 
 settled in two districts. 
 
 Two months afterwards the foreigners became decid- 
 edly hostile to the missionaries. They were infuriated 
 because the missionaries exposed a plot of theirs to get 
 possession of the Metalanim Harbor by a fraudulent 
 contract with the chiefs. Their opposition was strength- 
 ened by the dissolute crews of trading vessels and whale 
 ships, twenty of which came to the island in six months ; 
 this opposition became serious when the small-pox was 
 introduced, and the foreigners informed the natives that 
 
MICRONESIA. 235 
 
 it was caused by the missionaries. On the 19th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1854, the ship Delta, Capt. Wicks, arrived with 
 two men sick of this disease, contracted at Honolulu. 
 The captain put them ashore on the Paniau Island, a 
 little island near Ponape, in order to care for them there 
 in seclusion ; but the Ponape natives stole their blankets 
 and thus propagated the disease. Dr. Gulick had ob- 
 tained vaccine matter from Hawaii, but it proved worth- 
 less ; he therefore attempted inoculation, and was gen- 
 erally successful in saving the lives of the natives on 
 whom he operated. About this time the house occupied 
 by Mr. Sturgis burned down, and he was obliged with 
 his wife to camp in the woods. War also broke out 
 between the different tribes, and raged for many months. 
 Dr. Gulick has remarked that it would be impossible for 
 any one to realize "the gloom that was over them during 
 those awful months of sickness and death, of the panic 
 of the natives and of war between the tribes. " 
 
 After eight years of persevering labor the missionaries 
 on this island were cheered by the conversion of three 
 natives ; and soon eight more made Christian profession. 
 A church was then built measuring forty by sixty feet ; 
 and a bell for it was received from friends in Illinois. 
 Soon afterwards the chief, Nanakin, and fourteen others 
 joined the church. In 1867 meetings were held in 
 twelve places, there were 1,000 readers, three churches, 
 100 church members, and congregations at religious ser- 
 vices sometimes increased to the number of 600. "The 
 missionaries had held steadily on till the day broke." 
 
 In 1857 mission work was begun in the Gilbert and 
 
236 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Marshall groups ; in the former by Rev. H. Bingham, 
 son of the pioneer missionary of that name in Hawaii. 
 The first station in this group was made at Apaiang, than 
 which hardly a more desolate island with a more unat- 
 tractive people could be found in the world. To come 
 into the small area of this island, with its contracted 
 horizon, its unchanging climate, with no sounds but the 
 unceasing roar and gurgle of the waves, the soughing of 
 the winds through the cocoa plumes, and the yells of the 
 savages, with no fellowship with congenial spirits and no 
 tidings from home oftener than from six to twenty-four 
 months, would seem like going into solitary confinement. 
 But it was even worse — like dwelling in a mad-house 
 with its different wards at war with each other ; for the 
 people of the neighboring islands occasionally attacked 
 each other, and Mr. Bingham and his wife were once in 
 a situation like that described of Robinson Crusoe when 
 savages invaded his island. A fleet of canoes from the 
 island of Tarawa, six miles distant, came to the very vil- 
 lage where Mr. Bingham dwelt and near by fought a 
 desperate battle. The king of Apaiang was killed ; but 
 the Tarawans were finally defeated, and driven away, 
 leaving many of their number dead. After this battle 
 Mr. Bingham rescued a Tarawan boy, who many years 
 afterwards became a very serviceable helper in translating 
 the Bible. Besides the perils and privations experienced 
 on this island was the discouraging indifference of the 
 natives to the work of the missionary. They would do 
 nothing except for pay, and demanded tobacco and fire- 
 arms as their only pay. It was remarked that a native 
 
MICRONESIA. 237 
 
 would kill a man for a plug of tobacco. It seemed about 
 as difficult to gather them into churches and schools as 
 to tame the sea birds that flew over the island and the 
 roving fish of the lagoons. But in process of time the 
 unremitting labors of the missionaries resulted in the 
 conversion of many natives, and churches were organized 
 on this and the adjacent islands. After seventeen years 
 of residence here Mr. Bingham was obliged by failing 
 health to remove to Honolulu, where he completed the 
 translation of the Bible. Other missionaries then took 
 his place, among whom were many Hawaiians, and 
 nearly all the Gilbert Islanders embraced Christianity. 
 
 The occasion of the mission work on the Marshall Isl- 
 ands was the arrival in canoes at Kusaie of one hundred 
 storm-driven natives of Ebon who there landed expecting 
 to be killed, according to the former customs, but were 
 rescued by the missionaries. So interested did Rev. G, 
 Pierson and Rev. E. Doane become in these natives that 
 after their return to their homes they took passage on 
 the Morning Star to labor among them. They were 
 warned by sea-captains that it was dangerous to visit 
 Ebon, as the inhabitants were treacherous and ferocious. 
 Foreigners had committed such outrages on these natives 
 that they had resolved to kill the first white man that 
 should come to their shores ; and when the Morning 
 Star with these missionaries drew near they put off 
 to her in a multitude of canoes ; and the captain of the 
 vessel became apprehensive that the)' designed to cap- 
 ture her. He therefore put up boarding-netting and put 
 men fore and aft in readiness for an assault. But Dr. 
 
238 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Pierson addressed a few Marshall words, which he had 
 previously learned, to a man in a canoe ; and then the 
 natives exclaiming, " Docotor, Mijineri," (Doctor, 
 Missionary), and laughing joyously, requested him to 
 land, and welcomed him to their island. 
 
 The work of the missionaries was greatly advanced, 
 as in other islands, by the wonder with which the natives 
 regarded the art of reading. An amusing incident illus- 
 trated this. One of the missionaries once sent a native 
 with two melons and a letter to his assistant at a distant 
 place. On the journey, the sun being hot, the native 
 ate one of the melons. When he arrived at his destina- 
 tion he handed the other melon with the letter to the 
 teacher. But the latter inquired for another melon. 
 The native expressed surprise that he should have known 
 that two melons were sent. "Why," he said, "I covered 
 the letter with a stone while I was eating the melon. 
 How could the letter have known that I ate it ?" 
 
 Other missionaries, American and Hawaiian, subse- 
 quently went to the Marshall group, and in a few years 
 a wonderful change was wrought in the inhabitants. 
 
 In 1 87 1 Mr. Sturgis went by the Morning Star to 
 the island of Pingelap and persuaded the people of that 
 island, who were "living like dogs in kennels," to con- 
 sent to the coming of missionaries. But when, a few 
 months afterwards, teachers were sent thither the king of 
 that island forbade them to land. It was found that a 
 few weeks previous the pirate, " Bully Hayes, " had ex- 
 torted from the king a written agreement, signed by the 
 king's "marks," that no other traders and no missiona- 
 
MICRONESIA. 239 
 
 ries should be allowed to dwell in his island for ten 
 years. But about this time six natives of this island 
 were carried by a trader to Kusaie and there set adrift. 
 They were kindly treated and instructed by the mission- 
 aries. Two of them were converted and returned as 
 teachers to their island. A pagan sorcerer of their island 
 now endeavored to kill them by incantations, but in the 
 performance fell in convulsions, and only at last recov- 
 ered when the teachers came and prayed over him. The 
 natives then exclaimed that the new religion had tri- 
 umphed. Other teachers were then sent thither and 
 were welcomed by the people. In 1885 Dr. C. H. Wet- 
 more, of Hawaii, visited this island, and found a house 
 of worship that would seat 1,000 people and a church 
 organized with 250 members, and remarked that "the 
 change wrought in this people was perfectly marvellous. " 
 The mission enterprise to the Mortlock Islands began 
 by a wonderful self-consecration of a royal princess of 
 Ponape, Opatinia, daughter of one of the kings of Pona- 
 pe and heir to the throne. She relinquished her oppor- 
 tunity of becoming queen and offered herself as a mis- 
 sionary to the dark islands to the west, and in 1873, with 
 her husband, Obadiah, and two other teachers, was con- 
 veyed on the Morning Star to Lukunor, of the Mortlocks. 
 On arriving at this island the accompanying missionary 
 asked the natives whether they would welcome and pro- 
 vide for these teachers, and they assented. For more 
 than a year the Morning Star could not be again sent 
 thither, and it was feared that these teachers had seri- 
 ously suffered ; but it was found that the natives had 
 
240 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 faithfully fulfilled their agreement, and though an unu- 
 sual storm had swept great waves over their island and 
 destroyed most of their breadfruit trees, and many of the 
 natives had died of famine, they had generously fed these 
 teachers. When, a year after, the Morning Star again 
 arrived, a multitude of natives gathered at the beach 
 singing songs to welcome her, and the missionary dele- 
 gate was conducted to an elegant house of worship that 
 had been built, and a large number of the natives were 
 organized into a church. 
 
 The natives of the great atoll of Rule, further west, 
 now hearing of the mission work in the Mortlock Isl- 
 ands, sought for teachers. With this desire a chief of 
 Ruk went forty miles, to Nama, of the Mortlocks, and 
 persuaded a Ponape teacher, Moses, to return with him 
 to his island and instruct his people. This chief built a 
 house of worship for the use of Moses, and in a year, 
 with thirty-six of his people, sought baptism. In 1884 
 Rev. Robert Logan and his wife and Miss A. Palmer 
 went to the aid of Moses, and settled at a beautiful place 
 on an island of Ruk which they named Anapauo (rest- 
 ing-place). Mr. Logan did energetic work till he died 
 of malarial fever, and then his work was heroically con- 
 tinued by his wife. In 1886 there were 1,000 members 
 of churches in Ruk and the Mortlock Islands. 
 
 Notable assistance has been rendered to the Micro- 
 nesian Mission by the pupils of Sunda)'-schools in the 
 United States. At the suggestion of Rev. T. Coan, of 
 Hawaii, subscriptions of ten cents a share were solicited 
 from the Sunda3'-schools for the construction of a vessel, 
 
MICRONESIA. 241 
 
 to be called the Morning Star, for carrying supplies to 
 Micronesia and for conveying the missionaries to and 
 fro. The first vessel thus built proved inadequate and 
 was sold. Another was then built, and this after several 
 voyages was carried by powerful ocean currents, during 
 a lull of the wind, on the reefs of Kusaie and wrecked. 
 A third Morning Star was then built by the aid of the 
 children ; and this also on February 23, 1883, was 
 wrecked in the same way in the same place. The fourth 
 Morning Star was then built, a barkentine of 430 tons 
 with auxiliary steam power, and this vessel has done 
 good service ever since. Recently a small schooner, 
 the Robert Logan, has been built, and a vessel called 
 the Hiram Bingham, with a gasoline engine, for use 
 among the Micronesian Islands. The Sunday-schools 
 have contributed $114,593 for the construction of these 
 vessels. 
 
 When at length all Micronesia seemed about to be 
 illuminated by Christian light kindled from island to 
 island, dark clouds rose through the establishment by 
 European nations of foreign sovereignty over this Archi- 
 pelago. Germany proclaimed a Protectorate over all 
 Micronesia and Spain protested that Micronesia be- 
 longed to her by the right of discovery. The dispute 
 was referred to the Pope of Rome, and he assigned the 
 Caroline Islands to Spain and the Marshall Islands to 
 Germany. 
 
 In accordance with this decision a Spanish war ves- 
 sel was sent to Ponape in July, 1886, and the com- 
 mander, consulting as little the natives as he did the 
 
242 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 crabs that scrambled over the sands and the birds that 
 flew over the island, required the Ponapean chiefs to 
 cede their property and sovereignty to Spain ; and under 
 duress, with heavy hearts, they made their "marks "to 
 the document of cession. 
 
 In the following year, in the month of March, an- 
 other Spanish war vessel took thither a governor, six 
 Catholic priests, fifty soldiers, and twenty-five convicts. 
 This governor at once took possession of a piece of land, 
 called Mejiniong, the deeds for which had long been held 
 by Mr. Doane for the American Mission. Mr. Doane 
 remonstrated, offering to give another tract of land, and 
 was arrested, and with no notification of charges against 
 himself was conveyed 2,000 miles, to Manilla. But by 
 the prompt intervention of the United States ship Essex 
 the governor of Manilla was obliged to release him and 
 convey him back to Ponape. 
 
 But before the return of Mr. Doane the wrath of the 
 natives burst forth. They had been obliged by the Span- 
 iards to work without pay, constructing a fort on the 
 purloined land. When at length they refused to go to 
 work a company of twenty soldiers fired on them, kill- 
 ing two of them and wounding three more. They then 
 rushed upon the soldiers and killed them to a man. 
 The governor and the rest of the Spaniards now took 
 refuge in the fort, and the natives, feeling as they some- 
 times did when a whale was stranded in one of their 
 lagoons, gathered in great numbers to storm the fort. 
 Seeing that defence of the fort was impossible the gov- 
 ernor and his officers and soldiers at midnight undertook 
 
MICRONESIA. 243 
 
 to flee over the shallow water to their war-ship, and 
 were attacked by the natives, and all, fifty in number, 
 killed. 
 
 Mr. Doane now persuaded the new governor to pro- 
 claim pardon to the natives, and the natives, excepting 
 the Metalanim tribe, to give up their arms and submit. 
 The governor then sent four war vessels and 1,200 sol- 
 diers to the Metalanim harbor of Owa, and they erected 
 a fort on the mission premises notwithstanding the pro- 
 test of the lady missionary, Miss Palmer. As serious 
 trouble was inevitable, the missionary ladies. Misses 
 Palmer, Fletcher and Foss, Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Rand, with 
 eleven pupils, took passage to Mokil, and soon after the 
 Spaniards shelled Owa and burned the mission build- 
 ings, consisting of three dwelling-houses, a large girls' 
 schoolhouse, and a church. Three battles were then 
 fought; but in the almost impenetrable jungles no na- 
 tives were able to keep at bay 1,200 Spanish soldiers. 
 In these battles the natives lost only six men, and killed 
 369 Spaniards and captured 100 guns. The Spanish 
 governor then sent messages to the exiled missionaries, 
 requesting them to return, as ' ' their presence was neces- 
 sary for the maintenance of order." Recently Spain has 
 yielded to the demands of the United States for repara- 
 tion, and offered to pay for the destruction of the prop- 
 erty of the American Mission ; but the Spaniards now 
 forbid the missionaries and the Morning Star to come 
 to Ponape, while they admit vessels of every other kind. 
 And so, while the Spaniards have done nothing for the 
 welfare of the Ponapeans during the hundred years since 
 
244 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 they discovered them, they claim authority by the ' ' right 
 of discovery " to expel the American missionaries, who 
 have spent forty years in costly, arduous and perilous 
 labors for the Ponapeans, and have lifted them out of 
 pagan barbarism into a considerable degree of Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 In the Marshall Islands the Germans avoided war 
 with the natives, but grievously oppressed them by im- 
 posing taxes and obstructing the mission work. The 
 little island of Ebon was required to pay annually I500 
 as taxes to Germany, and the other islands in like pro- 
 portion. The missionaries were forbidden to labor in 
 islands where they had not previously been located ; and 
 two of them were imprisoned for several weeks for preach- 
 ing outside of their own fields. Permission was refused 
 them to buy or lease land for sites for schools or churches. 
 The Morning Star was required to take out annually a 
 license, at an expense of $250, for selling Bibles and 
 other books and articles needed by the churches. 
 
 The natives of the Gilbert Islands now became 
 alarmed lest one of these Christian nations should ex- 
 tend its kind protection over them also. To escape such 
 a fate, Tebureimoa, king of Butaritari, took passage to 
 San Francisco, arriving there in April, 1892, and offered 
 his island to the United States. Not receiving a reply 
 from President Harrison, but expecting a favorable an- 
 swer, he returned home, and in preparation for the ces- 
 sion to the United States constructed a wharf 1,000 feet 
 long. But the news of his overtures was secretly sent 
 to Britain, and the British war-ship Royalist, Capt. Da- 
 
MICRONESIA. 245 
 
 VIS, hastened to Butaritari, and there on the 12th of June 
 hoisted the British flag, although the king protested that 
 negotiations for annexation to the United States were 
 pending. The rule of the British in this island has thus 
 far been excellent. They have forbidden the sale of 
 liquors and firearms to the natives, and put a stop to the 
 "black-bird traffic," or slave-trade. 
 
 Although the mission work in Micronesia has been 
 seriously retarded by these usurpations of European na- 
 tions the churches have generally held their own, and in 
 some of the islands made great progress. On Ponape a 
 Christian chief, Mr. Nanapei, has been laboring as a 
 missionary, and reports that the native Christians are 
 continuing steadfast notwithstanding the threats and 
 allurements of the Spaniards, and that their schools and 
 churches are progressing satisfactorily. The mission 
 boarding-school that was expelled by the Spaniards from 
 this island is now successfully established on Mokil. In 
 the Marshall Islands the native missionary, Mr. Lanien, 
 after having been imprisoned six months for preaching 
 at Mejuro, has been released and has again begun to 
 preach, saying that he would rather be executed by the 
 Spaniards than cease from preaching. It may be said 
 that a great work of God has been performed, and is still 
 going on, in these islands. From the inception of this 
 mission to the present time 20,000 natives have been re- 
 ceived into the churches. There are now 47 churches in 
 Micronesia, with an enrolled membership of 4, 509. 
 There are four training-schools with 114 pupils, three 
 girls' boarding schools with 79 pupils, and common 
 
240 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 schools with 2,422 pupils. The annual contributions 
 for evangelical work amount to $2,000. 
 
 As these islands wave their beautiful cocoa plumes in 
 triumph over the briny deep, so their churches now sing 
 glad songs of victory over the foul paganism of yore. 
 Though the native converts do not attain to the high 
 type of piety seen in countries that have enjoyed centu- 
 ries of Christian culture, they exhibit instances of as gen- 
 uine goodness as is found in more favored lands — a 
 goodness that doubtless causes rejoicing in heaven. And 
 these sea-swept reefs and tiny deserts of the ocean, that 
 have long been polluted with the lust and cruelty of pa- 
 ganism and the more blamable atrocities of savage white 
 men, are now becoming almost holy ground by the con- 
 secrated toil and premature deaths of Christian mission- 
 aries, and by the beginnings, in the fiendlike natures of 
 the degraded islanders, of heavenly character and life. 
 
 Since the above was written a notable missionary success 
 has been achieved in Nauru, or Pleasant Island of the 
 Marshall Group. This island is situated four hundred 
 miles west of the other islands of that group, and is 
 eighteen miles in circumference. " It has sixteen hundred 
 inhabitants, who formerly were degraded, naked, witch- 
 craft-ridden savages, divided into warring clans, and living 
 a wretched existence." 
 
 " To this island Rev. Philip Adam Delaporte and his 
 wife went as missionaries in the year 1 900. Mr. Delaporte 
 had been converted to Christianity in Peniel Meetings at 
 Los Angeles, and had consecrated himself to the missionary 
 cause. He had then visited Honolulu to ascertain about 
 
MICRONESIA. 247 
 
 missionary fields ; and there, through the influence of Rev. 
 Orramel Gulick, missionary and navigator, had obtained 
 for himself and his wife appointment and promise of sup- 
 port by the Central Union Church of Honolulu for laboring 
 as missionaries on Nauru. 
 
 " In the short space of eight years Mr. and Mrs. Dela- 
 porte have reduced the Nauru language to writing, have 
 translated into it the New Testament and several other 
 books, have taught the people so successfully that few 
 adults over fifty years of age cannot read the New Testa- 
 ment, have done other such notable educational work that 
 twelve boys, able to use Nauru, German and English, are 
 employed as typewriters by the British Phosphate Company 
 operating there, have pushed industrial training to an ex- 
 tent enabling natives to set in type and publish the entire 
 New Testament, have converted to the Christian faith six 
 hundred adults and baptized three hundred children, and 
 have transformed this people into a clean, clothed and 
 peaceful community. On this island there are now five 
 churches and five schoolhouses. One of these churches 
 has accommodations for nine hundred people, and a usual 
 attendance of eight hundred." 
 
 After the arrival of the Delaportes, phosphate was dis- 
 covered on this island, and a British company engaged in 
 the trade of exporting it. This company is under Christian 
 management, and nobly aids the missionaries. It also 
 gives employment to the natives, and thereby enables 
 them to secure the means for building houses of foreign 
 lumber and for living in civilized style. 
 
 Another notable achievement in Micronesia is the 
 
248 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 translation by Rev. Hiram Bingham, D. D., formerly mis- 
 sionary at Ebon, of the entire Bible and a commentary 
 thereon into the language of the Gilbert Islanders, and a 
 compilation of a dictionary of 6,000 words. 
 
 Recently the American Board of Missions has com- 
 menced negotiations for committing to the London Mis- 
 sionary Society the care of its Mission in the Gilbert 
 Group, and to the Evangelical Missionary Societies of 
 Germany the other islands of Micronesia. 
 
 In the year 1899 Spain ceded to Germany the Caroline, 
 Pelew and Ladrone Islands, excepting Guam, for the con- 
 sideration of about ^3,000,000. By this cession the 
 dominant Power over these groups becomes Protestant 
 instead of Roman Catholic. 
 
 The advantage to the natives of this change is apparent 
 when we recal Ihow the Roman Catholic Government of 
 the Philippines ill-treated the people of Ponape, and ob- 
 serve the results of the Roman Catholic Mission in the 
 Philippines as compared with the results of the Evangelical 
 Missions in Micronesia. In the Philippines the Roman 
 Catholics labored more than three hundred years, aided by 
 the Government, the wealth and the military power of 
 Spain. The results are that the best educated Filipinos 
 are unfit to maintain over themselves an independent 
 Civil Government, and the great mass of the Filipinos are 
 in their primitive barbarism — some of them the lowest 
 tribes of the Pacific Islands. In Micronesia the evangelical 
 missionaries have labored fifty years, and the natives have 
 almost universally renounced paganism, accepted Christ- 
 ianity, and far advanced toward Christian civilization. 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 
 
 Continuing the narrative of mission work in the 
 Pacific, we now pass from accounts of the operations 
 of the London Missionary Society and American Board 
 to those of the Wesleyan Society in the Tonga and Fiji 
 Islands. It is interesting and most important to note 
 that no less efficient labor was performed, and divine 
 blessing enjoyed, by the agents of the latter society than 
 by those of the former. The peculiar distinctions that 
 separated the denominations represented by these socie- 
 ties were of no practical importance in the missionary 
 enterprise, if anywhere else. In no part of the world 
 has that enterprise achieved nobler triumphs, nor enjoyed 
 more of the divine blessing, than in the Tonga and Fiji 
 groups. 
 
 The Tonga Islands are situated between 18° and 23" 
 south latitude, and 174° and 176° west longitude, and 
 consist of three clusters : the Tongatabu islands at the 
 south, the Happai group in the centre, and the Vavau 
 group, the most beautiful of the Tongas, at the north- 
 west. The collective area of these islands is 374 square 
 miles. Only thirty of them are of any considerable size ; 
 the rest, 150 in number, are small islets of coral. 
 
 In the Vavau group are the volcanic peaks Kao, 
 5,080 feet high, Tofua, 2,846 feet high, and Late, 1,820 
 
250 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 feet high. The rest of the Tongas are low islands, having 
 a few hills 600 feet in height, but averaging only from 
 40 to 60 feet above the surface of the ocean. While they 
 lack in attractions of natural scenery they are unsurpassed 
 in the beauty of their vegetation ; for their soil, which is 
 composed of ocean sand, vegetable mould, and volcanic 
 debris, is like "garden soil," and so well cultivated as to 
 make them indeed gardens of beauty and fruitfulness. 
 
 The underlying rock of the low islands is coral lime- 
 stone, and also a white crystalline rock which is perhaps 
 a metamorphic from sandstone. In the strata of these 
 rocks stalactitic caves of great beauty have been formed. 
 Into one of these caves, which opens under water in the 
 sea, a young chief once dove, when condemned to die, 
 and here was visited and fed by his lady-love, until to- 
 gether they went in a canoe to another group of islands. 
 
 The natives of the Tonga Islands are physically and 
 mentally the finest of the Polynesian race. As has been 
 remarked, De Quatrefages, in a table giving the stature 
 of different races of men, puts the natives of Samoa and 
 Tonga as the largest in the world, giving their average 
 height as 5 feet and 9. 92 inches. Their superiority to 
 the other Pacific Islanders may be attributed to the facts 
 that they lived in a better style, that they did not gener- 
 ally contract marriages at a very early age, and that they 
 cared well for their children. But their primitive condi- 
 tion was bad enough. Cannibalism and other inhuman 
 practices prevailed, though to a less extent than in some 
 other islands of the Pacific. When, in 1 773, Capt. Cook 
 visited this group he named them the Friendly Islands, 
 

 •K 
 
 
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 S ' }^h(- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Am llP^ 
 
 Ik 
 
 k.<fear. ^^Sle^^^H 
 
 1 
 
 King MKoKCiE Tlih'iu Si-Ct'M', "-'i- T^nla. 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 25 I 
 
 because of the friendly reception the natives gave him ; 
 but he knew little of their true character. From events 
 that transpired among them during the first years after 
 their discovery, from their treacherous murders of chiefs 
 and savage wars, we may infer that the long ages of their 
 previous history had been a fearful period of barbarous 
 strife, revolting crimes and gloomy superstitions. 
 
 To this people in their primeval darkness mission- 
 aries, in 1797 and subsequent years, brought that light 
 which alone has transformed human nature, and some- 
 times has raised the vilest of men to angelic character. 
 Our previous consideration of the mission in Tahiti leads 
 us to inquire what became of those members of the first 
 company of missionaries to the Pacific who, in 1797, 
 were conveyed by the ship Duff to these Tonga Islands. 
 We learn that they went to Tongatabu, and landed in a 
 district called Hihifu, and were welcomed by a chief; that 
 soon afterward this chief was murdered by his own bro- 
 ther and the island involved in sanguinary war, and dur- 
 ing this war three of the missionaries were killed, and the 
 rest were obliged to hide among the rocks and caverns. 
 
 In these days, when a halo of glory surrounds the 
 name of missionary, when in many mission fields the 
 comforts and luxuries of civilization are enjoyed and 
 there are opportunities by steamers and telegraphs for 
 quick communication with friends, it is well to look 
 back to the condition of these pioneers of the mission 
 enterprise when it was new and untried, and regarded by 
 the public with great incredulity ; when a voyage of six 
 months separated them from their relatives ; when they 
 
252 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 toiled almost hopelessly amid great privations and perils, 
 and sometimes were robbed, half-starved, and obliged 
 to flee for their lives. Their sufferings and privations 
 were not indeed essential, nor to be desired, in this 
 enterprise. It is matter for rejoicing that the sublime 
 work of missions is becoming comparatively easy and 
 even attractive ; but the disinterested benevolence shown 
 by these first laborers in this cause indicates that it orig- 
 inated in something higher than mere human motives 
 and has something of the lustre of heaven. 
 
 These missionaries of the London Missionary Society 
 struggled on many years amid great hardships and per- 
 ils, with no prospect of success, and finally, in the year 
 1800, went by an English ship to New South Wales. 
 Then for over twenty years these islands were left to their 
 primitive heathenism. Finally, in 1822, a Wesleyan mis- 
 sionary. Rev. Walter Lawry, encouraged by the success 
 of the missionaries in the Society Islands, went from 
 Sydney to begin missionary work at Hihifu on the island 
 of Tongatabu. He found there an Englishman by the 
 name of Singleton, who had been tossing many years like 
 a drift log on the ocean and at last had been thrown 
 upon this island, and had remained here long enough to 
 learn the native language. His misfortunes had pre- 
 pared him to receive good; as men sometimes "only 
 by shipwreck find the shores of divine wisdom." He 
 acted as interpreter for Mr. Lawry, accepted the gospel 
 and greatly assisted in the missionary work. After 
 laboring fourteen months Mr. Lawry was obliged, on 
 account of the failure of his wife's health, to go to New 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 253 
 
 South Wales. The reports he sent home of his labors 
 encouraged the Wesleyan Society to send more mission- 
 aries to the Tonga Islands, among whom were the Revs. 
 John Thomas and John Hutchinson, who arrived in 
 1826, and Revs. Nathaniel Turner and William Cross 
 and Mr. Weiss, who arrived in 1827. 
 
 Here now we find a new link connecting this mission 
 with that of Tahiti. These missionaries found at one of 
 the chief towns of Tongatabu, Nukualofa, two native 
 teachers from Tahiti preaching in the Tahitian language, 
 and a chapel already erected in which 240 persons were 
 regularly attending their preaching. Thus the mission- 
 ary work in these islands grew out of that in Tahiti, and 
 in various ways derived an important impetus there- 
 from. 
 
 Tidings of the introduction of a new religion were 
 now soon carried to the other islands ; and the chief of 
 the Haabai group, Taufaahau, went to Tongatabu to 
 judge of it for himself. It seems never to have occurred 
 to the Polynesians in their primitive state to doubt 
 respecting the value of their idol-worship ; but when 
 once doubt was suggested, and the impotence of their 
 idols shown, they were quick to renounce their supersti- 
 tions. Taufaahau's eyes were opened to the folly of 
 paganism by his visit at Tongatabu ; and he hastened 
 home to his island to destroy his idols and all the para- 
 phernalia of their worship. The priests made opposition 
 to this project and prepared to celebrate a great festival 
 in order to promote enthusiasm for their pagan rites. 
 To prevent this festival Taufaahau now desecrated their 
 
2 54 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 temple by driving a drove of pigs into it and by sending 
 his women servants to sleep in it ; for, with the low esti- 
 mation generally entertained by pagan nations for women, 
 the Tongans regarded the presence of a woman as a 
 pollution to a temple. When the heathen now came 
 with their offerings of turtle and sacred fish they found 
 their gods hanging by the neck from the rafters, and, 
 fearing lest they themselves should be similarly treated by 
 the wrath of their king, retired. Taufaahau then sent a 
 canoe and brought Rev. John Thomas to his island, and 
 under his guidance erected a large chapel in which con- 
 gregations of from a thousand to fifteen hundred people 
 often assembled. 
 
 As in other groups of islands, the mission successes 
 here spread from one island to another ; for Taufaahau 
 now, with his heart glowing with the new light, visited 
 Finau, the king of the Vavau Islands, and persuaded him 
 to renounce idolatry. Finau did this in a dramatic way. 
 Causing seven of his principal idols to be set in a row be- 
 fore himself he said to them, " I have brought you here 
 to prove you. If you are gods run away, or I will burn 
 you." As none of them ran he burned them, together 
 with eighteen temples. 
 
 Finau left the government of the Vavau group at his 
 death to Taufaahau, who had been baptized with the 
 name of "King George Tubou. " The Tongatabu group 
 was afterwards added to his dominion, and he became 
 king of all the Tongas. He still, however, continued to 
 be an earnest and humble Christian, and became an ex- 
 cellent local preacher, faithfully meeting the classes that 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 255 
 
 were appointed to him and superintending the schools. 
 On one occasion he took into a meeting one of the idols 
 which he previously had suspended to the rafters of a 
 temple, and said, ' ' This is the thing I formerly wor- 
 shipped ;" and then, holding up first one hand and then 
 the other, each of which was minus two joints of the little 
 finger, he said, " My father cut off these fingers and 
 offered them in sacrifice to this very thing. '' 
 
 This King George was a man of great ability and 
 high character. He is described as upwards of six feet in 
 height, remarkably well proportioned and athletic, with 
 a fine open countenance and unassuming dignity. He 
 has been styled the "Father of the Tonga Mission," so 
 greatly did he assist this mission by all his influence. 
 
 In 1834 an extraordinary revival of religion prevailed 
 over the Tonga Islands. The missionaries believed that 
 on one day 1,000 souls were converted. Other revivals 
 followed ; and the result was, as in other groups of isl- 
 ands, that forms of constitutional civil government took 
 the place of the previous savage despotism, common 
 schools and a high school were established, and at Nu- 
 kualofa a training school was formed for educating 
 preachers. It was called "Tubou College" in honor of 
 King George Tubou. In i860 nearly 500 licensed 
 preachers had gone out from this institution to stations 
 in their own islands and distant pagan groups. 
 
 In 1870 it was confidently asserted that not one hea- 
 then remained in the Tonga Islands. The Rev. Robert 
 Young testified that, with the exception of fifty persons, 
 the entire population had embraced Christianity, that not 
 
256 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 less than 8,000 of them could read the sacred Scriptures, 
 and 5,000 could write their own language. 
 
 The Tongan Mission had now become not only self- 
 supporting, but also a large contributor to the funds of 
 the Wesleyan Society. Situated as these islands are, 
 away from the most frequented routes of ships, they have 
 developed better results from mission work than have 
 been seen in almost any other groups of the Pacific, and 
 exhibit the true achievements of the mission enterprise. 
 
 After the Tongan people had thus almost universally 
 accepted Christianity they unfortunately entered into a 
 serious dispute with the missionaries concerning the 
 disposition of the money contributed by their Churches. 
 This money the missionaries were accustomed to take to 
 Auckland, to be there distributed for various religious 
 purposes by the Wesleyan Conference. The people com- 
 plained that too much of it was applied to the cause of 
 Foreign Missions, some of it being even sent for the mission 
 cause at Rome, and too little of it given to their needy 
 Churches. The King insisted that the people had the 
 right to determine the disposition of their contributions. 
 In this he was upheld by one of the missionaries, Rev. 
 Shirley Baker. This missionary the Wesleyan Conference 
 then excommunicated from the mission. The next day 
 the King appointed him his Prime Minister, and with his 
 aid proceeded to organize another Denomination, the 
 Free Church of Tonga. A fierce rivalry in securing the 
 Tongans as church members then ensued between this 
 Church and the Wesleyan Church, and in process of time 
 the struggle became political. 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 257 
 
 On entering upon his duties as Prime Minister, Baker 
 undertook to induce the King to adopt a Constitutional 
 form of Government. This was very necessary. The 
 Government had previously been utterly arbitrary and 
 despotic. The King was regarded as the Father of his 
 people, possessing parental rights as well as parental duties. 
 He had no regular salary, but simply took what he needed. 
 He had but to raise his hand to appropriate a pig, a field 
 of yams, or anything else he might desire. The chiefs 
 under him ruled by the same method. The Government 
 was in debt, and throughout all the group there was very 
 little money. It was not easy to induce the Kmg to es- 
 tablish the proposed new form of Government. He did 
 not see the necessity nor the desirability of a Constitution 
 that would restrict his official action ; but an incident oc- 
 curred that induced him to favor the project. One night 
 a great number of one-eyed fishes, a species that seldom 
 appeared in Tongan waters, were caught near Tongatabu. 
 According to the ancient customs these fishes were to be 
 delivered to the chiefs alone ; but by mistake a bundle of 
 them was left at the door of a poor cripple. The chief, 
 for whom the bundle was intended, punished the cripple, 
 without judicial process, by setting him at hard work on 
 his premises. Against this outrage Baker raised such a 
 storm of indignation that the King directed him to prepare 
 the proposed Constitution and Code of Laws. 
 
 When the Constitution and Code had been prepared the 
 King summoned all his chiefs to Tongatabu for considering 
 and adopting them. After reading and discussing them 
 only a few of the chiefs signed their adoption of them. 
 
258 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The King then compelled the rest of the chiefs to remain 
 at Tongatabu till they all had signed, and then he pro- 
 claimed the Constitution and Code as the system of 
 Government of the group. 
 
 In the Constitution and Code there were provisions 
 concerning the disposition of the lands of the group and a 
 prohibition against sales of intoxicating liquors to the 
 natives, which were unacceptable to the foreigners in the 
 grouiJ. In speaking of these provisions Baker said to the 
 author, " I anticipated the doctrines of Henry George." 
 This was true. Before Henry George promulgated his 
 theories Baker had by this Constitution and Code con- 
 stituted the King the owner of all the lands in the group, 
 and arranged that an allotment of the lands should be 
 rented to every male citizen, over sixteen years of age, at 
 nine dollars a year. Every such citizen was to pay the 
 rent, whether he took an allotment or not ; and no citizen 
 was to be deprived of his allotment, unless he should fail 
 to pay the rent. There were to be no taxes, but the 
 Government revenue was to be derived from the land- 
 rents, customs, harbor fees, postage, and the fines imposed 
 in the Criminal Courts. To aid the natives in paying the 
 land-rents. Baker arranged that a line of New Zealand 
 steamers should call twice a month at three islands of the 
 group. 
 
 At the time when the Constitution and Code were under 
 consideration several of the foreigners were far advanced 
 in negotiations for buying on speculation, extensive tracts 
 of land, and others of them were conducting the liquor 
 trafiRc. One of them, it is said, endeavoured to bribe 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 259 
 
 Baker by an offer of fifty thousand dollars to eliminate 
 from the Constitution and Code the provisions concerning 
 the lands and the liquor traffic. This Baker refused to do. 
 The foreigners then united with the Wesleyans in opposing 
 Baker, and in the excitement that ensued an attempt was 
 made to assassinate Baker. Shots were fired at him from 
 ambush as he was riding with his children. He was not 
 hurt, but his son and daughter were seriously wounded. 
 The would-be assassins were arrested, tried, convicted of 
 high treason, and, by order of the King, executed on an 
 adjacent islet. 
 
 The foreigners and Wesleyans then requested Governor 
 Thurston of Fiji to deport Baker, as a British subject 
 dangerous to the peace of Tonga. The Governor sent a 
 Commission to investigate, and the Commission reported 
 in approval of Baker. The request was renewed on dif- 
 ferent grounds, and another Commission was sent, with 
 the same result. The foreigners then announced to Gov- 
 ernor Thurston that Baker was negotiating with Germany 
 a Treaty that would give that country a preponderating 
 influence in Tonga ; and the Wesleyans, to render less 
 objectionable a deportation of Baker, the leader of the 
 Free Church, offered to send away Rev. Dr. Moulton, the 
 leader of the Wesleyan Church. Governor Thurston then 
 despatched a warship to remove to Auckland Baker and 
 Moulton. On arriving at Tongatabu the Commander of 
 the warship gave Baker twenty-four hours for preparing for 
 embarkation, placed a Commission over the Tongan 
 Treasury, to ascertain whether Baker had honestly ad- 
 ministered the Tongan finances, and then conveyed Moul- 
 
26o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ton, and Baker (the Prime Minister of an independent 
 country), to Auckland. 
 
 It was afterwards found that Baker had honestly man- 
 aged the Tongan finances ; and that the proposed Treaty 
 of Tonga with Germany was almost identical with the 
 previous Treaty of Tonga with Great Britain. 
 
 The work that Baker had done proved a great benefit to 
 Tonga. The establishment of the Constitutional Govern- 
 ment was a noble achievement. The arrangements for 
 land-rents secured to the Government a good revenue, to 
 the King a suitable salary, and to each of the chiefs an 
 income of a hundred dollars a month. By the land-rent 
 system the natives were secured in possession of their 
 homesteads, prevented from selling them, and encouraged 
 to improve them ; and by the opportunities, afforded by 
 the steamers for exporting the products of their lands, they 
 acquired an affluence hardly before enjoyed by their chiefs. 
 
 The happy condition of the natives the writer observed 
 in a visit to three islands of the group. At Tongatabu he 
 found Nukualofa, the capital, like a delightful park, the 
 houses, without surrounding fences, standing among or- 
 namental and fruitful trees on a continuous lawn of ber- 
 mudas grass. The houses were of foreign style and of 
 lumber from New Zealand ; for to build huts of the 
 previous style was almost impossible, since horses, ranging 
 loose, had eaten all the grasses suitable for thatch, and the 
 thatch of the lower parts of the houses. By their ap- 
 pearance the natives confirmed the statement of Quatra- 
 fages, that the Tongans and Samoans are physically the 
 largest people in the world. Most of the men seemed to 
 
THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 261 
 
 be about six feet in hieight. They evidently were Polyne- 
 sian, with a trace of Papuan. They all seemed to be well- 
 to-do, many of them riding in carriages or carts, conveying 
 passengers or freight to the steamer lying at the end of a 
 long pier extending into the lagoon. On a high hill in 
 the town, where before the arrival of the missionaries a 
 fierce battle was fought, there was a noble church, now 
 speaking peace instead of war. Near by was the King's 
 palace, a singularly fine building for a place so far from 
 civilized countries ; and near the palace was the King's 
 chapel, an elegant building, in which the writer found a 
 bare-foot native playing admirably on a large pipe organ. 
 In the Tubou College, then under the management of a 
 son of the deported Dr. Moulton, the writer attended a 
 delightful musicale of the pupils, who were preparing for 
 a Christmas celebration. They had been taught by the 
 Tonic-Sol-Fa method, and sang at sight music in four 
 parts. In this institution there were 170 young men and 
 women receiving education by which to be fitted to be 
 teachers, Government officials, ministers, or missionaries. 
 
 On the steamer on which the writer voyaged a large 
 company of natives embarked, taking yams, bread-fruit 
 and bananas to the people of Habai, who were suffering 
 from a famine caused by a hurricane and a subsequent 
 drouth. At evening they sang and prayed together, and 
 then they laid their heads on their obingas (wooden stools 
 used as pillows) and rested till morning. 
 
 In the Tongan Islands the missionary enterprise has 
 been conducted, as in the Cook Group, with the advantage 
 of seclusion from corrupting foreign influences, and for 
 
262 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 that reason has been signally successful. The natives are 
 as generally able to read and write and as moral and 
 religious, as are those of the Cook Group, and they are 
 increasing in number on all their islands. 
 
 In 1905 the population was 20,000, the exports, con- 
 sisting chiefly of copra, bananas, pine apples and oranges, 
 were worth §589, 266. Yet hardly a third of the land was 
 under cultivation. The number of the adherents of the 
 Free Church was 16,000, of the Wesleyan Church 2,000, 
 and of the Roman Catholic Church, 2,000. 
 
 In the year 1898 a Commissioner of Germany made 
 demands on the Tongan Government for a considerable 
 amount of money, alleged to be due German traders, and 
 it was rumored that a German warship was on the way to 
 enforce the demands. The King then sent an agent to 
 Governor Thurston applying for a British Protectorate 
 over Tonga. The Governor immediately despatched a 
 warship which paid the German claims, and on October 
 14, 1898 proclaimed the British Protectorate over the 
 group. 
 
« 
 
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 %,OW^tTvO^ 
 
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 NEWZEALAND 
 
 XUUiinOmitt 
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 Smott^t^ 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 263 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 Although New Zealand is situated almost at our 
 antipodes, where the North Star, the Great Bear and 
 other constellations that are constantly familiar to us 
 are lost to view, while the Southern Cross and Magellan 
 Clouds are almost overhead and the frosty breath of the 
 antarctic zone blows keen in the face, it has become like 
 a near neighbor by the improved facilities of trade and 
 travel, and is of peculiar interest to us because of having 
 a similar Anglo-Saxon people, a similar civilization, and 
 probably a similar destiny. In this sketch of missions 
 an account of New Zealand is needed for a completion 
 of the mission history of the Polynesian race, and for an 
 illustration of the influence of missions on the foreign 
 populations in the Pacific, and it is interesting to pass 
 from consideration of the little palm-fringed islands of 
 volcanic or coral formation to that of a country which is 
 of almost continental proportions and characteristics, 
 and has the climate and productions of the temperate 
 zone. 
 
 New Zealand lies between the parallels of 34° 15' and 
 470 30' south latitude, and the meridians 166° and 1790 
 east longitude, and about 8,000 miles southwest of San 
 Francisco and 1,200 southeast of Australia. Its area is 
 101,500 square miles, one-si.xth less than that of Great 
 
264 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Britain and Ireland. Of this area 12,000,000 acres are 
 arable and 50,000,000 fit for pasturage. 
 
 New Zealand consists of three islands : the Northern 
 Island, 500 miles long and from five to 300 broad, con- 
 taining 44,000 square miles ; the Middle or Southern 
 Island, 550 miles long, with an average breadth of no 
 miles, containing 55,000 square miles; and Stewart Isl- 
 and, 30 miles in diameter, having an area of 800 square 
 miles. These islands combined have been compared to 
 a boot with the toe turned north, also to Italy, which 
 they nearly equal in area. 
 
 In New Zealand we find the volcanic rocks of the 
 Pacific Islands mingled with the metamorphic and sed- 
 imentary strata of the continents. These strata contain 
 slate, sandstone, limestone, coal, copper, silver and gold. 
 In the North and South Islands gold has been success- 
 fully mined by hydraulic processes. 
 
 The chief feature of New Zealand is the grand range 
 of mountains which runs parallel with its western 
 coasts. In Stewart Island these mountains reach an 
 altitude of 3, 200 feet ; in South Island they reach their 
 greatest height in Mount Cook, 13,200 feet high, near 
 which are many peaks of nearly the same height ; in the 
 North Island the highest mountain is Ruapahu, 9,100 
 feet high, which rises into perpetual snow, and has one 
 peak, Tangariro, that is an active volcano, 7,000 feet 
 high. Further south is Mount Egmont, 8, 2 70 feet high, 
 a perfect cone capped with snow. 
 
 In the southwestern part of the South Island the great 
 arms of the Southern Ocean have extended far up into 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 265 
 
 the wild solitudes of this mountain range ; and here is 
 the grandest scenery of this country. One of these in- 
 lets, called Milford Sound, "three miles from its entrance 
 contracts to the width of half a mile, and its sides rise 
 perpendicularly from the water's edge 2,000 feet, and 
 then slope at a high angle to peaks that are covered 
 with perpetual snow. Further inland the sound becomes 
 more expanded and receives several large valleys that ra- 
 diate in different directions into the highest ranges. 
 Immediately above rises Pembroke Peak to the height of 
 nearly 7,000 feet, covered with perpetual snow, and with 
 a glacier reaching down to within 2,000 feet of the sea. 
 The lower slopes of this mountain are covered with fine 
 trees and with luxuriant and evergreen foliage of the 
 tree-fern and other beautiful undergrowth of the New 
 Zealand forests. Two permanent waterfalls, one 700 
 and the other 540 feet in height, add picturesque beauty 
 to the gloomy and desolate grandeur of the upper part 
 of this sound. " (Dr. Hector.) 
 
 The lower portion of this mountain range is covered 
 with noble forests of pine and other valuable trees ; and 
 further down on their eastern side are large lakes ; one 
 of which, in South Island, Lake Wakitipu, is sixty miles 
 long and has two flourishing towns on its banks and 
 several steamers plying between them. In North Island 
 is Lake Taupo, which measures thirty by twenty miles, 
 and has one small island, Motu Taiko, of extreme beau- 
 ty, in the centre. On this island are also the Roturua 
 lakes, sixteen in number, among which is the Rotoma- 
 hana Lake (warm lake), one mile long, with water at 
 
^66 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 the temperature of 90°. Here also are geysers, which 
 eject water two degrees above the boiling point, holding 
 silicates in solution, and also the "bathing-place," 
 which is described as "terraces of soft friable stone de- 
 posited by water streaming down from hot pools above. 
 These terraces, white and pink, three hundred feet in 
 width, rise two hundred feet. As you ascend you step 
 along a raised fret-work of stone as fine as chased silver. 
 In the terraces are smooth alabaster-like bathing pools, 
 three to four feet deep, formed by silica, and above are 
 wonderful overhanging cornices formed by the drip." 
 Recently this "bathing-place" has been broken up by 
 earthquakes ; but new depositions of silica are forming 
 it again. 
 
 From these lakes stretch extensive plains to the 
 ocean. These plains were originally covered with native 
 grasses and ferns, but are now cultivated with grain or 
 planted with English grasses and clovers for pasturage. 
 Where formerly hardly one sheep to the acre could be 
 pastured on the native grasses, now from five to seven 
 sheep to the acre are kept on English grasses. The soil 
 is generally lighter and better than that of Great Britain. 
 In some places it contains iron, and as much as seventy 
 per. cent of iron has been extracted from the ore. 
 
 The flora of New Zealand consists of one thousand 
 species of plants, which have affinities with those of Au- 
 stralia, Polynesia, and South America. The most con- 
 spicuous trees are the coniferae, of which the most re- 
 markable is the Kauri pine (dammara auslralis), which 
 is found in the northern part of the North Island. It is 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 267 
 
 sometimes forty feet in circumference, and rises nine- 
 ty feet before its branches begin, and lifts its head above 
 the rest of the forest sometimes to the height of two 
 hundred feet above the ground. The gum which has 
 collected in the ground from ancient forests of this tree 
 is much sought after for use in glazing calico and for a 
 substitute for copal-varnish, and is worth from eight to 
 ten dollars per hundred pounds. Almost all the other 
 trees are evergreen. The puriki tree resembles teak and 
 rivals the English oak, and is said to be almost as im- 
 perishable as stone. Splendid flowering trees abound, 
 among which are the rata (melrosideros robusta), like 
 the Hawaiian ohia, which are gorgeous with dazzling 
 scarlet blossoms, and the kowhai {Edwardia microphylld), 
 which has yellow papilionaceous flowers. The chief 
 ornaments of the forest are the tree ferns {Dichonia and 
 cyaihea), which rise thirty feet in height, the palms 
 (areca sapidd), which rear their green crowns in pic- 
 turesque majesty throughout the whole length of the 
 islands, and the vines "which entwine the topmost 
 branches of trees in gordian knots." One writer says, 
 "There were convolvuli and clematis and passiflorae 
 festooning the branches with their light garlands, and 
 enormous brambles, covered with wild roses, clamber- 
 ing up to the summits of some tall tree and toppling 
 down again in a cascade of bloom." Two of the 
 vines are very troublesome, the ripogonum parviflorum, a 
 rope-like vine which entangles the traveller, and the 
 rubiis ausiralis, the thorny strings of which scratch the 
 face and are therefore called "bush-lawyers." In the 
 
268 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 open grounds are to be seen species of viola, primula, 
 ranunculus, and, to the delight of Englishmen, daisies 
 (microcalis auslralis). 
 
 The climate of New Zealand has been compared to 
 that of England with the seasons reversed, but is more 
 rainy and windy. January is the hottest and driest 
 month of the year, July the coolest and most rainy. 
 Winds blowing from the northwest bring rain to all the 
 islands, and sometimes snow for a few hours to the 
 South Island. In Auckland the rainfall in 1882 was 
 forty-five inches, in Wellington fifty-five inches. The 
 average temperature of the North Island is 57° F., that 
 of the South Island 52°, while that of London is 51°. 
 The salubrity of the climate is shown by the fact that, 
 while the average mortality of British soldiers quartered 
 in Great Britain has been 16 to 1,000, here it has been 
 5 to 1,000. 
 
 Like the island of Saint Patrick, New Zealand has no 
 snakes ; and, like most of the Pacific Islands, it formerly- 
 had no quadrupeds but dogs, swine, and rats. An 
 enormous wingless bird, called the moa, the skeletons 
 of which have been found measuring thirteen feet in 
 height, once abounded. 
 
 A romantic interest attaches to the origin of the abo- 
 rigines, the Maoris, of New Zealand. Tourists readily 
 perceive that in physical characteristics, in language, 
 customs and traditions, they are the same race that in- 
 habits the other Pacific Islands even as far north as Ha- 
 waii. The resemblance of their language to that of 
 Hawaii is very striking. To best observe this, it must 
 
A New Zealand Chief. 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 269 
 
 be noted that among Polynesian tribes the letters 1 and r 
 are interchangeable, as also k and t, and that the letter k 
 when found between vowels is often dropped in Hawaii. 
 Thus the New Zealand word ariki (chief) becomes alii in 
 Hawaii, and the word atua (god), akua, and Hawaiki be- 
 comes Hawaii. 
 
 The Maoris claim that they emigrated from Hawaiki, 
 doubtless meaning Savaii (of the Samoa group) and 
 from Rarotonga (of the Hervey group), and Pirima and 
 Manono (of the Samoa group). Their tradition is that 
 about the year 1400 A. D., as it is estimated from their 
 genealogies of their kings, two chiefs fled in canoes from 
 Samoa on account of war, and were driven by stormy 
 weather to New Zealand, and returning brought eight 
 hundred of their countrymen in twenty canoes to the 
 splendid islands they had discovered. 
 
 A detailed description of the customs and supersti- 
 tions of the Maoris would be little more than a repeti- 
 tion of what has been narrated of the peoples of the 
 other Pacific islands. Suffice it to say that they wor- 
 shipped three chief gods, Tane, Ra and Tangaroa, cor- 
 responding to Kane, Ka and Kaneloa of Hawaii, and to 
 supposed deities of similar names in most of the other 
 islands of the Pacific ; that, like other Polynesians, they 
 imposed on themselves the restrictions of tabu, practiced 
 sorcery, tattooed their bodies, and were cannibals. The 
 stories of their cannibalism are revolting. They differed 
 from the other Polynesians in that, besides feasting on 
 enemies who were killed in battle, they specially fattened 
 slaves for their feasts. A poor slave girl would some- 
 
2/0 THE ISLANDS OK THE PACIFIC. 
 
 times be commanded by her master to fetch fuel, light a 
 fire, and heat an oven, and then would be knocked in 
 the head and cast into the oven. One cannibal testi- 
 fied that, when he first heard the missionaries speak of 
 the sinfulness of eating human flesh, he thought their 
 words were very foolish, and questioned whether it was 
 any more wicked to eat a man than a dog, or pig, or any 
 other animal ; but remembering the words he did not 
 relish his next cannibal feast, and finally loathed the 
 sight of such food and became a Christian. 
 
 The Maoris had a singular custom, called muru, of 
 showing sympathy for each other in misfortunes by rob- 
 bing each other of property. If a man's wife ran away, 
 or his child got his leg broken, or any other calamity 
 came upon him, a iaua (multitude) of his neighbors 
 would kindly call on him, and in condolence eat all his 
 food and carry away all his goods. This prevented the 
 accumulation of property. 
 
 The Maoris dressed in shaggy mats made of flax (the 
 phormium tenax, which was a flag-like plant with sword- 
 shaped drooping leaves). Their food consisted chiefly of 
 fern roots (the pteris esculentd), also of palm shoots and 
 kumera (the sweet potato), but they ate little meat. 
 They cooked their food by burying it, wrapped in leaves 
 with heated stones, in the ground. They made no use 
 of the m^als which abounded in their country, but used 
 stone adzes with surprising skill. 
 
 In comparison with the degraded Australians and the 
 natives of the New Hebrides they were a noble race. 
 Their average height was the same as that of Europeans, 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 2/1 
 
 five feet and six inches. Rev. Samuel Marsden, founder 
 of the missions in New Zealand, said of them : "They 
 are vastly superior in understanding to anything you can 
 imagine of a savage nation." Sir Anthony Trollope has 
 written that "they are more pliable and nearer akin in 
 their manners to civilized mankind than are the Ameri- 
 can Indians, and more manly, more courteous, as well 
 as more sagacious than the African negro. " The British 
 military officers have testified that in war, when supplied 
 with firearms, they were fully a match for the best disci- 
 plined English troops. In defense of the fortification 
 Gate Pah, 300 of them repulsed 1,600 English soldiers. 
 
 Like the other Polynesians, the Maoris have melted 
 away as they have come into contact with foreign races. 
 In 1769 it was estimated that they numbered several 
 hundred thousands. By the census of 1888 they now 
 number only 42,000, while the foreign population of 
 New Zealand is 607,380. 
 
 The Europeans who first visited New Zealand, with a 
 few exceptions, were in character as uncouth, repulsive 
 and terrible as the Maoris in physical appearance. Some 
 of these Europeans were not a little amused when Maoris 
 shrank away in horror on first seeing their own likenesses 
 reflected in looking-glasses, but the abhorrence they felt 
 for the Maori in his paint, tattoo and grotesque head- 
 gear might well have been felt for themselves in their 
 reckless avarice, lust and cruelty. Our first accounts of 
 New Zealand are of wanton outrages committed by these 
 foreigners on the natives, and of dreadful retaliations 
 made by the natives. The first discoverer, the Dutch- 
 
272 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 man Abel Tasman, on anchoring, September i8, 1642, 
 near Nelson, of the Middle Island, got into a conflict 
 with the natives and killed several of them, and they in 
 return killed four of his men. For this reason he named 
 this port Massacre Bay, but the group he named New 
 Zealand, after his own country. In 1769 Capt. Cook 
 arrived , at these islands and announced that he took 
 possession of them for Britain. Three years afterwards 
 the French captain Marion du Fresne arrived with two 
 ships in the Bay of Islands, and because of cruel outra- 
 ges committed by him on chiefs was killed, with twenty- 
 five of his men. In 1809 the captain of the British ship 
 Boyd, having flogged a chief, was killed with his crew 
 and passengers, seventy in number. In later times 
 escaped convicts from Botany Bay led lives of horrible 
 lust and cruelty among the natives ; and finally, as will 
 be more particularly recounted in another part of this 
 chapter, the great British Gjlonization Company was 
 extremely lawless, and occasioned fierce and destructive 
 wars. 
 
 One agency alone has operated for the welfare of the 
 Maoris as well as for that of the foreign population of 
 New Zealand : the Missionary Society. The first mission 
 in New Zealand was originated by Rev. Samuel Marsden, 
 who in 1792 went as chaplain to Port Jackson, of the 
 penal colony of New South Wales. His attention was 
 drawn to New Zealand by the Maoris, who as seamen 
 occasionally visited Port Jackson and greatly impressed 
 him with their superiority to the Papuans. While the 
 common cry was that the Maoris should be extermina- 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 273 
 
 ted, he built a hut in his parsonage for their accommo- 
 dation. To most of the residents of Port Jackson the 
 coming of these Maoris was about as alarming as the 
 coming of savages was to Robinson Crusoe ; and it was 
 an exercise of no ordinary philanthropy for Mr. Marsden 
 not merely to treat them kindly when he casually met 
 them, but to bring them to occupy a home at his very 
 door. He often had as many as thirty staying with him 
 at one time. In 1807 he went to England and persua- 
 ded the Church Mission Society to undertake a mission 
 to this people, and returned with two missionaries : Mr. 
 William Hall, a carpenter, and Mr. John King, a shoe- 
 maker and ropemaker. These men were selected that 
 they might teach the natives the industrial arts ; but it 
 was afterwards discovered that evangelization must pre- 
 cede civilization. 
 
 As Mr. Marsden with these missionaries embarked 
 from England on the 25th of August, 1809, on the ship 
 Ann, they observed a Maori chief, Ruatara, sitting dis- 
 consolate, and evidently very ill, on the forecastle of the 
 ship. This chief had left home as a seaman in order to 
 see the world, and had been badly abused by captains of 
 ships. A short time before he had been put ashore with 
 a few other men at Bounty Island, east of New Zealand, 
 to collect sealskins, under the assurance that he would 
 be taken off in a few da3's, but he was left there ten 
 months ; and when the faithless captain rescued him 
 three of his companions bad perished of starvation. He 
 had collected eight thou-and sealskins, and with these 
 was taken to England and then was turned adrift. Mr. 
 
274 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Marsden most kindly befriended him, and thereby 
 gained a kind reception for his missionaries in New Zea- 
 land. 
 
 On their arrival at Port Jackson they heard of the 
 massacre of the crew and passengers of the Boyd, and that 
 afterwards whalers had taken vengeance on the natives. 
 Ruatara's uncle had been killed, and a war had thereby 
 been occasioned between the tribes of natives. Ruatara 
 therefore took passage on a ship to investigate whether 
 missionaries would be received ; but the captain with 
 whom he embarked refused to land him when he was in 
 sight of his home, and he was tossed about in rough 
 seafaring life nearly two years before he arrived among 
 his people, from whom he had then been absent seven 
 years. The accounts he gave of the wonders he had 
 seen in foreign lands, especially of horse-riding, were too 
 much for the belief of his people ; but they were per- 
 suaded to send invitations for missionaries to reside 
 among them. 
 
 When at last he returned to Port Jackson Mr. Mars- 
 den at his own risk purchased a little brig, the Active, 
 for $10,000, and embarked on the 28th of November, 
 18 14, for New Zealand with three missionaries and their 
 wives and three Maori chiefs, among whom was this 
 Ruatara. Arriving off the northeast coast of New Zea- 
 land, at Whangaroa, within forty miles of Rangihoua, 
 Ruatara's home, they learned from natives in canoes that 
 there was a feud, originated from the massacre of the 
 Boyd, between the natives of this region and Ruatara's 
 tribe. Mr. Marsden therefore landed with the chiefs to 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 275 
 
 sue for peace, and sent Ruatara before, to a body of 
 armed men, to apply for a friendly interview. A woman 
 then came forward waving a red mat and exclaiming, 
 " Haeremai" "Come hither" (Hawaiian, Helemai). In 
 compliance with this invitation they then went forward, 
 and found the chiefs sitting, with warriors holding spears 
 twenty feet in length standing around them. The chiefs 
 were dressed in handsome mats, had their hair tied in 
 top-knots ornamented with long white feathers, and 
 wore around their necks the dollars taken from the Boyd. 
 The warriors now brandished their spears with frightful 
 yells, and sprang around Mr. Marsden and his compan- 
 ions in a menacing war-dance which was meant for a 
 welcome. Mr. Marsden remained over night with them 
 and persuaded them to make peace. 
 
 Before reaching Ruatara's home, which was on the 
 northwest side of the Bay of Islands, one of the chiefs 
 went ashore to prepare for their reception ; and as they 
 drew near ten war canoes came off, and bore swiftly 
 upon them, and gave them a welcome of war-cries, 
 shrieks, and threatening gesticulations. 
 
 As they landed on Sunday, December 25, 18 14, they 
 were surprised to find that Ruatara had with great inge- 
 nuity prepared for a religious meeting. He had enclosed 
 about half an acre of land with a fence, erected in the 
 centre a pulpit covered with black mats, arranged canoes 
 on each side as seats for the white men, rigged a flagstaff, 
 and hoisted the British flag. Mr. Marsden preached 
 from the text, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of 
 great joy ;" and the sermon was interpreted by Ruatara. 
 
276 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Mr. Marsden had brought a horse, which he now 
 took ashore, mounted and rode, to the utter astonish- 
 ment of the natives. He had also brought a grist mill, 
 and now ground some wheat, that had been raised by 
 Ruatara, and made flour and bread, and thereby con- 
 vinced the natives that Ruatara's reports of foreign lands 
 were true, and won golden opinions for the mission- 
 aries. 
 
 Subsequently the missionaries had the usual expe- 
 riences of missionaries in the Pacific, of losses of proper- 
 ty by thefts and robberies, lack of food, when the natives 
 would take nothing but fire-arms or ammunition as pay 
 for provisions, and perils from intertribal wars. They 
 were obliged to constantly watch the natives who came 
 to visit them ; but ' ' in spite of their vigilance, tools, 
 ropes, knives, wearing apparel, blankets, etc., disap- 
 peared ; and two volumes of Milner's Church History 
 were taken and converted into New Zealand cartridges." 
 
 In order to provide more reliable supplies of food 
 than could be obtained from the natives or from ships 
 they enclosed and cultivated about ten acres of land, 
 planting wheat, barley, oats and vegetables. They also 
 set out fruit trees, peaches, apricots, oranges and lem- 
 ons, which in a few years bore abundance of fruit ; and 
 they taught the natives to do similar work for them- 
 selves. 
 
 As more missionaries were expected to arrive from 
 England they explored the surrounding country to se- 
 lect places for new mission stations. Once in their ex- 
 peditions they went by boat up the Kerikeri River at a 
 
A Maori Wuman' of Xew Zi-aland. 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 277 
 
 time when that river was tabued by the kahunga, priest, 
 (Hawaiian, kahuna). "Tlie indignant natives dragged 
 the boat ashore, plundered it of its contents, and hastily 
 swallowed jams and medicines. The unpleasant conse- 
 quences convinced them that the mana, power, of the 
 pakeha, foreigner, was too strong for their gods, and that 
 the tabu did not apply to the missionaries. " 
 
 In 18 1 9, at the request of the natives, another settle- 
 ment was made nine miles distant, on the banks of the 
 Kerikeri River, five miles from its mouth, near a water- 
 fall called Waiani-waniwa (rainbow) ; and in August, 
 1823, another settlement on the south side of the bay, 
 at Paihia, "a beautiful spot of three hundred acres of 
 level ground sheltered in an amphitheatre of fern- 
 clad and wooded hills, with a view of the bay near 
 by, and of three small rocky islands covered with foli- 
 age." 
 
 In 1820 the chief of the Ngapui tribe, Hongi Hika, 
 one of the most formidable Maori warriors, called the 
 "Napoleon of New Zealand," went to England, hoping 
 to obtain weapons with which to make himself monarch 
 of all New Zealand. Though he failed to obtain the 
 supply of weapons he wished, he started off, as soon as 
 he returned, on war expeditions, and soon brought home 
 two thousand captives, chiefly women and children, of 
 part of whom he made a cannibal feast. 
 
 In 1827 he again started on the war-path and at- 
 tacked Whangaroa, where the Wesleyans, in 182 1, had 
 established a mission station at Kaeo, and where now 
 Rev. Nathaniel Turner and his family were residing. 
 
2/8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 As usual, he was victorious ; and then he attacked the 
 Wesleyan settlement and plundered and burned it. Mr. 
 Turner and his wife and three children, the youngest of 
 whom was five weeks old, fled in the night through the 
 woods twenty miles, to Kerikeri, and were met by the 
 Episcopal missionary, Rev. Henry Williams, and kindly 
 cared for. Hongi now horrified the missionaries at 
 Kerikeri by cannibal feasts in celebration of his victo- 
 ries. 
 
 Soon afterwards the missionaries, Williams and Da- 
 vis, boldly ventured among the warring tribes and per- 
 suaded their chiefs to forego the usual exaction of uku, 
 redress, and to make peace. All the Methodist mission- 
 aries had fled to New South Wales ; and now they re- 
 turned and resumed their work. 
 
 About this time a beautiful illustration was afforded 
 of the far-reaching influence of the Tahiti mission. "A 
 Christian chief from Tahiti arrived at Kerikeri, and as 
 his native tongue was so similar to that of the Maoris as 
 to allow of free communication he readily acceded to the 
 request of the missionaries to address their people. With 
 his Bible in his hand this once blinded idolater stood be- 
 fore the assembled group ; his face beamed with love, 
 his voice trembled with emotion, while he read to them 
 John 3 : i6 and 17, and told them of what Tahiti had 
 been and what it now was. As he spoke to them of 
 the mighty change that had been wrought upon himself 
 and his countrymen every eye was rivetted on him ; and 
 as he urged them to turn to God, and prayed that the 
 Holy Spirit might lead them to the Saviour, the mission- 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 279 
 
 ary felt an earnest hope that his exhortations and pray- 
 ers would be blessed and answered." 
 
 It was ten years after the inception of the mission 
 when the first genuine success was realized in the con- 
 version of natives. One of the first converts was a slave, 
 Dudidudi, who made Christian confession on his death- 
 bed. On the 23d of August, 1830, the first public adult 
 baptism took place when, at Paihia, the chief Taiwunga 
 and two other natives were baptized. Before the end of 
 this year thirteen more natives were received into the 
 church at this place. The people had now generally 
 given up their intertribal wars, and were much inter- 
 ested in agricultural pursuits ; and the number of Chris- 
 tian converts rapidly increased. New mission stations 
 were now formed, one, in 1 831, at Waimate, twelve miles 
 inland from Kerikeri, another, in 1834, at Kaitaia on the 
 western coast, forty miles northwest from Waimate, and 
 another at Kororaika, two miles from Paihia. 
 
 The very wars of the natives were now found to have 
 singularly aided in spreading Christianity. Thus a 
 Christian girl, who had been captured in war, and con- 
 veyed to Waima near Hokianga, and made a slave of the 
 chief Tawai, who was a fierce enemy of the Christian 
 tribe, continued to repeat her prayers and catechisms, 
 though her master threatened to shoot her if she per- 
 sisted, and thereby influenced him to accept Christianity 
 and welcome missionaries. Thus also three Christian 
 lads, who were taken captive to Puriri on the Thames at 
 the Bay of Islands, gave Christian instruction to their 
 captors; and when in October, 1833, a company of 
 
28o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 missionaries, consisting of Rev. H. Williams, Rev. A. N. 
 Brown, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Fairchild, on a voyage of 
 exploration up the Thames, landed at this place, and 
 attempted to sing a hymn in a gathering of 200 natives, 
 the whole multitude to their great surprise joined with 
 them, singing the words and tune correctly, and after- 
 wards repeated in unison with them the Lord's Prayer. 
 The missionaries now ascertained how these three boys 
 had done missionary work, and they located two mis- 
 sionaries here. 
 
 Quite as remarkable was the beginning of a mission 
 station through the influence of wandering natives at 
 Kapiti, in Cook's Straits at the south part of the island. 
 The chief of this district, Rauparaha, son of one of the 
 most formidable warriors, found a prayer-book, a cate- 
 chism, and part of a torn gospel of Luke, in the keeping 
 of some of his people, who had visited the missionaries 
 and had been taught by them, and with great curiosity 
 employed one of them to read these books to him. He 
 at once accepted the truths of Christianity and led his 
 people to do the same ; and so eager did he now become 
 to gain instruction directly from the lips of the white 
 men that he took passage on a ship to Waimate and 
 visited Mr. Williams and applied for a missionary for his 
 tribe. Hearing of his request. Rev. Octavius Hadfield 
 volunteered to go with him, and soon afterwards with 
 Mr. Williams accompanied him to Kapiti. They found 
 that already, in their heathen darkness, these natives had 
 erected a church lined with reeds, and were assembled 
 within to the number of 1,200 to hear their preaching. 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 28 1 
 
 Six months afterwards Mr. Hadfield baptized twenty of 
 these natives, among whom was Rauparaha and another 
 chief. 
 
 In like manner an interest to learn about Christianity 
 was awakened at Otaki by a single page of a catechism 
 that was taken thither by a native. The chief of this re- 
 gion inquired what "the black marks" on this page 
 meant, and found a native who could read them. The 
 page contained the Ten Commandments. The chief was 
 deeply impressed by hearing them read, renounced his 
 false gods, commenced observing the Sabbath, and 
 endeavored to live as God required. Not long af- 
 terwards he joyfully received missionaries. A church 
 eighty feet long, thirty-six wide and forty high was 
 now built here. Its principal beam was dragged 
 twelve miles, from the depth of the forest — the choicest 
 tree there. 
 
 With these successes there were distressing discour- 
 agements. The unprincipled crews of ships repeatedly 
 committed outrages on the natives and caused fierce 
 intertribal wars ; the dissolute white men living in New 
 Zealand warned the natives that the design of the mis- 
 sionaries was to take them as slaves to England, and 
 thereby for a while estranged some of the chiefs from the 
 missionaries ; and when at length, in 1838, the mission 
 work had made residence in New Zealand safe and 
 delightful a Romish bishop and his priests arrived, 
 "following the missionaries like spirits of evil, and 
 spared neither pains nor money to make proselytes." 
 Their influence was more seriously exerted afterwards. 
 
282 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 during the war against the English government in excit- 
 ing rebellion and attacks upon the missionaries. 
 
 But, in spite of these diflSculties, by the year 1845 
 nearly all the tribes of New Zealand had renounced idol- 
 atry and accepted Christianity. Schools and churches 
 had been established in every district and several col- 
 legiate institutions organized for giving the natives high 
 education ; and agriculture, the care of flocks and herds, 
 and other peaceful industries, were taking the place of 
 war, pagan carousals, and cannibalism. 
 
 And now occurred the unhappy civil war, that for 
 a while paralyzed the mission enterprise, and occasioned 
 the destruction of multitudes of the Maoris as well as of 
 British colonists ; after which there was a rapid settle- 
 ment of the country by foreigners, till now the few 
 remaining Maoris are almost lost to view in the great 
 population of Anglo Saxons. A brief account of the 
 origin of the British Colony and of this war is necessary, 
 to show how different were the operations of the mission 
 from those of a mercenary society, and how the mission 
 ever worked for the welfare of the natives as well as for 
 that of the foreign population. 
 
 In 1825 a company was formed in England by Lord 
 Durham to buy land in New Zealand and send settlers 
 thither. The missionaries warned the British govern- 
 ment against giving this company a charter, lest it should 
 trample on the rights of the natives ; and no charter was 
 given till 1839. This company, failing to receive a 
 charter, undertook colonization in defiance of the 
 Crown, and sold New Zealand land by lottery in Eng- 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 283 
 
 land to the value of $500,000, and sent ships loaded 
 with emigrants to New Zealand. But it soon was real- 
 ized that some governing power was necessary for the 
 colony ; and therefore, before leaving England, the emi- 
 grants entered into a mutual compact for their govern- 
 ment. But they were warned by the English court that 
 in so doing they were usurping the functions of the 
 British Crown and were liable to arrest. To obviate 
 this difficulty, on arriving at Port Nicholson they called 
 together the native chiefs, and went through the form of 
 having them adopt their Contract of Government. 
 
 All now went well for awhile. "The natives were 
 delighted to have the pakehas, foreigners, among them ; 
 for the pakehas were good traders, and brought utensils, 
 clothes, guns, and gun-powder, for which the natives 
 exchanged flax, kauri-gum, and whale and seal oil." 
 But presently the natives asserted their rights to the 
 lands on which the colonists settled, and "which the 
 New Zealand Company had bought, with guns, looking- 
 glasses, shaving-brushes and pocket-handkerchiefs, of 
 chiefs who had no authority to sell and did not under- 
 stand the sale. " The settlers, being ignorant of native 
 law of property, viewed these claims as mere pretexts for 
 extortion and violence, but were driven by the natives to 
 a narrow tract of land of the projected town of Welling- 
 ton. 
 
 And now by suggestion of the missionaries the British 
 government interposed to adjust these difiiculties, and in 
 1839 proclaimed New Zealand a part of the colony of 
 New South Wales, and sent thither Capt. Hobson as 
 
284 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 lieutenant governor, there being then 1,000 Europeans 
 in New Zealand. 
 
 In 1840 Capt. Hobson collected forty-six Maori 
 chiefs at Waitangi, on the Bay of Islands, and proposed 
 a treaty by which it would be stipulated that the natives 
 owed allegiance to the British queen ; that the natives 
 owned the land, and that the queen would protect the 
 natives. Some Romish priests made great efforts to 
 prevent the chiefs from signing this treaty, but the mis- 
 sionaries advised them to sign it ; and in confidence in 
 the missionaries they finally did so, in February, 1840, 
 and thus New Zealand became a British province. 
 
 The chiefs however did not realize that in ceding 
 their sovereignty to England they thereby gave power to 
 abrogate their own customs, to impose new laws, and to 
 determine the ownership of their lands. When therefore 
 the new government proceeded to try criminals in 
 British courts, and to impose tariffs on articles of com- 
 merce, and the settlers demanded the lands which they 
 claimed by purchase from the New Zealand Company, 
 the natives were excited to resist. 
 
 The New Zealand Company claimed to have bought 
 of the natives 20,000,000 acres ; nearly one-third of New 
 Zealand. The settlers now urged the government to ap- 
 propriate the waste lands of the country and provide 
 them with homesteads. But the natives regarded no 
 lands as waste, claiming the forests for their birds and 
 the swamps and streams for their fish, and they carefully 
 handed down titles for this land from father to son. The 
 British government refused to break faith with the natives 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 28S 
 
 by violating the treaty of Waitangi, and therefore appoint- 
 ed a commission to examine the documents of purchase 
 of land held by the New Zealand Company, and soon 
 the possessions of that company were reduced to 282,000 
 acres. The natives contested this decision, and a further 
 reduction was made to 3, 500 acres. 
 
 And now, to prevent such a settlement as this, the 
 New Zealand Company precipitated a conflict with the 
 natives that would have been prevented if the processes 
 of the government had not been interrupted. In July, 
 1843, this company sent surveyors to lay out tracts of 
 1 50 acres for immigrants in the South Island at Wairau 
 Valley, in Cloudy Bay District, seventy miles from Nel- 
 son. The natives protested against this appropriation of 
 their lands without the action of the courts, and sent 
 their women to pull up the surveyors' stakes and flags 
 and to cut their chain. Two powerful chiefs of this re- 
 gion, Rauparaha and Rangiata, now went to Porirua, on 
 the north side of Cook's Strait, and urged the land com- 
 missioner, Mr. Spain, to settle the dispute, and he 
 agreed to do so in a few months. They then returned to 
 Cloudy Bay and ordered the surveyors to leave, and 
 burned their hut. The surveyors reported their conduct 
 at Nelson ; and the police magistrate, Mr. Thompson, 
 issued a warrant for their arrest for burning the hut, and 
 with a company of soldiers went to enforce the warrant. 
 The chiefs insisted on deferring these matters of dispute 
 to the coming of Mr. Spain ; whereupon Mr. Thompson 
 threatened to fire on them if the)' persisted in refusing to 
 surrender themselves in arrest, and ordered his troops to 
 
286 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 fix bayonets and advance. Shots were then fired by the 
 troops, and the wife of the chief Rangiata was killed. 
 The natives then rushed upon the Europeans, and the 
 most of these turned in flight, while a few of them re- 
 mained, throwing down their arms and urging that there 
 should be no battle. But Rangiata was enraged at the 
 murder of his wife and called for vengeance ; and then 
 the natives killed twenty-four of the Europeans and 
 wounded four more, while four of their own number 
 were killed. This began the destructive wars between 
 the Maoris and the English in New Zealand. 
 
 Ten years after this event a committee of the New 
 Zealand House of Representatives reported that the con- 
 duct of the New Zealand Company on this occasion, in 
 thrusting forward its surveyors regardless of the courts 
 and forcing this affray, was the cause of the war in New 
 Zealand. Rev. Richard Taylor has remarked that "this 
 war began for nothing which an ordinary law court could 
 not have decided — the question whether one party had a 
 right to what the other wanted to buy or not. " 
 
 The massacre of the British in this affray sent a thrill 
 of horror through Europe. The enlistment of emigrants 
 for New Zealand now ceased. The newspapers of Paris 
 even proposed that, instead of sending out more settlers, 
 they should raise benevolent contributions to bring back 
 to England those then remaining in New Zealand. The 
 missionaries were compromised by this affray, as well as 
 by all the subsequent wars, since they had advised acqui- 
 escence in the treaty propositions of England ; and noth- 
 ing but the confidence of the natives in their integrity 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 287 
 
 saved them from serious trouble, while their work was 
 sadly interrupted. 
 
 From the conduct of the British soldiers in this affray 
 the natives formed a low estimate of their prowess, and 
 afterwards did not hesitate to assert their rights by force. 
 Immediately after this fight at Wairau the two chiefs 
 crossed over to the North Island and prepared to attack 
 the settlement at Wellington. There were no troops at 
 that time at Wellington, nor could any be obtained under 
 a month from Auckland, five hundred miles distant. The 
 chiefs refused to grant an armistice, and only by the in- 
 fluence of the missionary. Rev. Octavius Hadfield, of 
 Kapiti, were dissuaded from destroying the community 
 of Wellington. 
 
 So bitter did the natives now become against the 
 British, because of their claims for land and because of 
 tariffs imposed on articles of commerce, that one of their 
 chiefs, John Heke, three times cut down the British flag- 
 staff at Kororeka in the Bay of Islands, the last time with 
 a battle in which the British troops were obliged to flee 
 to their ships. The governor now sent troops against 
 Heke and his followers ; many tribes combined with 
 Heke and a few with the British, and thus the war ex- 
 tended over nearly all New Zealand. 
 
 In June, 1848, the natives chose one of their num- 
 ber, the head chief of Waikato, Te Wherowero, as king, 
 under the title Potatau I. In proclaiming him king 
 they raised a flag of a cross, three stars, and the name of 
 the country, Niu Tirini, in the centre, read a chapter of 
 the New Testament, offered prayer, and fired volleys of 
 
288 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 musketry. Under this king they entered into a league to 
 sell no land to the white people ; "to prevent the run- 
 ning off of the fresh water into the salt.'' They an- 
 nounced as their sentiment, "The king on his land, the 
 queen on her land, God over both, and love binding 
 them together." They wrote to the governor advising 
 that all the forces engaged in the war should be dis- 
 banded and the difficulties arbitrated by the queen ; 
 but the advice was rejected. 
 
 A small portion of the natives now formed a religious 
 sect which was called by the white people "' Hauhaus " 
 from the resemblance of its noise to the barking of dogs, 
 and by the natives Pai-mariri. It was allied with the 
 Roman-catholics, and its chief idea was hostility to the 
 British and to Protestantism. Its worship consisted in 
 the practice of mesmerism, in dancing around a pole, 
 and calling on the Virgin Mary. At the instigation of 
 the Roman priests its members burned Bibles and mur- 
 dered the Protestant missionary, Rev. Mr. Volkner, and 
 placed his head on the pulpit of the papal church. 
 
 The natives fought against the British with great 
 bravery and skill, in fortifications called pahs, which 
 were surrounded with palisades, and inside the palisades 
 with a deep ditch, in which they were able to avoid bul- 
 lets. When defeated they simply retreated to other 
 pahs, and surrendered only at last when driven to the 
 end of the valleys and almost exterminated. Repeat- 
 edly they repulsed many times their number of British 
 troops. 
 
 Three wars were waged, each on account of claims 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 289 
 
 for land; and finally, in i860, through the mediation of 
 the missionaries, peace was established. Ten thousand 
 British soldiers were engaged in these wars, and one- 
 third of them were killed. The cost of these wars was 
 $60,000,000. 
 
 After these wars the government confiscated 4,000,- 
 000 acres of the Maoris'. Governor Gray then forced a 
 measure through the New Zealand Parliament for paying 
 the New Zealand Company $1,000,000 for a surrender of 
 its charter. This payment and the expenses of the war 
 brought a heavy burden of taxation on the colony ; and 
 this burden was subsequently increased by loans of 
 $95,000,000 procured from the Bank of England at four 
 per cent, for building railroads, telegraphs, and other 
 public works, for purchasing land, and for aiding immi- 
 gration. In 1883 the gross debt was $151,785,555. 
 
 In 1852 the British government set off New Zealand 
 as a separate colony from New South Wales, and divided 
 it into six districts — viz., Auckland, Taranaki, Welling- 
 ton, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago — and gave it a Con- 
 stitution of government. This Constitution provided for 
 a governor appointed by the Crown, a legislative council 
 of members appointive for life as lords by the governor, 
 a house of representatives elective by the people voting 
 on a small property qualification, a cabinet of ministers 
 appointive by the governor but removable by the house 
 of representatives by a vote of want of confidence, and 
 the government by each district of its own local affairs. 
 It has been the aim of the British government to govern 
 the Maoris in a paternal way, as they are unfit for exer- 
 
290 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 cising the elective franchise with advantage to themselves 
 or to the country at large. They are allowed a repre- 
 sentation of four members in the house of represent- 
 atives. 
 
 Since the termination of the wars the mission has 
 prospered, schools and churches have been multiplied, 
 the Maoris have largely entered into the peaceful occupa- 
 tions of civilization, and have advanced from accepting 
 Christianity to conveying it with marvellous heroism to 
 the Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands. Forty-eight Maori 
 clergymen have been ordained, and the church members 
 now number more than 18,000. Their decadence in 
 population, which without the influence of missions 
 would have resulted almost in their extinction, has been 
 checked, and now they are actually increasing in num- 
 bers. Their race is gradually blending with the white 
 races ; and it seems probable that at some future time 
 their lineage will be discernible only by a more tropical 
 hue in their complexion and a deeper black in their hair 
 and eyes, and a pure-blooded Maori will be as hard to 
 find as the wingless moa-birds of yore. 
 
 The great foreign population of 600,000 people in 
 New Zealand is now a prosperous Christian community. 
 Notwithstanding its vast burdens of debt it is developing 
 more wealth than is needed for its obligations. The 
 last report of the Premier, Mr. Richard Sedden, is that 
 " its financial position is impregnable ; that the estimate 
 of revenue for the current year has thus far been ex- 
 ceeded by actual receipts, while the expenditure is be- 
 ing kept within the appropriation and the estimated 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 29! 
 
 surplus of the year will be fully realized ; that there is 
 plenty of money to meet the requirements of the colony, 
 and no further loans should be made." 
 
 The statistics of the industries of New Zealand con- 
 firm this statement The yield of gold from 1859 to 
 1893 was worth $250,000,000; the number of frozen 
 sheep exported to London during the last ten years was 
 13,000,000; the value of butter exported in 1893 was 
 $3,062,780, the number of fine-graded sheep in the 
 colony is now 20,000,000; during the year 1883 the 
 total value of the exports was $30,607,235, and of the 
 imports $43,046,350, indicating a commerce worth 
 over $70,000,000. The population is steadily increas- 
 ing. Already the chief cities have populations as fol- 
 lows : Auckland, 60,000, Dunedin, 90,000, Wellington, 
 the capital, 40,000, and Christchurch 30,000. 
 
 The people of New Zealand are also making remark- 
 able progress in social and political reforms. They have 
 arranged to prevent, or settle, their struggles between 
 labor and capital by compulsory arbitration ; to provide 
 their poorer classes with work at fairly good wages in 
 construction of government roads and other public im- 
 provements ; to make their railroads the property of 
 their government, and thus reduce the cost of freight 
 and travel as low as possible ; they employ commissions 
 to determine the construction of new roads and to take 
 direction of such work, forbid large acquisitions of land, 
 a little over 600 acres being the largest area hereafter to 
 be sold to any one person ; assess taxes only on lands 
 and incomes, limit suffrage by property and educational 
 
2g2 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 qualifications, and permit it to women as well as men ; 
 and thus are making experiments in social and political 
 methods that may well be watched with close attention 
 by the older nations on our side of the globe. 
 
 This people at our antipodes are also developing as 
 remarkably in intelligence, culture and character as in 
 outward prosperity. Consisting chiefly of the best 
 classes of English and Scotch emigrants, they are the 
 best of Great Britain's colonies, and seem destined to 
 have a great future importance beside the advancing 
 empires of Australia and Asia, in intercourse with the 
 beautiful island world of the Pacific, and in the world- 
 embracing lines of commerce. 
 
 All this special growth and promise is to be at- 
 tributed to the influence of Christian missions. It may 
 be said that missionaries made the colonization of New 
 Zealand possible, and secured New Zealand to Great 
 Britain. Until they went unarmed among the warring 
 savages, whose only intercourse with foreigners had been 
 to kill or to be killed, and caused them to break their 
 spears and cast away their clubs, adopt peaceful industries 
 and accept heavenly rules of conduct, hardlj' a single Eng- 
 lishman dared to make his home in New Zealand. When, 
 afterwards, war broke out, they caused it to be less bar- 
 barous than it would have been by the ancient customs, 
 and went in and out among the contending armies and 
 arranged for peace. Their influence was also to devel- 
 op a Christian character of the whole foreign population 
 of this country. Without their influence the coming of 
 white men would have been like the beating of the icy 
 
NEW ZEALAND. 293 
 
 waters and wild storms of the Antarctic zone on its 
 shores ; but amidst the destructive conduct of the reck- 
 less classes of men their influence was rather like the 
 warm breezes that bring refreshing showers from the 
 Tropics. And now the hope for the future of this coun- 
 try is not so much in its amazing resources, nor in its 
 vast commercial relations, nor even in its noble civiliza- 
 tion, as in the character implanted by Christian missions, 
 which, like the inner life of the gorgeous trees that adorn 
 its coasts, must rise into a glorious future bloom and 
 fruitage. 
 
 In 189 1 the number of full-blooded and half-caste 
 Maoris in New Zealand was 41,993. In 1901 it was 
 43,145, there being 40,010 full-blooded Maoris, and 
 3,133 half-castes. In 1906 the number of the half-castes 
 and full-blooded was 47,731, there being 43,793 full- 
 blooded Maoris, and 3,938 half-castes. Thus during five 
 years the increase of the full-blooded Maoris was 3,938, 
 and that of the half-castes 805. 
 
 The Maori Tribe who reside in the eastern part of the 
 North Island, and who are descendants of the " Hauhaus," 
 and worship the Virgin Mary, are in deep poverty, 
 ignorance and degradation. The other tribes have been 
 under the care of Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Me- 
 thodist missionaries, and are advancing in knowledge, 
 industry and prosperity. Some of them compete well 
 with the English youth in the colleges ; some of them 
 are millionaires ; some of them are members of Parlia- 
 ment J and some of them are ministers of the Gospel. 
 
294 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 
 
 Three hundred miles west of the Tongas, and the 
 same distance south of the Samoas, are 250 islands, some 
 of them, mere islets of coralline formation, appearing 
 like groves of cocoanuts rising out of the ocean, others 
 mountainous, with summits 5,000 feet in height, as at- 
 tractive with perennial verdure and picturesque forms 
 of vale and precipice and peak as any islands in the 
 Pacific. They are the Fiji, or Viti, group. They con- 
 sist of the Lau, or Windward Islands, which are a chain 
 of small fertile islands on the east ; the Loma-i-viti, or 
 Inner Fiji, which are the islands west of the Lau, togeth- 
 er with Viti-Levu and Vanua-Levu ; and the Ra, or Lee- 
 ward Islands, which are the islands further west. 
 
 In the Lau cluster the largest island is Lakemba, 
 which is only six miles in diameter, and is described as 
 of surpassing beauty. Near by it is Matuka, which is 
 " eminent for loveliness where all are lovely ;" also Vul- 
 anga, which has a lagoon studded with islets. 
 
 Among the Inner Fiji is the island Taviuni, twenty- 
 five miles long, with a mountain 2,100 feet high, at the 
 summit of which is a lake in an extinct crater. This 
 island has been called " The Garden of Fiji," so covered 
 is it " with luxuriance and beauty beyond the concep- 
 tion of the most glowing imagination." The foliage 
 
k.. ., 4 
 
 , tl .51 . Sts , ^ 
 if 
 
 
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 ^ a? - . « 5, if 
 
 ?•■ i 
 
 ! 
 
 
 5 - " ^ 
 
 K. 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 P ._' «] 
 
 ' y i a, ' ,.:4i_ ..'.,. s 
 
 . ' ^ ' 
 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 295 
 
 is described as ' ' like a succession of green waterfalls ;'' 
 for white, blue and pink convolvuli most richly over- 
 spread its trees, ferns and shrubbery. (Miss Gumming). 
 
 In the western part of this group is Viti-Levu (Great 
 Fiji), the largest of the Fijis, fifty by ninety miles, with 
 mountains 5,000 feet high ; and further south Vanua- 
 Levu (the Great Land), twenty-five by a hundred miles, 
 on the eastern coast of which is the small island, Mbau, 
 which was formerly the capital of the group. Mbau is 
 about a mile long and 100 feet high, and connected 
 witL Vanua-Levu by a long flat of coral, which is forda- 
 ble at high tide and bare at low tide. On Vanua-Levu, 
 a little southwest of Mbau, is the river Rewa, which is 
 navigable sixty miles, and flows into the ocean by many 
 mouths, making a fertile delta of twenty square miles. 
 Along its shores are extensive sugar plantations. The 
 total area of the Fiji Islands is 7,400 square miles. 
 
 To one coming from the northern islands of the 
 Pacific there is much that is new in the fauna of the Fiji 
 Islands. It is interesting to find here ten varieties of 
 harmless snakes, some of which are from four to six feet 
 long and are used by the natives for food ; also flying- 
 foxes (bats : nopieris Macdonaldii) which measure nearly 
 a yard from tip to tip of their wings, and chameleons 
 {chloroscaries fasciculus) two feet long, which inhabit 
 trees, and frogs that abound in the swamps ; also fireflies, 
 and robber-crabs {birgos latro) , which climb cocoanut 
 trees and devour their nuts. 
 
 The Fiji Islands occupy the extreme limits of the 
 Mala3'0-Polynesian territory on the east and of the Pa- 
 
296 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 puan on the west. The natives are therefore a mixed 
 race, part Polynesian and part Papuan ; a fine people, 
 hardly inferior to the Tongans and Samoans and much 
 superior to the Papuans. 
 
 The mission history of the Fijis is a picture of the 
 brightest light shining in the deepest darkness. To ap- 
 preciate it we need to observe how deep was the primitive 
 darkness. While all the aborigines of the Pacific were 
 barbarous the Fijis were superlatively bad. "The very 
 name Fiji has become a synon3'm for whatever is bar- 
 barous, inhuman and cannibalistic." A full description 
 of the former condition of the Fijis cannot and ought 
 not to be given. The missionaries who labored among 
 them have remarked that they saw scenes " too horri- 
 ble to be descnbed, too full of fiendish cruelty to be 
 imagined ; that the Fiji, going beyond the ordinary lim- 
 its of rapine and bloodshed, and violating the elementa- 
 ry instincts of mankind, stood unrivalled as a disgrace 
 to mankind." 
 
 Looking at the fascinating beauty of these islands 
 with their plumed and garlanded vegetation, it is hard to 
 realize that in them was about the worst barbarism known 
 in the world ; nor is it easier to realize that human 
 nature, with its capacity for angelic loveliness and divine 
 fellowship, could have sunk so low. It would seem that 
 with the darker shade of complexion acquired in min- 
 gling with Papuan stock this race had also obtained a 
 darker character. Here infanticide was more common 
 and more heartless than in the islands further east. The 
 early missionaries have testified that not less than two- 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 297 
 
 thirds of the children were put to death. Especially 
 were female children killed. " Why should the girl 
 live?" they would say. "She cannot poise the spear, 
 she cannot wield the club." A mother would often 
 strangle her own child, with one hand holding the 
 nostrils and the other holding the mouth, and then 
 herself dig the grave and bury the child. 
 
 Here, too, with as pitiless brutality, the infirm, the 
 sick and the aged were put to death. A few illustra- 
 tions will be sufficient to show the barbarity of these 
 and other practices of this people. Chief Ratu Varani 
 once had a grave dug for a girl who had long been 
 somewhat unwell. Hearing the exclamations of the 
 workmen the girl went out of the house to see what 
 was going on, when she was seized and thrown into 
 the grave, and in spite of her cries, "Do not bury me; 
 I am quite well now," trodden down and buried alive. 
 Strange to say this cruelty was practiced even on the 
 chiefs themselves. The missionary. Rev. Thomas Wil- 
 liams, hearing that king Tuithaku, of Taviuni, had died, 
 hastened to his house to prevent the cruelties usually 
 practiced on such occasions, and was surprised to find 
 him alive. "My father is dead," said the king's son. 
 "His soul has gone out of him, and he moves only 
 unconsciously." The king was then taken, stripped 
 of his robes and buried alive. So generally were the 
 sick put to death that few people died natural deaths 
 and few attained to old age. 
 
 Unnecessary cruelties were also practiced in the ordi- 
 nary aflfairs of life. When a chief's house was to be 
 
,298 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 built men were placed in the pestholes, clasping the 
 posts, and there buried. At the launching of a canoe 
 men were used as rollers, and over them the canoe was 
 dragged, and afterwards their bodies were eaten. 
 
 Another revolting custom was the strangling of 
 widows after the death of their husbands. This was a 
 matter of pride to their relatives, and was sought by the 
 widows themselves, because of the insults, the neglect 
 and the cruelty to which they would be subjected if they 
 survived their husbands. It was the privilege of the 
 oldest son to take the lead in strangling his mother at 
 the death of his father. When chief Rambethi was lost 
 at sea seventeen of his wives were killed. When, in 
 1839, the army of Viva was defeated eighty women were 
 strangled. 
 
 But the worst horror of ancient Fiji was cannibalism. 
 In almost all ages and countries this inhuman practice 
 has been known. Historians relate that in ancient 
 Scythia, in India, and even among our ancestors in 
 Britain, anthropophagi were to be found. Columbus 
 found them among the Caribees ; and from the name 
 Caribee the term cannibal was derived. Henry M. 
 Stanley and other travellers tell how the tribes dwelling 
 along the Congo seek human flesh, because of scarcity 
 of food, and delight in obtaining "long hogs," human 
 victims, just as hunters delight to secure deer, antelope 
 and other animals for food. On many islands of the 
 Pacific, as in Hawaii, cannibalism was almost unknown ; 
 in some of the Pacific Islands it was practiced only in 
 times of famine and in war ; but in the Fiji Islands it 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 299 
 
 prevailed to an extent and with horrors unsurpassed 
 elsewhere in the world. The Fijis ate human flesh 
 chiefly from the love of it. They ate it also in the fury 
 of hatred, to show vengeance and to excite terror in their 
 enemies, and were confirmed in the practice by their 
 religion, supposing that the gods to whom they off'ered 
 victims in sacrifices devoured the spirits of the victims, 
 while they themselves ate the bodies. They declared 
 that human flesh was more palatable than pork ; though 
 the flesh of foreigners was often found to be too strong- 
 ly flavored with salt and tobacco to be agreeable. The 
 shipwrecked, and those slain in war, or executed for any 
 cause by order of the chiefs, were invariably eaten. On 
 the occasions of high hospitalities to visiting chiefs, and 
 in almost all festivities, human flesh was considered 
 essential for banquets. The missionaries tell how the 
 king Tanoa, of Mbau, was accustomed to return from 
 tributary islands with bodies of infants hanging from 
 the yard-arms of his canoe, as tribute exacted for food 
 from their parents. They tell a ghoulish story, how 
 once at Na Ruwai a man by the name of Loti had his 
 wife help him plant taro, fetch wood for an oven and a 
 bamboo knife, which she cheerfully did, and then killed, 
 cooked and ate her. Twenty-eight persons were once 
 seized while fishing, and merely stunned, and then 
 thrown into an oven ; some of them recovered and 
 endeavored to escape, but were driven back upon the 
 red hot stones. A chief, Ra Undreundre, registered the 
 number of the bodies he ate by stones set up on end. 
 The Rev. Mr. Lythe counted 872 of these stones. 
 
300 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 There was no excuse for cannibalism. The land 
 could have been made to sustain more than twice its 
 population. Heathenism had simply made the Fijis 
 fiends. 
 
 The evangelization of the Fijis resulted partly, in a 
 striking way, from that of Tahiti. Like the ripples in a 
 still pool, that run to its furthest shores, the influences of 
 the gospel triumphs in Tahiti extended even to this 
 group, and caused remarkable results in the little island 
 of Ono, which is situated 150 miles south of Lakemba. 
 A frightful epidemic prevailed in this island in the year 
 1835, and the natives in vain made extraordinary offer- 
 ings to their gods to obtain relief At that time an Ono 
 chief visited Lakemba, and learned from a Fiji chief, 
 who had visited Tahiti, that the only true God was Jeho- 
 vah, and that one day in seven should be observed in his 
 worship. Returning home with this little spark of truth 
 he persuaded his countrymen, who were now despairing 
 of aid from their idol-worship, to undertake the worship 
 of Jehovah. But they soon found that they needed in- 
 struction about the mode of this worship, and therefore 
 sent two of their people to the Tonga Islands to obtain 
 teachers. A Christian Tongan, who was visiting in a 
 neighboring island, Vatoa, hearing of their desire, now 
 went to them and endeavored to instruct them ; they 
 gladly welcomed him, built a chapel for Christian wor- 
 ship, and daily attended his preaching. Afterwards the 
 teachers who had been sent for from the Tonga Islands 
 arrived, one of them a native of Ono \^ho had wandered 
 from home and had been converted at the Tonga Isl- 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 3OI 
 
 ands. The Ono people received them with great de- 
 light, eagerly listened to their instructions, and at length 
 became very anxious to obtain the ministrations of the 
 English missionaries themselves. For this purpose they 
 sent messengers in a canoe to Lakemba, where missiona- 
 ries had now arrived. These messengers, while out alone 
 on the great deep, came in an accidental way to make a 
 trial of their superstitions, and to renounce them. A 
 tropic bird lighted on their canoe, and several of them 
 did obeisance to it ; when one of them seized it, saying 
 that if it was a god it could get away and if not he 
 would kill and eat it, and proceeded to do so, to the 
 horror of his companions. When they saw that no ill 
 consequences followed this act they concluded that their 
 paganism was utter folly. In response to their request 
 Rev. John Calvert now went to Ono and commenced 
 mission labor there. Not long afterwards he baptized 
 200 persons. The heathen on this island then made 
 war upon the Christians, but were defeated, and finally 
 were won over to Christianity by the clemency of the 
 Christians. The good work here so prospered that in a 
 few years the whole population united with the churches, 
 many went forth as teachers to other islands, and no- 
 where in the Fiji group did the gospel win as quick and 
 full success. 
 
 While these events were occurring at Ono the Wes- 
 leyan missionaries in the Tonga Islands were commen- 
 cing a mission at Lakemba. Observing that many Ton- 
 gans visited the Fiji Islands for trade, and to procure 
 timber for canoes, they sent two of their number, Reva 
 
302 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Wm. Cross and David Cargill, to Lakemba in 1835. 
 They reached this island by schooner in four days, and 
 were welcomed by a large number of Tongans, with 
 whom they were able to converse in their own language, 
 and by their influence gained favor with the Fijian king. 
 Their first night on shore was made so uncomfortable by 
 mosquitos and by hogs, that entered their place of lodg- 
 ing, that they returned to their vessel ; but soon houses 
 were built for them and a place of worship, in which 
 from the outset they addressed audiences of 150 people. 
 They suffered many hardships, were sometimes at great 
 peril amid the fierce wars of the natives, and were much 
 opposed by the heathen king; but were able in five 
 months to baptize thirty-one of the resident Tongans, 
 and in one year to form a church of 280 members. 
 Two seamen from the wrecked ship Active took up their 
 abode with them and rendered them much service, but 
 finally, against their warnings, went to sea in a boat, and 
 were pursued by natives of another island, and killed 
 and eaten. The good work of these missionaries ex- 
 tended to the numerous small islands in the vicinity, and 
 in these, after many struggles, churches were formed, 
 and the mission enterprise ever afterwards prospered. 
 
 Thus far the missionaries in the Fiji Islands had seen 
 little more hardship than they had experienced in the 
 Tonga Islands ; and their labors had been as abundantly 
 blessed. They were therefore encouraged to extend 
 their enterprise to the Inner Islands, from which invita- 
 tions were now coming to them. With this view, in 1839, 
 Revs. John Hunt and Lythe went to Somosomo, on the 
 
FijiANS Making Fire. 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 303 
 
 island of Taviuni, the "Garden of Fiji." They landed 
 to witness almost immediately the strangling of sixteen 
 wives of the king's son, who had been drowned at sea, 
 and to see a cannibal feast on eleven bodies of men 
 killed in war. These were cooked and eaten so close to 
 their house that they had to close their blinds to shut 
 out the revolting sight. For this slight on his feast the 
 king sought to kill one of them, and with difficulty was 
 dissuaded from doing so. They afterwards saw the same 
 king buried alive while he was very ill. 
 
 So frightful did it now become for them to remain at 
 Somosomo, that in September, 1847, '^^y all secretly 
 and suddenly embarked on a schooner, and went to 
 Mbau ; but this island was at that time in such a whirl- 
 wind of war with other islands that they soon removed 
 to Rewa, a few miles south, on the island of Vanua-Levu. 
 Here, however, they lived in perils and scenes of horror 
 similar to those they had fled from in Taviuni. 
 
 One incident of their terrible experiences should be 
 related to show the heroism of their wives. In 1849 a 
 marauding tribe, called Mbutoni, came to Mbau bearing 
 tribute to King Tanoa ; and he, desiring to show them 
 extraordinary hospitality, ordered a cannibal feast to be 
 prepared for them. The purveyor for this feast, Ngav- 
 indi, entrapped and killed two youth ; but their bodies 
 were not considered enough for the feast, and he there- 
 fore hid with his warriors in canoes covered with green 
 leaves under mangrove trees by the shore and surprised a 
 party of women, and seized fourteen of them. Tidings 
 of this event were borne to the island of Viva, a few miles 
 
304 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 north, where two missionary ladies, Mrs. Calvert and Mrs. 
 Lythe, were alone with their children, their husbands 
 being away at a conference of missionaries on another 
 island. These ladies felt that they must do what they 
 could to save these women, and for this purpose set out 
 with a friendly chief in a canoe for Mbau. As they drew 
 near to Mbau they heard the din of the death-drums and 
 the shrieks of the women who were being murdered, and 
 hurried the paddling of their boatmen, and at length 
 leaped ashore and pressed through the throngs of savages 
 to the house of the king. Although there was the pen- 
 alty of death for any woman who should go unbidden 
 into the presence of the king they went directly to him, 
 and with whales' teeth as presents in their hands de- 
 manded the release of the women. Strange to say, he 
 granted their request ; five women who were not yet 
 killed were rescued, and the missionary ladies returned 
 safely to their homes. Amid such scenes as these the 
 missionaries labored on, sometimes suifering greatly in 
 the terrible hurricanes that occasionally swept over this 
 part of the Pacific, sometimes in peril amid the wars of 
 the natives, and often utterly horrified by the brutal vices 
 and fiendish cruelty of the people. 
 
 The spirit of the gospel that would rescue the most 
 degraded and evil of mankind was illustrated in their 
 labors among these monsters of lust and cruelty, and the 
 power of the gospel to uplift and ennoble the most 
 hopeless of men in the success that followed their labors. 
 Gradually they gathered children into their schools and 
 congregations into their chapels, and one by one the 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 305 
 
 haughtiest and fiercest of the savages bowed before their 
 proclamation of divine love. Finally a wonderful re- 
 vival of religion occurred. The natives were utterly 
 overcome with fear and contrition for their sins. "They 
 prayed in agony. They literally roared for hours to- 
 gether. Sometimes they fainted from exhaustion, and 
 they had no comfort till they found peace in believing 
 in Christ." Hundreds were afterwards received into 
 the churches, and among them some of the most savage 
 chiefs. 
 
 After this revival the progress of the missionary work 
 was very rapid. Heathenism was soon universally re- 
 nounced, the awful horrors of cannibalism ceased ; 
 churches were everywhere organized and the forms of 
 Christian civilization adopted. On the Island of Mbau 
 a great stone, on which it had been the custom to 
 slaughter victims for cannibal feasts, on which Mr. Lythe 
 once saw fourteen persons killed, was conveyed by the 
 natives to a church, hollowed out, and made a baptis- 
 mal font; "a fit emblem," it was remarked, "of the 
 people who had been transformed from pagan barbarism 
 into Christian character. " 
 
 During the year 1874 a terrible mortality was caused 
 by measles in the Fiji Islands. King Thakombau and his 
 three sons visited Sydney and returned home ill with this 
 disease. A multitude of chiefs and friends gathered from 
 all the islands to welcome them, and returning to their 
 homes spread the contagion. When taken sick the 
 natives rushed into the streams of water to cool their 
 fever, and when recovering ate improper food. The 
 
306 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 result was that 40,000 people, one-third of the popula- 
 tion, died. 
 
 The present population of the Fiji archipelago is 
 about 128,400. At the time of its discovery it was 
 estimated at 200,000. The diminution is chiefly at- 
 tributable to the mortality caused by foreign diseases. 
 Of the present population, 111,743 are Fijis, 3,567 
 Europeans, 796 half-castes and 4, 230 Rotumans. 
 
 The Fiji Islands were formally annexed to Great 
 Britain in the year 1874. The king, Thakombau, had 
 for many years been harassed by the contentions of 
 his chiefs, the opposition of the foreign settlers and 
 the demands of foreign countries for redress of wrongs, 
 and therefore finally ceded his islands unconditionally to 
 Great Britain. On this occasion he said to Governor 
 Sir Hercules Robinson, the English commissioner, "If 
 matters remain as they are, Fiji will become like a piece 
 of driftwood and be picked up by the first passer-by. 
 I am assured that, if we do not cede Fiji, the white 
 stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their 
 maws and swallow us. By annexation the two races, 
 the white and the black, will be bound together under 
 laws, and the stronger nation will lend stability to the 
 weaker. " In the ceremony of cession Thakombau handed 
 his war-club to the commissioner, saying, as interpreted, 
 "The king gives her Majesty, Queen Victoria, his old 
 and favorite war-club — the former, and until lately the 
 only known, law of Fiji. In abandoning club-law and 
 adopting the forms and principles of civilized societies 
 be lays by his old weapon and covers it with the em- 
 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. ZOJ 
 
 blems of peace. The barbaric law and age are of the 
 past ; and his people now submit themselves, under her 
 Majesty's rule, to civilization. " 
 
 The result of the mission work in Fiji is that, where 
 sixty-five years ago there was not a single Christian, 
 to-day there is not an avowed heathen. For many years 
 cannibalism has been wholly extinct. Miss Gordon- 
 Cumming has remarked in her book, "At Home in 
 Fiji," that "it is difficult now to imagine that this peo- 
 ple, with their mellifluous speech and almost Parisian 
 manners, were the cannibals of ancient times." The 
 number of their churches is now 900, the number of 
 their church-members 27,000, the attendants at religious 
 meetings 100,000 and the pupils of Sunday-schools 40- 
 000. In almost every house family worship is observed, 
 and with great enthusiasm and benevolence the people 
 are conducting mission enterprises for the pagan islands 
 further west. 
 
 In all history no human enterprises have caused 
 such a change in the character, conduct and condition 
 of a degraded people as this that has been accomplished 
 in Fiji, nor is there any more remarkable transforma- 
 tion reported in the annals of missions. The uplifting 
 by the sun of the briny waters that surge around these 
 islands, to float in the sky and gleam in hues of light, 
 is not more wonderful than this transformation by divine 
 grace of the foul and fiendish heathen into humble, 
 loving and lovable Christians, into sons of God and 
 joint-heirs with Christ. 
 
308 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MELANESIA. 
 
 The missionary enterprise has been progressive. 
 Each island in turn, as it has received light, has beauti- 
 fully become a radiating centre to send light into the 
 surrounding pagan night, and thus almost every group 
 of the South Pacific has sent evangelists to the little clus- 
 ters of the New Hebrides, the Loyalty and the Solomon 
 Islands, and to New Caledonia and Sumatra. 
 
 A description of these islands would be like a repeti- 
 tion of the sketches that have been given of mountains 
 of verdure rising from the blue ocean, with waving 
 plumes of palm and plantain and picturesque forms of 
 ridges, valleys and cliflFs ; ' ' summer isles of Eden lying 
 in dark purple spheres of sea." 
 
 But a brief account should be given of a few of the 
 New Hebrides, which are of special interest in mission 
 history. Erromanga, where Williams and several other 
 missionaries were martyred, is an island measuring thirty 
 by twenty-two miles, with mountains 3,000 feet high. 
 Tanna, where the most thrilling adventures of missiona- 
 ries occurred, is "the most lovely and fertile island of 
 this group," measuring twenty by eighteen miles, " rising 
 abruptly from the ocean, with green table-topped moun- 
 tains piled gracefully together." On this island is the 
 volcano Yoswa, that gives out a great light and throws 
 
NEW HEBRIDES & ADJOfNING ISLANDS. 
 
 SOI.<>M02f \ 
 
 iSLAJETDS \ 
 
 tv^ 
 
 Qaadajjca u3Er X 
 
 MatuUCQ 
 
 ftt/faga- 
 
 4- 
 
 
 ■0»ff'-P 
 
 Jtautl. 
 
 ^Jlsna 
 
 ■"v:^*?™, /l,?^::^- Santa. 
 
 
 
 s o 
 
 P A C 
 
 Tcr T s 
 
 
 GStD 
 
 ■"PEBEIDES " 
 
 I F I C 
 
 SiwnlfH. 
 
 ^^piphsdhij 
 
 'Saltan M^ 
 
 o so 200 too 900 foo aao 
 
MELANESIA. 309 
 
 up large stones at regular intervals of five or six minutes. 
 Aniwa, where there has been extraordinary missionary suc- 
 cess, is a "dainty gem " of coral formation, ten miles in 
 circumference and of about fifty feet elevation above the 
 ocean. Aneityum, where there have been equally great 
 missionary triumphs, is the most southerly island of this 
 group. It has mountains 2,788 feet high, and is partly 
 barren, with a bare red soil, and partly clothed with a 
 dense foliage of beautifully contrasting shades of green. 
 
 The inhabitants of the New Hebrides are mixed races, 
 as is indicated by the fact that they speak some twenty 
 different languages — in some cases on the same island 
 two or three languages as different from each other as 
 French and German. But all these languages have the 
 same grammatical construction. The natives are chiefly 
 of Papuan stock with some traces of Polynesian lineage. 
 They are smaller, darker and weaker than the Polyne- 
 sians, but lighter than the true Papuans ; their hair frizzly, 
 foreheads receding, and noses flat. 
 
 It would almost seem to have been in grim irony 
 that, in 1606, Quiros, on discovering the most northern 
 island of this group, gave it sacred names — calling it 
 Espiritu Santo, its harbor Vera Cruz, its river Jordan, 
 and its chief town New Jerusalem — for the character of 
 the natives was not in keeping with such names. To 
 those who have always lived in the comforts and refine- 
 ments of civilization hardly anything could be more re- 
 volting than the appearance and conduct of these natives. 
 They are described as "roving about in a state of perfect 
 nudity, the women wearing only a petticoat a few inches 
 
3IO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 wide of matting wrought in diamond patterns of red, 
 white and black colors, and all, men and women, smeared 
 over their faces with a red pigment of ochreous earth or 
 turmeric, or blackened with charcoal ; sometimes, with a 
 horrid humor, painted with different colors on opposite 
 sides of their faces ; the cartilage of the nose in many in- 
 stances pierced and the orifice filled with a circular piece 
 of stone, and the lobe of each ear hung with ornaments 
 of sea- or tortoise-shell. Ingeniously wrought bracelets 
 or small rings of ground cocoanut shells were worn 
 around their arms and ankles, garters of green leaves 
 were tied around the leg under the knee, and their long 
 crisp hair was gathered into a large topknot colored yel- 
 low and surmounted with a plume of cocks' feathers." 
 On Aneityum the men dressed their hair in small tresses, 
 each bound round very neatly, with thin, well-prepared 
 fibres of a slender plant, to within one inch of the ends. 
 ' ' They lived in wretched huts, built of branches 
 of trees stuck into the ground, fastened to each other 
 at the top and covered with leaves. For the most part 
 these huts were not more than four feet high, six feet 
 wide, and varying in length according to the number of 
 people in a family — if indeed such an assembly of de- 
 graded beings may be called a family — a man having 
 three to seven wives, and these his slaves ; the children 
 of whom huddled together in these wretched hovels 
 without any sense of shame, having in most cases only 
 dried grass to cover them and in some instances burying 
 their bodies in the earth for warmth or protection from 
 the mosquitos." 
 
MELANESIA. 31 1 
 
 Rev. Joseph Annand, who spent three years on Fate, 
 thus speaks of his experiences there in 1874 with a b.o- 
 ther missionary, Mr. Mackenzie: "We met one man 
 who had thirty-five wives and had eaten sixty-seven 
 human beings. We slept in a low grass house, about 
 forty feet long and eight feet high, with a door two and 
 a half feet high. Just outside of the door was a gutter 
 of filth, ankle deep. We had cocoanut mats to sleep on. 
 The oven was open near us, and in consequence we 
 could not eat some of the food cooked there. We 
 had a shelf on the wall two and a half feet high by 
 as many wide, for two of us to sleep on, and thin mats to 
 cover us. The mosquitos and fieas cannot be imagined. 
 Each leg of our bedstead-shelf had a pig tied to it, which 
 tugged so that we feared a great fall. An old woman 
 who slept on the stove belabored the pigs in the night to 
 keep them quiet. In the morning we were awakened by 
 the crowing of a cock which was right beside us. The 
 census of the dwelling for the night was, ' Thirteen pigs, 
 seven people, rats, and fowls.' Four or five months later 
 the enemies of our entertainers came down upon them 
 and cooked and ate every person in the family." 
 
 Like the savage races further east, the New Hebridese 
 were addicted to infanticide, widow-strangling, cannibal- 
 ism and idol-worship, and, like them, were made only 
 worse by contact with foreigners ; for traders and "black- 
 birders " repeatedly pillaged their property, burned their 
 villages and massacred or sold into slavery many of their 
 people. They were also maddened by the belief that 
 diseases were introduced by the white men, and in this 
 
312 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 belief were partly correct ; for, as has been mentioned, 
 the measles were purposely introduced into Tanna and 
 other diseases were caused by the vices and intemperance 
 of the foreigners. The result has been that the natives 
 of these islands have taken every possible opportunity to 
 kill the white men and destroy their ships, and have sur- 
 passed all the races of the Pacific in treachery, cruelty 
 and malignity towards foreigners. For this reason these 
 islands have well been named "The Dangerous Islands," 
 and described as ' ' hells on earth. " 
 
 To accomplish the high aims of missions towards 
 such a people would seem to have been impossible. One 
 might almost as well hope to transform the denizens of 
 the ocean around their shores — the reptile-like eels, the 
 wallowing whales, the slimy octopi and the man-eating 
 sharks — into gentle creatures of the land and upper air, 
 into flying fowl or birds-of-paradise, as to change so 
 demon-like a race into a pure, godly and loving people. 
 But beneath their savage exterior and in their wild feroc- 
 ity were germs of a nature made in the image of God, 
 susceptible of the holiest culture and capable of the high- 
 est growth, and when there came to them, in their dark- 
 ness, woe and degradation, evangels of the sublimest 
 truths, and with these truths the blessed influences of the 
 Divine Spirit, they were gradually subdued, and changed 
 to humility, purity and nobleness of character. 
 
 But the process of transformation was slow. At first 
 there was for the missionaries a period of perils and mar- 
 tyrdoms. When the light first shone "the darkness 
 comprehended it not." These islands have been well 
 
A New Hki;KiiiEb Warrior. 
 
MELANESIA. 313 
 
 called "The Martyr Islands," so many pioneers of the 
 missionary enterprise have fallen here. The natives were 
 moved to destroy these devoted heroes by the supersti- 
 tion that they caused malarial diseases by supernatural 
 influences. The history of these islands is almost repe- 
 titious by its ever-recurring accounts of this wrath of 
 the natives, which broke forth at the returns of the un- 
 healthy seasons as regularly as the eruptions of their Tan- 
 nese volcano. It is not to be wondered at that, with 
 this delusion, they sought to murder the missionaries ; 
 for with equally absurd delusions civilized people have 
 persecuted and put to death persons whom they suspect- 
 ed of witchcraft, and have often mobbed and lynched 
 monstrous villains. The natives were also moved by 
 their very idea of justice to destroy the missionaries in 
 retaliation for robberies, murders and kidnappings com- 
 mitted by white men, just as Americans inflict fierce 
 vengeance on the Indians who burn their homes and kill 
 their wives and children. 
 
 The history of the New Hebrides mission begins with 
 accounts of such conduct of natives towards the mission- 
 aries at the island of 
 
 ERROMANGA. 
 
 Capt. Cook, the discoverer of this island, gave its in- 
 habitants sad first impressions of the character of white 
 men. While here on shore he became alarmed because 
 some natives laid hands on his boat, and therefore 
 caused his seamen to fire two volleys of shot into their 
 midst, and killed four of them and wounded many 
 
314 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 more. Afterwards he fired from his vessel four-pound 
 shot among their houses. In subsequent times traders 
 who came to obtain sandal-wood, which brought great 
 prices in China, committed many similar outrages. At 
 this island a trader killed a son of the chief Raniani 
 just before the great missionary apostle John Williams 
 and a young missionary by the name of James Harris 
 arrived to introduce Samoan teachers. Unfortunately 
 these missionaries landed here as among infuriated 
 wolves. As they were going inland they saw too late 
 their danger and turned to flee. Harris was quickly 
 knocked down and clubbed. Williams reached the sea, 
 but stumbled over the slippery stones of the beach and 
 was pierced with arrows by the very chief whose son had 
 been killed by the trader, and their bodies were eaten by 
 the savages. During the following year some of their 
 bones, as it was supposed, were recovered and interred 
 at Upolu, Samoa ; but it is probable that the natives de- 
 livered up bones of their own people, supposing that 
 merely human bones were asked for. 
 
 To renew the mission enterprise on this island, and 
 afterwards to continue it here and on the other islands, 
 after terrible martyrdoms, could not have been suggested 
 by "motives of avarice or of worldly ambition." To 
 leave homes of safety, comfort and refinement and go 
 into fellowship with these unclean and sensual savages, 
 and into the fire of their demoniac rage, could have been 
 prompted only by a pure benevolence kindled by divine 
 love. It is delightful to note that even the degraded 
 Polynesian races themselves entered upon this crusade 
 
MELANESIA. 315 
 
 against heathenism and went to the front in its trials and 
 martyrdoms. It was native Samoans, just lifted out of 
 the depths of pagan degradation, who were often the 
 pioneer missionaries in these islands, again and again 
 took up the blood-stained banner of the cross, and toiled 
 and suffered and died in this holy warfare. 
 
 These Samoans now volunteered to renew the attempt 
 to carry the gospel to Erromanga, and in 1840, under 
 the conduct of Rev. T. Heath, two of them were taken 
 thither to labor as evangelists. They were badly treated 
 and for several months suffered for lack of food, obtain- 
 ing barely enough to sustain life by the kindness of a 
 friendly native who supplied them by stealth. When 
 the missionary vessel arrived during the following year 
 they fled with difficulty to it and returned to Samoa. 
 
 In 1852 two natives of Rarotonga and a native of 
 this island of Erromanga, who had been educated at a 
 mission school at Samoa, went thither, and were wel- 
 comed by the people. The result of their labors was 
 that in process of time one hundred natives renounced 
 idolatry, two chapels were built, and the very chief who 
 murdered Williams embraced Christianity and delivered 
 up to the teachers the club with which the murder had 
 been committed. 
 
 In 1857 Rev. George N. Gordon, a young man from 
 the Presbyterian College at Halifax, Nova Scotia, vol- 
 unteered to aid in the perilous work on this island, and 
 proceeded thither with his wife. Soon after their arrival 
 a terrific hurricane occurred, and after this the measles 
 were introduced by a trading ship and caused many 
 
3l6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 deaths. As usual the natives attributed all such calami- 
 ties to their gods, and now, supposing that the presence 
 of the missionaries was the cause of their anger, became 
 infuriated against them. While Mr. Gordon, in order 
 to get away from the malaria of the low swamps, 
 was building a house at a place elevated i,ooo feet 
 above Dillon's Bay, some natives waylaid and killed 
 him, and then meeting his wife, who ran to inquire 
 about the disturbance, killed her also. 
 
 A younger brother of Mr. Gordon, Rev. James D. 
 Gordon, now offered to take up the standard of missions 
 on this island, and heroically went thither in 1864. He 
 labored efficiently eight years, but finally was tomahawked 
 by a savage who supposed that he had caused the death 
 of his child by supernatural influence. About two years 
 before the Rev. James McNair, who had come to assist 
 Mr. Gordon, had died of malarial disease. And now 
 another missionary. Rev. Hugh A. Robinson, hastened 
 to continue the work on this island, and in a few years 
 was able to organize a church of 190 members and to 
 employ thirty-three native teachers in evangelical work. 
 In the church built by him at Dillon's Bay a tablet was 
 placed with this inscription : 
 
MELANESIA. 3^7 
 
 "Sacred to the memory of Christian missionaries 
 who died on this island : 
 
 John Williams, 
 James Harris, 
 
 Killed at Dillon's Bay by the natives, 30th November, 1839; 
 
 George N. Gordon, 
 
 Ellen C. Gordon, 
 
 Killed on 20th of May, 1861 ; 
 
 James McNair, 
 
 Who died at Dillon's Bay, i6th July, 1870 ; and 
 
 James D. Gordon, 
 
 Killed at Portinia Bay, 7th March, 1872. 
 
 They hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord 
 
 Jesus. Acts 15 : 26. 
 It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 
 
 I Tim. I : 15." 
 Other islands of this group as well as Erromanga have 
 merited the title of " Martyr Islands," among which is 
 
 FATE, OR SANDWICH ISLAND. 
 
 Here, as at Erromanga, the primitive ferocity of the 
 people was increased by the horrible atrocities o-f the 
 foreigners. Here, as has been related, the crews of three 
 sandal-wood vessels got into a quarrel with the natives, 
 killed one hundred of them, and then pursued a com- 
 pany of thirty aged men, women and children to a cave, 
 and there kindled a fire and suffocated them, and then 
 cut down the fruit-bearing trees and pillaged the houses 
 
3l8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 of the villages. In retaliation a chief afterwards killed 
 twenty-two seamen of a wrecked whaleship and distribu- 
 ted their bodies to his people to be eaten. For mission- 
 aries to land among these natives, while they were thus 
 fierce for revenge against foreigners, was like Daniel 
 entering the lions' den. 
 
 But providentially the way was opened to make a 
 peaceful beginning of the mission work on this island. 
 A Samoan chief, by the name of Sualo, while endeavor- 
 ing to voyage to the Tongas was driven to this island by 
 a storm. He gained the favor of the natives, married 
 the daughter of the chief and became a leading man. 
 Hearing what had been accomplished by missionaries at 
 Samoa he sent a request to Messrs. Murray and Turner, 
 as they were passing in the missionary packet John Wil- 
 liams, that they would send teachers to this island, and 
 four Samoan teachers were committed to his protection. 
 He aided them in their Christian work, and finally with 
 a number of the natives renounced heathenism. The 
 idolaters on the island made opposition and, with their 
 ever-recurring suspicion that the teachers were bringing 
 the wrath of their gods upon them, murdered several of 
 them. 
 
 In subsequent times the mission work on this island 
 was carried to signal success, and such a change effected 
 in the character of the people that when a vessel with 
 one hundred and twenty people on board was wrecked 
 here, instead of killing and devouring them, as they 
 would have done in former times, they rescued them all, 
 took them, thirty to one village, thirty to another, and so 
 
MELANESIA. 319 
 
 on around the island, and sheltered and fed them all 
 until a vessel arrived on which they were provided with 
 safe passage to Fiji. 
 
 No island of this group has a more thrilling history 
 than 
 
 TANNA, 
 
 which has been called "The Light-house of the South 
 Pacific. " Here were a people like their own climate ; 
 sometimes mild and pleasing, like their days of calm and 
 sunshine, and sometimes wild and furious, like the 
 cyclones that occasionally stormed over their island and 
 prostrated their forests and destroyed their houses. 
 
 On this island were a greater number of different 
 tribes, speaking different languages, than on any other 
 of the group. Any native going beyond the boundaries 
 of his own tribe was in peril of his life. Once two 
 young men stole their way to an eminence to see a ship 
 lying at anchor and were discovered by the neighboring 
 tribe, murdered and eaten. These tribes were constant- 
 ly at war. When once informed by a chief returning 
 from Aneityum that there was no war on that island they 
 incredulously exclaimed, "When was such a thing heard 
 of as a country without war 1" 
 
 Into this babel of languages and whirlpool of strife 
 missionaries at length ventured with their messages of 
 divine peace and blessing. Rev. John Williams came 
 here on the day before his death, and was much pleased 
 with the apparent friendliness and peaceful disposition of 
 the people, and set on shore three excellent Samoans, 
 who were most cordially welcomed. So eager were the 
 
320 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 natives that these teachers should take up their abode 
 among them that they would not allow them to return 
 to the vessel for their baggage, except as three of the 
 crew remained as hostages till they again landed. But 
 soon after the vessel departed the teachers found them- 
 selves in peril because of the intertribal wars and the 
 disposition of the natives to attribute the diseases caused 
 by malaria to supernatural influence exercised by them. 
 Two of these teachers died of these epidemics and the 
 others fled from the island. 
 
 So important however seemed this beautiful island, 
 the most fertile and attractive of the group, having a 
 population of 12,000, that the Samoan Assembly of 
 missionaries in 1842 sent thither Rev. Messrs. Turner 
 and Nesbit, with their wives. The story of their expe- 
 riences and that of the missionaries who succeeded them, 
 although distressingly full of painful incidents, may well 
 be considered in detail, as it pictures the light shining in 
 darkness, and illustrates how the Lord was with his ser- 
 vants, to interpose by special providences in their behalf 
 and to bless their labors. 
 
 Messrs. Turner and Nesbit at first were most kindly 
 received by the natives. But as soon as they were able 
 to use the language, and had given some little instruc- 
 tion, a body of cannibal sorcerers living' near the volcano 
 became jealous of them, because of their increasing 
 influence with the people, and made several futile at- 
 tempts to destroy them. Finally an epidemic broke out, 
 and these priests persuaded the natives that the mission- 
 ?iries were the cause of it ; whereupon the heathen tribes. 
 
o 
 c 
 o 
 
 
MELANESIA. 321 
 
 infuriated as against the worst of enemies, surrounded 
 the village in which they resided. The natives of the 
 village now entreated the missionaries to aid them in the 
 battle that was about to occur, and when this was re- 
 fused asked them to lend them a gun, which also they 
 would not do. The only resource of the missionaries 
 now was prayer. But just as the heathen were about to 
 attack them a terrific thunderstorm burst upon the isl- 
 and, and the natives fled in every direction for shelter 
 from the torrents of rain. During the following day, 
 however, they again gathered, to the number of 2,000, 
 around the village, and at night approached, setting fire 
 to the houses of those friendly to the missionaries. 
 Finally, as the only way of escape, the missionaries 
 secretly fled with their Samoan assistants to a canoe at 
 the beach, and put to sea. But the violent wind and 
 the high sea compelled them to return, and at length, 
 utterly exhausted and despairing of deliverance, they 
 went back to their home. At daybreak hundreds of the 
 heathen again surrounded their premises, uttering their 
 horrid war-cries, and for two hours they were in contin- 
 ual suspense, expecting every moment to be massacred, 
 when suddenly the cry, "Sail ho !" was raised. A ship, 
 the Highlander, Capt. Lucas, was entering the harbor. 
 The captain of this ship had heard of their going to this 
 island, and in passing by had been moved by interest for 
 them to enter the harbor and inquire about their condi- 
 tion. He now provided them with armed protectors, 
 took them aboard his vessel and conveyed them to 
 Samoa, 
 
322 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Two years after this the missionary vessel was em- 
 ployed to take back the Samoan and Rarotongan teach- 
 ers to this island ; and they were joyfully welcomed by 
 the natives. The war of persecution had ended ; many 
 natives had died of pestilence, and inferring that the 
 judgment of heaven had been visited upon them for their 
 ill treatment of God's servants they were anxious to show 
 favor to these teachers. But at the return of the un- 
 healthy season of the year fever, ague and dysentery again 
 prevailed ; several of the teachers died, and the rest were 
 obliged by the natives to flee from the island for their 
 lives. 
 
 But many of the Tannese had become warmly at- 
 tached to these teachers, and during the following year 
 they fitted up canoes and went to Aneityum and persua- 
 ded them to return to Tanna. Again, however, the 
 fevers broke out, and the smallpox, which was recklessly 
 introduced by a trading vessel, made terrible havoc. 
 To attempt to assuage the fears and rage that now mad- 
 dened the natives was like attempting to curb their vol- 
 cano, to repress its vapors and discharges of rocks and 
 fire. The teachers, therefore, were again obliged to flee 
 from the island. 
 
 The Presbyterian churches of Scotland, Canada, Aus- 
 tralia and New Zealand now united in assuming the 
 care of this mission. ' ' The missionaries sent by these 
 churches were organized into one synod, called the New 
 Hebrides Mission Synod, which should meet annually 
 and determine upon their own operations, each mission- 
 ary being responsible to his own church. " 
 
MELANESIA. 323 
 
 Under this arrangement Rev. Messrs. John G. Paton, 
 Joseph Copeland, and J. W. Matheson, with their wives, 
 in 1858 set out for Tanna. They went first to Aneityum, 
 and leaving their families in the care of th* missionaries 
 Geddie and Inglis proceeded to Tanna to build houses. 
 Mr. Paton remarks, in his intensely interesting aubiogra- 
 phy, that their first sight of the natives " drove them to 
 the verge of dismay, as they beheld them in their paint, 
 nakedness and misery. ' 
 
 They built houses for Messrs. Paton and Matheson 
 at Port Resolution and for Mr. Copeland at Juakaraka, 
 on the opposite side of the island. With axes, knives, 
 fish-hooks and blankets they purchased sites for build- 
 ings, coral for lime, timber for the framework of the 
 houses and sugar-cane leaves for thatch. 
 
 While they were laying the foundations of these 
 houses intertribal wars raged around them, and bodies 
 of the slain were cooked and feasted upon before their 
 eyes. So horrible was the appetite of the natives for hu- 
 man flesh that, as Mr. Paton relates, they sometimes 
 even disinterred the bodies of men recently buried and 
 devoured them. The stream from which they obtained 
 drinking water was polluted with the blood of those 
 slain in battle, and the missionaries were obliged to use 
 only the milk of cocoanuts for drink. 
 
 Having partially finished their houses they brought 
 their families to this island on November 5, 1858. Un- 
 fortunately Mr. Paton had selected a location for his 
 house in the low malarial region ; in consequence of 
 which during the first year he had fourteen attacks of 
 
324 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 fever, and in less than five months after his arrival had 
 the overwhelming affliction of losing his wife by malarial 
 sickness. 
 
 The subsequent history of these missionaries is a 
 painful record of sufferings incurred amid hurricanes, 
 epidemics, wars, and cannibal practices. More than 
 once Mr. Paton came to the point of death by fever. 
 Finally he erected another house, on a high ridge in the 
 sweep of the trade-winds, and there afterwards enjoyed 
 better health. In i860 the Rev. Mr. Johnson, of Nova 
 Scotia, who was sent to assist him, died of fever while 
 his house was surrounded by savages threatening his 
 life. Soon afterwards Mr. Copeland was obliged by ill 
 health to leave the island, and Mr. and Mrs. Matheson 
 took their place at Juakaraka. Several of the Samoan 
 teachers also were murdered, and others died of the 
 smallpox and the measles, which were purposely intro- 
 duced and which destroyed one third of the people. 
 Because of the drouths, pestilences and hurricanes the 
 sorcerers living near the volcano repeatedly plotted to 
 destroy them, and their escapes were most marvellous. 
 Once Mr. Paton, to teach the priests the folly of their 
 superstitions, challenged them to kill him by their incan- 
 tations, and with this view bit off and ate pieces of bana- 
 nas and gave the remainder to them for use in sorcery, 
 for, according to their belief, he was by this act com- 
 pletely in their power, since they had these fragments of 
 food partly eaten by him to conjure with, and they made 
 extraordinary prayers many days for his death, but finally 
 admitted that his Jehovah was mightier than their gods, 
 
MELANESIA. 325 
 
 At length some vile foreigners on this island positively 
 informed the natives that the missionaries were the cause 
 of their diseases, and offered to supply them with pow- 
 der and shot for destroying them. Nothing was now 
 talked of but war. By the advice of a friendly chief Mr. 
 Paton at last fled from his house ju-st in time to escape 
 their attack, and took refuge in the top of a huge chest- 
 nut-tree. Afterwards at night he secretly went to the 
 beach, and with his assistant Samoan teacher put to sea 
 in a canoe ; but a strong head wind and rough sea nearly 
 swamped the canoe and drove them back to port. Mr. 
 Paton then hired a chief to guide him by a secret path to 
 the other side of the island ; and with wonderful escapes 
 from savages, who repeatedly met and threatened him, 
 reached the residence of Mr. Matheson. Here he and 
 Mr. Matheson's family were rescued by the vessel Blue 
 Bell, which had been sent by the missionaries at Aneity- 
 um to deliver them, and arrived just as the savages were 
 about to attack them. In subsequent years the mission 
 work was resumed on Tanna by Rev. Mr. Watt and Ra- 
 rotongan and Samoan teachers ; schools were established 
 and churches organized, but the condition of the peo- 
 ple is still deplorable. 
 
 The sublime epic of this struggle against the sav- 
 agery and paganism of the New Hebridese continues in 
 narratives of the wonderful work that was performed in 
 
 ANEITYUM. 
 
 This island is situated only a few miles from Tanna. 
 In 1 84 1 two Samoan teachers were taken thither, and 
 
326 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 were welcomed by a multitude of the natives with joyful 
 shouts and a waving of green boughs. They succeeded 
 well in their labors till the occurrence of an epidemic, 
 by which one of them, as well as many of the natives, 
 died, and on account of which they were driven by the 
 natives to the barren parts of the island. In October of 
 the following year they left this district and made their 
 residence on the opposite side of the island ; and here 
 in process of time were able to persuade many of the 
 natives to abandon their heathen practices. This aroused 
 the jealousy of the priests, and at times their lives were 
 in great peril. 
 
 In 1848 Rev. Messrs. John Geddie and Powell, with 
 their wives, were sent from Nova Scotia to this island. 
 They found that a good work had already been done 
 among the people by the Samoan teachers, and subse- 
 quently were able every year to report remarkable suc- 
 cess ; but they had also to tell of persecution by the 
 idolaters. Their church was burned and their own 
 house set on fire, and barely saved by Christian natives 
 who were keeping watch by night. Four of the con- 
 verts were killed and eaten. At another time three men 
 and three women of the Christian tribe were killed by 
 the heathen. Mr. Geddie unwittingly incurred the 
 wrath of the natives by cutting trees from a sacred 
 grove, and by erecting a fence in a way, according 
 to the natives' superstitions, to shut off the path by 
 which demons were accustomed to pass from the moun- 
 tains to the sea. But by kind words and friendly con- 
 duct he succeeded in conciliating them ; though on 
 
MELANESIA. 327 
 
 several occasions he narrowly escaped death at their 
 hands. 
 
 In a few years almost the entire people embraced 
 Christianity. They showed the genuineness of their con- 
 version by their works. Immorality and heathen prac- 
 tices were abandoned ; deeds of benevolence took the 
 place of deeds of cruelty; $5,000 were contributed for 
 the publication of a translation of the Bible ; and the 
 product of their cocoanut trees for six months, amount- 
 ing to twenty-six tons of copra, worth $574, was given 
 for roofing two churches with corrugated iron. Fifty 
 natives went forth as evangelists to other islands. After 
 the death of Mr. Geddie a wooden tablet was placed 
 back of the pulpit at Anelcauhet with the inscription, 
 "When he landed, in 1S48, there were no Christians 
 here ; and when he left, in 1872, there were no heathen." 
 
 Turning from this island of Aneityum we find an 
 equally bright record of work performed in the little 
 coral island of 
 
 ANIWA. 
 
 Here in 1840 Samoan teachers landed, and afterwards 
 teachers from Aneityum. The latter were attacked by 
 the savages ; one of them was murdered, and the other 
 fled. In 1866 Rev. J. G. Paton, after his escape from 
 Tanna, was located here. Remembering his sufferings 
 from malaria at Tanna he chose for the site of his house 
 the highest ground of the island, a mound which had 
 been used for ages as a place for the burial of bones 
 thrown out from cannibal feasts. The natives supposed 
 that their gods would destroy any one who should des- 
 
328 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 ecrate this place. But when they perceived that his 
 family continued unharmed, and finally were able with- 
 out evil consequences to eat fruit of banana trees culti- 
 vated on this ground, they concluded that the God of 
 the missionaries was able to resist their gods. 
 
 The history of this island is, like that of the other 
 New Hebrides, a story of sufferings, privations and dan- 
 gers experienced among the squalid and barbarous 
 natives and amid the fearful hurricanes that occasionally 
 occurred, and also of wonderful deliverances, and of 
 signal successes in the mission work. As on Tanna, the 
 savages many times sought to take Mr. Paton's life and 
 to burn his buildings, but by the vigilance of friendly 
 natives, and by his own sagacity and presence of mind, 
 he escaped. His first church, almost as soon as built, 
 was torn to pieces by a hurricane ; his house also was 
 destroyed, and he with his family escaped only by taking 
 refuge in their cellar. 
 
 Mr. Paton gained a g^eat advantage by founding an 
 orphan school, from which many teachers and preachers 
 went forth who did excellent work in this and other 
 islands of the group. Three years after his arrival he 
 received to the Lord's Supper twelve natives, the most 
 of whom had been murderers and cannibals. Finally 
 the whole population embraced Christianity. 
 
 In September, 1892, Mr. Paton went to the United 
 States to apply for an international contract forbidding 
 the sale of ardent spirits and fire-arms to the natives of 
 New Hebrides, and also forbidding the continuance of 
 the ' ' Kanaka traffic, " or slave-trade, by which one third 
 
MELANESIA. 329 
 
 of the natives of those islands have been transported to 
 Australia and the Fijis. On his arrival in San Francisco 
 the writer had the pleasure of meeting him. He was 
 then venerable in appearance, about seventy years of 
 age, with a long white beard and hair and a kindly beam- 
 ing eye ; in looks and manner a veritable missionary 
 apostle. He made a profound impression by mission- 
 ary appeals in the United States. Rev. F. A. Noble, 
 D. D. , of Chicago, said : ' ' Whoever has seen him has 
 been drawn to him in trust and admiration. Whoever 
 has heard him, whether in parlor or pulpit or on the 
 platform, will never forget him. He is a man of God, 
 full of faith and the Holy Ghost, devout, tender, sweet, 
 humble, loyal to the truth, and consecrated in every 
 pulse and power of his being to the service of Christ." 
 
 There are now in the New Hebrides 18 ordained 
 missionaries and 120 evangelists. The islands, Aneit- 
 yum, Aniwa, Erromanga, Fa.th, Nguna, Metoso, Maku- 
 ru and Emae, are almost entirely Christian. Missionaries 
 are located on the other islands, and meeting with suc- 
 cess. The Bible has been more or less translated into 
 fifteen languages of this group. 
 
 In the Loyalty, Santa Cruz, Solomon, and other isl- 
 ands further west, mission work has been conducted by 
 the Melanesian Society of the Anglican Church of New 
 Zealand. The method of this society has been to gather 
 bands of young men from the various islands, educate 
 them at Norfolk Island, and finally send them as mis- 
 sionaries to their respective homes. Bishop John C. 
 Patteson, while engaged in this work, was murdered at 
 
330 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Nakapu, of the Swallow group, in retaliation for atrocities 
 of traders. The report of this society for 1888 shows 
 766 baptisms, 145 teachers, and 2,514 scholars. 
 
 The south-eastern portion of New Guinea, under the 
 government of Great Britain, was entered by the Lon- 
 don Missionary Society in 1872 ; and they report 12 
 churches organized, 500 natives baptized, and 2,000 
 children received into schools. This promises to be one 
 of the most successful and important missions of the 
 Pacific ; but it is almost too soon to narrate its history. 
 
 When we consider the degraded condition of the 
 people of these islands, the extreme difficulty of com- 
 municating with them, through their many languages, the 
 indescribable sufferings and numerous deaths of the mis- 
 sionaries by hurricanes, malarial fevers and the ferocity 
 of the natives, we must regard the missionary enterprise 
 among them as one of the most extraordinary displays 
 of heroism of modern times, and the uplifting of this 
 degraded race as one of the greatest illustrations of the 
 far-reaching love and divine power of Christ. 
 
 In T906 the number of the converts in the Presbyterian 
 Churches of this group was 2,000. " They have family 
 worship in their homes ; they have built large churches, 
 which are filled to overflowing ; and they have organized 
 missionary societies to carry the Gospel to other lands. 
 The Bible has been translated and printed in over twenty 
 of their dialects.'' The traffic in strong drinks, conducted 
 by the French, has been causing great mortality. 
 
 The Rev. John G. Paton died in 1907 at Kew, 
 Australia, aged 83 years. 
 
MELANESIA. 33 1 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 MELANESIA CONTINUED. 
 
 The Northern Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Torres, 
 Reef, and Solomon Groups. 
 
 The pioneers of the missionary enterprise in the Pacific 
 were Englishmen and Americans who ventured, with their 
 wives and a few children, into the fire of the pagan ferocity. 
 Subsequently the London missionaries, in advancing to 
 new fields, sent forward converted islanders as the pioneers. 
 Finally .Bishop Augustus Selwyn, of the Episcopalian 
 Church of New Zealand, proposed to secure children of 
 the natives in the new fields, educate these children in 
 schools of a Christian country, and send them as pioneer 
 missionaries to their own peoples. He proposed, also, 
 that, after these children had overcome the pagan op- 
 position, white missionaries should be introduced for 
 cooperating with them. "The white corks," he said, 
 " were for floating the black net." The white missionaries 
 remain unmarried, and to reside, like the natives in bamboo 
 were to huts. 
 
 Bishop Selwyn's interest in the mission cause was oc- 
 
332 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 casioned by a clerical mistake in the Letters Patent of his 
 appointment as Bishop of New Zealand. In these Letters 
 his diocese was described as extending to the 34th parallel 
 of north, instead of south, latitude. He determined to 
 accept the diocese as thus described, and to inaugurate 
 missionary enterprises on the islands within its bounds. 
 
 With this view, in 1848, he made a voyage of explora- 
 tion in H. M. S. Dido as far as to the Loyalty Islands. 
 Observing that the Fijis, the Southern Hebrides and 
 several other groups were occupied by other religious 
 denominations which were doing successful work, he chose 
 for his field the groups not thus occupied. These v/ere 
 the Northern Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Torres, Reef, 
 and Solomon Groups. 
 
 The Northern Hebrides are Raga, or Pentecost, so 
 named because Bougainville, its discoverer, first saw it on 
 Pentecost Day, Opa or Leper's Island, so named because 
 Bougainville there mistook a skin disease for leprosy, and 
 Maewo, or Aurora. They are fifteen to twenty miles wide, 
 lofty, well watered, very fertile, and heavily wooded. 
 Northwest of this group are, successively, the Banks Group, 
 comprising eight similar islands, the Santa Cruz and Torres 
 Groups, comprising eleven low, small islands, and the Reef 
 Group, consisting of coral islands. In this latter group 
 water is found only in a few springs and in hollow rocks, 
 and during drouths the only drink of the natives is the 
 milk of cocoanuts. 
 
 Beyond the Reef Islands, in the same direction, is the 
 Solomon Group, so named by Mendaiia, its discoverer, 
 because he supposed it was the source whence Solomon 
 
MELANESIA. 333 
 
 procured " gold, ivoiy, apes, and peacocks." It consists 
 of Isabel, 120 miles long and 2,000 feet high, Guadalcanar, 
 90 miles long and 8,000 feet high, five other islands, 50 
 to 100 miles long, and a multitude of islets. Its flora and 
 fauna are chiefly of Asiatic and Australian origin. In its 
 forests are ebony, mahogany, lignumvitse, sandalwood and 
 many other valuable trees, and among its fauna are 
 crocodiles, snakes and a variety of marsupials. 
 
 In all these groups the natives are Papuans. Many of 
 their tribes have a slight strain of Polynesian, and those of 
 the Santa Cruz and Reef Islands are more Polynesian 
 than Papuan. Their languages comprise many dialects, 
 generally twenty to an island. 
 
 Over these islands the trail of the Serpent has extended. 
 A wilder, more besotted and fiercer people than their 
 inhabitants it would be hard to find. With the exception 
 of the natives of the Santa Cruz and Reef Islands, they 
 all were formerly cannibals, and those of them in the 
 Solomon Group were also head-hunters. 
 
 The head-hunting was conducted for obtaining trophies 
 of valor. When a chief constructed a fine house or a 
 large canoe, he required a man to be killed, and then he 
 ornamented his skull with pearl shell, and placed it con- 
 spicuously on his house or canoe. To avoid the head- 
 hunters the people of some districts built their houses on 
 trees, or on cliffs, or in swamps. 
 
 For prosecuting his missionary enterprise Bishop Selwyn 
 purchased a schooner, the Undine, of twenty-one tons. 
 On this vessel he voyaged as captain, for he had previously 
 studied navigation, but his seamanship was soon severely 
 
334 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 tested. A violent storm burst on the little craft and almost 
 foundered her, but she made a good run. The Bishop 
 wrote in his log : " i,ooo miles in lo days. To Him 
 whom the winds and sea obey be praise and glory for ever 
 and ever, Amen." 
 
 The work of procuring boys proved to be difficult and 
 perilous. By great tact and a kind and courteous manner 
 the Bishop secured in his first trip live. In process of 
 time he was able to employ the boys, who had been some 
 time in his school, to do the soliciting, and then he was 
 more successful. Each succeeding year the natives re- 
 ceived him with greater cordiality, and more readily sup- 
 plied his vessel with stores of taro, yams and fruit. The 
 number of boys in the school has been one hundred and 
 fifty to t\vo hundred. At first they were taken to a place 
 near Auckland, and afterward, as the climate there was too 
 cold for them, they were taken to Norfolk Island. There 
 the Pitcairn people, who had gone thither by the invitation 
 of the British Government, were residing. They were 
 under their own Governor, and were Britain's smallest 
 Crown Colony. They welcomed the school, and were 
 much benefited by its devout and cultured teachers. On 
 this island a thousand acres of land were purchased for 
 the school, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. In this tract 
 a beautiful chapel was built, and around it houses for the 
 teachers and pupils. The land was very fertile, and was 
 easily made to produce in abundance yams, taro, sweet 
 potatoes, bananas, guavas, and oranges, and thus almost 
 all the food the school needed. The boys were taught 
 the gospel of work. They were trained in the mechanic 
 
MELANESIA. 335 
 
 trades, the cultivation of the ground, and the care of Uve- 
 stock ; and to each of them was committed a small garden 
 for him to cultivate for himself. They were kept in the 
 school six to ten years, and then taken, as teachers, to 
 their homes or to other islands. 
 
 In 1854 Rev. John Coleridge Patteson joined the mis- 
 sion. He had been moved, when fourteen years of age, 
 by a sermon of Bishop Selwyn, to devote himself to the 
 missionary cause. He relinquished opportunities for high 
 advancement, went as a missionary at his own charges, 
 refusing a salary, and contributed a thousand dollars for 
 the Norfolk School. In 1861 he was consecrated as the 
 First Bishop of Melanesia, Selwyn having resigned because 
 of ill health. 
 
 Although it was arranged that Norfolk youth should 
 perform the pioneer work of the mission, the English 
 missionaries did not escape, nor greatly shrink from 
 privations, sufferings or perils. It is said that " not a 
 missionary ever went down to these islands, without con- 
 tracting fever and ague." The orders to the missionaries 
 were " Go till you are a wreck, and then come and get fit 
 to go again." Many of them did not get fit, but died, or 
 were obliged to return to England. 
 
 Every missionary entering an island, not previously 
 Christianized, incurred perO, because of the tribal en- 
 mities of the natives, and their wrath toward the foreigners 
 engaged in the labor traffic. As on each island there were 
 many tribes fiercely at enmity with each other, to enter an 
 island was like entering a mad-house. As those engaged 
 in the labor traffic conducted the business, lawlessly. 
 
336 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 cruelly and often by kidnapping," the natives on many of 
 the islands were fierce to wreak vengeance on every white 
 man coming to their shores. For these reasons, the mis- 
 sionaries v^fere often attacked. In 185 1 the Undine, with 
 the Bishops, Selwyn and Tyrrell on board, was assailed in 
 the Santa Cruz Group, and barely escaped by a sudden 
 breeze. In 1864 the natives of the same group attacked 
 Bishop Patteson while he was voyaging in a boat in the 
 same group, and mortally wounded by poisoned arrows 
 two Norfolk youths who were with him. On September 
 20, 187 1, as is recounted in Chapter II, Bishop Patteson 
 was killed at Nakapu of the Reef Group. Just previous 
 to his arrival there the pirate. Bully Hayes, under disguise 
 as a missionary, there enticed five natives aboard his ship, 
 and kidnapped them. The natives indicated by five knots, 
 tied in palm leaves, laid on the body of the Bishop, when 
 they delivered it in a canoe near the ship, that the murder 
 was vengeance for the kidnapping. 
 
 The death of Bishop Patteson was greatly lamented, for, 
 by lofty self-sacrificing benevolence, he had greatly prom- 
 oted the welfare of the Melanesians and proved himself 
 one of the noblest missionary heroes. At the place where 
 he was murdered a monumental cross was erected to his 
 memory. 
 
 I The labor traffic was so profitable that it was strenuously and 
 recklessly conducted. For a single laborer taken to Fiji or Aus- 
 tralia, a captain would receive a hundred and fifty dollars, while his 
 expense in taking him thither was only five to ten dollars. By a 
 single trip for laborers a. captain would sometimes clear four 
 thousand dollars. 
 
^•^%:'^. 
 
 ^ "««.*.-'» ~< 
 
MELANESIA. 337 
 
 Of the five kidnapped natives four escaped from Fiji, 
 whither they had been taken, and returned home, ill with 
 dysentery contracted at Tanna. The disease spread and 
 caused so many deaths that the natives attributed it to the 
 God of the Bishop, and afterward diligently sought the 
 favor of the missionaries. 
 
 The successors of Bishop Patteson were, in 187 1 Rev. 
 R. Codrington, in 1877 Rev. John Selwyn, son of the 
 founder of the mission, and in 1894 Rev. Cecil Wilson, 
 the present Bishop. 
 
 Like the missions conducted by other religious de- 
 nominations in the Pacific Islands, this mission of the 
 Episcopalians has been very successful. The Melanesians 
 who have embraced Christianity have ceased from their 
 cannibalism, their head-hunting and their warfare, and 
 have become an humble, upright and peace-loving people. 
 
 In 1905 the number of baptized persons in the groups 
 of the mission was 12,793, of communicants 2,811, of 
 white missionaries 41, of native teachers 689, of mission 
 stations 200. 
 
 In 1902 the Methodistscommencedmissionary work at 
 Gizo in New Georgia of this group. New Georgia 
 comprises four islands, 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. Its 
 people are the most inveterate head-hunters of the Pacific. 
 At Gizo the Methodists have 16 church-members and 500 
 adherents. 
 
 In 1899 a Protectorate of Germany was established 
 over Bougainville of the Solomon Group, and a Protec- 
 torate of Great Britain over the remaining islands of the 
 Group. Recently a Joint Protectorate of Great Britain 
 
338 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 and France has been established over the New Hebrides, 
 Banks, and Torres Groups. These Protectorates secure 
 the peace, order and good Government of the groups, 
 regulate or repress the labor traffic, prohibit sales of in- 
 toxicating liquors to the natives, and secure to the natives 
 possession of their lands. 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 339 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 
 
 The desperate adventurers who in the latter part of 
 the last century settled on Pitcaim Island led a life of 
 more romantic interest, more tragic events, and more 
 remarkable consequences, than that of the so-called 
 Robinson Crusoe, who was described as residing on the 
 neighboring island of Juan Fernandez. Though the 
 story of these adventurers does not strictly belong to 
 mission history, it seems to be necessary to g^ve it in 
 this book in order to complete the history of the 
 "changes from the old to the new in the Pacific." 
 
 After the return of Capt. Cook from his voyages of 
 exploration in this part of the world, the British govern- 
 ment determined to introduce the breadfruit trees, of 
 which marvellous accounts were given, into the West 
 Indies, and for this purpose sent Lieut. William Bligh 
 to procure them from Tahiti. Lieut. Bligh had formerly 
 visited the Pacific as captain of the Resolution, under 
 Capt. Cook. He sailed from England on the 23d of 
 December, 1777, in the war-sloop Bounty, with forty- 
 four seamen, a botanist, and a gardener, and arrived in 
 Tahiti in the following October. Remaining there six 
 months, he carefully stored his ship with over a thousand 
 breadfruit trees, planted in 800 tubs and boxes, and then 
 in April, 1779, set sail for the West Indies. 
 
340 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 One would have thought that, after their long exile 
 from England, these seamen would have been delighted 
 to be "homeward bound;'' but they had become de- 
 moralized with the enchantments of Tahiti, and were 
 impatient under the severity of their commander and the 
 tiresome routine of sea-faring life. Their commander, 
 Lieut. Bligh, seems to have been a pious man, and he 
 doubtless had reason for exercising severity towards 
 them, as some of them were desperate men ; but he 
 certainly was unwise in his methods of discipline. 
 
 The foremost one to revolt against him was his mate, 
 Fletcher Christian, who had been with him on a former 
 voyage and was under pecuniary obligations to him. 
 Christian came from a respectable family in England, 
 being a brother of Prof. Christian, the annotator of 
 Blackstone's Commentaries, and he had a wife and chil- 
 dren in England. He therefore had everything to lose 
 by committing crime. But he was exasperated because 
 Lieut. Bligh often made taunting allusions to his indebt- 
 edness and now charged him with pilfering from the 
 ship's supply of cocoanuts. Upset by these annoyances, 
 as a ship without ballast may capsize in the lightest 
 squalls, he resolved to desert the ship. As he was about 
 to do this on a raft, on the 28th of April, while the 
 ship was near Tofoa, of the Tonga group, he confided his 
 plan to a shipmate, and this man advised him rather to 
 undertake to capture the ship and return to Tahiti. 
 Strange to say, this mad proposition pleased him ; and 
 he at once suggested it to many of the crew. They 
 agreed to it, some from desire to return to sensual life at 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 34 1 
 
 Tahiti, and others from fear of being in the weaker party 
 on the ship. Thinking that "if it were to be done, it 
 were well it were done quickly," they lost no time in 
 acting on this proposition. Christian with three men 
 seized Lieut. Bligh when he was asleep in his berth ; 
 and the other conspirators seized the officers. Lieut. 
 Bligh broke away, and sprang upon the upper deck, and 
 called for help to put down the mutiny ; but he was 
 quickly overcome, and with his olBcers and special 
 friends, nineteen in number, placed in the launch. This 
 was a boat twenty-three feet long, and six feet nine inches 
 broad, and had a mast and sails. The mutineers put into 
 this boat 150 pounds of bread, thirty-two pounds of 
 pork, twenty-eight gallons of water, six bottles of wine, 
 six gallons of rum, a compass, a quadrant and four cut- 
 lasses, and set the boat adrift. 
 
 It will be of interest to briefly consider the adven- 
 tures of that little company in this boat before proceed- 
 ing with the history of the mutineers. So many men in 
 so small a boat were uncomfortably crowded ; the boat 
 was weighted down to within six inches of the water ; 
 the wind was strong, the sea high, and it was necessary 
 to continually bale out water from the boat to keep it 
 afloat. They steered for the island, Tofoa, which was 
 thirty miles distant ; but as they drew near to it they 
 found that its shores were high and lashed with a tre- 
 mendous surf They therefore sailed around to the lee- 
 ward, or northwest, side of the island, and there entered 
 a cove and anchored. 
 
 On going ashore to search for food and water they 
 
342 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 found that only a few cocoanuts could be obtained, and 
 that with peril, from trees on the cliffs, and that water 
 was scarce ; but climbing the precipices to the interior 
 of the island they met two natives, who gave them a 
 little food and water. As the storm continued they re- 
 mained in this cove several days, and were visited by the 
 natives bringing cocoanuts for barter. Finally a great 
 multitude of the natives gathered around them, and 
 showed by their insolence, and by knocking together 
 stones in their hands, that they meditated violence. 
 Bligh therefore suddenly ordered his men to rush with 
 him to the boat, and all but one succeeded in doing so. 
 This one made the mistake of running along the shore, 
 and was pursued by the savages and clubbed to death. 
 
 The white men now had considerable difiSculty to 
 loose from their anchor, and this gave the natives time 
 to fetch their canoes and pursue them. Paddling to- 
 wards them the natives hurled stones upon them, and 
 finally were about to lay hold of the boat when Lieut. 
 Bligh threw overboard some articles of clothing. The 
 natives stopped so long to pick up these that the boat 
 got a considerable distance away. As night was coming 
 on the natives then returned to the island. 
 
 Lieut. Bligh and his companions now resolved not to 
 again risk themselves among savages, but to endeavor to 
 reach some civilized settlement ; and to make their pro- 
 visions hold out for a long voyage they limited them- 
 selves to an allowance of an ounce of bread and one- 
 fourth of a pint of water per day for each man. Bligh 
 measured out the allowance for each meal very accu- 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 343 
 
 rately by means of a pair of scales which he made out of 
 two cocoanut-shells, while a pistol bullet (of twenty-five 
 to the pound) served as a weight. The sea continued 
 many days very rough, with squalls of wind and rain, 
 and several heavy thunder-storms occurred, by which 
 they were thoroughly chilled and nearly swamped ; but 
 they thereby caught twenty gallons of water, which saved 
 them from dying with thirst. 
 
 Lieut. Bligh composed a prayer, partly from his recol- 
 lection of the prayer-book, for use on this voyage, and 
 wrote it in a blank signal-book which is now extant. It 
 contained confessions of sins, invocations of God's help, 
 and thanks for his mercies, and was often repeated by 
 the party. He also kept a brief journal of their expe- 
 riences. 
 
 Several times they passed close to islands, and once 
 they were pursued by two large canoes filled with canni- 
 bals, and barely succeeded in escaping. Their situation 
 was anything but comfortable, with "sharks beneath, 
 cannibals behind, and storms above " ! As they passed 
 along the northern coast of Australia they entered a bay 
 and landed on a little island, and obtained abundance of 
 water and feasted on shell-fish. On the 14th of June 
 they arrived at the Dutch settlement at Coupon, on the 
 island of Timore, having been forty-seven days in their 
 little open boat, voyaging 4,000 miles. The Dutch 
 governor, William Adrian Von Este, received them very 
 kindly and provided for them. 
 
 Lieut. Bligh arrived again in England on the 23d of 
 March, 1790, and reported the mutiny ; and the war-ship 
 
344 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Pandora was sent to arrest the mutineers. Bligh was 
 promoted by the British government and commanded a 
 ship under Nelson. He was afterwards appointed gov- 
 ernor of New South Wales, and ultimately became a 
 vice-admiral. 
 
 Turning now to the history of the mutineers, we find 
 that, after setting the boat adrift, they sailed for two 
 hours in a westerly direction, to prevent the company in 
 the boat from knowing whither they were going, and 
 then went to Tubuai, of the Austral group. The natives 
 of this island resisted their attempt to land, and they 
 therefore went to Tahiti to procure interpreters. They 
 informed the Tahitians that the commander and officers 
 of their ship had found an island suitable for settlement, 
 and had sent them to procure provisions. Believing this 
 story, the Tahitians supplied them bountifully with fruit, 
 vegetables and hogs, and even gave back to them a bull 
 and cow that Lieut. Bligh had presented to them. The 
 mutineers then returned to Tubuai and were permitted 
 to land. They at once set about constructing a fort for 
 defence ; but the natives got the idea that it was de- 
 signed for a tomb for themselves, and suddenly attacked 
 them and drove them to their ship. 
 
 Christian now proposed that they should go to some 
 uninhabited island, where they would be safe from mo- 
 lestation, but several of them objected. They therefore 
 returned to Tahiti, and there put on shore those who 
 so desired, and divided to them part of the stores of the 
 ship. Thirteen of these men who settled on Tahiti were 
 arrested by the frigate Pandora in March, 1791. This 
 
I A 
 
 ■ Til- vi,-,n .^1 I'll 
 
 
 
 , t ■■ 1 ii,- 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 345 
 
 frigate was wrecked in the following: August on a coral 
 reef near Australia, and four of the mutineers with thirty 
 of the crew went down with her. The remainder of the 
 crew took the surviving mutineers a thousand miles in 
 open boats, and obtained passsage for them and them- 
 selves to England. These mutineers were tried in the 
 English courts, and two of them were hung. 
 
 The mutineers who remained on the ship invited 
 some native women to a farewell banquet, and then sud- 
 denly put to sea, keeping them and six native men on 
 board. They then sailed, by Christian's advice, to Pit- 
 cairn Island, and landed at its northwestern extremity in 
 a little bay, which they named Bounty Bay. In going 
 ashore through the surf they carried an infant daughter 
 of one of their Tahitian women in a barrel to protect her 
 from the ocean spray. They then took everything they 
 desired from the ship and set it on fire, that it might not 
 be a means of their being discovered. 
 
 Pitcaim Island, which they had now made their 
 home, was discovered by the English captain, Philip 
 Carteret, on the 2d of July, 1767, and by him named 
 Pitcaim after a midshipman who was the first to see it. 
 It is situated at latitude 25° south and longitude 13O0 
 west, and is part of the Pearl, or Tuamotu, group, being 
 one hundred miles south of Oeno, of this group. It is 
 five and a half miles in circumference and two and a half 
 in diameter, and rises at its highest point in a central 
 ridge 1,109 '^s* above the ocean. At its northern ex- 
 tremity there is another peak that faces Bounty Bay with 
 great precipices. This island has no coral reef, but its 
 
346 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 shores rise abruptly in steep and rugged basaltic cliffs, 
 which preclude the possibility of landing except at two 
 or three points. Near the bay is a plateau of fertile land 
 of four hundred feet elevation above the ocean, and be- 
 yond this there is a little valley. Water is scarce, and 
 for this reason it is customary to collect it in tanks 
 during times of rain. 
 
 At the latitude of Pitcairn cocoanut and breadfruit 
 trees do not thrive well ; but bananas, oranges, pine- 
 apples, and the yam, sweet-potato, and taro, have been 
 successfully cultivated on this island. When the 
 mutineers arrived there was here a luxuriant vegeta- 
 tion of palms, pandanus, and grand banyan trees ; and 
 brilliant vines overran the rocks and hung veils of beauty 
 adown the faces of the precipices. The island seemed 
 to be just the place they desired, a place where they 
 might realize the poet's dream of uninterrupted enjoy- 
 ment : 
 
 " Never comes the trader, never floats a European flag. 
 Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the 
 crag. 
 
 Here the passions, cramped no longer, should have scope and 
 
 breathing space. 
 They would take their savage women ; these should rear their 
 
 dusky race. 
 Iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, they should dive, and they should run> 
 Catch the wild goats by the hair and hurl their lances in the sun." 
 
 But there were elements in the characters of these 
 men that made an elysium for them impossible. The 
 restless waters that beat on the shores of their island 
 were not more turbulent than the passions that surged 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 347 
 
 in their minds, and were yet to change their paradise 
 into a hell. 
 
 The number of people who first settled here was 
 twenty-eight. It consisted of nine white men, four 
 Tahitian men, two Austral men, twelve Tahitian women 
 and one infant Tahitian girl. The names of the white 
 men were Fletcher Christian, John Mills, Isaac Martin, 
 William Brown, Matthew Quintal, John Williams, Ed- 
 ward Young, William McCoy, and John Adams, whose 
 name in the ship records was Alexander Smith. 
 
 For a few days these people lived in tents while they 
 were building houses, which they erected on the plateau 
 near the bay. Then they began to clear the land for 
 cultivation, and divided it among themselves. They 
 gave no land to the natives, and the natives quietly sub- 
 mitted, as they expected to be only servants to the 
 whites. In clearing the land the mutineers left a row of 
 trees between the village and the sea, to conceal the 
 houses from passing ships. They also left a cluster of 
 trees at the mouth of a cave in a secluded part of the 
 island, as they proposed to hide there in case they should 
 be pursued. 
 
 For two years this little community lived in peace, 
 cultivating the ground with seeds and plants they had 
 brought from Tahiti, and providing themselves with 
 whatever they could contrive for their comfort. Then 
 there began a struggle among them that reminds one of 
 the war that Rev. John Williams found at Hervey Island, 
 by which the population of that island was reduced 
 from two thousand to seven. In this struggle there was 
 
348 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 an illustration of the proverb that there is generally a 
 woman in every trouble ; for the occeasion of the con- 
 troversy was the death of Williams' wife, who fell from a 
 precipice while collecting birds' eggs. Williams demand- 
 ed that another wife should be given to him, and finally 
 appropriated a wife of one of the native men. Then the 
 natives conspired to kill all the whites. They would 
 have succeeded in doing so if the women had not di- 
 vulged the plot by singing the words, 
 
 " Why does black man sharpen axe ? 
 To kill white men." 
 
 Hearing this song, Christian seized his gun and went 
 in search of the native men. Finding one of them he dis- 
 charged his gun, loaded only with powder, to show that 
 the plot was discovered. The native then fled to the 
 woods, and soon with the other natives sued for pardon. 
 This was granted on condition that they would kill two 
 of their ringleaders. One of these, thehusband of the 
 woman Williams had taken, was killed, horrible to tell, 
 by this woman herself, and the other by other natives. 
 
 For two years now there was peace on the island ; 
 but the situation was anything but delightful. Desper- 
 adoes such as these and their savage wives could not 
 long continue in tranquil enjoyment. Often were to be 
 heard the loud altercations of the men contending with 
 each other, or the screams of the women receiving chas- 
 tisement from their husbands. Always the men were 
 in painful anxiety lest their retreat should be discovered 
 and they taken to punishment. Much of the time one 
 of their number sat on a high rock, called "Lookout 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK I.LANDS. 349 
 
 Rock, '' watching for any war-vessel that might approach 
 to search for them. As they passed tedious hours in 
 this way they suffered from the monotony of their life, 
 homesick desire for the friends from whom they had 
 been long separated, remorse for the crimes they had 
 committed, and dread of the retribution that surely 
 awaited them. They had sought low sensual pleasures, 
 but now they found these as unsatisfactory as the brine 
 of the sea to the thirst ; they had fled from civilization, 
 but they needed to fly from themselves ; and they could 
 no more escape from trouble than withdraw their island 
 from the ocean that surrounded it. 
 
 The oppressive conduct of two of the men. Quintal 
 and McCoy, finally moved the natives to conspire again 
 to destroy all the whites. Taking some guns, with the 
 pretense of shooting hogs, they shot Christian, as he was 
 at work in his yam patch, and then killed four of the 
 other men. There now remained only four white men 
 on the island : Adams, Quintal, Young and McCoy. 
 These with the aid of the women killed the remaining 
 native men, completing the terrible work on the 3d of 
 October 1793. The next tragic event was the death 
 of McCoy, who distilled intoxicating liquor from 
 the sweet roots of the Ti plant (draccma terminalis), 
 and in a delirium of drunkenness threw himself over a 
 precipice. Not long after this Quintal lost his wife by 
 her falling over a precipice while hunting birds' eggs. 
 Forgetful of the former trouble that originated from such 
 a cause, he then insisted on taking one of the wives of 
 the other two men. Fearing that he would kill them 
 
3 so THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 to accomplish his purpose they attacked him, and 
 after a desperate struggle killed him with an axe. Thus 
 all but two of the white men came to sudden and vio- 
 lent deaths — terrible retibutions, it would seem, for the 
 mutiny they had committed ten years before. 
 
 There were now on the island the two surviving men, 
 Adams and Young, ten women and twenty-three chil- 
 dren. In the greater quiet that prevailed, these men 
 now meditated on their responsibility in the care of these 
 people and on the terrible wickedness of their lives. 
 Adams was first moved to this meditation by a dream. 
 The remembrance of religious instruction received in 
 childhood had remained under all his wild career, like 
 a spark buried under ashes, and now burst into flame. 
 Finding a Bible and prayer-book that had been pre- 
 served from the ship, he and Young endeavored to 
 give the little company under their care religious instruc- 
 tion. But Young did not long survive to aid in this 
 work : in the following year, 1 800, he died from asthma. 
 
 Adams now, with genuine repentance of his former 
 evil life, devoted himself to the religious education of 
 the women and children. It was just the time when 
 such education could be most successfully given to the 
 the children, for the oldest of them was not over ten 
 years of age ; and the situation in this secluded island, 
 away from the contaminating influences of evil society, 
 was as favorable for their training as that of the most 
 isolated monasteries or nunneries. 
 
 After this, the little colony on this island led a quiet, 
 peaceful and virtuous life. They began and closed 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 35 1 
 
 each day with prayer and praise to God. They spent 
 much time in labor, the men cultivating the fields, fish- 
 ing in the surrounding ocean, constructing houses and 
 canoes, and hunting wild goats and hogs, the women 
 making cloth from the bark of the paper-mulberr}', and 
 mats and hats from palm and pandanus leaves. In pro- 
 cess of time the patriarch Adams was called to perform 
 wedding ceremonies for the young people that grew up. 
 Rings, ingeniously fashioned out of sea-shells, were used 
 to seal the marriage vows, and new cottages were built 
 for the new families. The little village thus enlarged on 
 the plateau became very attractive, with embowering 
 palm, banana and cocoanut trees, a grand banyan at one 
 extremity, the great mountain peak standing guard near 
 by, and a magnificent outlook over the ocean. 
 
 Eight years were thus passed in utter seclusion from 
 the outside world, and then a startling event occurred : 
 a ship arrived ; the first ship that had visited the island 
 since the mutiny. Twenty years had passed without the 
 civilized world knowing anything about the mutineers or 
 their descendants. To the young Pitcairners this ship 
 was about as wonderful as Capt. Cook's ships to the Ha- 
 waiians, who thought them islands covered with trees. 
 A young woman ran to Adams telling him that an upset 
 shed, with its roof in the water and its posts standing 
 mid-air, was floating towards the island. He at once 
 understood that a ship was coming. It was the Topaz, of 
 Nantucket, Capt. Mayhew Folger, on a sealing voyage to 
 the South Pacific. It arrived at Pitcairn on the 7th of 
 February, 1808. Capt. Folger was surprised to see 
 
352 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 smoke rising from the island, for it had been reported 
 to be uninhabited. He despatched two boats to search 
 on the shore for seals ; as these boats approached the 
 land they were met by three men in a canoe. The men 
 spoke English, and stated that there was a white man on 
 the island. Capt. Folger and his crew were cordially 
 welcomed and delightfully entertained by the Pitcaimers. 
 On returning to England Capt. Folger reported his dis- 
 covery of the descendants of the mutineers, describing 
 them as "a very humane and hospitable people," and 
 Adams as " a reformed and worthy man, " 
 
 For six more years this island remained in isolation 
 from the rest of the world ; and then the British war- 
 ships Briton and Tagus arrived on their way from the Mar- 
 quesas to Valparaiso. The people on these ships were 
 surprised to see well-constructed houses and cultivated 
 fields on the island ; and still more were they surprised 
 when two young men, who paddled off in a canoe, called 
 out in English, "Wont you heave us a rope now?" 
 The young men were cordially received on board the 
 ships. One of them gave his name as Thursday October 
 Christian, a name given to commemorate the time of his 
 birth. He was "a tall, handsome young man, about 
 twenty-four years of age. His scanty clothing consisted 
 of a waist-cloth, while he wore a broad-brimmed straw 
 hat adorned with black cocks' feathers." His compan- 
 ion, George Young, was "a fine noble-looking youth, 
 seventeen or eighteen years of age." These young men 
 were invited into the cabin and to a repast. Before par- 
 taking of food they rose and reverently asked the divine 
 
rR», 
 
 
 1**^' 
 
 ^t^"'/^^•' 
 
 ;J^ 
 
 
 
 ^'S'-tJ oX W ^ K f 
 
 < >r 
 
 EC O 
 
 ffi t 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 353 
 
 blessing. The people on the ships were much amused 
 at their curious inquiries about whatever they saw on 
 the ship. Seeing a cow, they inquired whether it was 
 a "huge goat or a homed sow." John Adams had 
 resolved to give himself up to these ships for trial by 
 the British government ; but the Tahitian women en- 
 treated so earnestly with tears that he should not be 
 taken from them that he was permitted to remain on 
 the island. 
 
 In October, 1823, the English whaleship Cyrus, 
 Capt. Hall, visited this island, and at Adams' request left 
 on shore a young man, by the name of John Buffett, to 
 assist in instructing the children. A friend of Buffett, 
 John Evans, nineteen years old, at the same time de- 
 serted the ship, hiding in a hollow tree, and remained on 
 the island. It became apparent soon after why he had 
 left the ship. He asked the hand of Adams' daughter. 
 The old man hesitated to give her to a stranger, and 
 referred the matter to the young woman. She replied, 
 "Try it. Daddy." They were then married. Buffett 
 also was married, obtaining for his bride Dorothy, a 
 daughter of Edward Young. About this time a way- 
 ward daughter of Quintal was so harshly treated by her 
 brother that she went on a passing ship to Rurutu, of 
 the Austral group, and there became the wife of a chief, 
 and reared a numerous family. It was this woman that 
 in 1833 applied to Alexander and Whitney, of the Ha- 
 waiian Islands, when they were visiting Rurutu, to 
 baptize her children. (See Chapter IX.) 
 
 A very interesting account has been given by Capt 
 
354 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 F. W. Beechey of a visit he made to Pitcairn in the 
 British war-ship Blossom in 1825. Adams, then sixty- 
 five years old, went on board this ship, the first he had 
 boarded since the mutiny, and persuaded the captain to 
 marry him to his wife. He was described as "a bald, 
 corpulent man, dressed in a sailor's shirt, trowsers, and 
 a low-crowned hat. " At that time there were sixty-one 
 persons on the island, of whom twenty-six were adults 
 and thirty-five children. Like the other descendants of 
 white men married to Poljmesian women, they were a 
 fine handsome people, of tall stature, well-proportioned, 
 and very vigorous. The average height of the men was 
 five feet and nine inches. "The women also were 
 above the common height ; they were muscular from 
 climbing the mountains ; their complexion was fairer 
 than that of the men, and of a gypsy color, their hair 
 was dark and glossy, and hung over their shoulders in 
 long waving tresses, that were nicely oiled, tastefully 
 turned back from the forehead and temples, and bound 
 in place by chaplets of red and white aromatic blos- 
 soms." 
 
 Capt. Beechy and his officers were very cordially 
 entertained by the Pitcarimers two days on shore. They 
 were feasted on pigs, chickens, yams and sweet pota- 
 toes that had been cooked in the earth, wrapped with 
 hot stones in ti leaves. At nightfall torches of kukui nuts, 
 strung on the midrib of the cocoanut leaf, were lighted 
 in the houses, and religious worship was conducted. 
 The bedding in which they slept consisted of mats and 
 cloth made from the wauki, or paper-mulberry tree. 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 355 
 
 Capt. Beechey found that the people were all thoroughly 
 versed in Bible history, and described them as "guileless 
 and unsophisticated beyond conception." 
 
 In the year 1828 a Mr. George Huns Nobbs, who 
 had led an adventurous life, having been a midshipman 
 in the British navy, a captive in Spain, and there a while 
 under sentence of death till released by exchange of pris- 
 oners, and having gone four times round the world, at- 
 tracted by the accounts he read of Pitcaim Island started 
 to go thither from London. On his way he arrived at 
 Valparaiso, and obtained a boat, in which with one 
 companion he made the voyage of 2,000 miles to Pit- 
 cairn. Old Adams welcomed him, and perceiving that 
 he was a worthy and well-educated man employed him 
 as a school teacher, and finally as a minister of the gos- 
 pel. He was married to Sarah Christian, a grand- 
 daughter of the mutineer Fletcher Christian, and the 
 materials of his boat were used to construct a house for 
 him. 
 
 For many years the remuneration Mr. Nobbs re- 
 ceived for his services was very scanty, so poor were 
 the islanders. In 1844 he thus wrote to a clergyman in 
 Valparaiso: "My stock of clothing which I brought 
 from England is, as you may suppose, very nearly ex- 
 hausted, and I have no friends there to whom I can 
 with propriety apply for more. Until the last three 
 years it was my custom to wear a black coat on the 
 Sabbath ; but since that period I have been obliged to 
 substitute a nankeen jacket of my own making. My 
 only remaining coat, which is quite threadbare, is re- 
 
356 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 served for marriages and burials ; so that it is customary 
 to say when a wedding is going to take place, ' Teach- 
 er, you will have to put on your coat next Sunday,' 
 which is equivalent to informing me that a couple are 
 to be married." He was afterwards very kindly and 
 abundantly provided for both by the islanders and by 
 friends abroad. 
 
 After the death of Adams, which occurred on the 
 29th of March, 1829, it became necessary to appoint 
 a magistrate and enact laws. An election was held, 
 the women voting as well as the men, and a son of 
 Quintal was elected magistrate, and seven other men 
 chosen to act as a parliament. A code of laws was then 
 carefully written. The introduction of intoxicating 
 liquors was forbidden, except for medicinal purposes. 
 Women were forbid to go on board of ships, except by 
 the magistrates' permission and in company with four 
 men of the island. It was forbidden to kill cats, unless 
 they were positively detected in killing fowls. Any 
 one violating this ordinance was required to destroy 
 three hundred rats, submitting their tails for inspec- 
 tion to the magistrate. The reason for this law was 
 the great number of rats, which did much damage to su- 
 gar cane. 
 
 At length it became a serious question whether the 
 limited resources of this island would much longer sus- 
 tain its increasing population. The British government 
 therefore arranged for a tract of land in Tahiti to 
 be assigned to the Pitcaimers, and in February, 1831, 
 conveyed them all thither. But soon after their arrival 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 3S7 
 
 in this new home a fever broke out aiaong them and 
 caused the deaths of fourteen ; they were also much 
 distressed at the immorality of the Tahitians. They 
 therefore all returned to Pitcairn five months after their 
 departure from that island. 
 
 Afterwards the British government again became 
 anxious lest the Pitcairners should fail to gain a suffi- 
 cient livelihood from their little island ; for occasionally 
 drouths diminished their crops and supply of water. 
 They therefore granted them Norfolk Island, and in 
 April, 1856, transported them all thither. 
 
 Norfolk Island is situated 400 miles northwest of 
 New Zealand, in latitude 29° 10' south and longitude 
 1670 58' east. Near it are Nepean and Philip Islands 
 and some rocks called Bird Islands. Norfolk Island is 
 about five miles long, two and a half miles broad, has 
 an area of 8,607 acres, is generally about 400 feet 
 high above the sea, and rises at its highest point to an 
 elevation of 1,050 feet. The soil consists of decom- 
 posed basalt and is very fertile. The noble Norfolk 
 Pine {Eulassa excelsa) abounds, also maples, iron-wood, 
 palms and gigantic ferns. Oranges, lemons, guavas, 
 bananas, peaches, figs and pineapples have been intro- 
 duced, also potatoes, yams, maize and various cereals. 
 
 Norfolk Island was discovered by Capt. Cook in 
 1774, and colonized with convicts from New South 
 Wales in 1787. At one time the number of these 
 settlers was 2,000; but before 1856 they were removed 
 because the people of New Zealand objected to the use 
 of this island as a penal station. 
 
35^ THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 The Pitcairners arrived at this island on the 8th of 
 June, 1856, after a voyage of thirty-six days. They 
 found excellent houses of stone in readiness for them, 
 and also delightful gardens, and an abundance of cattle 
 and sheep. They were able to procure plentiful supplies 
 of fish from the surrounding waters and rabbits from a 
 neighboring island. They were visited and kindly pro- 
 vided with flour and other necessary articles by Bishop 
 Patteson, who afterwards established his missionary 
 school for the natives of the Loyalty groups on the op- 
 posite side of this island. 
 
 The change from Pitcaim to this productive island 
 would seem to have been most delightful ; but soon two 
 families became homesick for their old home — the fam- 
 ilies of Moses Young and Mayhew Young, sixteen in 
 number; and in the latter part of the year 1858 they 
 returned thither. They found Pitcaim, after its long 
 abandonment, overgrown with vegetation, the orange 
 and breadfruit trees loaded with fruit, yams and potatoes 
 abundant in the fields, and chickens, pigs and goats 
 roaming everywhere. In process of time four more fam- 
 ilies returned to Pitcaim, although Bishop Patteson en- 
 treated them to remain where they had educational and 
 religious privileges. Two young men, however, of these 
 families, Edwin Nobbs and Fisher Young, remained 
 with Bishop Patteson, to attend his school and prepare 
 for missionary work. These young men went on a mis- 
 sionary voyage with Bishop Patteson and were attacked 
 and killed by the natives of Santa Cruz. The families 
 that returned to Pitcaim have ever since remained in that 
 
PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 359 
 
 lonely island, away from the stirring activities of the civ- 
 ilized world, content and happy in the unchanging mo- 
 notony of life, 
 
 " Where all things always seem the same." 
 
 The number of people now on the island is one hundred 
 and thirty. 
 
 In the year 1886 Rev. John I. Tay, a missionary of 
 the Seventh-Day Adventists of America, visited the Pit- 
 caimers and persuaded them to adopt Saturday as their 
 Sabbath. The Christian people of England expressed 
 much regret at this event. It might be said that the fact 
 that those who go from England to this island by the 
 way of Cape Horn gain a day in reckoning on those who 
 go thither by the way of the Cape of Good Hope — the 
 Sabbath of the former coming on Sunday and that of the 
 latter on Saturday — indicates that neither of these days 
 should be very strenuously insisted upon as the only one 
 to be kept sacred. 
 
 In their lonely retreat the Pitcairners have greatly 
 enjoyed the visits of the mission brig Pitcaim, of the 
 Seventh-Day Adventists, whereby they have been kept in 
 touch with the civilized world. They will doubtless be 
 led to embark with the Adventists in mission enterprises 
 to the natives of New Guinea and other islands, while 
 the Norfolk Islanders are likewise engaging in the Me- 
 lanesian mission. Thus the descendants of the wild 
 mutineers of the ship Bounty have become a new force 
 in the missionary enterprises of the Pacific. 
 
 The beautiful development that has been on this isl- 
 land, from its former pandemonium into its present Eden, 
 
360 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 is one of the marvels of our times. Plainly it is to be 
 attributed to Christianity ; to God's blessing on the truth 
 of the Bible and on education of children in that truth. 
 Through this divine blessing good has here been brought 
 out of evil, light out of darkness, virtue out of vice ; "in- 
 stead of the thorn has come up the fir tree, and instead 
 of the briar the myrtle tree." 
 
CONCLUSION. 361 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 From the information acquired concerning the Pacific 
 Islands and their peoples many truths of great interest 
 and importance may be derived, which it seems desirable 
 to recapitulate and more fully consider in this final chapter. 
 Of the truths derived from the natural phenomena only 
 a summary can here be given. From the nature of the 
 coral polyps, and the depths below and heights above the 
 ocean-level to which their formations extend, it has been 
 inferred, as has been mentioned, that in very ancient 
 times there was a vast subsidence and subsequently a vast 
 upheaval of the islands of that ocean. From the fact 
 that these islands and their major axes extend in lines of 
 direction that form the same angles with the Equator, as 
 does the Ecliptic, it has been inferred that cosmic as well 
 as terrestrial forces produce the subsidence and the up- 
 heaval. These forces are supposed to have been those 
 of the Sun and Moon in conjunction during the solstices 
 and equinoxes, and those occasioned by the contraction 
 of the Earth and its consequent surface-folding during its 
 process of cooling. From the fact that the flora and 
 
362 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 fauna of the various islands are generally of identical 
 species it has been inferred that at a very ancient period 
 the islands were connected by stretches of land, that is, 
 that an extensive territory, like the mythical Atlantis, has 
 been submerged in that ocean. From the vast extent 
 and depth of the Pacific, and the ascertained laws of 
 planets in revolution it has been inferred that the cavity 
 of that ocean was formed by the separation therefrom at 
 a very ancient period of the mass of the Earth which now 
 constitutes the Moon. From the flora and fauna of the 
 Gallipagos Islands Charles Darwin derived his first sug- 
 gestions of his Theory of Evolution by natural selection. 
 From the flora and fauna of the Java Group Alfred Rus- 
 sell Wallace derived the same theory. From the beautiful 
 Achitinellinae shells, that abound on trees in the Hawaiian 
 Islands, Rev. John T. Gulick deduced truths that seem to 
 modify and to a great extent refute the theories of Darwin 
 and Wallace. 
 
 From the accounts given in the foregoing pages of the 
 productions and exports of the Pacific Islands it may be 
 inferred that those islands are destined to become in the 
 future of greater economic importance than has been 
 generally realized. Heretofore they have been regarded 
 chiefly as delightful little Elysiums, interesting fields for 
 missionary enterprise, or mere strategic points for the 
 naval and commercial control of the ocean. Yet they 
 have, in proportion to their areas, as excellent resources 
 for producing wealth, as have the agricultural lands on 
 the continents, and, in the aggregate, they rival in area, 
 and may yet rival in productions some of the greatest 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 363 
 
 countries in the world. In the following table their areas, 
 populations, and the present values of their exports are 
 given. 
 
 
 AREAS IN 
 
 
 VALUES 
 
 NAMES OF GROUPS 
 
 SQUARE 
 
 POPULATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 
 MILES 
 
 
 EXPORTS 
 
 Hawaiian Islands 
 
 6,454 
 
 ii;4,ooo 
 
 $ 36,171,526 
 
 Society " 
 
 462 
 
 "15,674 
 
 360,000 
 
 Tuanotu " 
 
 35° 
 
 3,600 
 
 181,826 
 
 Marquesas " 
 
 480 
 
 4,500 
 
 40,000 
 
 Cook " . . . . 
 
 142 
 
 5,961 
 
 191,225 
 
 Tonga " 
 
 374 
 
 20,000 
 
 589,266 
 
 Samoa '■ 
 
 1,160 
 
 38,972 
 
 654,620 
 
 Fiji " . . . . 
 
 7,740 
 
 121,773 
 
 2,931,186 
 
 New Hebrides " 
 
 5,110 
 
 50,000 
 
 
 Solomon " . . . . 
 
 16,000 
 
 167,000 
 
 1 50,000 
 
 New Zealand " 
 
 104,471 
 
 819,237 
 
 63,230,805 
 
 New Caledonia" . . . . 
 
 6,534 
 
 52,756 
 
 400,000 
 
 Sumatra " 
 
 161,612 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 
 New Guinea " . . . , 
 
 313,183 
 
 468,000 
 
 
 Celebes " 
 
 71,150 
 
 923,893 
 
 3,580,000 
 
 Borneo " 
 
 284,000 
 
 1,865,000 
 
 10,250,000 
 
 Java " 
 
 50,390 
 
 26,125,053 
 
 100,369,300 
 
 Philippine " 
 
 '27.853 
 
 6,975,073 
 
 29,000,000 
 
 Formosa " 
 
 13,580 
 
 2,797,543 
 
 7,800,000 
 
 Japan " 
 
 162,153 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 104,380,800 
 
 Ladrone " 
 
 430 
 
 10,938 ) 
 36,000 > 
 48,600) 
 
 
 Caroline " .... 
 
 560 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 Marshall & Gilbert.... 
 
 325 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,334,513 
 
 93-705,573 
 
 $363,280,554 
 
 
 As may be readily understood, none of the islands, 
 mentioned in the above table, are yielding as great ex- 
 ports as they would if their resources were fully developed 
 In most of them only a fourth of their resources has been 
 developed. In some of the largest of them, as in New 
 
364 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Guinea, Sumatra, and the Solomon Group, hardly a begin- 
 ning has been made of exporting their productions. Yet 
 we may obtain from the above table a criterion for esti- 
 mating to what extent the aggregate exports of all of 
 them may be increased. This we can do by seeking our 
 data from the most developed islands. As the islands 
 are of two kinds, those of volcanic formation, and those of 
 coral formation, our data should be taken from both these 
 kinds. Of the former kind the most developed are the 
 Hawaiian. But in the Hawaiian Islands there still are 
 extensive, productive lands that have not been brought 
 under cultivation. Of the latter kind the most developed 
 are the Tongan. But in the Tongan Islands hardly a 
 third of their cultivable area has been utilized. It seems 
 conservative to take for our data the value per square 
 mile of the present exports of the Hawaiian Group and 
 twice the value per square mile of those of the Tongan 
 Group. The mean of these values is {§4.3777. This we 
 take to be the average value per square mile to which the 
 aggregate exports of the islands may be increased. Mul- 
 tiplying this amount by the number of square miles in 
 the aggregate area of the groups, we ascertain that the 
 aggregate value to which the exports of all the groups may 
 be developed is $5,841,163,401. 
 
 That the resources of the islands will be as greatly 
 developed as these figures indicate may seem improbable. 
 But, undoubtedly, the growing necessities of the great 
 countries bordering on the Pacific, as well as those of the 
 Test of the world, will tax to the utmost all the resources 
 of the islands, and the future vast trans-Pacific commerce 
 
CONCLUSION. 365 
 
 will stimulate to the highest development the industrial 
 enterprises of the islands, so that the islands will yield 
 almost all that their resources can produce. Doubtless 
 no one can form an adequate conception of the greatness 
 of the future commerce of this part of the world. 
 
 From these facts we learn how urgent is the necessity 
 of enterprises for uplifting the inhabitants of the islands 
 into genuine civilization, and how important it is to de- 
 termine which of these enterprises will be the most suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 From the past history of the islanders we learn that, 
 without assistance, they cannot rise into civilization. 
 Bishop Richard Whately has declared that " there is no 
 one instance of any savage people in the world rising into 
 a civilized condition, without instruction and assistance 
 from people already civilized. Whenever civilization has 
 been introduced into such a people, it has been intro- 
 duced not from within, but from without." This has been 
 true of the Pacific Islanders. Throughout the long past 
 ages of their paganism not a single tribe of them spon- 
 taneously rose to better eniightment and better con- 
 ditions. 
 
 From that history we learn also that the islanders 
 cannot be uplifted by the mere influences of civilization. 
 It has been generally supposed that the establishment of 
 commerce, the introduction of the superior implements 
 and the choicest fabrics of enlightened countries, instruc- 
 tion in mechanical arts, and fellowship with people of 
 civilized nations would very powerfully awake and elevate 
 barbarous tribes. A popular journalist, who happened to 
 
366 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 land in Hawaii on Sunday and found its business houses 
 closed on that day, published the view that Honolulu was 
 a "piety-stricken city," and that the missionaries had 
 made a great mistake in teaching the Hawaiians the stern 
 tenets of Puritanism, instead of giving them instruction 
 more in conformity with the beauty of their scenery, and 
 leading them with poetry and song into high culture and 
 refinement. But the influences of civilization have never 
 been of power to cause the moral renovation that is essen- 
 tial for the beginning of true civilization. It has been 
 true of the people of the Pacific, as of all the heathen 
 races elsewhere, that they have needed provision for their 
 spiritual wants before they would accept civilization. In 
 many islands the natives have refused to put on clothes, 
 and have preferred to bask in the sun, feeding on the 
 spontaneous fruits of their forests, instead of laboring in 
 the enterprises of civilization, and have only at last ac- 
 cefited clothing when they have become Christian. A 
 few chiefs from different groups have been taken to Europe 
 and America, clothed in the best style of civilized people, 
 shown the splendors of modern arts, and lavishly supplied 
 with the means of living in enlightened style, and have 
 returned to their homes to be only more evil and bar- 
 barous than before. A philanthropist once look a plough 
 into the interior of Africa and showed the natives how to 
 use it. As they saw it turning up more sod in an hour 
 than they could dig up in a month they danced and turned 
 somersaults in delight. But when a few days afterward 
 he returned to see how they had succeeded in using it, he 
 found that they had turned it upside down, covered it 
 
CONCLUSION. 367 
 
 with flowers, and were worshipping it. They had deeper 
 wants than to be supplied with the mere implements of 
 civilization, and till those wants were supplied it was use- 
 less to endeavor to civilize them. We might as well ex- 
 pect that the winged seeds and butterflies that sometimes 
 are blown into the volcanic craters of Hawaii would there 
 cause a kingdom of life, as to suppose that the useful and 
 ornamental arts of civilization, when introduced into a 
 pagan country, would develop a pure and noble people. 
 
 But the influences from civilized countries, when not 
 accompanied by Christianity, have not been only useless, 
 but also harmful. They have only awakened cupidity, 
 instigated robberies, murders and piracies, and have been 
 accompanied by an immorahty that has been more degrad- 
 ing and deadly than heathenism itself. And thus the 
 worst developments of the islanders have been where they 
 have had the most contact with civilized races, and the 
 best where they have been secluded from such races. 
 
 Nor can the Pacific Islanders be uplifted by the in- 
 fluences of spurious Christianity. In a preceding chapter 
 we considered the striking illustration of this fact afforded 
 in the history of the Marquesans. By that history it was 
 shown that,at the coming of the white men, the Marquesans 
 were physically and mentally the finest of the Polynesian 
 races, and that the inhabited islands the best calculated 
 to develop a vigorous courageous and independent-spirited 
 people ; it was shown also that for sixty years they were 
 under the training of an able force of Roman Catholics, 
 aided by the wealth, the military power and the civil 
 Government of France, and that now they are unchanged 
 
368 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 in character, ready, whenever the French police shall be 
 withdrawn, to return to barbarism and cannibalism, and 
 dying off at the rate of seven per cent per annum. 
 
 - Many simular illustrations may be given ; as those of 
 the results of the labors of the Roman Catholic mission- 
 aries among the tribe called " Hauhaus," in New Zealand, 
 among the natives of the Philippine Islands, and among 
 those of Guam. It would be difficult to find in all the 
 world a pagan tribe which Roman Catholic missionaries, 
 unaided by evangelical Christians, have, during the past 
 three hundred years, uplifted into genuine Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 On the other hand, we have in the history of the 
 Pacific Islands numerous illustrations of the success of 
 evangelical missionaries in uplifting pagan tribes of various 
 races and in various environments into genuine Christian 
 civilization. We have seen that, just as far as evangelical 
 missionaries have had opportunity, they have been able, 
 through God's blessing, to deliver the islanders from their 
 primeval heathenism and savagery, to advance them to- 
 ward civilization, and to conserve them from extinction 
 as races. In the Tongan, Cook, Society and Samoan 
 Groups and in New Zealand the native populations have 
 been lately increasing, and in the other groups under 
 missionary care the rate of decimation has been greatly 
 diminished. Whoever, with candid mind, goes through 
 the Pacific Islands receives, as it were, a new proclamation 
 of the Gospel — a proclamation, not by words, but by 
 achievements, that Christ is saving lost men. 
 
 These successes indicate that the Christian denomi- 
 
CONCLUSION. 369 
 
 nations, conducting missionary enterprises in the Pacific 
 Islands, are essentially one. Since these denominations 
 have been alike successful, their success is to be attributed, 
 not to the matters in which they differ, but to those in 
 which they agree ; and it must be admitted that by their 
 agreement they are in fact, as they should be in form, 
 ONE. 
 
 These successes indicate, also, that Christianity can and 
 will transform the world. From a small portion of arc 
 we can determine the circuit the arc is calculated to pro- 
 duce. According to a Japanese proverb, we can learn the 
 f.uture from the past. This is scientific ; for all science 
 is built on inductions ; from the known to the unknown. 
 Thus from the history of Christianity in the Pacific Islands 
 we caia forecast its future course throughout the world. 
 As in those islands it has transformed the most degraded, 
 obdurate, and hopeless races, it can transform all races. 
 
 These successes prove, also, the truth of Christianity. 
 The triumphs of Missions are of apologetic value. They 
 afford the evidence of which Christ taught when he said 
 " By their fruits ye shall know them." They show that 
 Christianity produces good fruit. They show that so far 
 as Christianity prevails, it makes heaven on earth, and 
 prepares for the Heaven above. 
 
 The religion that is of such truth, and produces such 
 results every one should accept. The enterprises that are 
 extending this religion throughout the world every one 
 should strive to promote.