CHAPTER XIII.

THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.

Pacific character when first discovered-Captain Cook's visit and narrow escape-Self-mutilation-European and American vagabonds-The Duff missionaries-Finau-Defection of George Veeson-Funeral obsequies-Civil war-Three missionaries murdered-Escape of the survivors-General notice of the islands—Mr Lawry's first visit-Arrival of Mr Thomas-His failure at Hihifo-Singular incident-Removal to the Hapai Islands-Abolition of idolatry-Baptismal names-Perils by land and sea-Religious wars— -Romanist rivals-Mr Lawry's second visit-King George-Native preachers.

No better illustration of the old maxim, that evil communications corrupt good manners, need be sought than in the deteriorating influence exercised upon the natives of the Friendly Islands by their intercourse with the Fijians. At the time of their discovery by Jansen Tasman, in 1643, they are described as the most unwarlike of men, being absolutely destitute of weapons of offence, and, with the exception of a certain proneness to thieving, a singularly blameless race. No priests, idols, or temples were to be seen, and the only object of reverence appeared to be a harmless species of water-snake. They are further represented as being so scrupulous about taking life that they would not even kill a fly, though these insects swarmed in countless numbers, amounting almost to a plague. The

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loyal Dutchman, remembering his native land in every clime, bestowed the name of Amsterdam upon Tonga, of Rotterdam upon Nomuka, and of Middelburg upon Eua.

Exactly one hundred and thirty years later, Captain Cook landed upon Tonga, and was immediately conducted to a temple, containing two wooden images rudely carved. Thence he proceeded some little distance. into the interior along a level road, sixteen feet in breadth, passing through a luxuriant country cultivated with the nicety of a garden. On either side were planted productive fruit-trees, while the different plots of land were separated from one another by light fences made of reeds. The dwellings of the natives were remarkably neat, and they themselves appeared more desirous to obtain materials for clothing than iron or other commodities. This was in 1773, but by 1777 a still greater change had been effected.

In addition to the introduction of priestcraft and idolatry, warlike implements had become common, and the natives were evidently not less ferocious than the inhabitants of other Polynesian clusters. One of the common people who had offended a chief in a very trifling matter, was struck down by a club with such violence that the blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils. On recovering some degree of consciousness, he fell into convulsions, and was carried out of the way, the chief merely laughing when some apprehension was expressed that he might have killed the poor fellow.

A more notable example of their ferocity, however, was mercifully prevented by Providence. A plot had been formed to massacre Captain Cook and his officers at a dance by torchlight, but this plan was given up, lest those on

board the ships might take alarm and get away under cover of the darkness. It was then agreed to fall upon the strangers at a grand banquet, but, a dispute having arisen as to the proper moment for commencing the work of slaughter, a further adjournment took place, and before a third opportunity presented itself, the expedition had left the treacherous shores, ignorant of the conspiracy that had so nearly brought it to a premature termination. The name of Friendly Islands, which Captain Cook had conferred upon the group in acknowledgment of his hospitable reception in 1773, continued, therefore, to be applied, however inappropriately, and indeed has remained unchanged to the present day.

The ill-fated French navigator La Perouse touched at these islands in 1789, as also did Captain Edwards in the Pandora in 1791, when in search of the Bounty mutineers. Two years afterwards, D'Entrecasteaux became involved in several disputes with the natives during his three weeks' stay, many of the latter being killed and not a few of the Frenchmen wounded. At that time it was a rare thing to meet with an adult whose fingers had not been mutilated. The operation was effected in a very barbarous manner. The finger to be amputated being laid upon a block of wood, the edge of an axe or sharp stone was applied exactly to the joint and with a smart blow from a mallet was driven through from skin to skin. Not unfrequently men would hack off a joint with their own hand, working a sharp shell to and fro, and making a horribly jagged wound. The object was usually to check disease, evince sorrow, or propitiate a deity.

From this period the Friendly Islanders acted after a fashion quite unworthy of their name, and which fully

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justified the evil repute into which they speedily fell. They would do their best to break up into small parties any foreigners who might venture ashore, and then suddenly overpower and bind them to trees, sending off one of their comrades to the ship to negotiate a ransom in muskets and bags of gunpowder. They went even beyond this, and more than once seized upon trading ships after treacherously massacring the crew, one or two of whom they would save alive for the sake of their services in wartime. These European and American seamen were the source of unmitigated mischief. They introduced diseases previously unknown, taught the natives to use coarse and blasphemous language, stirred up enmity between rival chiefs, and added cock-fighting to the national pastimes. To the selfish opposition of these men, corrupted by intercourse with deserters and escaped convicts, the missionaries justly attributed a large share of the misfortunes that befell them. When the Duff arrived in 1797, there were two convicts, Ambler and Connelly, who had escaped thither from New South Wales, and who lost no opportunity of calumniating the missionaries and thwarting their benevolent labours.

Another obstacle was the difference of language from that which was spoken in the Society Islands, so that little if any assistance could be derived from the Tahitians who were on board. But, after all, the chief cause of failure lay in the mission itself.

Ten young men, very imperfectly educated, were suddenly turned adrift in an unknown country, among a cruel and treacherous people with whom they could hold no intercourse save through the medium of two ignorant ruffians, and cut off entirely from the civilised world. That success

should have been expected under such circumstances implies either a belief in modern miracles, or a sanguineness of disposition incompatible with the slightest practical knowledge of human nature. The mission consisted of a cabinetmaker, a weaver, a carpenter, a shopkeeper, a cotton-manufacturer, a tailor, a shoemaker, a hatter, a bricklayer, and one other whose antecedents are not stated. The idea seems to have been that these untrained, unmarried artisans and tradesmen should form a model village or society, whose superior neatness, comfort, and industry would convince the savages that men so moral, intelligent, and skilful must necessarily possess a better religion than themselves. The experiment naturally failed, though commenced under the most promising aspect.

Finau Ukalala, brother of the Finau so favourably mentioned by Captain Cook, readily promised his protection to the strangers, and even gave them a plot of ground measuring about five acres in extent, of which one-third was already stocked with yams and bananas. The missionaries at once set to work to reclaim the uncultivated portion of their garden-land—grubbing up old roots of trees, burning the grass, and sowing fruit and vegetable seeds. They also made an enclosure for their pigs, set up a forge, and prepared moulds for bricks. The natives looked on and wondered, occasionally stealing their tools and any trifles that might be lying about. That they did not plunder on a larger scale was owing to their fear of a cuckoo-clock, which they called Speaking Wood, and regarded as the abode of a spirit who would report their evil-doings to "the men from the sky." Under the impression that the earth and sky came into contact at the horizon, they believed that the missionaries had come that way from