with their faces touching the ground, before the sacred chiefs, when they walked out, particularly during tabu; and neither the king nor the priests were allowed to touch anything—even their food was put into their mouths by another person."

While this institution pressed upon all, except priests and chiefs, with crushing severity, it bore yet more hardly upon the women, who were, so to speak, excommunicated from the hour of their birth to that of their death. Their exultation, then, may be conceived when by a single daring act, savouring a little of theatrical ostentation and defiance, Rihoriho-the Liholiho of the American missionaries-abolished the tabu for ever, and proclaimed all things clean, and to be enjoyed in common, without difference of sex.

Having arranged the affair beforehand with the high priest and certain chiefs, of whose support he felt assured, the young monarch had two long tables spread in the open air, one for men, the other for women, according to ancient usage. As soon as the company had taken their seats, the king and his confidants joined the women, whom they invited to partake of the same dishes with themselves. When the multitude of spectators beheld this subversion of old prejudices, they raised a great shout, exclaiming that there was no more tabu, and that all food was common. The high priest thereupon rushed off to a neighbouring temple, which he set on fire with his own hands, and the example proved so contagious that in a few days not a temple in the island had escaped destruction.

The abolition of idolatry and the tabu was not, however, immediately followed by the introduction of Christianity.

The king himself seems to have been of a somewhat weak and impulsive character, shamefully addicted to intemperance, and sensible only in his sober moments. He was desirous, however, that his people should receive instruction from foreigners, and accordingly welcomed the American missionaries, notwithstanding the malicious counsels of the numerous European and American vagabonds in his service. He had sense enough in his lucid intervals to see that those good men were wholly disinterested, free from all personal ambition and covetousness, and only solicitous to promote the temporal and eternal happiness of himself and his subjects.

Two years later the American mission was strengthened by the zealous co-operation of Mr Ellis, accompanied by two gentlemen deputed by the London Missionary Society to inspect the work done, and the field for further exertion that still presented itself, in the Southern Ocean. A hybrid luxury had by that time crept into the islands most frequented by Europeans, and grotesquely incongruous scenes were daily witnessed. Extravagances in costume were constantly provocative of laughter. The chiefs were particularly partial to uniforms, though very few possessed an entire suit. They would content themselves, therefore, with a coat and cocked-hat without trousers, or even with a hat and shirt. Now and then a man, superlatively well dressed in his own estimation and in the eyes of his neighbours, would appear in a robe or coat of silk velvet or Canton crape, with a coarse red flannel shirt underneath, a foreign seaman's parti-coloured woollen cap on his head, a shoe on one foot and a stocking on another. An exceedingly stout lady one day waddled into church attired in a loose slip of white muslin, with

an immense French hat on her head, thick woodman's shoes on her feet, without socks or stockings, and a heavy silver-headed cane in her hand. The royal ladies, however, were both richly and elegantly dressed, while their manners and deportment were not unworthy of the most fashionable circles in London or Paris.

The chief obstacle to moral progress was the evil example and pernicious influence of the idle, profligate adventurers, who administered to the natural sensuality of the islanders, and even increased their original depravity. Diseases previously unknown now prevailed to a fatal extent, especially among the more wealthy natives who aspired to be Europeanised, till at last the people murmured against the missionaries, and accused them of praying their chiefs to death. The popular indignation, fanned by the insidious whisperings of dissolute foreigners, rose, indeed, to such a height that Mr Stewart narrowly escaped being stoned to death. Nevertheless, within ten years after the arrival of the American missionaries, many thousands of the natives had learned to read and write, and no fewer than six hundred had qualified themselves to become teachers of their less enlightened brethren, while an annual supply of 20,000 volumes on various subjects, mostly of an elementary character, failed to meet the evergrowing demand.

Christianity has long since been professed throughout the entire cluster, and not only have the crimes peculiar to idolatry almost wholly disappeared, but the morality of the natives will bear a favourable comparison with that of the bulk of European and American settlers. It must be admitted, however, that the direct action of the missionaries has been less prominent in the Sandwich Islands than in

Triumphs and Crosses.

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the other Polynesian groups. The good seed sown by them in other clusters, must be credited for producing the fruit which germinated almost spontaneously in Hawaii and Oahu. Their personal adventures may have been comparatively tame, and the risk they encountered little calculated to appal men whose hearts were steadfastly fixed upon their high calling, but not the less was their patience sorely tried, their feelings outraged, their motives calumniated, and their conduct ridiculed-though the worst offenders were not so much the barbarous islanders as their own countrymen and fellow-Christians.

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