current of natural affection, but which seems to have dried up when most needed. "I have been astonished," says Mr Williams, "to see the broad breast of a most ferocious savage heave and swell with strong emotion on bidding his aged father a temporary farewell. I have listened with interest to a man of milder mould, as he told me about his eldest son, his head, his face, his mien-the admiration of all who saw him. Yet this father assisted to strangle his son; and the son first-named buried his old father alive." A chief one day was dining with his son-in-law, a cooked iguana being provided for each. As the young man passed on the one intended for his senior, he accidentally broke off its tail. Nothing was said about the accident at the moment, and the relatives parted seemingly good friends; but at the first opportunity the chief slew his daughter's husband, to expiate the imaginary affront.

Where there is a multitude of wives, there is naturally much envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. A missionary's wife once asked a woman how it was that so many of her sex were noseless, and was told that the mutilation was the result of jealousy. If a wife became jealous of a co-mate, one or the other was certain to have her nose bitten or cut off. They would bite, kick, and cuff each other unmercifully, and even strive to slit the mouth open.

A worse evil arising out of polygamy was the frequency of infanticide, especially of female babes. Not only were drugs taken to produce sterility, but mechanical means were employed to destroy the child unborn. After birth, a male child was rarely done away with; but in the absence of a professional child-slayer, the mother herself would take the life of her female babe. The operation was horribly

simple. With two fingers she compressed the nostrils, while her thumb kept the little one's mouth shut. A convulsion ensued, and the vital spark was extinguished. Strange anomaly! parents would destroy their own children to make room for orphans, whom they brought up with infinite tenderness.

The sick and infirm were either strangled or buried alive, and a like fate awaited aged parents. Seldom less than two, and often four or five, wives were strangled to bear their deceased lord company in the world of spirits; and cases have occurred of as many as seventeen, and even eighty, wives being thus despatched. Natural death, it will be seen, was an exceptional occurrence, and the gradual decrease of the population is thus readily explained.

"

Cannibalism prevailed more generally among the Fijians than among any other of the Polynesian islanders, and is even now practised, when it can be done with the secrecy likely to ensure impunity. So recently as 1858, the intelligent missionary to whom such frequent allusion has been made, was constrained to admit that even then human bodies were sometimes eaten in connection with the building of a temple or canoe; or in launching a large canoe; or on taking down the mast of one which has brought some chief on a visit; or for the feasting of such as take tribute to a principal place. A chief has been known to kill several men for rollers, to facilitate the launching of his canoes, the "rollers" being afterwards cooked and eaten. Formerly a chief would kill a man or men on laying down a keel for a new canoe, and try to add one for each fresh plank. These were always eaten as "food for the carpenters." I believe that this is never done now; neither

is it now common to murder men in order to wash the deck of a new canoe with blood."

These are only a few of the cases which were held to require the death of a human being, and the serving up of his corpse as a dainty dish. The bodies of chiefs were seldom eaten, or of those who died of natural causes. Captives or enemies slain in war-time were preferred; but when these failed, obnoxious or friendless persons were substituted without, hesitation. When the supply was greater than could be disposed of while sweet and fresh, the head, hands, intestines, and even the whole trunk, were thrown away; at other times every part was consumed. When a body was baked whole, it was placed in the oven in a sitting posture, and when taken out was covered with black powder, and a wig clapped on its head. For boiling, the flesh was cut off from the bones; while for roasting, the limbs were separately disjointed, and the neck being cut through to the bone, the head was dexterously twisted off by a quick movement of the carver's hands. Women seldom partook of human flesh, though their own was preferred to that of men. The priests were prohibited from touching this unnatural food, so that it was said of the head, which no one cared to eat, that it was the priest's portion. A confirmed cannibal thought little of any other kind of flesh in comparison with that of his fellow-men. It is on record. that one particular Fijian must have eaten 900 bodies, without assistance from his neighbours. After his family had begun to grow up, he marked the number of corpses he demolished by placing in a line a stone for every fresh one. The Rev. R. B. Lyth found this line to measure 232 paces, while his companion counted 872 stones. Another

Missionary Life in the Southern

man-eater had consumed 48, when his Christianity put an end to the horrid "tale."

This slight sketch of the truly savage cha islanders may suffice to induce the reader lifelike delineation, Mr Williams's descripti when lashed into rage, and surprised off his control. "The forehead is suddenly filled w the large nostrils distend and smoke; the st grow red, and gleam with terrible flashings; stretched into a murderous and disdainful gr body quivers with excitement; every muscl and the clenched fist seems eager to bathe blood of him who has roused this demon of f

CHAPTER XV.

THE FIJI ISLANDS.

First mission to Lakemba-Discomforts-Experiences at Mbau, Rewa, and Viwa-Mission established at Somosomo-Scenes of horror-Removal of the missionaries-Light dawning upon Ono-Failure of the Lakemban expedition against Ono—Mr Watsford's labours and vexations-Mrs Hazlewood's perilous position-Romish priests.

Ir was not until the year 1835 that any attempt was made to form a missionary settlement in the Fiji Archipelago. The Windward Islanders had by that time been in some measure prepared for the reception of divine truths by their constant intercourse with the Friendly Islands. Not a few of the Tongans who were in the habit of repairing to Lakemba were Christian converts, and sufficiently in earnest to desire that others also should receive the good tidings which had reached themselves. A certain degree of curiosity, and even of interest, touching the characteristics of the "new religion," had thus been excited among the inhabitants of the eastern islands, and the way prepared for the friendly reception of the pale-faced foreigners, who arrived off Lakemba on the 12th October 1835.

The first missionaries who ventured upon this perilous undertaking were two Wesleyan ministers, the Rev. William Cross and the Rev. David Cargill, A.M., who sailed from Vavau with a warm letter of recommendation