Chapter V
centres of interest 1853-56

Let us now turn to the towns, districts and islands of the archipelago with which the missionaries were more intimately associated. Lakemba in the Lau group was the island on which the earliest missionaries Tahitian and European first settled. The King, Tuinayau, lived in Tumbou on the south coast near the shore of a harbour which could only be entered from the sea through a dangerous passage. Its course was tortuous, and the ebbing waters rushed swiftly toward the breaking waves. Scores of people have been drowned there. Cross and Cargill settled down just behind Tumbou at the foot of the hills and called the place Buthainambua. There were in all thirteen towns and villages on the island including four thousand inhabitants.¹ Ono-i-lau is away to the south in latitude 20° 40'S. It is really a cluster of small islands surrounded by a reef. There is no entrance deep enough for ships to pass through; the one to the north is difficult enough even for boats in calm weather. The population in our period was nearly five hundred; but only three of the islands were inhabited then and the vast majority of the inhabitants lived in Ono Levu the largest island. At the opposite end of the Lakemba circuit was Vanua Mbalavu containing about three thousand inhabitants, and two important towns Lomaloma and Yaro frequently mentioned in the records. On the eastern edge of the spacious lagoon lies the little island called Thikombia-page 38i-lau which must not be confused with Thikombia-i-ra to the north of Vanua Levu. The island of Munia near the southern entrance to the lagoon has an interesting history. The Lakemba circuit extended over about two hundred miles from north to south, and, for mission purposes, included twenty-four islands, but among these must be reckoned the three middle islands—Moala, Totoya and Matuku. In 1844 two Roman Catholic priests settled in Lakemba not far from the Methodist mission. They held on bravely through many trials and disappointments till 1855 when their mission in the Lau group was abandoned.

In the Leeward Islands three Methodist mission stations had been established before the arrival of Thomas Williams, the first at Rewa, the second at Vewa, the third at Somosomo. In 1847 Somosomo was abandoned and two other mission stations substituted on the south-western end of Vanua Levu at Mbua (not to be confounded with Mbau) and Nandy. After many years of entreaty Thakombau permitted a Methodist missionary to reside in Mbau not long before his public profession of Christianity in April 1854. Each of these centres requires some preliminary notice.

Rewa was the station to which William Cross went in the beginning of 1838, leaving David Cargill at Lakemba. It was, I think, the most trying of all the stations in Fiji. The surrounding country was low and subject to floods, and the tide of horrors was in full swing there in 1838. The district was densely populated. The circuit included Suva for a time, and a few outposts on Kandavu. Very little progress was made, and work had to be suspended in 1844 on the outbreak of the war between Rewa and Mbau. William Moore was appointed there in 1854 and after the battle of Kamba in 1855 it became one of the most flourishing stations in Fiji. In 1852 Father Mathew went there to establish a Roman Catholic mission, but failed; and in 1855 page break

The Landing Beach Mbau Island in 1848
From a drawing by Lieut. Conway Shipley

page 39he departed. Mrs Cargill died and was buried at Rewa in 1840.

Vewa is a small island to the north-east of Rewa in that part of the sheltered waters between Ovalau and Mbau known as the Mbau Roads. It is quite close to Mbau, and William Cross went there to be as near to the political capital as possible. Vewa was regarded as an outpost of Rewa until David Cargill arrived from Lakemba in 1839. In that year Cross made Vewa his home, and it became a separate station. Like Mbau it was very easily within the range of naval gunfire, and, indeed, it had been destroyed by Dumont D'Urville, before Cross went there, to avenge the murders on board L'Aimable Josephine in 1834. Vewa's most prosperous mission days were from 1842 to 1848 when John Hunt lived and worked there. It was the centre of an extensive circuit traversing the coast of Viti Levu from Nandronga on the south to Viti Levu Bay on the north-east thence westward to the Mba River. It included also the coast district on the south-west of Vanua Levu up to 1847. John Hunt visited all these outposts, and even sailed as far as the beautiful island of Rotumah about two hundred miles to the north-west of Fiji. He died and was buried on the island of Vewa in October 1848.

Mbau was only a couple of miles from Vewa and the missionaries tried hard for fifteen years to get a footing there. William Cross had a chance in 1838; but the confusion after the return of Tanoa from exile was very great, and he decided to go to Rewa instead. Thakombau looked upon this as a slight, and as time passed he found other important reasons for keeping the lotu at arm's length. Thakombau did not object to Christianity as a religion; he had a profound respect for it; but he realized very quickly that the teaching of the missionaries, and more especially their strong objection to their adherents taking part in war, page 40was undermining the loyalty of his subjects. In the course of the long war between Mbau and Rewa from 1843 to 1855 events proved that his fears were well grounded. John Hunt and James Calvert were not without some misgivings for the difficulties in which the king was placed by their pacifist teaching; but Joseph Waterhouse, a narrow-minded and very irreverent iconoclast, was quite incapable of taking a reasonable view of the king's prerogatives and responsibilities. The caricature of Thakombau which he published in 1866 when the king was striving in his own way for the unity of Fiji shows that clearly enough.² Thakombau was a broader-minded man than any of the missionaries, and clever enough to detect the weak spots in their armour. He made jokes at Joseph Waterhouse's expense because of his use of hell-fire in or out of season, and for this as well as for the unerring directness of many of his sound criticisms of their beliefs Waterhouse disliked him, and most of the missionaries suspected him. There is abundant evidence in the records of the missionaries themselves to show beyond any reasonable doubt that Thakombau was justified in resisting the establishment of a mission centre at Mbau before 1854. It was not simply a weary negligence put on to flout the missionaries; it was sound policy, as events after 1854 clearly proved. It was only the timely arrival of King George of Tonga in 1855 with two thousand men that saved him from death, and Christianity itself from an overwhelming disaster. These matters will receive due consideration in the proper place; but it is right to point out here that the long and loud complaints of some of the missionaries about Thakombau's supposed hostility to Christianity, and the assumed impolicy of their exclusion from permanent residence in Mbau can readily be disposed of by the evidence which the missionaries page 41themselves supply in their journals, reports, letters and printed publications. In 1851 the Roman Catholics under the direction of Monseigneur Bataillon decided to establish mission centres in the westward islands. They tried to get a footing in Mbau and Vewa, but failed. Their boat was turned away from Vewa by the natives, and there was some talk of an insult to the French flag; but nothing came of it.

Somosomo is situated on the west coast of Taviuni a little to the north of the straits between that island and Vanua Levu. The chart places the town at some distance up the river; but it was really at the mouth close to the sea. There are very few places in this world's history where so many dreadful scenes have been enacted as on that stretch of dark pebbled beach at Somosomo. A mission station was established there by John Hunt and Richard Burdsall Lyth in 1839 when Tuithakau was king and his son Tuikilakila the real ruler. By the mountain range at the back the town was deprived of the cooling influence of the prevailing easterly winds; but on the other hand it was sheltered from the worst of the hurricanes. It would not be correct to describe it as an unhealthy station, notwithstanding the deaths in mission families there. William Cross was a dying man when he went to Somosomo in 1842 to be under the care of Dr Lyth. A tombstone immediately in front of the church marks the place where he and three little children of the early missionaries were buried. The house that was built over the grave has long since disappeared.

The mission at Somosomo failed and was abandoned in 1847. The king and people of Somosomo were ready to accept the benefits of British medicine; but they flatly declined to give up their religion for Christianity. Again and again the missionaries complain of the king's hostility to Christianity; but those complaints are misleading. The real trouble was that Tuikilakila was surrounded by dangerous page 42enemies, and had to keep his people in training for war. The missionaries would not have it, and their abstract pacifist teaching placed them in irreconcilable opposition to the king. Tuikilakila knew he could not yield without abandoning his royal responsibilities. The missionaries were in the wrong; they wanted it both ways. They insisted on the right to teach pacifism; but it is clear that they expected protection against the enemy too. The Somosomo circuit included the towns round the coast of Taviuni, and rare visits were paid to Lauthala when the missionaries were en voyage; but they achieved no more success in the country than in Somosomo itself. In 1851 Roman Catholic missionaries arrived and endeavoured to form a settlement on the island; but they had a dreadful time and left at the end of a year.

Mbua Bay or, more strictly, Tiliva station was situated not far from the mouth of the river that flows into the bay which had been made famous by the sandalwood traders in the first decade of the nineteenth century. It was in the district between Mbua Bay and Nanduri beyond Mathuata that William Lockerby was engaged in collecting sandalwood for several ships of call. The whole neighbourhood is full of wild romantic memories. Not far to the north of Mbua is Dillon's rock, near which the over-confident Charles Savage lost his life in his brave attempt to extricate Dillon and his companions from their desperate position in 1813. Tavea Island, the scene of a dreadful massacre in 1808, lies farther to the east beyond Ngaloa Bay. To the west of Mbua was Tathilevu where the sandalwood sailors revenged themselves on the recalcitrant natives.

To this district Thomas Williams went in 1847 with his message of peace and goodwill. For years native teachers had been at work there preparing the way for the white missionary, and under their influence many natives had embraced Christianity. The outlook was promising; but, page break

Naithombothombo Point, Vanua Levu

page 43unfortunately for Williams and the mission, war between the Heathens and the Christians broke out in 1849, and it lasted till 1852 when Sir Everard Home, captain of H.M.S. Calliope, succeeded in persuading the warlike chiefs to agree to terms of peace. Now that the missionaries were involved in a war of their own they were brought face to face with a few practical problems that they had never been forced to wrestle with before. One interesting result was a very substantial modification of the pacifism of Thomas Williams, James Calvert and Richard Burdsall Lyth which will be explained in due course.

The Mbua circuit included towns to the south and east of Mbua Bay as well as the west, north and north-east. When William Moore came to help Williams in 1852 visits were paid as far as Mathuata. The district near Mbua Bay is not unhealthy; but it is very hot in the summer, and the flies are a perpetual torment. The scenery is beautiful in every part of the circuit, and not without a touch of grandeur at the south-western extremity of the island. There too is the famous Naithombothombo Point, a bold picturesque cliff at the northern entrance to Mbua Bay, from which the departed spirits of the old chiefs took their leap into the sea on the way back to Mbulu.

Nandy Bay mission station was occupied by John Watsford and James Ford when Thomas Williams went to Mbua in November 1847. Like Mbua it had been an outpost of the Vewa circuit, and native teachers had been at work there for some years achieving the greater part of their success by the use of pills and potions. Joeli Bulu, afterwards the most famous of all the native assistant missionaries, was there when the white ministers arrived. By paths across the mountain and through the jungles Nandy was not more than twenty miles from Tiliva; but it was usual, because most convenient, to go by water round Vuya Point page 44inside the reef. The mission settlement was situated at first on the low-lying ground close to the mangroves where myriads of stinging mosquitoes made life well-nigh unendurable; but it was afterwards removed to higher ground close by and called Nasavu, not to be confounded either with Nasavusavu Bay or Nasavusavu Point away to the east.

Nasavu was exposed to the full force of the worst hurricanes that started in the east before working round to the north and west. Two of them raged in 1848 when Watsford and Ford were there, and great were their suffering and danger. The death-rate in the mission families at Nandy Bay was high: John Watsford's little girl died there in 1848, David Hazlewood buried his wife and child in 1849 and Mrs Samuel Waterhouse died in 1856. The war between Heathenism and Christianity raged on here after the battle of Kamba, and James Smith Fordham the resident missionary was obliged to take part in the shooting on 17 August 1856 to defend himself and his family.³ The Roman Catholics were at that time exerting some influence on the natives of Solevu and Father J. V. Favier's signature is attached to the agreement drawn up on board H.M.S. Herald which brought the hostilities to a close—for the time being.

The Nandy circuit joined that of Mbua a few miles to the west of Solevu Bay; but the most extensive part of it stretched to the east as far as the hot springs at Na Kama. It, too, was a very beautiful district especially at the head of Nasavusavu Bay where the highest peaks in the archipelago rise sharply to over 3000 feet. The view just about sunset from the hill at the back of the District Commissioner's residence, with its coconut plantations and flowering trees in the foreground, the waters of the bay to the south dotted here and there with islets and the mountain masses towering page 45far away to the west is one of the most beautiful in Fiji. It was at Nasavu that David Hazlewood completed his Grammar and Dictionary of the Fijian Language, and his translation of the Old Testament which he had to revise in New South Wales in the last two years of his life when the hand of death lay heavily upon him.

Levuka on the eastern side of the island of Ovalau comes frequently into our story. It was the trading centre of the archipelago in these early days. The situation of the town immediately at the foot of lofty and picturesque hills down whose slopes a rivulet rushes to the harbour, had much to recommend it. There was plenty of deep water inside the reef close to the shore, and sailing-ships coming in at the entrance immediately opposite the town could pass out through another a little to the north which D'Urville considered a great advantage. The main passage is narrow, but not unsafe; and in the days before the advent of the steamship no other port offered such facilities for communication with every other island of the archipelago. But Levuka had two drawbacks as the site of a capital city: there was not enough ground suitable for building, and the harbour was exposed to the full force of the worst hurricanes. Even the prevailing wind from the east and south-east could lash the water inside the reef into a commotion that made landing operations uncomfortable.

Sir Arthur Gordon was of the opinion that the capital should be removed to Suva, and time has proved the wisdom of his choice. There is far more protection at Suva from gales and hurricanes, and plenty of building ground without climbing mountains. In one part of the bay there is good holding ground for ships at anchor. As for scenery the immediate locality of Suva has less natural charm than Levuka; but the distant views from the higher ground round the city are far more attractive and impressive. It is the view page 46of the town itself from outside the reef in the early morning light that gives Levuka its one scenic advantage over Suva. Its central position is not so important now as it was in the middle of last century, and Suva is not far away: it is central too.

In the missionary period under review about forty white men mostly British and American lived at Levuka. They had Fijian wives and the education of their children amounting to over one hundred and fifty had to be provided for. It was to Levuka that Mr Binney and his wife went to establish the Glasgow system of training under the aegis of the Methodist Missionary Society. The Roman Catholics had settled down there in 1851, and from that centre their later and far more prosperous work was to develop. But in 1855 it was their only station in Fiji. Methodist native teachers had been there since 1841, and at the close of 1851 Joseph Waterhouse was appointed to keep an eye on the Roman Catholic mission. After his departure for Mbau Mr Calvert took control; but he continued to live in Vewa. The relations between the Methodists and Roman Catholics in Levuka were not quite so strained as they had been in Lakemba, and it was well: the people had troubles enough. The mountaineers from the inland districts stole down upon them pillaging and murdering and in 1853 the town was burnt down. The relations between Thakombau and the white settlers in Levuka were strained. In 1844 he drove them away, and they went to Solevu for five years, leaving much property behind them. They never forgave the king and in 1854-5 they were in league with Nggara-ni-nggio and Mara against him seeking his life.

The fate of the great Christian chief Ratu Elijah Varani is bound up with the history of Levuka; but it is difficult to determine, in the light of available evidence, how far the whites were to blame. James Calvert affirms that they were page 47the indirect agents of his assassination, and that their hostility towards him was founded on an erroneous assumption. But the relations between the majority of white traders and the missionaries were by no means cordial. It is hard to get at the facts. Perhaps some scholarly Fijian will take the matter up. It is worth while. Varani was a great man: great in his Heathenism, great in his Christianity; as true to Jehovah and Christ after 1845 as he had been to the old heathen gods before his conversion. The bosom friend of Thakombau before he embraced Christianity, honoured and beloved by the missionaries afterwards, and once again the bosom friend of his king for three years before his assassination. He was single-minded, sincere, courageous all through. A presentiment of death came over him as he said good-bye to James Calvert and turned his face toward Lovoni where, unarmed, he wrested the club from one of his assailants and —threw it away. But his splendid magnanimity was lost on the brute who next attacked him, and he fell to rise no more.

Few men, black or white, civilized or uncivilized, ever lived more truly or met their death more courageously than Ratu Elijah Varani. It is hard, very hard, to believe that such a man could have conspired darkly to set Levuka on fire. Dr Lyth would not believe it; neither will I unless and until I find documentary evidence to prove it.

Varani's life will have to be written up some day—preferably by one of his own countrymen who has been trained to weigh evidence without bias. He was, in my opinion, the noblest, sincerest and most serviceable of all the native Christians of this period, even though he was nothing more within the church than a lay helper who made his living by collecting bêche-de-mer on the reefs while he went about his Master's business.

There is only one other town that needs to be mentioned in this chapter—Kamba situated on a peninsula about six page 48miles east of Mbau. It was there that King George at the head of two thousand Tongan warriors gained a decisive victory over the Heathen under Mara, and thereby rescued Thakombau and the cause of Christianity itself from a very critical and in some respects desperate condition. The capture of Kamba marks the decisive turning-point in the history of the war between Heathenism and Christianity that had been raging in different parts of the archipelago for six years; and it did more than all the preaching of the missionaries up to that time for the triumph of Christianity in the Leeward Islands so far as the great mass of the people were concerned. It is a mistake to suppose that the Fijians abjured their Heathenism because of the preaching of sermons on the superior ethical and spiritual quality of the religion of Christ, or the favourite dogmas of the missionaries. I am sure they did not. The missionaries had been driven to attract them by extraneous aids such as the use of British medicine and threats of hell-fire. It was only after they had got them inside their chapels by such means that they could hope to lead them on to a real conversion. Before the battle of Kamba they had achieved considerable success in the Lau group, but not much in the Leeward Islands. The Fijians of the west believed in their gods very sincerely, and one thing and one only could prevail upon the mass of the people to turn away from them and accept Jehovah, and that was a clear and convincing demonstration that He was more powerful than their own gods both to confer favours and to inflict harm. Much had been done to predispose the natives in favour of Jehovah by British medicine, British goods, the visible strength of British, American and French warships. The God who gave these things was assuredly a powerful God, and the Fijians would gladly have included Him among the gods they honoured and feared. But, of course, the missionaries would not listen to such "blas-page 49phemy." The decisive turning-point was not reached till the forces of Christianity and Heathenism were arrayed against each other close to the political capital of the group. Thakombau's public profession of Christianity in April 1854 was not the turning-point; on the contrary it rallied the forces of Heathenism against him: the temples of the old gods were rebuilt, the long-drawn-out war between Mbau and Rewa became a religious war between Heathenism and Christianity, and the old gods promised through their priests success to Mara, and ovens for the Tongans. It was therefore a spectacular trial of strength between the old gods and Jehovah which the great mass of the people in the neighbourhood watched with great interest and expectancy. At the ensuing battle the prestige of the old heathen gods in Fiji was shaken past any hope of recovery. The war between the Christians and the Heathens dragged on in distant places, and was not finally ended till British sovereignty was established. But the battle of Kamba set a seal upon the triumph of the white man's religion. Almost immediately afterwards the people embraced Christianity in hundreds and thousands; islands went over to Methodism en bloc. The way was then open for the missionaries to carry on their more spiritual work on a scale hitherto unprecedented. It was by the display and use of power far more than by religious teaching or any other means that the great body of Fijians in the Leeward Islands were induced to forsake their old gods and turn their faces toward Jehovah. King George's victory at Kamba is one of the most important events in the history of Fiji.