V.
How I Became a Privy Councillor.

I Woke early with, the feeling that a crisis had to be gone through during the day, and that we should need all our energies. I fondly hoped that a spark of enthusiasm would have been awakened in the breast of my colleague, and that he would be as eager as I to have a common plan of action laid down before our visit to the king, on which so much depended. But to my intense disgust the kavabowl, surrounded by its ministering spirits, was in course of preparation, and a precious hour was wasted. I lived to know that to expect a Tongan chief to forego native ceremonial in the exigencies of public business is to court disappointment. "We had time for a hurried meal when Fatafehi, clad in decent black, came to escort me to the royal presence. He thought it better that I should see the king alone before the Council, and present the precious log of sandal-wood that I had brought as a present from the High Commissioner. He would stay, he said, during the interview and interpret for me. Eight men were produced, who lifted the tree on their shoulders, and preceded us to the native house that did duty for a palace, and, page 66laying it endways to the door so that its entire length could be seen from within, retired. Then Fatafehi and I came forward. As soon as the king saw us he rose from his seat to fetch a chair for me from several that were set round the table in readiness for the Council. He was dressed in European clothes of rusty black cloth, and appeared to have been waiting for us for some time. The house was divided into three by reed partitions, and very meanly furnished: a green iron bedstead in the inner room covered with mats was the only bedroom furniture, and besides the table and office chairs in the middle room, there was only a shelf of the commonest crockery.

King George Toubou.

The outer room was occupied by his servants, who, I believe, were prisoners. It was characteristic of the king that while he had a wellfound house in Nukualofa, he lived from choice on the barest necessaries, and spent a large portion of his income on building churches.

After we had shaken hands, Fatafehi announced in a stentorian voice that I had brought a little sandal-wood page 67from the High Commissioner. The king said, "Fakafetai" (Thanks), and there was a pause. I looked round for my interpreter: he was gone! Here was I left sitting face to face with a monarch whose language I knew very imperfectly, bound to make a good impression while bellowing my halting sentences into his uncomprehending ear.

"Fatafehi shall pay for this," I thought savagely, trying the while to assume what I hoped was an ingratiating smile. The king laughed pleasantly.

"Malo hoo lelei" (I am glad you are well), he said.

I thought of the matabules, blessing them, and shouted, "Koe!"

"Ah, you speak Tongan," said his Majesty, amiably.

"A very little," I replied.

There was silence, and to save the situation I said that I had lately been in the part of New Guinea to which the missionaries were going. The king was interested, and asked what the people were like. "Is it true that they are telefua?" he said. The word telefua was unfamiliar, but I nevertheless shouted the universal "Koe!" He chuckled much at this, and I wondered more than ever what telefua could mean. Then I tried to lead the conversation into political channels, and spoke of the debt.

"But we will pay it," he said.

"Yes, if the people will pay their taxes," I replied.

"Of course they will pay their taxes," he answered with easy conviction.

After a few more remarks I murmured something about the Privy Council, and took my leave. Upon Fatafehi, page 68airing himself outside, I poured the vials of my wrath, and asked what telefua meant.

"Having no covering—naked," he answered; "but why do you ask?"

"Because," I replied savagely, "since you did not stay to interpret for me as you promised, I have told the king that the New Guinea people go about naked, which is not true." Fatafehi laughed his hereditary laugh.

At ten o'clock we went down to meet the king in Council, followed by Mataka with his shorthand note-book and the Council minutes. As we went in the king took his place before a large Tongan Bible at the head of the table. Fatafehi and Tukuaho had moved to their seats, and I was on the point of taking mine when the king caught sight of me. My back was to the light and my face in shadow. He peered at me and said, "Who is this papalagi (foreigner) who comes to our Council?"

Tukuaho said, "It is he of whom I told your Majesty.¹ He who has come to help us, and make things plain."

"We have sent one foreigner away," said the king, "and you bring another: I thought that the Council was to be for ourselves."

This was a facer: without being in the Privy Council I should be utterly powerless, quite apart from the loss of prestige that such a rebuff would entail if it got abroad. page 69I had never been warned that the king was less anxious for my coming than were his Ministers, nor that the principal argument used by his chiefs to induce him to dismiss Mr Baker was that they were quite prepared to govern their country without help from any foreigner. It flashed through my mind that I might stand on my dignity as the emissary of a foreign Government sent at the king's own request conveyed through his chief Minister, and insist upon the choice between admitting me to the Council or allowing me to resign and leave Tonga; but with the thought came the reflection that he would either admit me unwillingly, and henceforth regard me with suspicion, or accept my resignation. In the latter event I should return to Fiji to confess myself unable to do the work I had undertaken: and English interests would be in a worse position than if I had never come; for with their sovereign's views every Tongan would agree, the Government would flounder deeper into the mire, and the German Vice-Consul would be invited to give the aid in financial matters that I had failed to afford. So during the silēnce that followed the king's last remark, my mind was made up; I would simply stand where I was, and pretend not to hear what was said. Fatafehi's elbow was close to me, and I fell back upon the undignified expedient of pinching it. He understood, and began to shout persuasive words into the king's ear.

"Pardon me," he said, "it is about the money. Which of us understands the way of money, and such foreigners' things? But this gentleman will explain it all to us: he is here only as an expounder."

I stood my ground meanwhile, trying to look utterly unconscious, and after a pause the king said, "Oku lelei be" (Very well).

We then took the oath, the terms of which forbid me to describe the proceedings, but I may say that before we rose I had succeeded in ingratiating myself with the king, and he had promised to visit Nukualofa, and to hold great meetings of his people in every province, urging them to pay their taxes, and declaring his confidence in his new Cabinet, a point on which proof was still wanting.

Shortly after the Council Fatafehi was sent for by the king, and returned with a message from his Majesty asking my pardon for his having failed to recognise me. I believe that he would have resisted my admission to the Council if he had had time to consider the question, but his natural feeling of courtesy to a stranger prevented him from insisting on my withdrawal after I had entered his house.

This curious misunderstanding, which so nearly ruined the success of my mission, showed me that I could not trust the discretion of any of my colleagues in matters concerning the king, in so great an awe did they stand of him. Tukuaho had asked the High Commissioner for my services without daring to obtain the full assent of his sovereign, as he had obtained his leave to appoint me Assistant Premier without touching on the question of my admission to the Council. Had I known this in time, I should have taken proper measures to win the king's confidence before asking for a meeting of the Council: as it was, my colleague's blunder had saved me the delay page 71which this would have entailed. The cue given by Tukuaho was a useful one, and for the present I became to the Tongans not a Minister of the Crown, but "Koe tagata fakahinohino" (The expounder—of the dark ways of civilised man).

The Privy Council over, we had time to look about us. The island at this point is barely half a mile wide: every rood of it seems to be under cultivation, from the back of the town to the edge of the rocks on the Liku upon which the ocean-rollers, driven before the steady trade-wind, beat unceasingly. The Europeans of the place live in a row of stores on the beach, each hungry for copra, each fearing to give the natives credit, yet not daring to refuse lest they take their custom to a neighbour; and each, when he has given credit, mortified by seeing his debtor pass his store to sell his copra to a hated rival. There is the agent of the great Hamburg firm, the agent for M'Arthur & Co., a free-lance or two, a carpenter, and the Customs officer of the port, who brings up a large family on £100 a-year. The only friendships in this heterogeneous society are mere alliances against a common foe, and as they are all by instinct against the Government, and can now have the exciting sport of setting the king against his Ministers, there is something very like reconciliation among them.

On Sunday we went to church in a driving rain-storm, but, notwithstanding the weather, the little building was filled. The women in their native finery looked infinitely more respectable than their brothers and husbands, who had donned threadbare coats and trousers in honour of the day, but had stopped short of shoes. The king was page 72there, of course—nothing but illness prevents his attendance at church. The sermon was dull, for there was no sedition in it, probably in deference to our presence: the preacher even called upon Tukuaho for an extempore prayer, and announced there would be a bolotu in the evening.