prayers with his soldiers, and that morning and evening prayer is now held daily by every native household in Viti. "For truth embodied in a tale Has entered in at lowly doors: Which he may read that binds the sheaf, At 10 P.M. rowed off to the ship, when the roaring of the reef in the otherwise utter stillness of the balmy tropic night formed a weird commentary on all we had been hearing about. Sept. 4th.-Church as usual on the maindeck and Holy Communion. At 3 P.M. sailed with the captain in the jolly boat right up inside the reef to where the Cleopatra is anchored off Nasova ; landed, and walked up the jetty and across the road to Government House. This was in olden days Thakombau's palace all natives as they pass still salute by turning their backs (as not worthy to behold it), and sinking on their heels for a moment to utter the woh! woh! woh! We went to the native afternoon service, which was held in a large hut on the green close by. To this the guards marched across the grass and into church, and were all seated on the ground at one end. The Governor, Mrs. des Vœux and children, and ourselves, sat cross-legged on mats at the other end. The white-kilted native teacher reverentially performed the service, standing and reading the prayers from a book-during which all the native congregation bowed forward with their faces to the earth. It was a quiet earnest service, of singing, prayer, and preaching, with no trace of sensationalism. Mr. Wilkinson, who was there, told us that the text and the subject of the sermon was "Our God is a consuming fire." The hymns were sung, without any accompaniment, to English tunes. The native chant, to which all the congregation monotone the Lord's Prayer, sounded more natural, as only the men of the native guard were present, and their united voices gave out a low and truetoned harmony. The words, rich, musical, and full of vowels, sound like Italian, but bolder. The smell of the dry grass mats was very nice in the cool, dark shade, while through the open doors from the bright sunlight outside groups of our own bluejackets stood looking in with their hats off. The effect of the whole was very impressive, "As the refulgent sunset .. Stream'd o'er the rich ambrosial ocean isle, A little less than fifty years ago (it was in 1835) the two first Wesleyan missionaries, Cargill and Cross, from Tonga, with a native teacher of that race, landed at Lakeba, in the Windward portion of the group, the whole of the archipelago being at that time cannibal. In time other missionaries followed, bringing their wives with them to this scene of horror and death. The change for which they laboured came by slow degrees, and there is probably no chapter in the history of Christian missions more wonderful or more satisfactory than that which relates to Fiji. The eighty inhabited islands have not only renounced cannibalism, and curbed their old vicious propensities, but have also struck out anew, and have accepted the Christian faith, not merely to the extent of hymnsinging and chapel-going, but in such good earnest as to put to shame many European nations. Fifteen years ago—that is in the lifetime of half the present population-universal war prevailed, the prisoners taken were invariably eaten, dead bodies were dug up for food, and limbs cut off from living men and women were eaten in presence of their victims. Human sacrifices were constant, women bound hand and foot were laid on the ground to act as rollers for the heavy war canoe of the chief, which thus, over their writhing bodies, went floating, through heaps of mangled gore, to sea. Others were buried in act of clasping the post of the new hut for their chief, while the earth was gradually heaped over their devoted heads. This waste of human life, willingly offered for what they fancied the good of the community, and the frequency of wars, made "to get meat," and the extent to which man-eating and human sacrifices were carried, makes us wonder the islands. were not altogether depopulated. At the present time there are over 1,000 Wesleyan churches in Fiji, built by the natives, and more than 2,000 schools. Every village has, and supports, its own church, teachers, and schools: all is done by native agency. Some of the best of the native ministers (there are sixty-one Wesleyan ministers in Fiji, all but eleven are natives) are in positions of considerable control. Each minister has a few lads under instruction. The devout earnestness which marks the character of these people is not due to mere emotion or excitement, but is associated with the practical virtues of charity, forbearance, and honesty. They really love Christ, but find it hard to live Christian lives in the harmonious proportion of the European ideal. Out of every 600, 250 are Communicants. The Fijian mind is a curious psychological study, being in some respects most complicated and refined, and in others most childish. They have little regard for truth under special circumstances, but are not thievish. Now that their language has been reduced to printing they are great readers: the children can all read and write. There are over 40,000 scholars, and in all over 100,000 professed Wesleyans. The Catholic missionaries followed the Wesleyan in 1844. There are fourteen of them, and eighty native teachers for the 9,000 Catholic natives, and 1,000 children in their schools. Going back 200 years; and making every allowance for the legendary traditions of the people, there can be little doubt that the population was then ten times as numerous as it is now, although there is reason to believe that they were diminishing at the rate of 5,000 a year before the annexation. What are the causes of decrease, and are they still acting? Incessant war among the islands, and epidemics which extinguished without remnant whole communes and tribes appear to have been the chief. The epidemic of measles in 1876 swept off one-third of the whole population; since then there has been a slight annual increase in the aggregate; the excess of the birth-rate over deaths being only a little over two per thousand. This continued until 1884; but was then more than compensated for by a decrease of nearly 2,000, through a very great number of children having been carried off by an epidemic of whooping-cough. The number of marriages registered is only twelve per thousand of the population. In 1884 there were 111,743 native Fijians in the islands. It is curious to notice that the same natural causes at work produce the very opposite effects upon the two races living side by side. The winter season, May to September, for Europeans the most healthy, shows the highest rate of mortality among the natives, and the summer or wet season, January to March, usually the most oppressive for the whites, is the most favourable to the general health of the Fijian. The warm and humid weather of these months suits him best; while the cold south and south-east winds of the winter months dispose him to colds and influenza, often epidemic. The most hopeful feature is that the traditions of the people all point to the fact that after previous epidemics the vitality of the race has re-asserted itself, and their legends tell us of islands and towns being re-occupied and the land filled again with people. Are the circumstances and surroundings so changed, and the new influences at work (as the declining power of the chiefs, whereby the necessity for the daily performance of a very elaborate ceremonial involving activity, industry, and cleanliness has disappeared) detrimental to the prospect of the further increase of the race? No doubt sanitary measures go here, as elsewhere, against the grain. Many of the villages, surrounded by deep ditches and stagnant water, are unhealthy; and the race is most tenacious of their ancient inheritances and of the foundations of their homesteads, many of which contain the bones of their ancestors for many generations. Still, as the general intelligence advances (and already two-thirds can read), the younger generation we hope will see things from a more rational point of view. After coming out of the native church we went into the state hut, which the people of Fiji have erected in the centre of the green for us both. It stands on a platform built of stones, raised about three feet from the surrounding soil, and is about twenty feet long and rather more than that high. It is very heavily thatched, and the ends of the crossbeams are adorned with white shells (Cyprea oriformis), one of the distinctive marks of a chief. All the beams and poles inside are ornamented with twisted string or sennet in various patterns, black, white, and brown. To cover them all thus is a work of much patience, and takes a long time to do it is only done for a very great chief. : Sept. 5th.-Usual routine all the forenoon. In the afternoon landed and went to stay at Government House for four days. At 4 P.M. the Yangona drinking took place on the green. This is the grand native ceremony of welcome. In the centre of the upper side of the green, facing the sea, at the top of the slope, mats were spread, where sat the Governor with Thakombau on his right hand, and the Admiral on his left, all the captains from the ships, and a good many officers and ourselves in groups behind, the flanks being filled in with high Fijian chiefs. Down two sides of the open square were ranged the crowds of Fijians who had come in from a distance. These marched up in detachments with all sorts of offerings of food (or magiti), of yams, and all sorts of roots and fruit, sixteen roasted oxen, and fowls and turtles without end, which they piled in front. These last were afterwards taken on board the flagship, and given out next day to the ships of the squadron. Then Thakombau rose, and, standing (which he had never done when making an oration in his life before) in front of the Governor and Admiral, in the name of the assembled chiefs |