# Twenty years before the mast/Chapter XIII

CHAPTER XIII.
After surveying several small islands and reefs we arrived at Muthewater. The next day King Tuembooa came on board with many hogs and yams as a present to "the big white chief," the commodore. They were accepted.
August 10. Sunday morning at four bells all hands were called to Divine service. The flags of the squadron were at half-mast, and a deathlike silence pervaded the ship. All hands, officers and men, listened to the solemn discourse of our chaplain, from the texts, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth;" and "It is even as a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."
In the afternoon signal was made to get under way and proceed to Mali, an island about thirty miles north. Here we found all towns deserted, and all canoes hauled up and hid away among the bushes. These natives were getting very shy of us since the news of the destruction of Sualib and Malolo had spread among them.
After having completed our surveys here we weighed anchor and revisited Ovolau. We found the place nearly deserted. Our garden that we had planted on Observatory Hill was looking finely, but many of the vegetables ​had gone to seed, and it needed weeding. A white man by the name of George said he would attend to it.
The chief of this district, Tui Levuka, was overjoyed to see us back again. One afternoon when our observatory was established here, Tui Levuka and King Tanoa were shown the instruments. Looking at the great pendulum swinging to the right and left, they both tried to keep time with it by swaying their bodies the same way at the same time, and singing out, "Tui i tuku, tui i tuku, tui i tuku," meaning "Here she goes and there she goes, here she goes and there she goes." After repeated efforts to keep pace with the pendulum their patience became exhausted, and they gave it up.
They were also shown the transit, the dipping-needle, and horizontal horizon. A small quantity of quicksilver was poured into the hand of one of them. They tried to pick it up with their fingers; but, finding they could not do so, and that it did not even wet their fingers, they would look at each other, grinning and laughing most heartily. But when they were permitted to look through our large telescope and take a view of the planet Saturn, with her two rings and seven moons, they were completely nonplussed.
After this a large globe was shown them, and our own and other countries pointed out, and finally their own little, insignificant islands; but we could not make them understand. They had not the slightest conception of the magnitude of the earth, having no knowledge of any lands excepting their own islands, the Tongas, and a few others.
It was a common belief among the natives upon the ​islands of the Pacific that the little papalangis (white people) were little spirits, and that their homes were in the skies; that they were subject to one great spirit, and that the ships ascended to and descended from the skies when out of sight of their islands.
One afternoon I was ordered into the dinky, a small shell of a boat, with lead line and compass. I was to pull to a point about a mile ahead of the ship, run off thirty fathoms with the lead line in a nor’easterly direction from a large tree at the back of a small hill, stick the boat-hook into the ground, fasten a comet, or signal, to the upper end, and return in an hour.
TANOA, KING OF THE FIJI ISLANDS.
​he would send for me, make me a chief over some district, and give me three of his daughters for wives.
I did not feel that I could accept the king’s offer, and so fulfilled my commission and returned to the ship.
A FIJI BEAUTY, ONE OF TANOA’S DAUGHTERS.
King Tanoa’s canoe was a very rapid sailor. It was a single canoe, over a hundred feet long, with a very large out-rigger. About midship was built a hurricane deck, the place of honor, the king’s quarter-deck. Her crew, numbering about sixty, were nearly all Tonga men. She ​was ornamented with over two thousand very beautiful cypræa, Ovula shells. When this canoe was launched, eighty of his victims were clubbed that she might be launched over their bodies. He used to take great pride and pleasure in running down smaller canoes and drowning their occupants. It was said that King Tanoa was the greatest cannibal that ever lived. He was, in every sense of the word, "King of the Cannibal Islands."
The habits and customs of these Fijians were in the highest degree interesting.
On board the Flying Fish, or Kai Nite, Midshipman Sinclair outrageously abused one of the crew, William Smith, for some neglect of duty. He first denounced him in the most abusive and aggravating terms, and then administered several severe blows with a rope’s-end. This was more than Jack before the mast could stand. Smith sprang at him, seized him in his arms, and jumped overboard. Smith was unarmed, and was drowned; Sinclair was armed with a dirk, and escaped by swimming to the fore-channels and climbing on board.
We found old red-headed Paddy Connell in rather ill health, but happy in having had, during our absence, an addition to his family, another "young brat of a boy." This was the forty-ninth child, and now his prayer was that he might live to see the fiftieth.
The old chief of the town, Tui Levuka, spent the most of his time at home with his wives, muskets, and junk- bottles. The natives here seemed to have a sort of mania for collections of bottles. A few weeks before we arrived, the Currency Lass, a trading schooner, had visited this port and disposed of several hampers of bottles. ​The old chief had increased his stock, and now had them suspended from every available place both within and without his house.
Fiji mothers used to anoint the bodies of their children all over, early every morning, with rancid cocoanut oil. This was liberally applied and vigorously rubbed in until the skin fairly glistened. This was supposed to prevent the pickaninnies from catching cold, and from contracting various diseases.
Many of the natives wore necklaces composed of rare shells, and those who could get them wore several whale’s teeth, strung on a string, hanging down on their breasts. A whale’s tooth was the price of a human life at these islands. The men here did not tattoo, but many of the women had the corners of their mouths tattooed in circles of a blue-black color.
Both men and women spend a great deal of time at their toilets. The prevailing style among the men was to wear the hair around the forehead, not parted in the middle, but from ear to ear. The front part was dyed brown or red, and the back part white or yellow. The hair was so thick that no comb could possibly penetrate it. On measuring the head of one of the men we found it to be sixty-two inches in circumference. The larger and more bushy the head the more pride was taken in it, and the more it was admired by the women. Their heads were literally alive with vermin, and it was a common sight to see them eagerly searching one another’s heads for the insects, and sharing the spoil. One-third of the vermin secured belonged to the searcher, and no greater insult could be offered a native than to appropriate more ​than the allotted share. It was considered a crime to search the head of a child, as that was considered to be the particular province of the parents.
The women wore their hair in long locks, few or many in number according to their fancy. These locks were in cork-screw form, and were called tombi. The head was dipped in lye made from the ashes of the leaves of the bread-fruit tree. When the head was raised the lye ran down in little zigzag rivulets over face, neck, and body, showing, when dry, in distinct lines, which were considered very ornamental, and were called ulu-lase.
The dress of the women was very scanty. It consisted of a kind of band about eight inches in width, and bordered with a fringe dyed in various colors. Some of these garments were quite pretty. They were made from the bark of the hibiscus and were very elastic. This dress was called the liku, and it was worn around the waist. The Fiji dressmaker used neither needles, thread, thimble, nor wax, but simply moistened the bark, tore it into long, thin strips, then tied one end to the great toe of her right foot and braided the strips together toward her.
In upper Fiji society, in asking a woman in marriage the consent of the father, mother, and brother had to be obtained. The refusal of the brother was sufficient to prevent the marriage. If the suit was accepted, rolls of tapa, whale’s teeth, provisions, etc., were presented to the parents. Marriages among the "blue blood" Fijians were sanctioned by religious ceremonies. After parties had become engaged they might often be seen strolling about arm-in-arm. Several times we saw the bride, after ​the ceremony was over, go down to the reef, into the water, and disfigure her face and body with the sharp
QUEEN EMMA, ONE OF TANOA’S WIVES.
edge of a small shell, causing the blood to flow. After such a performance she looked as if she had been dragged through a thicket of brambles.
​Among the common people, marriage was a mere matter of bargain. The usual price of a wife was a whale’s tooth, an old musket, or a hatchet and some tobacco. A man could have as many wives as he could afford to buy and support. Once paid for he had an entire right to them and might club, roast, and eat them if he so desired. Elopements were rare, but did sometimes occur, for there were several runaway matches while we were at these islands.
One day the funeral of a chief occurred. Before the burial took place the mother of the deceased chief declared that she was old and had lived long enough, and requested that she might be strangled and buried, in order that she might go to the spirit-land with her son. One of the wives of the dead chief expressed the same desire; so they were both partially strangled by their friends and placed in the grave, one on either side of the chief, each with the right hand placed upon his breast. Several of the mourners also cut off their little toes or the first joint of their little fingers and placed them in the grave as tokens of grief. A few strips of tapa and a mat were thrown over the bodies, then some sticks were laid across, and the grave filled with earth. We could hear the faint moans of the two poor women, not yet dead, as the clods fell and were trodden down upon them.
The old and infirm, all who suffered from lingering diseases, and even children, often requested their nearest relatives to either wring their heads off or strangle them. An instance of this kind happened while we were lying here. A boy, while hunting on the reef for beche de mer, ​had one of his legs bitten off by a shark. His parents at once strangled him, giving as the reason that if he lived he would be a disgrace to the family in consequence of having but one leg.
The usual sign of mourning was to have the hair and beard cut short. Women in mourning burned themselves with hot irons, raising large blisters, the scars of which might be seen long afterward upon neck, shoulders, breast, and arms. It was called loloe mate.
The eating of human flesh was not for the love of it, nor to appease hunger, but was one of their religious rites or was due to habit or revenge. One morning a big canoe came alongside our ship with two chiefs and nine roasted human bodies. The chiefs were bound for one of the leeward islands to have a feast with their brother, the head chief of the island. Three of the victims were chiefs, and were tallied as such, their faces being painted black. None but chiefs were allowed to partake of the flesh of a chief. The brains were equally divided among the participants. They believed that if they ate the brains of a chief they would inherit his warlike qualities.
Our prisoner, Vendovi, the chief who had been captured by us through the treachery of one of his nephews, declared after he had been on board a few weeks that if ever he had a chance he would club, roast, and eat the treacherous fellow, dry and grind his bones, and drink them in his ava. Six months afterward the old chief had become so much civilized that the irons were taken off him. He appeared to be a very thoughtful, genial, and pleasant sort of a man. After he had been with us ​eighteen months, seeing and learning our manners and customs and listening to the many long yarns spun to him by our signal quartermaster, old Tom Piner, a converted sailor, such a wonderful change was wrought in him that the sailors used to call him "The old Christian, cannibal, man-eater." He died soon afterward.
The situation of the missionaries and their families here was a most trying one. They lived in constant fear of their lives. Their worst enemies, however, were not the heathen Fijians, but the civilized English runaway convicts from Australia. While cruising among these cannibal islands and during our intercourse with these savages, we witnessed many scenes and incidents so unnatural and shocking that the mere mention of them would offend the moral sensibilities of my readers, therefore I refrain from speaking of them.
"It has been said that the Fijian is not deficient in intelligence; that he is shrewd, apt to learn, skilful, and cunning. But his soul is uninformed by that moral beauty which might conceal the dark and repulsive features of his character. In this respect how great is the contrast between him and the matchless scenery by which he is surrounded, whose purity he has desecrated, and whose beauty sullied by crimes the most odious and customs the most abhorrent. In the midst of all that can please the taste, charm the fancy, or gratify the imagination; where everything is fair, and bright, and beautiful; where the dreamy haze of a tropical clime rests lovingly on hilltop and valley; where the sun smiles in gladness upon landscapes as picturesque and charming as the sweetest spots, buried in foliage and flowers, that ​nestle in the bosom of the Italian Alps; where brooks and fountains send forth unrestrained their unceasing melody; where the breezes are soft and balmy, and the perfumed breath of an unending summer fills the air with its intoxicating odor, — man alone is debased. Nature displays her brightest charms and revels in her gayest attire; but God’s own image is loathsome and deformed. Here is indeed a field for the missionary: and laborers are not wanting in fulfilment of the Divine command, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.’ The humble, self-denying followers of Wesley have found their way to this group."
Looking backward fifty years to these islands, one of the loveliest spots on this huge globe, and visiting them in my imagination to-day, and listening to the cries and sighs of the natives, perhaps I may be pardoned for thinking it would have been better if the islands had never been discovered by Europeans; not that Christianity is a failure, but that our civilization is. Nations are like individuals — selfish, selfish, selfish. The more they get, the more they want.
The Fiji Islands to-day are an English colony, and the Fiji cannibals are British subjects to Her Most Gracious Britannic Majesty, Victoria, Queen of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, that kingdom whose unity, it is claimed, has never been broken. Yes, it is "rule, Britannia." She rules in the north, in the south, in the east, and in the west. How did she come into possession of these lovely islands? In the same way, no doubt, that she acquired New Zealand — through the treachery of the American consul, who was an Englishman.
​The condition of these islanders is, in many respects, very much changed. We do not read in the papers of to-day of ships being cast away and their crews clubbed, roasted, and eaten by the South Sea cannibals. In contrast we read in the English papers of the wonderful progress of the Christian religion among them, and how the Salvation Army is turning many of them into "blood and fire" soldiers.
A few months since I found myself in the Salvation Army barracks at Camberwell, George Street, London, and had the pleasure of listening to Colonel Barker, who had just returned from New Zealand. He stated that many of the natives had been converted and had joined the army, and that Adjutant Holdaway had a Salvation band, composed of Maoris, who could play and sing many of the army tunes and hymns equal to any army corps to which he ever listened; and that the uniform just suited them, and was becoming very common among them. The red ganges, with the word "Salvation" in large, white letters across the breast, was very fashionable with them.
I make a few quotations from "Cries from Fiji, and Sighings from the South Seas," by Dr. T. P. Lucas of Melbourne:
The labor traffic has for some time occupied the attention of the British nation. It is nothing more or less than a veritable British slave-trade. What means the old song, "Britons Never shall be Slaves"?
Where is all the glory of the British liberty, battled for and obtained by Wilberforce, Buxton, and a host of others? Where is the brightness and grandeur of the British flag, which the Queen of the Seas displayed before all nations and peoples? Destruction to}} ​slavery and to the slave-trade forever! Who are those who stand in the places of the heroes of the past, and fear to speak out the national watchword, "England and Liberty"? Is there no national honor left? Is England to be cowed by any and every opposing nation, while she herself descends to imbue her hands in the shed blood of the accursed slave traffic? Rise up, ye spirits of the departed, and weep for your sons! Lament, ye sages, for England is once more a slave-holding nation!
The reasons which have led to this are the desire of aspiring subjects to possess large estates, and the difficulty of making those estates pay, except by working them by labor at a price low enough to allow competition with similar estates and industries in other countries.
A company wants two hundred men. It opens relations with the chief and government, and the two hundred men, as slaves, have to go, leaving wives and homes, whether they will it or no.
Slaves? Yes; the people are slaves. Lest the white man should put upon them they are not allowed to work of their own free will.
Who are these savages, and of what use in the world, lazy dogs, and cumberers of the ground?
Dogs, they are dogs, and nothing more; No soul to love, no spirit to adore, But fit for slaves, as slaves they were at first, No mind to ken, though kicked and cuffed and cursed. Depravity! Well may the angels weep: While He, who counts the sparrows as they fall, In vengeance waits to hear each feeble call.
I will only add that it is sad to think that in so lovely a part of God’s creation, in this enlightened nineteenth century, there should exist anything so vile, putting it in its true light, as a South Sea English slave-trade, a traffic which is more infamous than any African slave-trade. And this traffic, this "trade in human beings," is carried on by civilized Englishmen! May God save the queen!
The survey completed, we took leave of the Fiji group on August 11th. Our hearts were sad as we thought of the fate of Lieutenant Underwood and Midshipman ​Wilkes Henry, for these two officers had been great favorites with the crew. We felt very thankful, however, that no more of our number had met the same fate.
On clearing the reefs, we shaped our course for the Sandwich Islands. On the 13th we passed from east to west longitude, and consequently changed our reckoning by a day.
August 28. On board the Peacock, another island was discovered, and named Bowditch Island, for the author of "The American Navigator." The people found on this island had no knowledge of fire, which is, I believe, the only instance of the kind on record. They appeared to be wild with fright when they saw the sparks fly from the flint and steel; and when we lighted our pipes, and they saw the smoke issuing from our mouths, they cried out, "Debolos, debolos," "Devils, devils." When we made a fire on the reef they looked on with the greatest curiosity.
Yet these strange people had their gods to worship. I think there has never been a race of people discovered who did not acknowledge some power superior to their own. Near the center of the island was their tui-tokelau, or house of their gods. It was oblong in shape, about sixty by eighty feet, and twenty feet in height. It was built of cocoanut wood, and thatched with pandanus leaves. It was open at the eaves, from which hung many beautiful cowry and mother-of-pearl shells. Their gods, or idols, were placed on the outside of the building. These idols were mostly made from blocks of coral, and were covered with many mats. The largest was fourteen feet high and was named Tagaloa-ilaya-i-te-layi-Tagaloa ​(Above, in the heavens). The smallest idol was made of stones and was about four feet high. These natives thought that we came down from the skies. Cocoanut Island would have been a very appropriate name for this one, as it was nearly covered with groves of these trees.
After visiting Oatafer, Utiroa, and several other islands in the Ellis, Gilbert, and Kingsmill groups, we steered a
KINGSMILL IDOL.
direct course for Oahu. For several days the weather was changeable — short calms, sudden squalls, with fresh breezes, both fair and foul — and the wind dead ahead most of the time. Quite a number of flying fish were picked up on deck, some of them measuring fifteen inches in length. We also caught several porpoises.
August 20, 21, and 22. Light breezes and fair weather. Early on the morning of the 23d land was reported from ​the mast-head, two points on the weather bow. For several days the weather continued fine. We came across several islands not laid down on any chart. One was named McKean’s Island, for the man who first saw it. Another was named Hull’s Island, for Commodore Isaac Hull. The last named lies in 4° 29′ south latitude, and is about thirteen miles in circumference. It was a coral island with a lagoon in the center, which was dry, and nearly filled with coral slabs about the size and thickness of tombstones. These were scattered about, and piled up in a variety of ways. There were many large turtles on this island, and some rats, or a kind of animal whose tail resembled that of the rat. These little creatures would sit up on their hind legs like squirrels, and stare at us. There were also many birds of beautiful plumage, which were very tame, and did not flinch when we pulled the bright feathers from their tails. There were no natives upon this island.
August 25, 26, 27, and 28. We had frequent thunder showers.
September 4. Crossed the line in longitude 169°. Many birds, including the tropical bird, booby, tern, and plover, hovered about the ships. At noon the sun was directly overhead, and there was not a shadow to be seen.
It is a singular fact that the natives living near the equator are of a lighter complexion than those in higher latitudes.
On the evening of the 5th we took a light, southerly breeze, which we held until the 8th, when it left us, and then for one long week we experienced a dead calm, ​during which time we drifted about, backing and filling, in the doldrums, hearing not so much as a whisper of the wind nor the flapping of a sail. But for the long, huge, heaving swell of old ocean’s mighty bosom, I might say that we were in the ocean’s graveyard.
There is a dreary monotony in a dead calm at sea which vividly calls to mind Byron’s striking pen-picture:
"The rivers, lakes, and ocean, all stood still, And nothing stirred within their depths; Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea, And their masts fell piecemeal as they dropped. They slept on the abyss without a surge; The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave; The moon, their mistress, had expired before
The winds were withered in the stagnant air
And the clouds perished."