The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-05-04
AMONG FIJI NAN EATERS.
COW THEY ROASTED AND ATE
HUMAS BEINGS.

tbs Pody and Ate -Exhuming
Bodies after Two pThree Days, So
Great Was tie Iesre for Flesh
Strings About Their Necks With as
Many Knots as They Had Eaten
Human Bodies.
From the San Fralcisco Chronicle.
A Chronicle reporte' was fortunate in
finding Bishop Vidal 0! the FIJI Islands in
q reminiscent mood at he parsonage of the
Church Of Notre DAM des Victories the
other afternoon. Being man of most I'M
usual experiences. of An observant nature
and retentive memTy, his Iordship is a
very interesting corversationalist, and he
tells in the most entetaining manner of his
life among the FijieB. Though his sensi-
tive nature, by his loIg residence among the
semi-bar barous islanders of the South Pa
Cific, has become somewhat Injured to Oft
repeated tales of pagan horrors, he cannot
speak but with the gRatest revulsion of his
visits to the places now marked by piles of
human bones, wheD, not many years ago
the ferocious cannib.ls sacrificed their vic
tins, drank their bOod and their roasted
flesh.
One of the most
INTERESTING EXPERIENCES
of Mgr. Vidal was lis expedition to Cola,
in the interior of 7iti Lem, the largest
island of the Fiji group, and on which is
located Suva, the capital The expedition,
which took about twenty days, was made
up the river Rewa, the largest stream in the
Fiji group. 1t is two miles wide in some
places, is navgabb for ninety miles, and
has been called the Mississippi of the South
seas by Archbishop Redwood Of New Zea-
land. This trip wai made in May, 1889.
The bishop had been preceded to Cola in
March, 1899, by Father Rougisr, who was
the first white missionary to explore the
interior of the island. Bishop Vidal told in
a very interesting manner of how he came
to make this journey.
Some twenty years ago" he said, "when
Father Breheret was the only missionary on
the island, a chief of one of the cannibal
villages in the northwest, having heard Of
the white man and the new religion, went
out from his coantry to the coast, and
travelling down The shore he came to the
mission, and there he was converted and be-
came a Christian. When leaving the
mission he asked for and was
given a small cross, which he wears
to this day. He returned to his people,
and when he entered the village they
all gathered around him and asked him
what the cross was and what it meant He
LOIu tlldJ IL WIS Gl6 representation OF CnTlS-
tianity the white mans religion. Then
they said they would be converted also,
and asked the chief to get the missionary to
60 to them. But he could not do that and
so. as well as he could, he explained the
new religion to them. Now, the head chief
at that place, hearing of this chief bringing
new religion among the people sent for
; him to come TO the head chiefs village
When the chief appeared as commanded
the Rhiaf a aCi-a1 no NH 1er
Of the cross which he wore.
THE CONVERTED CHIEF
told him, and then the head chief told him
to take the cross off, that he did not want
Christianity, as they had their own religion
and that was good .enough for him and his
people. He was opposed to the white mans
religion, he said, because he was afraid the
white men would take the lands of the peo-
pie. However, the converted chief would
not take off the cross and the head chief, a
fierce cannibal, was very angry and threat
ened to kill the convert. He allowed him
TO return to his village, however, but twice
after that, hearing that this under chief
was making converts TO Christianity
among his own people, the head chief again
summoned Inn and again ordered him to
give up Christianity. The under, chief was
firm and refused, and he was therefore con-
demned to death. His head was placed
*, AFRAID
to kill him, fearing revolt against him by
the converts friends. A third time the CON
vert was summoned by the head chief, and
again he was summoned to death for his
work III the cause of Christianity, but, as
before, the head chief was afraid to kill
him.
"Those very people were cannibals, and
they ate the man who is believed to have
been the last
VICTIM OF THE MAN-EATERs
in FIJI. This unfortunate was an English
trader, who, twelve years ago, ventured
into the interior from the coast and was
captured and killed by these natives. The
converted chief told me Of this. He said
that after roasting the man they ate him,
leaving only his bones. They even ate his
shoes. They had never seen shoes before
and supposed they were part of the man.
They baked the shoes up on the mountain
side, but when they went to eat them found
them very tough. So they baked them
again and again, five or six times, and then
ate them. The converted chief worked hard
among his people and those Of surround
ing villages, and when | went there
found about 400 natives who were willing
to accept the Christian faith. Father Rou-
gier had visited the cannibal country be-
fore and met the Christian chief. who
wanted the missionary to remain there, but
as there was no place where he could live
and he could build church, he returned,
after encounterlng great hardships. He es-
timated the population of the savage dis
trict at about %, 900 people. When l started
for the cannibal country l wasaccompanied
by priest, fifteen catechists, their wives
and children. and by ten rowers | sent
catechists before me to tell the people that
they were about to be visited by the
THE HIGH PRIEST
of the white mans faith. When we arrived
at villages il we found converts we baptized
them and their children, but we did not
baptize children whose parents we did not
think were thoroughly converted. l left
catechists at five villages. When we arrived
at the village of Vinivalu the convert, who
at that time was q war chief, had break
fast served US by his son, who afterward
offered me a whales tooth and made
speech. The whales teeth are the coins Of
the natives-the representatives of wealth.
A chief who has thirty or forty whales
teeth is millionaire, as they are very scarce
and very hard to get. They are worn around
the necks Of chiefs by cords made from tree
hbers, an end of which is fastened to holes
bored in each end of the tooth. Ia the olden
days whales tooth could buy a fattened
prisoner or roasted corpse. Now this chief
offered it to me to procure a priest to be
sent among his people.
The bishop showed the reporter the tooth,
which, judging from its highly polished yell