The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-04-10
TANNING OF A KING.
How Colonel Cochran Converted an
ex-Cannibal Sovereign.
Philadelphia Press


Any hbretust in search Of a good
comic opera plot might go farther and
rare worse, than an elaboration OF
Colonel Henry clay COchran'S expert
enee in alluriug Thakonbau, king of
the Fiji islands, from his cocOanUt
home to one of Uncle Sans warships
TO explain why he had permitted one
OF his subjects 20 rob a citizen of Mead
vile, Pa.
Colonel Cochran. it should be ex-
planned, is now commander of marines
at the League island navy yard. His
home is in Chester, Pa. Thirty or more
years ago he was a captain m the old
Philadelphia navy yard at the foot Of
Federal street. While he was there he
asked for orders" He was ambitious
to so 20 Europe on the frigate Wabash.
he wrote to the navy department at
Washington and said so. Another man
was sent on the Wabash and Cochran
was ordered to San Francisco.
1T was at that time" he said, that
1 learned the Importance of not making
the same mistake twice. ] never asked
for orders again. I took what was
coming to me in the navy department.
The only part of the navigable globe
that Z have missed since then is the
stretch between Port Said and the
Philippines"
The journey from san Francisco to
Philadelphia in the days when Colonel
Cochran was ordered there was not as
luxurious as it is today. He went in a
side-wheel steamer from New York to
Panama, crossed the istAmus OF a
small railroad. and took another side
wheel steamer to san Francisco. 1t
was quick passage then, to make the
f-f-a In N,~,ss 70.
which Colonel Cochran was assigned
was ordered back to Panama. While
there g message was received from
Hamilton Fish. in President Grants
cabinet, TO proceed at once to the Fiji
islands and firEi out what was the mat
ter with George r. Burt, a citizen of
Pennsylvania, who had, as alleged by
an American consul in Australia, been
outrageously maltreated by ThakOn-
baus subjects.
1T was a bright and beautiful morn
ing. like one Of our June days at home -
said Colonel Cochran, when we ar
rived in the Bay of Levuka. We were
told that the king lived on the island
Of Bau, about twenty miles distant, and
I was sent, with another officer, to
bring him aboard ship for trial Il
was the first time, I believe, that a
steamship had ever been seen in those
waters. Sailing vessels and whalers
had put in there, but never a steam
boat
when our little launch ran along
side of the landing stage at Bau-a lit
tie pier of cocoanut shells swaying with
the tide-the Fiji islanders had no use
for US. If it had not been for the
kindly offices of the British mission
aries 1 do not know what we should
have done. When we had explained
our erTand the missionaries took US to
ThakOnbaU's palace. 1t was made en-
tiTely Of cOcOanut and CocOanut fiber,
without a nail in il. The ground sur
face was about 50x40 feet. The parti-
tons between the rooms were Of tapa,
a cloth that the natives made from the
inner bark of the mulberry tree. The
garment that Thakonbau wore was Of
the same material. a queer-lOOking
thing that reached from his neck to his
knees.
His wife. when he presented US to
her had on a garment of the same
material Thakonbau apologized
through one OF the missionaries, for
having only one wife to introduce US
to. When he had been converted TO
Christianity and baptized. he said, be
had renowned polygamy as he had re-
nounced cannibalism. He frankly ad-
mitted that before his conversion he
had been a cannibal and that he was
sorry for T. The thought flashed
through my mind at the time that il
was like a temperance lecturer admit
ting that he had been topper in his
youth. But the king had no idea Of the
horror Of the confession ne was max
ing. he took US to the altar of sacri-
fee and Hhowed US how he used to pack
away cooked human flesh in banana
skins which was their means of pres
ervatiOn.
THE king invited US 10 luncheon. a
repast of bananas and goats milk. we
declined. and accepted an invitation
Srom the missionaries. From them we
learned that If we wished to make any
+ progress with the king we should talk
to him of war. While a peaceable man
in practice he was intensely interested
in military operations. and thought OF
nothing but guns and gunpOwder. He
had never seen either. but he had great
ideas of their responsiveness.
Some American sailor who had
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