The Cruise of the Mary Rose; Or, Here and There in the PacificKingston, William Henry Giles
Religion
The Cruise of the Mary Rose; Or, Here and There in the Pacific
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Conduct of life -- Fiction; Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Missions -- Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Sea stories
"In Lakemba the Christians multiplied, and the whole population of one
town, that of Yaudrana, lotued in one day. They had been ill-treated,
and two of their number had been killed by the king or his people.
Suddenly they came to the conclusion that their own gods could no longer
protect them, and they resolved to pray to Jehovah the God of the
Christians. They accordingly sent to Mr Calvert, the missionary. The
chiefs of the town met him to speak on the matter, in the principal
temple in the place, and after singing and prayer they bowed down to
worship God. The following Sabbath the whole population, by agreement,
openly abandoned idolatry. The king sent to forbid them, but his
message arrived after the ceremony had been performed, and they replied
that they would pay him lawful tribute, but would not abandon their new
faith. After this movement of the larger number of his subjects, the
king himself became a Christian.
"I can with difficulty recollect the numerous events connected with
missionary work as they occurred in the wide extending group of Fiji.
Of the most important I have not yet spoken. It is necessary to
remember the names of three important places: Mbau, though a small
island, contains the capital of the powerful chief Thakombau, now called
the king of all Fiji. Twelve miles off, on the mainland, is Rewa; and
on another small island two miles from Mbau, is Viwa, the residence of
Namosimalua, who had become nominally Christian, or was at all events
favourable to the Christians. Here Mr Cross took up his abode, when
Thakombau refused him admission to Mbau. Thakombau was the son of
Tanoa, the chief of Mbau. Mbau had obtained the influence it possessed
over other parts of Fiji in consequence of its having become the abode
of Charles Savage, a runaway seaman, a horrible ruffian, a Swede by
birth, who managed to obtain a large supply of firearms and ammunition,
and led her armies for many years against her neighbours of the larger
islands, compelling them to become tributary to her. At length, being
defeated in Viti Levu, by a party of natives against whom, in
conjunction with the master of an English trading vessel, the _Hunter_,
of Calcutta, he was carrying on a war for the sake of procuring a cargo
of sandal-wood for the ship, he was, together with fourteen of the crew,
put to death and eaten, his body being treated with every mark of
detestation, and his bones converted into sail-needles, and distributed
among the people as a remembrance of the victory. Namosimalua was
looked upon as the Ulysses of those regions. He in conjunction with
other chiefs, weary of the exactions of Tanoa, rebelled against him, and
compelled him to fly, also advising that his young son Thakombau, whose
talents he had discovered, should be put to death. This not having been
done, he resolved to gain the friendship of Tanoa without committing
himself. He therefore offered to go in pursuit of the king, but
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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