Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/540

536 conquered all the neighboring islands and overran the eastern and southern coasts of Viti Levu, Finally, in 1813, the Mbauan conquests were pushed as far as Mbua in the southwestern part of Viti Levu, where in a fierce battle the ammunition of Savage and his white companions became exhausted, and they were forced to retreat to a small island in the river, where they were surrounded by thousands of howling enemies engaged in devouring the bodies of the fallen warriors of Mbau. Savage went to the water's edge to treat for terms of surrender, where he was captured, drowned and eaten, and his leg bones made into sail needles, while other parts of his skeleton were ground into powder to be drunk in Yaqona.

In 1814, Na-Ulivou and his warriors again came to Mbua with a great fleet of war-canoes, and wreaked terrible vengeance upon those who had killed their champion Savage. For long years after this no native would pass the spot where Savage died without first plucking some leaves and casting them upon the ground; for, as Williams says

the Fijian peoples with invisible beings every remarkable spot: the lonely dell, the gloomy cave, the desolate rock, and the deep forest. Many of these he believes are on the alert to do him harm; therefore in passing their territory he throws down a few green leaves to propitiate the demon of the place.

In the South Seas the most dreaded ghost is that of the man who seeks revenge for having been murdered and devoured.

Early in his reign a powerful conspiracy arose against Na-Ulivou, but he drove the rebel chiefs from Mbau and also from Rewa, whither they had retreated, and finally he pursued them to Somo Somo on Taviuni, whence they fled to the distant island of Lakemba, whither he met them in a great sea fight and they were utterly annihilated. After this, Na-Ulivou assumed the title of Vunivalu (root of war), and he reigned the greatest chief in Fiji until his death in 1829.

Rewa, however, remained independent of Mbau, and indeed until the group was annexed to Great Britain these two villages were rivals almost constantly at war.

In about 1804 a number of convicts who had escaped from Australia settled upon Rewa and were protected by its chief, and the aid rendered by these reprobates was sufficient to prevent Mbau from conquering Rewa. Even in Fiji, where cruelty, treachery, cannibalism and ferocity were considered virtues, some of these men are still remembered as monsters of iniquity. In a few years they had nearly all killed one another or fallen in native wars, and only one, Paddy Connel, called Berry by the Fijians, survived until 1841, and served as guide, pilot and interpreter to Wilkes during the surveying operations of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1840. This man became thoroughly Fijianized, having the traditional hundred wives and forty-eight