Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/556

 J. Sumner, M.L.C., of Stony Park, Brunswick, Vict.

Scott, Rear-Admiral Lord Charles Thomas Douglas Montagu, C.B., late admiral commanding on the Australian station, is the fourth son of the fifth Duke of Buccleuch, K.G., by his marriage with the youngest daughter of the second Marquis of Bath. He was born on Oct. 20th, 1839; and, having entered the royal navy, commanded H.M.S. Bacchante from 1879 to 1882, Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales being entrusted to his care during their voyage round the world and visit to Australia. On Feb. 23rd, 1883, he married Ada Mary, second daughter of Charles Ryan, of Derriweit Heights, Upper Macedon, Vict., and Marian his wife, daughter of John Cotton. From 1886 to 1888 Lord Charles Scott was naval aide-de-camp to the Queen, and in the latter year was appointed admiral commanding on the Australian station, a post which he held till the autumn of 1892.

Sherbrooke, Viscount. The career of this nobleman will be found in the body of the work under ""(p. 280).

Stock, Hon. William Frederick, M.P. (p. 439). Mr. Stock is a native of Clifton, England, where he was born in 1847. He has been thrice Mayor of Glenelg, and was President of the Railway Employés' Association until he took office.

Thakombau, the first and last King of Fiji, was originally only chief of Mbau, in that island. He was born about 1817. In 1832 his father, Tanoa, was driven from his chieftainship of Mbau, and most of his family murdered. Thakombau was thought harmless on account of his youth, and was allowed to live, but plotted revenge in secret. When his time came he acted with great vigour, restoring his father after about five years' exile and punishing the enemies of his family with horrible barbarities. Up to this time he was known as Thikinoru, the "Centipede," but he was thenceforth known as Thakombau ("Evil to Mbau"). His father died in 1852, and in July of the following year Thakombau was formally installed Vunivalu, or War King, of Mbau. He was now involved in internal and external troubles of a most trying character, on one occasion being only saved by the intervention of the King of the Friendly Islands and on another having to hand over 200,000 acres of land to the Polynesian Company, to enable him to pay a fine of £9000 levied on him by the Government of the United States as compensation for losses incurred by American citizens. Cannibalism was rife in Fiji till 1854, but at length on April 30th of that year the Wesleyan missionaries induced Thakombau to embrace Christianity and to proclaim the abolition of cannibalism. What his former ferocity had been may be gathered from the fact that, after defeating his father's enemies, he had one of the prisoners brought before him, ordered his tongue to be cut out, and ate it before the victim's face, "cracking jokes the while," as Mr. records in his "Cannibals and Convicts." In 1857 Thakombau abandoned polygamy and was married according to the Wesleyan formula, he and his wife being publicly baptised on Jan. 11th, 1858, under the names of Ebenezer and Lydia. In 1859 Thakombau, as the most powerful chief of Fiji, offered the sovereignty of the islands to Great Britain. The offer was declined by the Duke of Newcastle in 1862. About that time the demand for cotton, owing to the American civil war, led to an influx of Europeans into Fiji for the purpose of cotton cultivation. In June 1871 certain Englishmen set up a Fijian Government, with Thakombau as king. A constitution was agreed upon, and a Parliament elected. The Parliament and the Government before long drifted into mutual hostility, and the Ministry latterly governed without the aid of the Parliament. The question of annexing Fiji had in the meantime been agitated both in Australia and England on many grounds, and in August 1873 the Earl of Kimberley commissioned Commodore, commanding the squadron on the station, and Mr. , her Majesty's consul in Fiji, to investigate and report on the matter. These commissioners on March 21st, 1874, reported an offer of the cession of the sovereignty of the islands from the chiefs, with the assent of the Europeans, but on certain terms which 540