Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/23

 FIJI. 6 invariably spread terror and death. No thought of improving and consolidating the power thus won seenis to have been entertained by the whites. Had such a desire possessed them, the absolute govern- ment of the entire group lay within their reach ; but their Ambition never rose beyond a life of indolence, and an unrestrained gratification of the vilest passions. Some of them were men of the most desperate wickedness, being regarded as monsters even by the ferocious cannibals with whom they associated. These lawless men were twenty-seven in number on their arrival, but in a few years the greater part had ended their career, having fallen in the native wars, or in deadly quarrels among themselves. A Swede, named Savage, who had some redeeming traits in his character, and was acknowledged as head man by the whites, was drowned and eaten by the natives at Weilea, in 1813. In 1824 only two, and in 1840 but one of his companions survived. This last was an Irishman named Connor, who stood in the same relation to the King of Eewa as Savage had done to the King of Mbau. His in- fluence among the natives was so great, that all his desires, some of which were of the most inhuman kind, were gratified. The King of Rewa would always avenge, and often in the most cruel manner, the real or fancied ^vrongs of this man. If he desired the death of any native, the chief would send for the doomed man, and direct him to make and heat an oven, into which, when red hot, the victim was cast, having been murdered by another man sent for the purpose. Soon after the death of his patron, Paddy Connor left Rewa. He was thoroughly Fijianized, and of such depraved character that the white residents who had since settled in the islands drove him from among them, being afraid of so dangerous a neighbour. At the close of life his thoughts seemed only occupied about rearing pigs and fowls, and increasing the number of his children from forty-eight to fifty. These men are thus mentioned because of their close connexion with the rise of Mbau and Rewa, which two places owe their present superi- ority to their influence, the former having long been the most powerful state in Fiji. The entire group comprises not fewer than two hundred and twenty- five islands and islets, about eighty of which are inhabited. Among these, every variety of outline can be found, from the simple form of the coral isle to the rugged and often majestic grandeur of volcanic structure. The islands in the eastern part of the Archipelago are small, and have a general resemblance to each other : towards the west they are large and diversified. The two largest are superior to any found in the