Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/309

 ONo. 279 of this place ; and his friends here performed the usual ceremonies for the dead, by making food, etc. I am happy to say, that I did not hear a murmur or desire of revenge in any way expressed by his friends. I believe the worst thing they wished concerning the murderers was, the conversion of their souls to God and holiness. " 24:th. — I lectured to the Teachers on the foreign words introduced into the New Testament, showing that they were as few as possible, but that we were under the neces- sity of introducing some few. I endeavoured to make them understand their meaning, that those passages in which they occur might not be as a blank to them. In a subse- quent meeting, I asked them if they understood and remembered the signification I had given, and was happy to find that my endeavour was not in vain. " 31st. — In our Teachers' Meeting we read the nineteenth chapter of St. John's Gos- pel. It happened to fall to the lot of an old Teacher, Joseph, to read the eighteenth verse ; which is, ' Where they crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.' He read it with some diflSculty, and then burst into tears, and wept aloud. And that his were not tears of mere natural sympathy, his conduct fully testifies. This man was once a cannibal, though not many of the present gener- ation of Ono people have been. "April 5th. — The wind for some days had been strong; but to-day it increased mightily, and continued to increase till midnight, when it blew a fearful hurricane. Myself and one of our dear little girls were at Ono Levu ; and my wife and two other children were on the little island on the reef, mentioned before. I and one of our Teachers sat up all night, watching our house, and expecting every renewed blast to bring it to the ground. The roar of the sea, and the howling of the Avind, and the rain descending in almost a solid mass, made it a most dismal night. Such was the roar of the wind in the trees, and the breakers on the reef, that we did not hear the crash of a house which fell not half a dozen yards from where we were sitting. But where were my dear wife and children ? On a little island on the weather-side of the land, where they might, by one vast billow, be all swept in a moment into the foaming abyss, with- out the possibility of human aid. But where was our faith ? Was there not One sitting above the water-floods, who could say to the proud waves, * Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ? ' Yea, and in Him our souls confided ; and I felt but little doubt that their lives would be precious in His sight, and that He would either still the waves, or preserve them in the midst of them. He did the latter. In the morning, the rain hav- ing ceased, and the wind moderated in a slight degree, I walked out to see what had been done during the night. As might be expected, I found that many houses had fallen ; and in many places the ground was literally covered with fallen banana and bread-fruit trees. I hastened to the sea-side, and looked towards the little island, on the safety of which all my earthly comforts depended. We could not discern any house distinctly, and concluded that ours had fallen during the night ; but were happy to see that the trees, etc., made their usual appearance, and had not been materially disturbed. But there still appeared no possibility of approach to them, — the waves running and the wind blowing as if propelled by some almighty engine ; as, indeed, I know not who that had seen them would have been disposed to deny that they were. About mid-day, how- ever, the wind having somewhat abated, eight of the natives ventured to attempt a pas- sage in the two little paddling canoes, the life-boats of Fiji. They succeeded, and re- turned in the evening, having the wind aft, and set my heart quite at rest concerning my treasures there. Our house, in which they were, had fallen, as we suspected, during the night, and they had made their escape into a small house belonging to one of our Teach- ers ; which they managed so to prop up as to serve them for the night ; but early in the morning the waves came up into it, and they were obliged to flee, and build a little tem- porary shed on higher ground, and further from the sea. The men who went removed the house of the Teacher, just mentioned, up to a safer situation, where we afterwards remained till we got a new house built. My canoe shared the fate of several others ;