Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/320

 290 FIJI A^m THE FIJIANS. trusting them with a message to the people of the island, to the effect that he wished them to loiu, and to come down from their mountain fastness, where, through fear, they generally lived, and reside with the Christians at the sea-side. These two bands of confessors thus will- ingly exiled themselves for the sake of the Gospel of peace ; and soon there arrived at Munia the Lomoloma Christians, with the noble Chief Joseph Mbukarau at their head ; those from Yaro joined them ; and the people of the island were won to form part of the community, receiving a solemn assurance that they should suffer no molestation or injury. A new town was built on the most favourable site, and the little colony flourished under the government of the good Lomaloma Chief He and his people were declared exempt from all the claims of war, and permitted to sail about without hinderance, whereby they had the oppor- tunity of doing much good on all hands. The simple fact of that Christian colony, formed and established as it had been, produced a great effect in all Fiji. It seemed so strange that these people should thus stand out so boldly to protest against the venerable abominations of the land. It Avas also without precedent in Fijian history, that a tribe should leave an impregnable fortress in war time, as these Munians had done, and reside on the open coast. These things commanded attention, and the Heathens looked on and wondered, until they found themselves compelled to respect the religion which could work such great and strange results. The war was now raging between the two districts of Vanuamba- lavu ; but the Teacher, for whom the Yaro Christians had prayed, was sent, the Oneata people nobly giving up one of their own Teachers for the purpose. It was in February, 1844, that they sailed in six canoes, carrying the Teacher to Yaro. Two of the canoes they presented to their friends, and, in doing so, urged them to give up Heathenism. Some consented, and all seemed disposed to listen with attention and respect. Religious services were held, and, on the Sunday morning, a large house was set apart for worship ; but it proved too small for the number of people who came to hear. In the afternoon, the King de- sired that there should be preaching in the open air, in front of his house, so that the people might sit down and be orderly. A great mul- titude assembled, and listened eagerly, for the first time, to the Gospel. But the war engaged too much attention to allow time for religious thought and inquiry for the present. While the Heathens were carrying on the war with great fury, eat- ing all the slain that could be borne away, the Christian colony at Mu nia prospered, and its people were industrious in cultivating the soil