Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/370

 340 FIJI AOTD THE FIJIANS. Christian name) " has experienced and shows a much greater change than the other. He was a desperate character before his conversion, of very ferocious disposition ; but the other was always mild." The Missionary and Teachers now met with less opposition, but had still to mourn continually over the terrible degradation of the people. Ratu Nggara had given great offence to his brother the King, and was driven away to Mbau. Another Mbau Chief, who was sick, was taken by the Eewa King, who had a house built for him at the Mission settlement, where he might receive proper attention. This Chief became a Christian, and seemed to die in the faith. At his death some one wished him to be honoured in the usual style ; but the King said, as he had died a Christian he should have a Christian burial ; and he was accordingly carried by Christians and the King's brother, and interred within the sacred enclosure of the royal burial- ground. His widow was not strangled. Among the Heathen the sick were sadly neglected, being removed to the bush, or some lone out-liouse, and there left to perish ; others were strangled at once and buried, several together, in one grave. These things were very painful to witness continually ; and, to make matters worse, war broke out between Rewa and some adjacent towns under its power. Some of the slain were brought to Eewa and eaten, and the horrid feast made the people more savage and more opposed to religion. In January, 1841, the King of Rewa took revenge for an outrage committed on him during a former war. The people of Tamavua had then taken three canoes belonging to the town ; and the King, having got hold of a piece of one of the canoes and some ropes, had them hung up in his house as a remembrancer, to prevent his forgetting the offence. The offenders had fled immediately from their own town to a place beyond the King's reach, but had lately returned, believing that the affair was forgotten or forgiven. The King sent one of his brothers to Kalamba, a neighbouring town, with a necklace of whales' teeth, begging the Kalambas to destroy the people of Tamavua. They consented, and left their town so as to reach their victims at day-break, when all would be at home. One hundred and thirty, men, women, and children, were killed, among whom were some Kalamba people who were on a visit to Tamavua, but who could not be warned of the attack, lest it should be made known to the others. Tliis town was too distant for any of the bodies to be brought to Rewa. But again and again some wretched victim from elsewhere was conveyed to the to^vn for the oven, and the fiendish shouts of the cannibals, and the firing of