Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/448

 416 FIJI Am) THE FIJIANS. On the Sunday before Easter an announcement was made that the Good Friday would be religiously observed in memory of the death of Christ, and Verani determined that on that day he would publicly dedicate himself to the true God. Early in the morning, he went to Mr. Hunt and asked him when the day would occur again : on being told that it would not be for a year, he said firmly, " Then I will become a Christian to-day." He kept his word, and at the morning prayer-meeting, March 21st, 1845, the little congregation were made glad by seeing the dreaded Verani, as humble as a child, bow his knee before God, and openly declare that he thenceforth abandoned Heathen- ism and its practices. His sincerity was soon and severely put to the test. A principal Chief of the Mbau Fishermen had for some time found asylum in the house of Verani, whose sister he had married as a head wife. This man was persuaded to return to his people, where he and his aged father were brutally and treacherously murdered.* Such an act was an aggravated and deadly insult to Verani ; but the arm once so quick to strike in bloody revenge, now was immoved. The man so jealous and so furious in his wrath was now another man ; and when his own widowed sister and the other wives of the slain gathered around Verani, and wildly urged him to strangle them, he stood firm, and said calmly, " If you had come some time since, I would readily have done it ; but I have now lotued, and the work of death is over." Hearing of Verani's intention to loiu, Thakombau, when too late, sent a messenger, requesting further delay, that they might all become Christian together. The answer was : " Tell Thakombau that I have waited very long at his request ; and now that I have become Christian, I shall be glad to go anywhere with my people, to attend to his lawful work ; but I fear Almighty God, and dread falling into hell-fire, and dare no longer delay." Message after message was sent ; but in vain. Verani was told that the hitherto ample supplies which he had received from Mbau would be stopped, and that he would come to be a poor and despised man. But he had counted the cost, and was not to be moved. When entreaties, promises, and threats had been tried without success, and the people expected eagerly the sentence of wrath against the resolute convert, Thakombau astonished all, and bitterly disappointed some, by saying : " Did I not tell you that we could not turn Verani 1 He is a man of one heart When he was with us, he was fully one with us ; now he is a Chi'istian, he is decided, and not to be moved."
 * See an account of this affair, p. 99.