Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/495

 VIWA AND MBAir. 461 not strong, he labours assiduously with pleasing success. A promise had been given that Mr. Binner's expenses should be met on the spot ; but they fell almost entirely on the Missionary Society ; for the white men, though working hard, were poor, and most of them subject to the temptation of spending in drink what should have gone to educate their children. Mr. Binner has preached regularly in English to the whites and occasionally to the natives ; and labours in every way to do good to all within his reach. Since the Missionary left Ovalau in .1853, this important position and Station, where ships of war and trading vessels are frequently at anchor, has been under the charge of Mr. Binner, who is the only foreign Protestant Missionary Agent on the island. In May, 1852, Mr. Watsford returned to Fiji, after having been compelled to leave on account of Mrs. Watsford's health. He now began his work again with all his characteristic vigour, at Viwa, where he established an infant school, which was attended by more than eighty children, and excited great astonishment among the Mbau people. Thakombau was delighted to see what Fijian children could learn, and how well they understood many things which Mr. Watsford had taught them. Mr. Watsford's stay was short, as his beloved wife sank again so rapidly as to make his departure necessary. But while he was at Viwa, his ministry was very successful in quickening the Christians and alarming the Heathen, who were roused to thoughtfulness by his earnest and startling appeals. He also paid close attention to the revision of the New Testament, a large edition of which was printed while he remained. During this time, too, there happened the long looked for and much dreaded event, the death of the old Mbau King, Tanoa. Fijian custom demanded that many of the wives of so powerful a King should be strangled, to honour him, and accompany him to another world. Some- times the Missionaries almost hoped that their efforts, so powerfully backed by the warnings of several Captains of English and American ships of war, would prevail with Thakombau, and lead to the omission of this tragical observance. If, on so signal an occasion, — the most remarkable, perhaps, that could have occurred, — the established custom were broken through, the good effect would be felt throughout Fiji ; but, if after all efforts it were persisted in, no wonder the Missionaries feared the bitter effects of such a notorious failure, tending, as it must, to draw more closely those bonds of evil which they had worked so long and so hard to loosen. The importance of the crisis urged them to greater exertion and more earnest prayer. They promised, as a redemption for the women, ten whales' teeth, weighing upwards of