Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/546

 608 FIJI A]ST) THE FIJUlN^S. afraid of you. You, too, are Christians of a night more than myself: so your minds are heathen minds, and you are afraid of me. But that is now done with ; let us no longer fear each other, but let us now love each other as these our friends do.' ' People of Na Sau, the heathen mind is a dark mind : we are a dark-minded people. We saw the lotu, it came on each side of us, but we did not value it : it spread here and there, and. so put out its arms as to encircle us ; but, not being willing to submit to it, we raised this war to break through it, and by this war it has captured us. This loiic is a strange thing.' ' We have of late, in these parts, greatly wearied ourselves. If we carried a weight, we increased it by carrying a musket, powder, and balls. In the garden, one hand held the spade, and the other held arms. Tliis makes work difficult ; it grows out of fighting. Men of Na Sau, let us give both our hands to the spade ; pour out the poAvder from the powder-house (pan) of your guns ; let us all do so, or else let us discharge them into the air, and let us be determined for peace.' ' People of Na Sau, I am a Christian ; perhaps you think I have put on a mask, and that plots are under it. No ; I am sincere. In the face of the Missionary, and of the Christian Chiefs, *and of yourselves, I speak it, and let all hear it : I am a Christian': I mean to be one. You who hear me, we have had war, our friends have fallen its victims ; but that is past, let us now all be for peace. The man who after this causes war to rise shall be known to us all. I speak for friendship, love, and peace.' " I added a few words in confirmation of Tui Mbua's desire for unity and good will, and called upon Ra Hezekiah Vunindanga to address our new professors of Christianity ; and he did so with spirit. I wish I could find room for the whole of his speech. He began by saying, ' This is a good day ; we have long prayed that we might see this day ; now we see it, and are glad. To-day we see the great power of God. Man could not do what we see done to-day. We Fijians are a perverse people; we are Fijians, and we know that of all crooked, obstinate things, the mind of a Fijian is most crooked and most obsti- nate. If we have an enemy, we do not like to be of one mind with him ; we do not wish to be reconciled to him. If some Fijian Cliief of great power had this day come to miite us, he could not have done so ; certainly not, — certainly not, — certainly not. If some great Chief of Britain had come amongst us to-day to dissuade us from war, and make us one, he could not have done so. The Fijian mind defies the power of man. But what do we see to-day ? We see those who the other day were fidl of bad feeling towards each other, and shooting at each other, sitting together in peace j hatred is taken away, and we who so