Part 10

It appears that not long ago, the chief wife of our Head man took offence at his scolding her, and ran away to his younger brother who lives at Lobaha. Our great man was very fond of this wife, for they had grown up together from childhood, and she had always presided over his establishment in a most devoted manner. She is most queenly in deportment, and quite one of the finest native women I have ever seen. However, she went off, and “Virclumlum” was not only incensed, but very sorely grieved. He told the boys in most pathetic words how he missed his wife, how that it seemed unbearable to do without her, how that everything seemed void and empty now that she was away. However, once away it seems she was away for good, and very soon a pig arrived and that he had to accept in lieu of her. For a long time the people here have never been to Lobaha and contrariwise the Lobaha people here. However, we have, I hope, broken the ice again, although I am particularly sorry to lose so nice a woman from the place, and I believe she has deeply repented already of her conduct and would give worlds to be back again. I was glad to see a new school in course of erection, and the old men and women told me they were only waiting for it to be finished to all coming to school. Herbert has already a nice little building at his own place, but the people say it is too far away, and any excuse is enough to keep people away from religious duties. Herbert shewed me with manifest pride, the most beautiful tool chest sent by his English “mother” (Miss Mount). He has been trying to use the tools, and I saw an attempt at some amount of straightness in the new building at which he was assisting. We stayed some time with him, talking over matters in connection with the school, &c., and then we made preparations for home. The wind was blowing strong down the coast, so that a sail was useless, and we had a heavy pull. However, the boys are very good oarsmen, and we got along famously. I anchored the boat off for the night, having use for her again to-morrow. It was a very miserable evening, the wind blowing in strong gusts, and the threatened rain falling at short intervals. We had Prayers and a very long interesting school afterwards. The boys and girls here are very sharp, and learn very rapidly, and seem to understand well what they read. There are three classes of Catechumens preparing for Baptism, adults, boys and girls, all more or less proficient. Altogether, this school is very cheering, and with such an excellent head teacher as Charles, one need not fear of its stability.

_Thursday, September 16th._--After our morning duties were over here we rowed up to “Lo tahi mamavi,” and had school there with a large number of people, who were very enthusiastic to know more and to be regularly taught.

There are a nice lot of boys here, and some already know how to read. The old men I had school with, and they seemed quite delighted to say the letters one by one, and afterwards to put them together, and find out that they made Opa words. I told them as far as I could about our religion, and that I had left home, and all to come and live with them and teach them, but that Jesus Christ pitied and loved us so much that He left heaven, and His Father’s glory to come down into our world to live and die for us. They were very attentive, and asked me to come again, which I promised to do on Sunday, all being well. They gave us a handsome present of food according to native custom, and we left for home. It was raining heavily and we got very wet, but the distance was not very great. It was a most unpleasant evening, and I was cold and miserable, and I began to fear ague again. Last night was most wretched, my house was not properly finished, and the strong gusts of wind blew me almost out of bed, and brought in clouds of dust. To-day the boys have been patching up the holes, and it is more snug and comfortable.

_Friday, September 17th._--Fine morning and very close and hot after the rain. After breakfast I received a visit from an English Trader, who lives about two miles from me. Poor fellow, in my honour he had put on a coat, and he was literally running with perspiration when he reached my house, and he did not succeed in getting cool again before he left although he stayed some time. He seems to be doing a very fair trade here in copra, and although he has not been long on the island, he has already several tons of the dried coconut (copra). After he left I was attacked with a good-for-nothing fit and did nothing all day. In the evening I was very queer, and thought I was going to have rheumatism, my legs were so cold and my limbs generally so frail. However I managed Evensong and school, and was not sorry to be ready early for bed.

_Saturday, September 18th._--General holiday here. The boys wished me to take them to Vuinago, fishing, to which I rashly consented. It was a perfectly windless day and, oh! so hot. We had a long weary pull up, but were very successful when we got there, and came home late in the evening with about eighty fish. I was very glad to be able to send ten to the French Trader, as a return for all his many kindnesses to me, the rest were divided out to different great people, and about thirty were kept for to-morrow’s dinner. I was very glad the boys did not forget the women in their distribution. I had a nice fish for my own tea, a kind of mackarel. Very soon after dinner it was Prayer time, and I am now preparing for bed being very tired, sunburnt, and sleepy.

The boys are having great fun over the way, and it is evident the outing has not had much ill effect on their spirits.

_Sunday, September 19th._--Yesterday was perfectly calm and cloudless, and to-day again it is blowing very hard, with rain squalls at intervals. We began the day with school, and then after an interval for breakfast we had Mattins with a fair congregation. The females are very enthusiastic and attend very regularly, and the same applies to the boys, but the older men are very callous. There are one or two who never miss, but the majority are much more concerned with the affairs of this world, than about the one thing needful. There are one or two old fellows who are very regular, and who seem really to like being taught, but most of the men prefer the free and careless life to which they have always been accustomed. There are many who feel the beauty of Christianity, but it is so hard to them to practise it. They think it is all right for boys and women, but they themselves cannot stand the bother and burden it entails.

After Prayers we went up to “Tahi mamavi” and found the whole population awaiting us. We divided them into five sets, two of boys, one of youths, and two of old men. Charles and I taught the old men, and found them very attentive. Walter Tarigisibue addressed the youths who seemed appreciative, and Paschal and Peter taught the boys who were said to learn very quickly. They asked us to fix a day for coming again, and said they should expect us every Sunday. I had been feeling sick and queer all day, and coming home was violently sick in the boat. I got home as quickly as possible, but the sickness continued, accompanied by ague, and afterwards strong fever headache, and then strong perspiration, and this morning, (Monday) convalescence.

However, I am very washed out and good for nothing, and shall rest at home. I am disappointed however, for I meant to have gone to the other side of the island in the boat, and had made all my preparations. Now I must wait a bit.

_Tuesday, September 21st._--Reasonably convalescent again, but weak and not fit for much. It was a most unpleasant day however, with fitful squalls of rain and wind, and I could not have gone far even if I had wanted. The boys were busy planting “Virelumlum’s” yam garden, and were kept hard at work all day. I was not surprised, for I previously knew it to be the custom here for the chief’s wives to prepare his food in the gamal. Generally speaking, women are not admitted within these edifices, and more especially here, but to-day Virelumlum’s wives, three or four in number, were busy with the men getting ready the evening meal. I asked them where they were going to eat themselves, and they said with some naïvete, “Oh! that is a secondary matter, we have to get our masters’ dinner ready and shift for ourselves as best we may.” It would be impossible for them to eat any food cooked in the gamal, and so religiously have they been brought up under this restriction, that they would probably sooner die of hunger than attempt to appease their appetites with what to them is sacred food, or at least forbidden, and they are more faithful to the laws of men, than was Eve to the law of God. And, I suppose as spiritual death was the judgment on Eve’s disobedience, so would physical death be the penalty in case of their transgression. Human life is not more highly valued here than it is in Ireland, and a woman’s life is not much accounted of, and death is the common penalty for very trivial offences. Here it is universally averred that woman is at the root of all the evil that transpires, and poor things, they are too often the victims where the men go scott free. Here the females are much in excess of the males, and naturally polygamy is widely practised. The big men however, get the lion’s share, and it is no uncommon thing to find a troop of women in the households of the chiefs, varying from ten to fifty or even one hundred. All no doubt are not wives, but slaves and beasts of burden, and these big guns do nothing themselves but impose all the duties of the house and garden on their women. I do not think I am maligning the Opa men when I say that I look upon them as hideously lazy, but of course that results in large measure from their imposing their own natural duties on others, whom they find ready or obliged to do it for them. It is quite different at Maewo, where monogamy now mostly obtains, and where the men take an active and a man’s share in all out door employments. However Virelumlum was very active bustling about among his women, and I saw him shouldering off a big burden of yams, following up the rear of a troop of preceding females.

Here time seems of no importance and no account, and it wearies me sometimes to see people squatting about for hours at a time, whistling or otherwise killing time. It is an ennervating climate no doubt, but that is no excuse for laziness in people who have been born and brought up in the country. I often urge laggards and idlers, who make my house a convenient lounge, to go to work and plant their fences, but as nothing can be done out of due course, what was, is, and ever must be the same.

In the evening there was a great feast spread for the workers, and the day finished like all days here, with Evensong and school. This little village is a bright spot in the surrounding darkness, and I trust in time its influence for good will be more widely felt than even now. The attendants at the school seem wonderfully staunch, and the teachers very earnest, and I pray God that their vigorous instruction may not be lost on the heathen people around them. But there is the same callousness attending religious practice as about everything else here, and although they see the beauty and the benefit of Christianity, the effort is too great to reduce its blessed precepts to daily practice.

_Wednesday, September 22nd._--By-and-bye I shall have as much trouble with my white flock, as with the black. The white Traders have got some feud one against the other because of difference of nationality, and I had to listen again to accusations from an Englishman against a Frenchman, as to plots against his life and property. Poor man, he is new to the business, is doing well, and fancies that he is taking the bread out of the Frenchmen’s mouths, but there is room for all. I found he was not only filled with gloomy fears himself, but had imbued the chief under whom he lives with warlike intentions also, and I had to put a veto upon any resort to open violence. I told the chief “Tabi,” that he must keep his hands from all white men, and if he had any complaints to make, to make them in the proper quarter, and not take the law into his own hands. He must learn the sacredness of human life, and not rush to bow and arrow and club for every fancied affront or grievance. As long as I was here I would do my best to see that peace and harmony reigned among whites and blacks, but I would countenance no violence or bloodshed. After this I went to the Frenchman at La[¨n]a[¨n]qa, and he seemed very surprised to think that he was accused of any ill feeling, and judging from his good nature I should imagine his surprise was genuine. However, I said it was very hard if a few white men living on so large an island, could not live at peace, even if their nationalities were various, and if they could not agree among themselves, what could be expected of the natives? I quite like the natty little man, and certainly he is the best colonist I have ever seen down here. He is a most handy man and always employed, and as far as industry goes, he sets the natives a very excellent example. The neatness of his house and surroundings too, ought to have a good effect.

The fine day turned into a most dirty, rough, unpleasant evening, and we went to Prayers in a perfect downpour of rain. After Church there were great searchings of heart among the elders, and I publicly announced that I wanted the names of those who wished for Baptism. To the surprise of everybody, and to the delight of not a few, four women stood up and said almost simultaneously “Inew” (I). These quiet, demure creatures, generally so terribly afraid of the men, and always so shy in public, must have been influenced by a stronger Power than any they had hitherto known to make this public profession, and it produced no small sensation on all present. Two men also said they wished to be admitted to the Sacred Rite, and I hope they will soon be followed by many more. Charles Tariqatu’s influence here is great, and the fruits of his thorough and earnest teaching are beginning to be felt. He is so thorough and good himself, that his example and influence have all the more effect. There will be about twenty to be baptized on Sunday, the nucleus I trust, of a good Christian population hereafter.

_Thursday, September 23rd._--A thoroughly wet and disagreeable day. Fortunately there was a great festivity here, and I was not left without something to do all day. I trust I did not spend quite an unprofitable time. I begin to see distinct light through my work here now, and I can see how the seed sown through long years is at last beginning to bear fruit. I am eminently satisfied with the work of the boys here, and I can see that Charles’s influence pervades everything. One man to-day, who never has taken much interest in our teaching, came to ask me if Martin Ta[¨n]abei might not come back from Norfolk Island, and live with him and his people as teacher. Another told me that my words to him of former years have quite changed the course of his life, and no doubt he is as different as possible to what he formerly was. I was under engagement to go to Tahimamavi, but when we were launching the boat the rain came down in such torrents that I reluctantly turned back. The evening was as bad as the day, and most uncomfortable it was in my leaking, cold house. We had Evensong with a good congregation, but a great gust of wind put out the principal lamp in the very middle of the service, and made it somewhat dismal.

_Friday, September 24th._--Fine bright morning and a very hot day. Having failed to go to “Tahimamavi” yesterday I resolved to go instead this morning. We had a hot, but a most pleasant row up the coast about three miles, and found the people awaiting our arrival. They had been disappointed that we did not come yesterday, but supposed that the rain was the occasion of our failing in our promise. Such a nice number of bright boys assembled for school, and a great many grown-up people. The boys were divided into two classes, and two of the boys taught them their letters. The older men I undertook to teach myself with the help of Peter. I made a few remarks at first and then told Peter to say a few words. I was quite unprepared for what followed. It is not often I have seen such an effect on a native audience, and his flow of natural eloquence from beginning to end quite held the men enchained. With a great deal of energy, and a vast amount of earnestness, he went into the thick of his subject, and left an impression which I feel sure must, under God, have a good effect. At the end of his remarks he said very modestly, “You may perhaps think it presumptuous in me to stand here in your presence and speak like this, you who are old enough to be my fathers, and so high in rank all of you as to look upon me as a mere nonentity, and indeed I am amazed at my own audacity. But I speak about things of so momentous import that I take the chance of your displeasure, and submit myself to whatever verdict you may choose to return. Were I only concerned about things which belong to our heathen state, I should take the place of a humble listener and you should do the talking, but here all is different, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth must speak, and that heart and mouth, thank God, are mine.” There was not even an assent of approval, all were so impressed with the message delivered so eloquently by a mere boy. I said at the end, after a long pause, for I did not like to break the spell which seemed to hold them all, “Our son has spoken good words to you which I hope you will not soon forget.” And they all said, “Who can forget them?” I was also much pleased with the way the boys had got on with their reading after so few lessons, and altogether I felt that a “great door and effectual had been opened here,” for which I was most thankful to Almighty God. Now it remains but to put a good teacher there, and I think a wide harvest may by God’s blessing be soon gathered in. We came back with a fair wind in the afternoon, and in the evening again we had torrents of rain. However, we had our full complement at Prayers, and a very nice time afterwards.

_Saturday, September 25th._--I had intended to-day to have gone to Walurigi, but it set in to a wet day, and I was obliged to stay at home. However, I had a succession of visitors, and among them some Bushmen from a long way inland. The boys told me some odd stories about them, how ignorant they formerly were and what strange things they did in consequence. When they first came down to the sea they fancied it was hungry, because the surf came rolling in, as they said, “mouth wide open.” They therefore gave it food to eat. Knowing only the taro root, when first getting possession of a yam, they fancied it was firewood and put into the fire. Some many years ago they came down here in quest of a pig, and while waiting in the gamal their eyes caught sight of a tin with the picture of a lobster outside. Thinking this was something very wonderful they stole it, and marched off homewards with it instead of their pig. Arriving at their village home the chief made a great feast for it, and placed it in the midst of the village dancing ground, and went through the various ceremonies as if it were a pig in verity. The ceremonies over, the chief advanced to the tin, and with his foot, squashed up the tin as if he was treading the life of a pig out, with the inevitable result that he almost cut his foot off. Now-a-days of course they are more enlightened, and the men who were here to-day I found very amiable and intelligent. All “salt water” natives despise Bushmen, and they have always stories to tell of them. There is somehow a natural feud existing between them, but the agression I must say, comes generally from the Bushmen. They do, certainly, very unaccountable things, but they are always forgiven, and their conduct explained by saying, “Oh, they are only Bushmen,” or as they say here “(Taute).” A small vessel passed here in the afternoon, and anchored off M. Moussu’s place “Ia[¨n]a[¨n]qa.” In the evening there was the greatest excitement, the boys returning from fishing saw a boat under sail coming down the coast, and the general idea was that it was Mr. Brittain. I was led into the swim, and made active preparations for his reception, but he never turned up, the sail belonged to some other boat.

Heavy rain and strong wind squalls again in the evening.

_Sunday, September 26th._--A day which will ever be memorable to me, here at Tavolavola. To-day I Baptized twenty-five people, and it has been indeed a day of great spiritual enjoyment to me. Before I was up in the very early morning, I heard boys in the school house reading their baptismal service over, and all through the day there are some who have never had their books out of their hands. The teachers have done their part most admirably, and I thank God for such earnest children. We had school before breakfast, and a most excellent school too. I went from class to class leaving A. P. Huqe to discourse the older men. The boys, nothing daunted by my presence, kept their instruction going, which was generally very thorough and good. The earnestness of all was quite remarkable. After school and breakfast we had Morning Prayers, a nice hearty service, and after that we started by boat for “Tahimamavi.” Here we found the people awaiting us, and soon we were assembled for school. Charles gave the old men a very good and eloquent address, and three other classes were provided for. On our way home we stopped for a few minutes to learn the news from the schooner at anchor, but they had none except that the French troops were still at Port Sandwich, and did not intend to move at present, and moreover, that the Mail Steamer had a contract to come as far North as that Port. This does not look like clearing out of the group, and the Captain told me they had not the least intention of moving at present. Before long we shall know the fate of these islands, but I sincerely trust they may not fall into the hands of the French. In the afternoon I was most pleased to see the teachers selecting boys and youths, more especially connected with them by ties of kindred, and taking them for a walk and serious talk, as is the custom at Norfolk Island. Everyone was so filled with enthusiasm that the chief himself sent to say he wished to be Baptized, but inasmuch as he has already four or five wives, and contemplates taking more, I could not listen to his petition for a moment. To put away his wives would lower him in rank at once, and in the choice between God and Mammon, he felt the difficulty of putting away any of his women, and I was obliged to leave him with his god Mammon.

In the early evening we decorated the Font, and when the building was lit up at night with lots of candles, it looked quite nice. The service was quite one of the most stirring I have ever taken part in, and the ready responses one by one, of men and women, produced a great effect on every one present. The women, generally like poor frightened, startled creatures, answered out marvellously, with a vigour and earnestness, such as no one was prepared for. The ceremony of Baptizing twenty-five people took some time, but no one seemed fatigued, so interested were they in what was going on. Among the number Baptized were a blind man, and a blind woman, but they, like the rest, were wonderfully self-possessed. Poor Diu, whom I called Kate, after Miss Lodge, who had nursed her so faithfully at Norfolk Island, was perfectly ecstatic in her delight, and seemed endued with special strength, having risen from a bed of sickness on purpose to be present.