THE CRUISE OF THE WAIRARAPA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4399, 20 June 1884, Page 2

THE CRUISE OF THE WAIRARAPA.

[BY OUR SPECIAL CORJtES

PONDENT.]

Levuka, June 12,

The Practice of Cannibalism,

Before we can judge the Fiji of to-day we must consider its primitive condition. It has been said of the cannibalism prevalent among the Maoris in New Zealand that it was suggested to the people by the absence |of animal food and the appetite created for it by a temperate climate. But the variation of custom with regard to this diabolical practice among the inhabitants of the several groups of the Pacific, among people having a common ancestry, proves that this explanation will not hold good. The Tahitians were never addicted to cannibalism, although they occasionally ottered human sacrifices to their deity. The Samoans, who are unquestionably of the same race as the Maoris, likewise never partook of human flesh. The Fijians are believed to be of Papuan origin, but they held irregular communication with the Samoan islanders, and, though blessed with a climate and means of sustenance equal in every respect, were cannibals of the most depraved kind. Human sacrifices, attended with indescribable depravity and savage cruelty, were frequent. At the island of Bau, 26 miles from Levuka, two monolith stones are still the objects of a morbid curiosity to visitors, for against these blocks of stono the brains of innumerable victims were dashed out as sacrifices to the Fijian deities, their bodies being afterwards consigned to tho pot. Tho Government prior to Annexation. It was on the island of Bau that Cakabau, the first King of Fiji, grew into power. The island is small and insignificant, only about a mile in circuit, but was well situated for plundering tho canoes of other tribes as they passed from island to island. Cakabau's father had gathered around him a number of adventurous spirits, who .engaged in piratical enterprises and became the terror of the islands. To his power Cakabau, after many vicissitudes, succeeded, and was ini-. tiated at an early age into the bloody prerogatives of chieftainship, clubbing his first man—a poor wretch held down for the purpose—when only five years of age. He imbibed all the evil proclivities of his ancestors, with a special endowment of natural cunning, and carried on many terrible wars. In subsequent years he became a convert to Christianity, and developed into a lawabiding and law-asserting ruler. A large Wesloyan church is now the' most conspicuous building on tho island of Bau, which once echoed with the shrieks of the wretches led forth to butchery. Tho missionary in Fiji, as in New Zealand and most other barbarous countries, was the pioneer of civilisation.

The first real colonists of Fiji were anxious to get a settled government, and Cakabau, being the most powerful chief in the islands, was chosen as its head. He manifested considerable natural aptitude for the office, punishing rebellious natives with great vigour. But he necessarily fell into the hands of a few schemers, and the planters desired a more civilised rule. The natives were also not indisposed to annexation. The Government found the responsibilities of ruling great and the funds uncertain ; Cakabau was held responsible for outrages committed by natives in all parts of the group, and yet had no effective control over them or means of protecting his subjects from depredations. Some of the outrages perpetrated by unprincipled traders were very trying, as a reminiscence of the exploits of the notorious Bully Hayes, narrated by the authority whose account of a Fiji war party I have already given, will show : — A Story of Bully Hayes.

"One fine day Bully Hayes, whose rascalities had made New Zealand and Australian ports uncomfortably hot for him, ran past Serua in his vessel and dropped anchor at Sovi, a small bay at the further end of the Serua territory, but outside the boundaries thereof. There were two or three Americans living here married to native women, one of whom, named ' Mo,' was the father of several half-caste children. Hayes mode inquiries for these men, but found they were absent and not expected home for a few days, so .he agreed to wait for their return—that is, provided he could find anything to amuse himself with in a profitable manner during the interval. Being an American, he was naturally of an inquisitive nature and fond of new schemes, and considered it unnecessary to stand upon much ceremony with a darkie. The craft he had was a. fine brig, a New Zealand vessel. When he left port he did not consider it necessary to clear her at the Customs or ask the owner if he had any instructions to give him—that took up such a valuable lot of his time—especially as the wind might change at any moment, and the success of this new venture turn out a failure at the last minute. So shipping a crew of his own stamp, and two young women as stewardesses, he found himself, after a tolerably good passage, at anchor in Sovi Bay, Fiji. " Here, after making the vessel snug; he went ashore, and agreed with the natives about some fine hogs. He then took a stroll round, and had a good look at the harbour, in case circumstances might arise that would necessitate his putting to sea quicker than usual. The bottom of the bay was one mass of flat rocks, against which the sea broke in an angry manner; each side was shallow water, and as the entrance through the reef was narrow, Bully made up his mind to stay here no longer than was prudent, so he commenced trading, in his wag, at once. The natives having brought off some seventy fine pigs, he hod them put on deck, and tola the owners to go for more. Theys asked for payment of this lot first. Bully demurred, loaded his carronades, and hunted them overboard. . In the row that ensued he seized a fine girl by the hair of her head and put her below in the cabin,reckoning she was worth six hundred dollars j but the two stewardesses got jealous and beat her, so Bully pitched their bedding overboard, tore up their silk dresses and finery, and, as he said,'hammered them a trifle too.': V; '

" These proceedings caused much discontent ashore, and a small canoe was sent off with two men to the vessel to tell the white men to keep the pigs but return the woman. Bully answered by firing a pistol at these men, and during the hubbub the girl jumped overboard and swam ashore, although in handcuffs at the time. Bully was furious, and began to reckon his lost honestly-earned dollars, when a bright idea struck him. He guessedhe would just goashoreandburn their darned town down, as a lesson to them not to interfere with free-born Americans when trading (!) in a quiet and peaceable manner. So landing with a few men on the sandy beach, which wasfringed with thick timber.he marched for the town, a few hundred yards distant. Oh, Bully! if you could have seen the mass of darkies lying down in those bushes, each one with a musket and you at the wrong end of it, it would have made your heart go bump, For some extraordinary reason, however, the natives let him pass, and submitted their town to be burnt down without ever showing themselves or firing a shot. He then returned on board, but took good not to iand any more. The blackened posts of the town of Sovi are still standing, and the natives say they don't know why they did not fire at Hayes when he passed the belt of timber on his way to the town. They felt bewitched, and no one could pull a trigger; they cannot accountrfor it.

" Bully now shifted his anchorage a little, and did some trading, as he termed it, with Mo's wife. He agreed with her to buy from the natives of the Siga Toka river all the oranges they could supply him with. The banks of this beautiful river contain groves of orange and shaddock trees, so for days the natives were busy going up and down the coast with their canoes ladetf with fruit under the supervision of Mo's wife. After Bully had got what he thought was enough,, he told Mo's wife to come on board to receive payment and divide it amongst the natives. The unsuspecting woman and her children were no sooner on deck than Bully | with greed for the almighty dollar strong within him, ordered their poor little.boat to be hoisted aboard, then loosed his sails, and canted the vessel's head to sea. Just at this moment Mo and another white man pulled rapidly alongside; Mo leaded on deck, and commenced to upbraid Bully for treating a countryman in this scurvy manner, and he finally gave in, and Mo returned on shore with his wife and children, minus payment for the oranges. _" Bully, set sail for the Yasawas, a few miles to the westward, to trade there, for he felt sad and hurt at the termination of the Siga Toka affair, Here he kidnapped two young girls, but owing to the hostility of the natives, who failed to see the joke, he up anchor and crossed ovor to the mainland, entering the reef at Kaki Baid, and by means of false promises swindled"the. Fijians out of several hundred piouls of beche-de-mer; and one morning early he left scores of black friends on the beach with tears in their eyes, who witnessed Jus departure with great emotion. But Bully appeared, very stolid and unaffected, and paid but little ■attention to their earnest appeal 'to cqtae ashore and shake hands before going.' * No, thank you,' said Bully, 'I know a trick

■worth two of that; let us endeavour to do good each in our own way, and stifle revengeful feelings.' So, wlion on his last tack, he gave thorn a salute with his shotted carronades, or, as he termed it, a 'reminder •' then hoisted the stars and stripes, and feel ing he had done a good trade with this tribe he kicked the small cabin boy severely and ordered him to bring him up a stiff glass of rum and water. '

" This was Bully's style of trading; but he gradually got from bad to worse, and' became such a determined ruffian that he dared not put into any British port and men-of-war were on the look out for' him But he was cunning withal, and he evaded them. Ultimately he got killed by his mate in the Eastern seas. He had gone down in the cabin for a pistol to shoot this man who, having some powerful objections to being made a target of, quietly unshipped the tiller and waited Hayes's return. As the Bully's head appeared above the companion way the tiller descended upon it with crushing force, and one scoundrel the less remained on earth to prey upon his fellowmen." Annexation and its Results,

All these causes operated in bringing about a general agitation, for annexation The petition was favourably received by the Beaconsfield Government, and on the 30th September, 1874, Sir Hercules Robinson acting under Imperial instructions, accepted the formal cession of the islands from Cakabau. Sir Arthur Gordon, the first Governor landed at Levuka on the 24th of June 1875' Such glimpses as we have had of Fiji'in Us primitive condition make it tolerably safe to say that, however much the establishment of British rulo may have disappointed planter and native, it has accomplished a vast improvement upon the condition of both. The evils that come in the wake of civilisation are as nothing compared with the horrors of the barbarism and lawlessness that preceded it. If the planters find the Government regulations irksome, it is because the protection extended to the natives is so rigid. In compensation, they gets security for life and property, which they had not before. Capital under these new conditions has poured, in, industries have been started . land has risen in value and become a tangible security. As for the native population, they are peaceful, more industrious, and are governed by their own chiefs and committees under civilised laws. They are protected from the caprice of the chiefs as well asfrom oppression at the hands of tyrannical whites. Of course this revolution has only been brought about after great difficulty and by the exercise of firmness. Many of the old chiefs kicked vigorously against the limitation of their ancient prerogatives. It is related of one native named "Catsteeth," who had made himself very obnoxious, and who was a terror to his comrades, that he finally brought matters to a climax by committing a most brutal assault upon a young girl; a warrant was issued for his apprehension, but "Catsteeth" made himself scarce for a month or two. He then returned to his town, thinking the matter was" forgotten, but was very touch disgusted when arrested and taken oh board the police boat for conveyance to the nearest gazetted town for holding a Court. Just as the boot was shoving off from the bank of the river " Catsteeth " attempted to break away and go ashore, yelling out, " I cannot go without my club ; let me go and get my dub : somebody bring mo my club !" Now, the club to "Catsteeth" was something'like spurs to a military officer—he felt he was not in full dress without it. However, he soon found out.in a few days that he would have no need for. his club for a long period ; he took to learning the use of pick and shovel, and acquired a knowledge of roadmaking and forming culverts, quite enough to set him up in business as a native engineer should hard necessity drive him to it at any future time. One day, however, "Catsteeth" felt prompted suddenly to visit some distant relations in the far interior of the island, so, as he could not very well shake hands with the overseer, he gently and thoughtfully reminded him he was off by tapping him lightly over, the crown of his head with a shovel, thanking him at the same time for all the little attentions he hod received at his hands. But there was no rest for " Catsteeth " even here in the fastnesses of the mountains. To bis surprise he was arrested and brought back to resume hia unfinished work. Like a good many more birds of ill omen, he predicted tho country was going to ruin, and longed for the good old times—the days of old, when e\ery man did as he liked and the law was the club.

(To be Continued.)