A Trip to the South Seas.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 7, 13 February 1892, Page 148

A Trip to the South Seas.

B Y

{ILLUSTRATED BY

E did not go straight to Levuka from Apia, as we had first to take Mr Maudslay (who was Acting Consul-General at the time) to Tutuila, also in the Navigator Group. To do this it was necessary to beat against a head wind which made the schooner pitch horribly, and we all four lay on the deck feeling no inclination to accept the steward's pressing invitations to luncheon. Although

we were sorry to lose the pleasure of Mr Maudslay’s company, it was a great relief after depositing him to shape our course for Levuka with a fair'wind. We passed the island of Niaufu on a lovely Sunday afternoon, when the pretty little settlement perched on a terrace on the hillside made a dainty scene which yet is vividly before me. The brilliant green of the grass and foliage, the bright clothing of the people, a few flags flying in honour of the day, and the surveying schooner, H.M.S. Alacrity, at anchor in the bay all combined to form a very perfect and peaceful picture. On August 20th, the sixth day from leaving Apia, we anchored off Levuka on the island of Ovalau. It looked much the same as Apia and Cpolu—high hills with a settlement straggling along their base ; but Levuka is much more of a town, and the vegetation is not so luxuriant as on the ■Samoan island, though there were palms in plenty, and one beautiful date palm, which was new to us, before the Catholic priest’s house. We soon landed, and walked through the town and its environs, finally reaching the house of Mr Chalmers, at Waitovu, to whom we had an introduction. He was away, but his wife and daughters treated us most hospitably, insisting that M. and I should remain with them instead of on board our schooner. H. went to Mr Floyd, the Church of England clergyman, who kindly invited him to stay, so we were soon all comfortably housed. Mr Chalmers' house was built under the shade of cocoanut and bread-fruit trees. The main building, which contained the drawing and diningrooms was of weather board, but the rest of the establishment was built in Fiji fashion, with the European addition

BERTHA V. GORING.

MARY B. DOBIE.)

of boarded floors and glazed windows. In architectural style they were a sort of first cousin to a Maori whare. The kitchen was attached to the house proper by a covered way, but the bedrooms were quite separate, looking like a

miniature village. We thought our bedroom charmingly primitive. A hen had chosen a corner of it to • sit ’ in, but we found her a quiet companion, more so than a native woman who constantly visited us, and would walk in unceremoniously at any time (for one never shuts doors and

windows in Fiji), and examine our clothes, and jabber incessantly. We gave her a string of beads, with which she was delighted, and in return brought us a bunch of bananas' The approach to the house was novel, for a cocoanut log without any handrail was the only bridge across the Waitovu

stream. I managed to slip once in its transit, and found myself up to the waist in water, having luckily chosen a shallow part for my immersion. H. and M. made many excnrsionsin the neighbourhood, and one day managed to reach the top of the highest land in the island. A native

piloted them most of the way, but when it came finally to scaling the face of a cliff he preferred enjoying his luncheon below and leaving them to complete the ascent without him. He explained to M. by pantomime, how she might slip, lose her balance, fall, and break her neck, but didn’t succeed in intimidating her. She described on her return all the perils she had braved, when to turn back only seemed a little more impossible than to continue upwards, and how occasionally H. had to let down his foot for her to hold on to. They were rewarded by a gloiious view of the whole of Ovalau encircled by calm water of the deepest blue, the reef outside it, and beyond, the ocean studded with islands and reefs as far as they could see. Ovalau is a circle of hills with a valley in the centre, all bush-clad. The ferns and tree ferns are very fine, and in great variety. The Fijians are scarcely so handsome as the Samoans, and their colouring less rich and coppery. Their dress is much the same except in name, for the "lava-lava ’ becomes a *sulu.’ The favourite ornament with the men is a twisted boars tooth hung round their necks by a strip of tappa cloth. They have the same method of dressing the hair as their Samoan neighbours, and it is so wiry and stiff that they are able to stick things they want to carry in it, and so make up for the want of pockets. The women wear the suln, and instead of the tiputa a short, loose, low-necked bedice made very full, and with short sleeves. They don't dress their hair with the elaboration that the men give theirs, it not being considered etiquette for them to do so, and one of the ways in which a widow mourns the * dear departed ’is by neglecting it altogether. The title of people of rank is, for men, Ratu, and for women, Andi. The sailing canoes are most picturesque, and are to be seen constantly skimming over the waters, but no white man can, I believe, manage them. Like those in Samoa, they are made with an outrigger, and some of the very large ones are double. The triangular sail is made of matting, not cloth, anil instead of ‘ going about ’ as we do when * beating,’ they simply shift the sail to the other end, and

what was the stern becomes the bow, both ends of the canoe being alike. A very tine double canoe was presented to Lady Gordon by a big chief. We had plenty of gaiety while with Mrs Chalmers,and went to some very good dances. Everyone walked as a matter of course (no one having carriages), preceded by a native boy carrying a lantern, so that the approach to a house giving a ball seemed to be all alive with glow-worms. One needed no wraps ; indeed, generally one saw the men walking with their coats off, and they only put them on when reaching their destination. The only person I ever sawriding at Levuka was a barber, a West Indian, who used to gallop about on a very bony old horse. M. and I decided upon letting H. and the schooner return to Auckland without us, we were enjoying our visit so much. After a fortnight at Waitovu we went to stay with the Des Voeux at (Government House. Mr Des Voeux (now Sir William) was Acting Governor during Sir Arthur Gordon’s absence in England. Government House, or Nasova, was a very pretty place, surrounded by gardens and tennis grounds. It consisted of two buildings, one Fijian, the other European, and joined by a covered way. Both had deep verandahs all round, on which the numerous French windows of the rooms opened. In all the buildings, the church as well as the private houses, the outer walls do not quite reach up to the roof, which projects over them, so that the ventilation is splendid, and the air circulates through them thoroughly. Nasova lies a mile on the opposite side of Levuka from Wai toon, and we went by boat, the usual mode of conveyance. The Governor sent his gig for us, rowed by members of the native armed constabulary. They looked very picturesque in salus, and loose jumpers of white bound with crimson. The boat could not quite come to the shore, so we were carried to it, sedan-chair fashion, with an arm placed affectionately round each brown neck. Mr Le Hunte, one of Sir A. Gordon’s staff, who was acting aide de camp, met us and introduced us to His Excellency. Natu Lala, a Fijian chief, who had been educated in Sydney, dined with us the first evening. He played tennis, and. wore European clothes. The dining ■ room was the old Parliament House, and was a fine large hall hung with tappa cloth, and ornamented with numerous spears, clubs, paddles, kava bowls, etc., etc., while on the floor were specimens of Fiji pottery and models of heathen temples or devil-inbures done in sinnet plaited with cocoanut fibre. These are old temples of worship, now obsolete, as all are Christians, thanks to the efforts of the Roman Catholics and Wesleyans. These two denominations have done all the missionary work in Samoa and Fiji. The butler at Nasova was a Fijian, Suani by name. Sir Arthur brought him to New Zealand afterwards when he

came here as Governor. Suani’s hair was splendid, forming an aureole round his head. He and his myrmidons (all Fijian) wore the Nasova livery, crimson salus, white jumpers bound with crimson, and much fine white tappa bound round their waists. They make capital waiters, moving noiselessly on their bare feet, and never clattering plates and dishes, and being observant, they are very quick in divining one’s requirements. Our bedroom was like a church in its loftiness, the top hung with tapu, and the walls decorated with reeds placed

close together, and making a smooth, even surface, snch as one sees in a Maori whare sometimes. The Governor was very kind in having native chiefs to luncheon or dinner for our entertainment. It was funny to see them with their bare feet and legs appearing from under

their salus. They always wore a white shirt in deference to our foolish European prejudices, which would have been startled by the salu being the only garment. They were never asked to take one of us into dinner. That would have been too degrading, seeing a woman and a pig are considered of at ut equal value.

While at Nasova we went to a native service in the Fijian church. We all sat on mats, the men cross-legged, the women sideways, tor it would never do for us to ape the nobler sex. Instead of kneeling the |«ople had a way of prostrating themselves, which looked oriental and reverent.

but to us would have been productive of apoplexy. The children were as devout in their attitudes as their parents. We always managed to go to Mr Floyd’s church at least once on Sunday, though it was a mile or two off, and meant a very hot w-alk. The church itself was beautifully airy and cool, and the service well conducted. There was a surpliced choir of men and boys.

Every one gets up early in these hot countries, and we were generally astir about six o'clock, when our cup of tea was brought us, and we would go riding or boating with Mr Le Hunte, often before bieakfast proper, which was somewhere about ten or eleven o’clock. In these rides we saw in large mud flats myriads of extraordinary little crabs —tiny little fellows with one huge claw, a vivid scarlet in some, bright yellow in others. This claw is so big that when moving they have to carry them on their backs. They are very rapid in their movements, and when startled disperse and disappear into their holes with amazing celerity. They are called soldier crabs. We met numbers of white people during <>ur stay, both at Waitoou Nasova, planters from other islands, their wives and daughters, etc., but I don’t think an account of dances, dinners, tennis parties, etc., would be specially interesting, and certainly not so novel to the general public as the life amongst the natives, to which I hope soon to introduce my readers. (TO HE CONTINUED.! (, WAR <>N \N UNPARALLELED SCALE. An intelligent study of the military situation in France and < Germany shows a state of military preparation which is without precedent in history. Since that fatal day when the King of Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany, Gaul and Teuton have been preparing for a conflict that will make the world aghast when it starts. (In the day that war is declared, there will be an instant mobilization of the troops of the two nations. <»n the German side, in less than a week, a little over one million four hundred thousand men will be concentrated on the frontier at the points fixed by the genera) staff. The cars are ready, ami the coal for the railroad was iaid in long ago. Five days after the first advance, eight hundred thousand men will form the second line. Finally, there will be the /.andsturm, with about one million one hundred thousand on the first call. All these troops are thoroughly drilled and armed with the repeating rifle. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 will be a skirmish compared with the corning struggle.