Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/270

240 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. greater number of women were condemned, and again the Mission aries pleaded hard that they might be spared ; but the old King waa angry with the strangers for presuming to interfere with the affairs of his people, and indignant at the thought of his favourite son dying without the customary honours. Once more, however, the strangling was put off. Canoes, which had been sent out to search, at last returned, bringing the intelligence that all was true. It was generally known, but not openly talked about, that Ra Mbithi, had drifted on his wrecked canoe to the island of Ngau, where he had been captured and eaten by the natives. Remonstrance and entreaty were now in vain. Sixteen women were forthwith strangled in honour of the young Chief and his companions, and the bodies of the principal women were buried within a few yards of the door of the Missionaries' house. Thus began the Mission to Somosomo. What the Missionaries and their families suffered there, will never be fully kno^vn. Much which became dreadfully familiar to them by daily occurrence, could not be recorded here. All the horrors hinted at, rather than described, in the first part of this work, were constantly enacted in their most exaggerated forms of cruelty and degradation in Somosomo. It would spare the feelings of the writer, as well as the reader, to make no further reference to such dark abominations ; but the history of this Mission cannot be given without the narration of some ficts which would otherwise be concealed. On Feb. 7th, 1840, Mr. Hunt writes : — " Last Monday afternoon, as soon as our Class-meeting was over, a report came that some dead men were being brought here from Lauthala. Tlie report was so new and so indefinite, that at first we did not know what to make of it. Almost before we had time to think, the men were laid on the ground before our house, and Chiefs and priests and people met to divide them to be eaten. They brought eleven to our settlement ; and it is not certain how many have been killed, but some say two or three hun- dred, others not more than thirty. Their crime appears to be that of killing one man ; and when the man who did it came to beg pardon, the chief required this massacre to be made as a recompense. The principal Chief was killed, and given to the great Ndengei of Somo- somo. I saw him after he was cut up and laid upon the fire, to be cooked for the cannibal god of Somosomo. O shame to human nature ! I think there are some of the devils even that must be ashamed of their servants eating human flesh, and especially those who are gods, or the habitations of gods. The manner in which the poor wretches were treated was most shamefully disgusting. They did not honour