Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/354

324: FIJI AlTD THE FIJIANS. to remain unnoticed, and the administering of strict discipline was resolved upon. The Teacher was put out of office and removed to his own land, and another sent instead. Joel Mbulu, who was returning from the yearly meeting to Ono, was instructed to call at Vatoa, and depose one Local Preacher and some Leaders who had been to blame, and to dismiss at once from the Society all who should refuse to give up the ill-gotten goods. This had a wholesome effect. The delinquents wept bitterly, and prayed that they might be permitted to retain their Christian privileges, showing, at the same time, their sincerity by handing the stolen articles over to Joel to forward to Lakemba. On May the 4th of this year, the chief priest of the god of Tumbou, and the last of the order in Lakemba, was received on trial for church- membership, having long been anxious about his soul. His daughter was already a Class-Leader, and one of his sons a zealous member. The Romish Priests, finding the truth prospering and their own cause at a stand-still, tried in every way to vent their spleen. The sheep and goats of the Missionaries were shot at by the Priests' servants ; but this outrage led the King to reprove them severely, while all the people were disgusted at such an exhibition of unmanly spite, which the perpetrators did not care to deny. One immediate result was that the disciples of Popery in Lakemba fell from about thirty to some five or six, and this notwithstanding an addition to the staff of Priests. By the close of this year, the evidences of the triumph of the truth as it is in Jesus were wide-spread and brilliant. The people were reformed outwardly, being decently clothed, and having relinquished their obscene midnight dances and songs in fasour of the pure worship of God. Their domestic condition was also greatly improved by the lessening of polygamy. Christianity gave the Fijians what they never had truly before — a home. Those who had known Lakemba and its dependencies twelve years ago marvelled at the almost universal change which was brought about. Scarcely a temple was left standing, and the sacred terraced foundations on which they were once, were now cultivated as garden plots. Club-law was utterly abolished. A fine chapel, to which the people eagerly flocked, graced every town, and not a heathen priest was left. About eight hundred children were assembled daily in the schools, and nearly two-thirds of the adult population were church- members, affording good evidence of their desire to " flee from the wrath to come," while a large and growing number gave every reason to believe that they were renewed by the Holy Ghost. During this and the previous year one thousand three hundred baptisms were registered, — eight hundred adults, none of whom received this sacra