Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/67

wAn. 45 very few. Of these memorable few was a Chief of Wainunu. A short time before I settled in Vanua Levu, this man drove from him all his influential friends, by a resolution to destroy a place which they desired to save. An enemy of Tui Wainunu, hearing that he was deserted, deemed this a good opportunity to make a descent upon him, and pre- pared accordingly. His purpose, however, reached the watchful Chief, who determined at once to meet the emergency by acting himself on the offensive. Depending on his own prowess and that of a youthful nephew, he gathered a few old men, whom age, rather than inclination, had kept near him, and proceeded by night to storm his enemy's posi- tion. He and his young comrade entered the village about day-break, and, while the old men shouted amain outside, plied their clubs on the panic-struck inhabitants within. Twenty-seven dead bodies were quickly scattered over the place. The club of Tui Wainunu was raised to slay another, when the nephew recognised, in the intended victim, a play- fellow, and saved his life. This deed was soon blazed abroad, and the Chiefs friends hastened back to him through very fear. In the greater proportion, however, of the most distinguished cases, perseverance in effecting his purpose, by some means, is all to which the Fijian attains. If it be pleaded on his behalf that his valour has no artificial supports, — no helmet or steel breast-plate to shield him from danger, and no fleet horse to carry him from it, — ^that he opposes a naked body to the dangers of the battle, all this is admitted ; yet, after all, the low estimate at which he rates life negatives his valour, and robs the mass of the people of all claim to be regarded as acting under the impulse of nobler emotions. In addition to mutual suspicion and distrust, that pride which rules in every savage nature, keeps the Fijian at war. He likes to take another's property without asking for it, and to trample the owner under foot with impunity ; and hence goes to war. Few of this kind care for glory, and fewer still are susceptible of a noble or really patriotic impulse. They make pretensions to bravery, and speak of strife and battle with the tongues of heroes ; yet, with rare exceptions, meet the hardships and danger of war with effemi- nate timidity.