Nineteen years in Polynesia: missionary life, travels, and researches in the islands of the Pacific

Preface

Having, in the good providence of God, returned on a visit to my native land, after an absence of twenty years, as an ambassador of the British Churches to the heathen, it is natural and right to inquire where I have been, what I have seen and heard, and what I have done. A reply to such questions is the simple design of the following pages.

Missionary life will here be seen in a variety of aspects, and a number of things brought to light respecting the manners, customs, and mythology of the native tribes of Polynesia, which, it is hoped, will prove interesting to the friends of missions, and at the same time contribute to the data, after which many, at the present day, are in search, in studying the comparative history of the human race.

Conclusion 533

Appendix

Meteorolgical Register for Seven Years . . .537 Comparative View of the Polynesian Dialects . . 539

INDEX 541

ERRATUM.

At page 169, note, for £a7m'£, read j3airTt^u).

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

1. A Samoan Orator .... . Frontispiece.

2. The Missionary Barque " John Williams " . Vignette.

3. Natives of Tanna 76

4. An Assyrian Head 78

5. A Tannese Girdle 80

6. A Spear Thrower 81

7. Spear and Arrow Heads ...... 81

8. A Tanna Kawas 81

9. Fight at Tutuila 98

10. Class-room at Malua, and Cottages of the Students 129

11. Tutors' Residences at Malua 130

12. Burying- ground at Malua 132

13. Tatooers' Instruments 182

14. Leaf Gtrdles 202

16. A Woman's Tortoise-shell Bonnet of 1838 . . 207

17. Native Pillows 216

18. A Samoan House 259

19. Inside of a Samoan House 259

20. Native Adzes 259

21. A Samoan Travelling Canoe 266

22. A Samoan Fishing Canoe 266

Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

23. A Samoan Boat 266

24. Netting Needles 272

25. Fishing Nets . . 272

26. A Pearl-shell Fish-hook 273

27. A Native Deill 274

28. A Samoan Fan 275

29. Samoan Baskets 275

30. A Spear Barb 276

31. Samoan Clubs 276

32. A Samoan Fono, or Parliament . . . .287

33. Samoan Fly-Flappers 288

34. Clubs, Stone Adze, Bow and Arrows . . . 312

35. Pandean Pipe 337

36. Heathen Phylacteries 338

37. Stone Idols 346

38. Map of the New Hebrides 361

39. Mission Cottage, and Grave of Mrs. Paton . . 480

40. Scene of the Massacre of Williams and Harris,

Eromanga 486

NINETEEN YEARS IN POLYNESIA.

Chapter I. Departure From England And Settlement At Tanna

On Monday, the 10th of August, 1840, I received my commission from the Directors of the London Missionary Society, and on the following day sailed from Gravesend. The instructions of the Rev. H. Nisbet and myself were, to proceed to Sydney, there to join the missionary brig " Camden," and to make all practicable haste to commence a mission on the island of Tanna, in the New Hebrides. The news had just reached England of the massacre of the Rev. John Williams and his young friend Mr. Harris, on Eromanga. It was quite a shock to the country, nay, to the" world, for John Williams was known everywhere. Some were for revenge. "Blow the island to pieces 1" said they. But others, whose zeal was under better guidance, bowed the knee, and said, " Father, forgive them ;" and, as they prayed for the savages of that distant land, they felt persuaded that the blood of our massacred missionaries would yet prove the seed of a mission and a church in the New Hebrides, over which earth and heaven would rejoice. Our respected Directors were foremost amongst the zealous to accomplish this glorious object, and my brother Msbet and myself were hurried off to take up the work, as near as we could to the spot where John Williams laid it down.

The day before Mr. "Williams was killed, he landed among the savages of Tanna. Tanna is about twenty miles from Eromanga. Standing on a hill near the entrance to Port Resolution, on the north-east side of Tanna, you look over and see Eromanga on your left; Niua and Futuna right opposite to you, the one fifteen and the other thirty miles distant; and away to the right, about forty miles, is the beautiful pear-shaped island of Aneiteum. Considering the savage state of the people, Mr. Williams had, upon the whole, a good reception when he went on shore at Tanna. At one time he was alarmed when upwards of a hundred men, with clubs, spears, slings, bows and arrows, surrounded the boat, and held fast, as if determined not to let them away, but, by means of presents, kind forbearance, and G-od's blessing, all ended well, and three Samoans were left to prepare the way for European missionaries. At the close of the day, Mr. Williams was delighted Avith the success he had experienced in being able to effect a landing at all among such a people ; but, alas ! the very next day he fell under the clubs of the natives on the beach at Eromanga.

The Eromangans had been cruelly treated by some white men in search of sandal- wood not long

DEPASTURE FROM ENGLAND. 6

before. Mr. Williams did not know this sufficiently, and ventured on shore, in company with his friend James Harris. They hoped to have intercourse with some of the chiefs, and to arrange for the location of teachers, as had been done the day before at Tanna. Presently there is a shout, and up start a host of savages from behind the bushes, and rush towards the strangers, who were walking unsuspiciously along at distances from each other. Mr. Harris falls at once, and is, clubbed and speared to death. Mr. Williams runs, reaches the beach, and rushes into the sea. His murderers are at his heels, striking out with their clubs. He turns round and faces them in the deep water. The first club he turns down, but others rush on. He is surrounded, struck, and dives to escape the blows ; but all was in vain. God's time for his death had come. The waves dashed red with blood on the beach, and the missionary career of John Williams was at an end.

The natives tried to get at the boat also, and secure some other victims for their savage feast, but the crew pulled off, and escaped beyond the reach of their arrows and slings.

This was in November, 1839, and, by the following August, we were on board ship and off to the New Hebrides — a proof to these benighted savages of the forgiving spirit of Christianity, and of the unflinching determination of the friends of the Saviour to carry out his dying command, however much opposed by Satan and his heathen servants.

Owing to the great distance, and the difficulty of getting vessels to take us from place to place, we did not reach our destination till June, 1842. "We picked up, however, a good deal of missionary experience at Samoa by the way, learned the Samoan dialect, got the framework of a weather-boarded cottage made, and secured the services of a missionary brother, who had been six years in the field, to help us, for a few months, at the outset of our work.

Some shrewd and experienced missionaries rather opposed our undertaking, and they were perfectly right. They thought it was premature ; that we ought to wait a year or two, and see whether Tanna was the most favourable spot to commence operations among such a savage people ; and they thought, moreover, that two missionaries were not sufficient to make a commencement at such a group of islands. Others, again, cheered us on, and it was our own wish to carry out our instructions from the Board in London, to go and see and judge for ourselves. We thought that if we found our teachers alive, that we might live there too. This was all we thought we had a right, as missionaries, to require, viz., a fair prospect that our lives were safe, and that the people did not wish us to go on shore for the mere purpose of getting our bodies for a feast on the following day.

We reached Tanna. Found our Samoan pioneers all safe. Bad accounts, however, of the place as unhealthy, the people great thieves, and constantly at war with neighbouring tribes. We landed freely among them. We observed that all went about armed with clubs, bows and arrows, spears, and slings, but

LANDING AT TANNA. O

they seemed all so friendly, that we felt quite as safe, and as much at home as we should do in some parts of the world, where, amid high pretensions to freedom, civilization, and so forth, there is still a great attachment to the bowie-knife and the revolver. " Why do you carry about your club in that way ?" I one day asked a native. "Nothing," said he, "just to be ready lest anything should spring up." Then there was something so ludicrous in their painted faces : one would have the one-half of his face smeared with red clay, and the other the plain dark copper skin ; another would have the brow and cheeks red ; another would have the brow red and the cheeks black ; another all the face red, and a round, black, glittering spot on the forehead ; and another would have his face black all over. The black all over, by the way, was the sign of mourning. They seemed more like a nation of Merry- Andrews than savages, and, as they appeared so friendly, we could not help feeling at our ease among them, notwithstanding all their display of clubs, spears, bows and arrows. As to clothing, of the men I may say they had none. " Why do you put that paint on your faces ?" we would ask, and presently one would smartly reply, " Why do you put these clothes on ? This is our way of clothing, that is yours."

Our hearts yearned with compassion over the poor, naked, painted savages ; we thanked G-od that the door for our landing among them seemed so wide open, and made all haste, with our dear wives, to take up our abode on shore. We got six or seven of the b NINETEEN YEARS IN POLYNESIA.

chiefs together, and had a formal meeting with them. They assured us of their anxiety that we should reside among them, and teach them Christianity. They pledged themselves to protect us, as far as they could, in the event of war with the neighbouring tribes, and not to call us to take any part with them in their fighting. They seemed willing to say. Yes or No to everything, just as they thought it would please us. And so we landed and commenced our missionary labours at Tanna.

We had not been twenty-four hours on shore, until we found that we were among a set of notorious thieves, perfect Spartans in the trade, and, like the ancient code of Lycurgus, the crime seemed to be, not the stealing, but the being found out. The teacher's house, in which we took up our temporary abode, was but badly shut in, with rough upright sticks from the bush, having spaces here and there which easily let in a finger or two. Before we got all these places filled up, a towel was missed here, a comb there, and a pair of scissors in another place. Nay, the very bed-quilt was caught one afternoon moving off towards a hole, by means of a long stick with a hook at the end of it.

When we spoke to the chiefs about it, begging them to make laws ; they would talk loudly, and threaten death to the thief if they could only get hold of him ; but it was all a joke, the chiefs were as bad as any of them. I recollect a fellow storming against a thief, and telling us to kill him whenever we got hold of him, and, at the very same moment, he slyly picked

THE PEOPLE GREAT THIEVES. 7

up a big nail with his toes, and slipped it into his hand behind his back. We tried to keep things ont of the way, overlooked the most of their petty pilfering, and cheered ourselves with the thought that the day might not be far distant when the Gospel of Christ would take root in that truly " virgin soil," and in due time bring forth its lovely fruits of honesty and righteousness of every kind.

Mr. Msbet and I, through the kind help of Mr. Hardie, in Samoa, took with us the frame and material for a sixty feet weather-boarded cottage ; and for several weeks our time was principally occupied in erecting it. We could get no help from the natives. Day after day they crowded about us to see what was going on. All was new and wonderful to them, and every one seemed to be looking out for something to steal. We could hardly lay a tool out of our hands, and had to carry our hammer, chisel, gimlet, etc., in a belt round the waist. But, with all our care, we were often outwitted.

Many a strange thing happened, while we were working at that house. One morning we observed that the natives who came about were all extra armed, and, by and by, we found that a quarrel was commencing, and that we were apparently in the very midst of a regular native battle. There was first the strife of some fifty tongues. Then clubs were up, and cracking against each other. Some were tightening up their bow-strings, others were fastening on their spear-throwers, and we were all anxiety, of course, to prevent bloodshed. We ran in among them, sueceeded in separating some who had come to blows ; but no sooner had we separated one party, than another were at it. They begged ns to go into the house, and let them have out their fight, but we kept among them, went from one to another, and, by and by, got the mob dispersed and bloodshed prevented. It originated in some strangers from a distance, who had been stealing from people in the neighbourhood. Observe, their stealing was not confined to us. At first we wondered how it was that the women, in passing to draw water, or in going to their plantations, had such burdens on their backs. But soon we found out they were obliged to carry about with them all their household valuables, even to the brood of chickens, lest they should be stolen.

Another thing happened soon after we landed at Tanna, which I shall never forget. Two boats one day made their appearance in the bay. They seemed shy and suspicious. Presently they spied Mr. Nisbet and myself working on the roof of our house, and pulled in towards us. Seeing the beach lined with armed natives, they were afraid to venture on shore. We stepped down to the beach and spoke to them. " Are we safe here ?" they shouted out. We replied : " Why, yes ; you see that we are all safe. If you behave yourselves, you are safe too. But mind, the natives are great thieves, and you must keep everything out of their way, and have no quarrelling with them." They immediately went off and brought in the vessel to the anchorage. It was the American whaling ship "M — z — a," Captain B , of Sag

SHAMEFUL CONDUCT OF CAPTAIN B . 9

Harbour. Next morning, while we were at breakfast, two boats pulled in towards our bouse. The mate stepped up, and said be wanted to know wbere vessels usually got wood and water. I went down with bim to tbe beacb, and pointed to tbe place about balf a mile along tbe beacb, and again begged bim to be careful, and not to be leaving anything exposed, as stealing and quarrelling migbt be the consequence. About an hour afterwards, we heard a great hooting and yelling at the head of the bay where the boats were, and on running down to the beach, saw in the distance the white men rushing through the surf to their boats, and the natives at their heels striking out after them with their clubs. In a few seconds the boats were clear of the beach, and off to the ship ; and, as they seemed to be pulling all oars, we concluded they had all escaped. From natives also, who came running from the spot, we learned that none of the white men were killed. We expected

that Captain B would have come on shore, and,

with our help as interpreters, endeavoured to ascertain whether his men or the natives were most to blame. We expected that he had humanity enough to guard against anything which would endanger the lives of the small party of defenceless missionaries, who had braved, and were still braving, all the perils arising from their position among such a savage

people. But instead of this, Captain B acted

just as one of the worst savages of the New Hebrides might do. He immediately looses his sails, weighs anchor, and fires in upon villages, about five hundred yards from our house — villages far from the place where the quarrel originated, and who were perfectly free from any concern in it. There were first a number of musket-shots, and then, hugging the land as closely as he could in sailing out of the harbour, he fired several times some large guns. This was an hour of no small alarm, and the more so, as reports reached us that a chief and some of the people of one of the settlements were killed. If this had been the case, what could have been expected but that the

people would arm, imitate Captain B 's example,

and seek revenge in the massacre of ourselves ? Our fears were soon removed, the report was' false, the chief and all the people were safe. No thanks to

Captain B , however. His musket-shots, and

the slug from his guns, in the shape of old bolts and bars, which split trees, and tore up the earth, showed what he intended. The people lay down flat on the ground, hid behind stones, or fled to a distance. Some of them came running, and crouched behind our house for safety. We thanked God for our deliverance, and could only think of the conduct of Captain B— : — and his crew with abhorrence. We felt ashamed, as we listened to the native accounts of the immoralities of the party from the boats as soon as they got into the bush. Viewing the whole

case, that visit of Captain B to Tanna in August,

1842, was a disgrace to his country and colour, and needs, I am sure, only to be known in the United States, to meet with the universal condemnation which it deserves.

LABOURS AMONG THE PEOPLE. 11

Chapter II. Labours Among The People

By the end of September we were snugly settled in our new cottage, and able to devote our time more exclusively to the work upon which our hearts were bent. We soon picked up the language, so as to conduct religious services without an interpreter, arranged the orthography of the dialect, and got our little printing-press set up. We composed some hymns, and commenced to sing the praises of God at our Sabbath services. Schools, too, for the daily instruction of the people, were set on foot ; few, however, would attend. We found that we had a difficult people to deal with. We tried to get some of them to come and live with us as servants, but could not succeed. They would crowd about, and be ready to do any little job, but, in an hour or so, they wished payment in the shape of fish-hooks, or strips of print, and then must be off to their home again. We got one good-natured sort of lad to engage to come regularly every day, and rigged him out with some passable clothing. Next morning he makes his appearance, but in his native costume. We fitted him out again, and charged him not to give away his clothing, but the next morning he came grinning and smiling, just as before, and expecting a fresh set out. But this could not be continued, and so we had to manage, as best we could, with one or two Samoans we had taken with us.

By giving a prize of some beads to the boy who said his lesson best, we for some time got a number of them daily to school. Mrs. Msbet and Mrs. Turner found it more difficult to get the girls. The women are more degraded at Tanna than in some other parts of Polynesia. A great deal of plantation work, and other drudgery, devolves upon them, arising, to a great extent, from the fact that the men are almost constantly occupied with war. The ladies succeeded, however, in collecting a number of girls for instruction ; and here I had better, for a few lines on that subject, let Mrs. Turner speak for herself: " Finding that the girls had a dread of entering our house, Mrs. Msbet and I thought we should try to commence school out of doors, hoping that as they got better acquainted with us, they would lose their fears. We intimated our intention of beginning a sewing-school ; so, collecting our materials, took our seat under the shade of some trees near the house. The first day, only one scholar summoned courage to come. We thought that better than none, so, having fitted her little finger with a thimble, we began to initiate her into the mystery of sewing patchwork. Some women gathered round, curious to see this new wonder. Little Maui was gravely trying to do her best, when the spectators suddenly burst out into a laugh, upon which our little pupil started up, dashed down her work and thimble, burst

LABOURS AMONG THE PEOPLE. 13

through the surrounding circle, and fled with the speed of a frightened hare, leaving us looking blank at the issue of our first attempt at school-keeping. The girls soon, however, collected round us, and got so fond of needlework, that we were astonished how quickly they found out the superiority of a fine needle, and would beg for one, saying that the coarse needle spoiled their work."

After the novelty of the first Sabbath or two, there was no getting a congregation. The people there were of the anti-Sabbatarian class, who wished all the advantages of being Christians, without the labour — they could not spare the Sabbath at all. The festivities and night-dancing connected with the yam harvest were hardly over ; the planting season was commencing ; another war was threatened by some inland tribes, and, somehow or other, Satan always managed to persuade them that it was too great a sacrifice to give up a day to God so often. Besides, they thought that as their own gods (the deified spirits of their ancestors) only required special prayers and offerings once or twice a-year, they might venture to make less than a whole day once every seven suffice for this new deity. Like the ancient Samaritans, they still held on to their old superstitions and spirit worship. They tried various schemes to please us, and to satisfy their very slender conscience of religious duty. They thought, like some more civilized religionists, that a great deal might be done by proxy. In reply to the question, "Why were you not at the service to-day ?" one would say, "Was not my wife there?" or, "Was not the chief of our village there ?" or a third would reply, " Was not my little boy there ?" It was our regular custom, after sermon, to go away for hours, among the highways and hedges, villages and plantations, searching for those who had not been at the service. Some would answer as I have just mentioned ; others would say they did not know it was the Sabbath, and promise to stop working, but often it was only until our back was turned. I went round by another road, one day, upon a canoebuilder, who had just promised faithfully to drop work for the Sabbath, and found him hard at work again. He threw down his adze, covered his face with his hands, and then looked up and said, in a sorrowful whine, that he was very bad, that he would now give up work for the day, and not go on breaking the Sabbath. Bad as they were in this Sabbath-breaking, they were always ready to listen to what we had to say, and often, in a plantation, have we had preaching and prayer with a group of ten or twelve.

We itinerated, also, during the week, but we were never able to go further than four or five miles from our house. Soon after we landed, a few came from some other tribes to see us, and as we formed their acquaintance, our hearts yearned over them in their deplorable ignorance. One would say, " I am a sacred man ; I made that rain to fall a little ago." Another would ask whether we had lived up in the skies with God ? who was God's father ? and

LABOUES AMONG THE PEOPLE. 15

how many children he had ? Or a third, pointing to the portrait hanging on the wall, would gravely ask, " Is that Jehovah ? " All were glad when we said we intended to go and see them, and teach them the way to heaven. As soon, therefore, as we got our house in order, we were all anxiety to fulfil our promises, and visit some of these tribes in midnight darkness not many miles from our door.

But, to our grief and amazement, we found that we were hedged in on all sides. After preaching at one village, and wishing to go on to the next, a mile or so distant, all would forbid it, and say, " No ; you must not go there, they will kill you." Seeing us determined to proceed, sometimes a few would lift their clubs, seize a spear or two, and accompany us, evidently thinking that they were risking their lives every step they took. At other places no one would dare to join in going beyond a certain boundary. But on we went, as often alone as otherwise, and, generally, the kindness of the hostile tribes was only surpassed by their amazement that we had ventured so far to see them. We became quite familiar with the stereotyped phrase, " Don't go there, they are bad people, they will kill you," and seldom paid much attention to it. We did not, however, go far ; for, in addition to our being all but held fast by the people, and prevented, lest we should be killed, we found that those tribes, at distances of but four and five miles from our house, spoke quite a different dialect. In what a melancholy, isolated, hostile state these people have been living, all over the island, from time immemorial. Seeing our way thus blocked up on all sides, we felt more than ever that there was an error in commencing such a mission with only two. Had there been six, instead of two, stationed at distances of ten or twelve miles from each other, the one might have worked on to the hostile boundary of the other, and, ere long, we might have seen the whole island lighted up with the glorious gospel of salvation, peace, unity, and love.

Chapter III. Hostilities And Difficulties

As we awoke one morning, we heard an nnnsnal stir and shouting, and, on looking out, saw the natives hurrying past with their clubs and spears, and talking about war. Presently we found that a chief in the neighbourhood had been killed by a party from a tribe a few miles off, who had been lurking about for a victim as the signal to renew a former war. "We made all haste, and went off too, thinking we might possibly be able to mediate, and get the affair settled without further bloodshed. We soon reached the settlement of the poor man who had just been killed, and in the centre of the village there was a most affecting scene. The men were all off to the battle ; but there were some thirty or forty women, with their children, rending the air with the most doleful wailing over the dead body of their chief. He was laid out on a mat in a reclining posture, with his face painted red, and supported in the arms of his wife. We expressed our sympathy, felt the region of the heart, and found the poor man was quite dead. He had a great spear-hole in his left cheek, and, as his wife raised a covering which had been put on his head, we saw that his skull had been beaten in by a club. The women implored us not to go further, lest anything should happen to us ; but we went on a mile or two, until we were close up to the yells and hootings of their savage fight. I climbed a tree, and looked ahead a bit, but the bush concealed what was going on. Here, however, a number of the chiefs came running to us.

We found that it was vain that day to attempt any interview with the enemy, and, at the entreaties of our people, returned, lest we should get mixed up in the affray, and wounded unintentionally by some arrow, or stone from a sling. All that we could do was to beg our people only to act on the defensive, and pray that God might avert the threatened calamity. We knelt down in the bush, and prayed with them and for them, that further bloodshed might be prevented, bade them good-bye, and then returned home to our dear wives, who were waiting our arrival with no measured anxiety and suspense. For four months this sad war went on, and the end of it was, that war was raised against ourselves. After they had been fighting for months among themselves, contrary to all our entreaties, God commenced to punish them with a deadly epidemic in the form of dysentery. Just about this time we discovered that there was a number of the disease-makers, who live near the volcano, deliberating on our destruction, and seriously wishing to kill us. They found, like Demetrius, that their craft was in danger ; they were always prowling about on the look-out for the skin of a banana, or other refuse of food. Anything of that sort they picked up, took it home, did it up in a leaf like a cigar, only twice as long, and then commenced burning it at the one end. They supposed that whenever the burning commenced the person to whom it belonged took ill, and that if the burning went on until all was consumed, the person died. We saw that this had a fearful hold on the minds of the people. Whenever a person felt ill, a shell was blown, and they would keep on blowing it for hours. It was meant as a call, or a prayer, to the disease-makers to stop burning the rubbish, and a promise that parties were getting ready to go off with presents to them. Pigs and fine mats would be sent. Some of the craft were sure to receive them, and to say, " Oh, yes, we know all about it, leave it with us ; we will stop the burning, and the sick man shall live." If the person died, they concluded that the disease-makers were not satisfied with the presents sent.