King Thakombau killed his first victim when he was six years old, and he was famous as a cannibal until the time of his conversion by the missionaries. It was after he reformed that he made the treaty which gave these islands to England. The story of this treaty is interesting. The home of a white trader named Williams, who was acting as United States consul to Fiji, was burned, and the natives stole some of the furniture and stores while the house was ablaze. Williams demanded three thousand dollars damages. The Fijian king refused. Then Williams got the backing of the United States government, and finally the sum of forty-five thousand dollars was demanded. It was out of the question for the savage king and his subjects to raise this sum, so when certain money-lenders of Australia offered to settle the claim in return for two hundred thousand acres of his best land, Thakombau joyfully accepted. But the British government would not permit this transaction. Thereupon Thakombau agreed to cede the Fijis to Great Britain if she would pay the debt. A commission visited the islands and reported adversely on the proposal, but in 1874, convinced that the islands needed the rule of a civilized power, the British made a treaty with Thakombau annexing his whole domain. Meantime, the claim of the United States had been allowed to drop during our Civil War, and was never revived.
Though no longer master of the Fijis after the British took possession, Thakombau continued to live in royal state. At his death his mantle fell to his son, the high chief Ratu Epele Nailatikau, who kept up all the show of royalty. He possessed no real power, but he made the natives treat him with the most abject respect. Only the highest chiefs were permitted to enter his house at Mbau, and even they must crouch silently against the wall and await his invitation to speak. Whenever he was through smoking a cigar, he would indicate by a nod which chief might have the honour of finishing the butt. A new clean mat was unrolled for his dinner table about which crept the men and women who bore him food. No commoner was allowed to eat in his presence.
Canoes loaded down with yams, coconuts, turtles, and yaqona root for making the native drink, kava, were constantly landing at Mbau. The offerings were carried humbly to the door of Ratu Epele and the natives crouched outside, gently clapping their hands, until their tributes were graciously accepted. In the days of his grandfather, Tanoa, any island that failed to furnish the expected tribute was frightfully punished. When the people of the island of Maliki, designated to provide turtles for the king, so far forgot themselves as to eat some of their catch, Tanoa sent a fleet of war canoes. Every man and woman on the island was killed, while the children were taken captive to Mbau so that the boys there might earn their titles as killers of men by clubbing them to death.
The Fijians of to-day are among the most civilized of all the South Sea Islanders. They have been converted to Christianity and have their own native preachers. They are divided among a half-dozen denominations, with the Methodists claiming the largest number of converts. The oldest established church in the islands is that of the Methodist mission founded in 1825.
The missionaries established the first schools in the Fijis and until a few years ago the education of the natives was left entirely to the Methodists and the Catholics. The government now maintains a high school near the town of Suva, where the sons of chiefs are trained, and it also helps other schools that comply with its requirements. At an industrial school near Suva the islanders are taught boat building, iron working, and other manual arts. Boys are entered for terms of five years. Children of European residents are educated at government expense in separate institutions.
The Fiji Islands were discovered in 1643 by Tasman, the Dutch navigator, the same man who discovered Tasmania and New Zealand. Their area is less than that of New Jersey, and their total population is little more than that of Dayton, Ohio. Only about half the people are native Fijians. For some years their number decreased steadily, but this decline seems now to have been checked. The people are especially subject to epidemics. In 1875 measles was brought into the islands by sailors from a British ship. The disease took a most virulent form and killed forty thousand natives in a short time. Great numbers of them died when influenza swept the world in 1917 and 1918.
The Fijians are strong and well built, and in appearance far superior to our American Indians. They have dark copper skins and frizzly hair, which stands up about their heads in enormous mops, making them seem tall. In order to get their hair to stick up, they plaster it with damp lime, which bleaches it to an auburn shade, so that they look very grotesque. When young, the women are handsome, having pretty eyes and well-moulded faces. In the settled regions they wear loose cotton gowns, but back in the interior the usual attire is a fringe of grass about the waist, a string of beads, and a fan. The men wear about the same costume.
One frequently sees a native with a long pin, or scratcher, thrust through his hair. This weapon is used to make war upon the vermin with which almost every head is infested. Sometimes the irritation gets beyond the scratching point, and in desperation the man so attacked kindles a fire of banana leaves and, lying down with his head near the fire, thus smokes out his unwelcome visitors.
The Fijians are good-natured. They are cleanly and spend a great part of their time in the water. After every bath they rub themselves down with coconut oil, the rancid odour of which enables one to smell a native long before seeing him.
Though they are practically all Christians, the natives cling stubbornly to many of their old customs. One of these is the performance of the fire walkers. On the island of Beqa is a circular pit about twenty feet in diameter. The bottom is lined with volcanic stones and when a fire walk is to be staged the pit is filled with dry sticks and a fire is kept up until the stones are red hot. Then the glowing coals are brushed aside and out of the forest comes a procession of young men, their bodies gleaming with coconut oil and garlanded with flowers. Slowly they tread over the hot stones, singing as they go. Then they vanish into the dense woods, apparently unhurt. After they have gone, whole pigs and vegetables are put on the hot stones and covered with leaves and earth. Soon a well-cooked feast is ready for both spectators and performers. Scientists say that the volcanic stones used are poor heat conductors and that they radiate heat quickly. Thus the surface cools sufficiently to permit the fire walkers to tread the stones, though they retain enough heat inside to cook the feast. At any rate, nothing will persuade the fire walkers to step on hot limestone, which is a good conductor and a poor radiator. The thickness of the skin on the soles of the natives’ unshod feet no doubt accounts in great measure for the “miracle.”