The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 59

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

59

and devouring of human beings. The building of
a hut or the launching of a boat was connected
with the eating of human flesh. If the plump form
of a favorite wife or the tender flesh of a child
promised an unusual delicacy, the husband and
father called in his friends and without hesitation
had a feast on the dainty morsel!

‘To cannibalism must be added the awful crime
of infanticide. At least two-thirds of all the chil-
dren born were killed at birth. Parents, when old
and feeble, were dispatched without hesitation.
When a husband died, his widows were strangled,
and the sick and aged were buried alive.

‘Treachery and ferocity, evil passion and deyilish
cruelty were branded on the faces of the Fijians.
One who knew the Fijians seventy-five years ago
paints this horrible picture of them: “The forehead
filled with .wrinkles; the large nostrils distended
and fairly smoking; the staring eyeballs red and
gleaming with terrible flashings; the mouth dis-
tended into a murderous and disdainful grin; the
whole body quivering with excitement; every muscle
strained, and the clenched fist eager to bathe itself
in the blood of him who has roused this demon of
fury.” Simple devilishness in a high state of de-
velopment seems to haye possessed these people.

The story of how the Gospel was brought to
these blood-stained islands is very wonderful. On
one of the islands an awful epidemic swept away
thousands. Cutting with knives and many human
sacrifices did not halt it. Then they heard that the
only true God was Jehovah, and they sent to Tonja
for a teacher to teach them the religion of this
Jehovah. A Christian Tonjoan came and- taught
them all he knew of the new religion.

followed, and from this island they went to the other
islands of the group with their message of Jesus.
Among these early missionaries was John Hunt.
When he landed on the island of Tavinni, the na-
tives were in the midst of a cannibal feast. When
_ one of their chiefs was drowned at sea, his sixteen
wives were strangled and burned in front of the
missionary’s house. Some months later they threat-
ened to burn down the missionary’s house, because
his wife had put up the shutters to shut out the
-sickening sight and smell of eleven burning bodies
| that were being roasted for a feast! Such were the
vile sights he had to endure; but yet Hunt and
his companions patiently worked on, and little by
little a change could be seen. Now this chief and

‘then that chief was smitten with his sins, and in.

’

Soon after -
white missionaries, hearing of this particular island, -

course of time whole tribes were gained. New men
were added to the mission, and the work grew apace.
Three years sufficed so to change the horrid life
about Hunt that at least a bloodless war was waged,
a large canoe launched, and a great feast held for
weeks without one human sacrifice, and this without
any direct interference of the missionary.

The last six years of John Hunt’s short mis-
sionary career of only ten were spent at Vieva, a
small island two miles from Mbau, then the strong-
hold of King Thakombau, “the butcher of his
people,” and the head king of all the Fijians. At
first the king hardened his heart against the Gospel.
Hunt did not live to see him abandon his cruel
customs or accept Christianity. “I hate your Chris-
tianity,” he cried. “Do you ever think that you
can keep us from wars and from eating men?
Never!” When his father died; he strangled all
his wives, “for grass to line his grave,” as he ex-
pressed it. :

But under Hunt’s successor, James Calvert, the
change came. In the black heart of Thakombau
the Spirit wrought His wonderful miracle; the
proud king became humble and willing to learn.
One day before his assembled people ‘Thakombau ~

. rose and renounced the old gods of cruelty and war,

and then knelt with his whole household in worship »
of the Christians’ God. On the day of his baptism
he bravely and simply confessed: “I have been a
bad man. God has singularly preserved my life,
and I desire to acknowledge Him as the true God.”
The former cannibal became a gentle, faithful, and
consistent Christian. At the time of Thakombau’s
death the leading newspaper of the islands said:
“Tis influence on the side of Christianity and of
good in general has been greater than that of any
chief, or combination of chiefs, throughout the
island. Since his conversion he has led a worthy
life, and eminent before for tyranny, licentiousness,
and disregard for human life, he has since been
free from reproach, chaste in conduct, and consid-
erate of the people.”

Similar to the wonderful change wrought in the
old king was that wrought in his people. In 1835,
there was not a single Christian; in 1886, fifty
years later, there was not a native heathen in the
whole group of islands. After fifty years’ ‘work
the islands had 1,322 churches and 1,824 schools.
Out of a population of 160,000, there were 104,585
attending public worship. On the island of Mbau
the stone against which the bodies of the victims
for the cannibal feasts were dashed has been placed

~