SKULL FOUND AT THE BANQUET GROUND.
"When the Wesleyan missionaries came here in 1835 they found cannibalism in full sway, and it now seems a wonder that they were not immediately killed and eaten. They partially owed their exemption to the fact that the flesh of white men is considered insipid, or tainted with tobacco, and therefore they were not regarded as desirable prey. Their progress in converting the natives was at first very slow, but they were patient and determined, and in course of time they were rewarded for their efforts. At present the great majority of the people are professing Christians, cannibalism has ceased since 1878, polygamy is rare, and idol worship is no more. After a time the Roman Catholics established a mission, and since the annexation the Church of England has sent its representatives to Feejee.
"In 1885 the Wesleyans reported that they had 906 churches and 347 other preaching-places in the islands, 25,932 church-members, and 104,806 attendants upon public worship. They had 1749 day schools, and 40,313 scholars in these schools, and they had nearly 42,000 children attending Sabbath-school. The Roman Catholics have about 8000 church-members, and the Church of England has a much smaller number, its adherents being principally Englishmen and other foreigners.
"So much for what the missionaries have accomplished in this group of Pacific islands, in the short space of fifty years. At present the Wesleyans say the expenses of maintaining their missions in Feejee is about $25,000 a year; and of this amount $15,000 is contributed here, the balance coming from abroad. Reading, writing, and arithmeticare taught in the common schools; there are higher schools in each missionary circuit, where persons are trained for the ministry, and others can be educated. There is a central college at Navuloa, where a superior education, both native and English, is given to those who are preparing for ordination, and also to others who may desire it. The Government has established industrial schools, where the sons of chiefs are taught reading and writing as in the common schools, and also instructed in house-carpentering, boat-building, and other trades.
VIEW IN A VALLEY OF THE INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND.
"I think I hear you asking how the English manage to govern the islands when they are so few and the natives so numerous. Well, Feejee is a crown colony, and its affairs are administered by a governor and executive council; the laws are prepared by a legislative council of thirteen members, seven of whom are official and six are nominated by the Governor. In legal matters the imperial laws are followed, except where there has been local legislation. All jury cases are decided by the judge, with two assessors; the system of trial by jury was abolished by the first governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, at the suggestion of Sir John Gorrie, who was then chief-justice. The natives have a system of local self-government which is recognized by the colonial authorities; there are twelve salaried superior native chiefs exercisingexecutive functions under the Government, and also twenty-six native magistrates."
Our friends found enough in and around Suva to interest them for several days. They visited some of the cotton, sugar, and coffee plantations in the vicinity, examined some of the sites of the ancient temples of the Feejeeans which were the scenes of horrible slaughters in the days of cannibalism and idolatry, went through some of the native villages, where they were kindly received by the chiefs, and did other things which were very natural for visitors to do. There was nothing especially new about the plantations, with the possible exception of the groups of laborers from the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia, some of whom were of races strange to the eyes of our friends. There were men from Tanna, from the Solomon Islands, from New Guinea, and also representatives of other groups of islands, until the whole made quite a formidable list.
The owner of the largest plantation that they visited told Frank and Fred that the men from the different islands would not fraternize with one another any more than will Germans, Irish, and negroes in America or England. They do not trust one another, and their huts are in different groups, in widely separated parts of the plantation. Many of them are cannibals, particularly the men from the Solomon and New Hebrides islands, and occasionally get into open warfare for the purpose of capturing somebody whom they can eat. This very distrust of one another is to the advantage of the planter, who could not easily manage them if they were united and harmonious.
Fred thought the Solomon Islanders were the most repulsive looking of the lot, and their employer said they were treacherous and revengeful in addition to being murderous. In times past, before the establishment of the Colonial Government, they used to make raids on the villages and kill any unfortunate Feejeean they met, whom they carried away and devoured. Of late years they have been restrained from this practice, but not without some severe lessons.
"The Tanna men are not much unlike them," their informant continued, "but they are less treacherous and sullen, and are better workers. They eat the flesh of men when they can get it, but they are also fond of dogs, cats, lizards, rats, and flies."
As he spoke he pointed to a pen containing several puppies which the Tanna men were fattening, and would make the basis of a grand feast on their next holiday.
From Suva the party went by a local steamer to Levuka, ColonelBush being unwilling to risk thePeraamong the rocks and reefs, which render navigation far from safe in these waters. They found the harbor of Levuka smaller than that of Suva, but in other respects equal to it, as the anchorage was good, and the place well sheltered from gales. The barrier reef which forms the harbor is about a mile from shore, and has two passages by which vessels may enter or leave port.
AVENUE OF PALMS.
Of course the removal of the capital to Suva was a severe blow to Levuka, but the place has a good commerce of its own, and being more centrally situated in regard to all the islands of the group, it is in no danger of decay. It contains three or four hotels and several boarding-houses, and its mercantile establishments are generally of a substantialcharacter. There are Wesleyan, Catholic, and Episcopalian churches in Levuka, several branch buildings of the Government offices, and a well-kept hospital for the use of such European strangers as may need medical attention.
A PART OF LEVUKA.
"The founders of Levuka were not altogether happy in one respect," said one of the residents, who was pointing out its features to our friends. "The hills around it are so steep that it was not practicable to extend the town over them; we could build our dwellings there, but it was out of the question to establish stores and shops where people must climb to reach them, so we extended along the base of the hills, and in some cases out into the sea, where we made land by filling in.
"You see," he continued, "that Levuka consists practically of a single thoroughfare which we call Beach Street, for the very practicalreason that it follows the course of the beach. Outside the town it is prolonged into a road that nearly surrounds the island of Ovolau, and will completely encircle it in time. Two or three years ago we started to build a street railway; we made surveys and subscribed for the stock, but the Government opposed the project, and it was given up."
FRED'S FLY.
FRANK'S MOSQUITO.
Our friends found accommodations at one of the hotels, and were fairly comfortable, or would have been if they could have escaped the flies and mosquitoes. These insects were numerous enough to form a veritable plague, and seemed to take special delight in annoying strangers. A planter who was stopping at the hotel declared that the flies had sentinels stationed to give notice of the arrival of a stranger so that all could pounce on him at once, and that whenever the flies grew weary of their work the mosquitoes came forward to relieve them. Frank made a sketch of a Feejee mosquito, while Fred took the likeness of a native fly. These works of art were laid carefully away where the subjects thereof could not reach them with intents of destruction or mutilation.
Dinner was taken at the hotel-table, and proved, on the whole, a pleasant affair. The youths made several acquaintances among the planters, merchants, and others who were stopping there; Frank and Fred added materially to their stock of informationrelative to the agricultural and other advantages of Feejee, and also to the mode of life among the residents. The dinner consisted of pork, salt and fresh beef, chicken, yams, taro, and other vegetables, together with English and American preserves, and potted things that are found wherever Englishmen are settled in the eastern or southern hemisphere. "You may not think much of it when compared with a dinner in New York or London," said one of the planters, "but if you go and live six months or a year on a plantation you'll think a dinner here is the very height of luxury. Salt beef and occasional chickens and pigs are our only meats on the plantations, backed up by yams and taro in one unvarying round. Where we can afford it we have potted and canned things, but they are expensive, and very often cannot be had at any price. It has repeatedly happened that men who had been living on the rough fare of the plantations came to Levuka after an absence of months, and overfed themselves at the hotel-table to such an extent as to bring on a fatal illness."
After dinner they sat on the veranda of the hotel and enjoyed the land-breeze which sets in a little after sunset, and is considerably cooler than the day breeze from the sea. It is also free from flies and mosquitoes, which at this time retire to the sleeping-rooms of the hotel to make ready for the arrival of the lodgers. On the veranda the conversation was continued, and many features of Feejeean life were touched upon.
"It's a pity you are not to be here atbalolatime," said one of the residents to Fred, when the latter had explained that their visit was to be a very brief one.
Fred thought the gentleman saidbakola, and immediately his thoughts ran on the cannibalism of the Feejeeans in times past. He remarked that he supposed those days were gone forever, but his informant answered, to the great astonishment of the youth, that they had the festival every year, and it was something not to be missed.
Then the gentleman went on to explain, and Fred soon ascertained the difference betweenbakolaandbalola.
"The balola, or balolo," said he, "is a sea-worm whose scientific name ispalolo viridis. It looks like a string of vermicelli, being little larger than a thread, and varying from an inch or two to a yard in length. It lives somewhere in the sea, no one knows where; on two days of the year it comes to the surface, and all the rest of the three hundred and sixty-five it keeps carefully out of sight. The natives know exactly when it will come; it first appears in October, the date being fixed bythe position of certain stars, and its second appearance is at the full moon, between the twentieth and twenty-fifth of November.
ONE VARIETY OF SEA-WORM.
"The worms are far more numerous in the November than in the October appearance, and hence the October one is called the 'Little Balola,' while the November coming is the 'Great Balola.' At the great festival the sea is covered in some places to the depth of several inches with these worms, which are red, green, and brown in color, and form a writhing and wriggling mass not altogether pleasant to look at. They come a little past midnight, and when the sun rises they sink down out of sight and remain there until the next year."
"How curious!" exclaimed the youth, in astonishment.
"No one has been able to explain the phenomenon," was the reply, "nor tell how and where the worm passes the rest of his time. Why he appears on these occasions and no other, or why he appears at all, nobody has yet found out, and you may be sure the worms won't give up the secret.
GOING FOR BALOLA.
"The natives go out in their boats in great numbers; every native boat that can float is occupied, and the Europeans go along at the sametime to see the fun. As long as the worms remain every native is busy with baskets and ladles trying to fill his boat with them; there is a great deal of excitement and laughter, as the people steal from one another and have as much fun as they can out of the festival. Then there are shoals and shoals of fish of all sizes and kinds that are feeding on the worms, and seem to understand that they must make the most of their opportunity.
"As soon as daylight comes, and the worms sink out of sight, the people return to the shore, wrap the worms in taro-leaves, and cook them in ovens after their manner of roasting. The supply is so great that there is enough for everybody for several days, and baskets of balola are sent to friends in the interior, just as you send fruit and game in America. The stuff is not agreeable to European taste, but isn't so bad after all when you can conquer your prejudice against eating worms."
"To show the force of the religious convictions of the Feejeeans," said another resident, "let me say that when the festival comes on Sunday not a single canoe of the natives goes out except those of the Roman Catholic Church members. The Methodists obey the religious requirements so closely that not a canoe will go on the water on Sunday except to carry a preacher to church. You cannot hire one of these people to climb a cocoanut-tree on Sunday, or do any other work that is not strictly one of necessity."
"What an immense change," said another, "from the days when cannibalism prevailed throughout the islands, and when all public ceremonials were attended with human sacrifices. On the death of a chief his wives and servants were buried alive with him, in order that he could have their company in the spirit world. When a chief's house was built a slave stood in each post-hole to support the post, and was buried there alive. War-canoes were launched or drawn ashore over the bodies of living prisoners, who served as rollers and were crushedto death by the weight. Life was held of no consequence, and parents who were ill or felt the weakness of age coming used to ask their children to bury them. A missionary was once invited by a young man to attend the funeral of the latter's mother; she walked cheerfully to the grave, and sat down in it to have the earth heaped about her by her children, and was much surprised when the missionary interfered to prevent the proceeding.
ANCIENT FEEJEEAN WAR-DANCE.
"And I have heard," he continued, "of a young man who was ill and feared he would get thin and be laughed at by the girls of his acquaintance. He asked his father to bury him, and the latter consented. When the youth had taken his place in the grave he asked to be strangled. The father scolded him, and told him to sit still and be buried just like other folks, and make no further trouble. Thereupon the youth became quiet, and the burial was completed."
"Can this really be true?" queried the youth.
"The story is found on page 475 of Erskine's 'Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific,'" said his informant, "and I have no doubt whatever of its truth. The evidence as to the former customs of the Feejeeans is so direct and positive that it cannot be doubted."
Fred lay awake for some time that night, his thoughts busy with the changes which had been wrought in the islands of the great ocean through the labors of the missionaries. Afterwards he watched the effect of the moonlight on the waters, and while watching fell asleep.
MOONLIGHT ON THE WATERS.
ATTENDING A NATIVE CHURCH.—A FEEJEEAN PREACHER.—DINNER WITH A FEEJEEAN FAMILY.—THE SEASONS IN FEEJEE.—A TROPICAL SHOWER.—A HURRICANE.—A PLANTER'S ADVENTURES.—SCENES OF DEVASTATION.—THE CLIMATE of THE FEEJEE ISLANDS.—WRECKED ON A REEF.—ESCAPING FROM THE JAWS OF CANNIBALS.—A WALKING ART GALLERY.—A TATTOOED WHITE MAN.—RETURNING TO SUVA.—THE FRIENDLY, OR TONGA, ISLANDS.—TONGATABOO.—THE KING OF THE TONGAS.—HOW HE LIVES.—A REMARKABLE CAVERN AND A LOVE STORY ABOUT IT.—FROM FEEJEE TO NEW ZEALAND.—HAURAKI GULF.—AUCKLAND.—A FINE SEAPORT AND ITS COMMERCE.—HOW NEW ZEALAND WAS COLONIZED.—THE MAORIS.—CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT A CURIOUS PEOPLE.—MISSIONARIES IN NEW ZEALAND.—HOW THE MAORIS MAKE WAR.
The second day of the stay of our friends at Levuka was Sunday, and the party attended the Episcopal church in the forenoon, where service was conducted by a clergyman who had recently arrived from London. In the afternoon they strolled to the native village outside the town, where they found some fifty or sixty Feejeeans squatted on the mat-covered floor of the neat and well-swept church listening to a preacher of their own race. They were amused to see a tall man armed with a long stick with which he occasionally touched the heads of those who were inattentive, and sometimes his touch was far from light. Frank thought the idea would not be a bad one for churches nearer home, where worshippers have been known to go to sleep during the sermon.
The preacher was a tall, fine-looking man of at least fifty years, and he spoke with an eloquence that indicated his earnestness and fervor. Of course his language was unknown to our friends, but they all agreed that the Feejeean tongue is capable of much expression. It contains many guttural sounds that do not always strike the American or English ear agreeably, and the orator seemed to speak with more rapidity than is compatible with a clear understanding on the part of his hearers. When the sermon was ended the preacher offered a prayer, and then a hymn was sung by the whole congregation. The air was a familiar Methodist one, but the words were Feejeean. Whether themeaning of the original hymn was preserved with the air no one of the listeners was able to say, and there was no interpreter present to tell them.
MISSION CHURCH IN THE FEEJEE ISLANDS.
As soon as service was over the strangers were surrounded by a group of natives, and there was an attempt at conversation; but as our friends were totally unlearned in Feejeean, and the vocabulary of the natives was principally confined to the word "shillin'," there was not much interchange of thought. Nearly every Feejeean understands "shillin'" well enough to pronounce it. He has a clear idea that it means money, and it is in this sense that it is used. Ask a native what he will sell his house for, and he will answer "shillin';" ask him the price of a cocoanut, and the reply is the same. In the former case he would of course decline the offer if actually made, and in the latter he would bring you twenty or fifty cocoanuts for the figure named.
In strolling around as the congregation dispersed Frank and Fred became separated from the rest of the party, but without any misgivings as to their safety or loss of way, as they were accompanied by several natives, one of whom invited the youths to his house. This wasan invitation not to be ignored; it was accepted at once, and the man led the way along a path to where he lived. It was a hut of dried reeds lashed to a framework of poles, and stood with a dozen similar huts in the shade of a grove of cocoa-trees. The thatched roof was high and arched, while the sides were very low, and had no windows. There were two doors on opposite sides, but the door-way was so low that it was necessary to stoop almost double in order to enter. In front of the hut was a lot of bones and all manner of refuse, and a couple of pigs were lying across the door-way. They showed no inclination to move as the master of the house approached; but on catching sight, and possibly smell, of the strangers, they were up and off very quickly.
GOING TO CHURCH.—RIVER SCENE.
Inside the hut the floor was covered with plaited rushes, and there was a low partition of reeds dividing it into two nearly equal spaces; one of these was used as kitchen and sitting-room and the other for sleeping; but there was no furniture in either place beyond three or four of the wooden pillows already described. In one corner of thekitchen was a rough hearth, with some clay pots in which fish and yams were cooked.
FEEJEEAN HEAD.
Partly by signs and partly by the words "want eat," the host invited the youths to stay to dinner. They accepted, more to see how and upon what the natives live rather than on account of having an appetite. Fire was lighted on the hearth, or rather it was stirred up from some slumbering coals, fish and yams were put on to boil, and in a little while the meal was ready. Frank and Fred made friends with the children, to whom they showed their watches, and made a few presents of silver coin as an indirect compensation for their dinner, and when the meal was ready they proceeded to enjoy it. One of the children had been sent for some banana-leaves, which served as plates; on these leaves the fish and yams were dished up, and a piece of rock-salt was brought out, together with a shell, with which each guest could scrape off as much salt as he liked, and whenever he wanted it. The youths made a practical demonstration of the truth of the adage that fingers were made before forks, though not without some inconvenience. To end the repast they had some ripe bananas, and of course the drink that accompanied the meal was the juice of freshly picked cocoanuts.
FEEJEEAN WEAPONS.
As soon as Frank and Fred rose from the mats the youngsters of the family attacked what they had left, and in a very few minutes nothing remained save the lump of salt and the empty banana-leaf plates. Thenthere was handshaking all around, and the visitors took their leave. The host accompanied them to the road leading back to town, and there left them, but not until he had pocketed a shilling which Frank tendered him.
Clouds were forming in the sky, and the youths thought it would be prudent to return to the hotel. They did so, and found the rest of the party on the veranda waiting for the promised shower. In a few minutes the rain came down thick and fast, and the wisdom of returning was no longer in doubt. The shower was soon over, however, and then the sun came out as brightly as ever, though there was no apparent change in the temperature.
"You are in the best season of the year," said one of their new acquaintances; "it's fortunate for you that it's not hurricane time now."
"We have here," he continued, "a dry season and a wet one. The former is cool, and lasts from May to October; the latter is hot, and lasts from October to May. During all the dry season, and for a month at each end of the wet one, the climate is delightful, the temperature varying from 70° to 78° or 79°, and the heat of the sun being tempered by breezes from the sea. The mean temperature is about 80°, the extreme ranges thus far recorded being 60° and 122°. From Christmas to March is called the 'hurricane season;' the air is moist and sticky, the temperature averaging 84°, with a humidity so great that one seems to be constantly in a Russian steam-bath. This is the unhealthy season, and fevers and other diseases due to the heat and moisture are common."
TELLING THE STORY.
Frank asked if hurricanes were frequent during the season.
"Not at all," was the reply, "but when they do come they are in dead earnest. From 1879 to 1886 we didn't have a really severe hurricane; but this is, I believe, the longest interval known to any of the European residents. One old settlertold me there were several years when not a season passed without at least one hurricane."
"Are they very destructive?" Fred inquired.
"I can best answer that question," said the gentleman, "by describing the first hurricane I ever passed through in the Feejees.
FORMATION OF CLOUDS BEFORE A FEEJEEAN HURRICANE.
"I was on a plantation in which I had bought an interest, and during the whole of the month of March the weather was very calm and sultry. One day, towards the beginning of April, the wind turned to the north-west, which was quite unusual; squalls and showers followed, and then the breeze freshened into a gale. Heavy clouds covered the sky, thunder sounded loud and long, the barometer fell, and the clouds seemed to sweep just above the tops of the trees. Then the rain came in torrents, flooding all the level ground, and turning the brooks into rivers. Our party took shelter in the largest and strongest house in the neighborhood—one that had stood through several hurricanes, and was thought to be proof against them.
"For two days the wind blew, and every hour it increased. By the second night it was a fully developed hurricane whose velocity we had no means of measuring. The rain fell tremendously; the lightning was vivid, and almost continuous. The thunder followed the course of the storm; and altogether the noise was so great that we had to shout to one another to be understood. Our house shook like a rickety bird-cage, and many times it seemed to be half lifted from the ground; but it stood through the storm, and was the only one that did so.
AFTER THE STORM.
"On the following morning the wind had died down to a moderate gale, and we could venture out. The picture that presented itself cannot possibly be described with anything like vividness. Cocoanut and bread-fruit trees by the thousand had been thrown down or stripped of their leaves; banana-plants were in the same condition; the grass was levelled, and covered with mud and water, and not a house in the neighborhood remained standing. In the cotton-fields not only were the leaves and bolls stripped from the plants, but in many places the plants had been torn up by the roots and lay in heaps. In Levuka many houses were blown down; vessels were driven ashore, or broken topieces at their moorings; and the whole windward coast of the islands was strewn with wrecks. Many foreign vessels that were known to be in Feejee waters, or near the islands, were never heard of again, and they doubtless went down on that terrible night. At Macuata, on Vanua Levu, the wind lifted a small vessel bodily from the beach and blew it into a native village two or three hundred yards away!"
COAST SCENE IN A CALM.
The story of the hurricane led to various anecdotes of the South Seas, and in this way the afternoon was passed until dinner-time. One man told how a ship on which he once sailed was driven before a hurricane and thrown upon a reef, where the waves dashed her to pieces. He was carried into the comparatively smooth lagoon inside the reef, and saved himself by swimming, all his companions being drowned. Fortunately for him, the islanders among whom he landed were not cannibals, or he would have been condemned at once to the oven. Thecannibals of the South Pacific have always regarded people shipwrecked on their shores as special gifts or windfalls, just as the inhabitants of certain parts of the coast of the United States are said to have regarded the cargoes of wrecked ships less than a century ago. Of course he taught the natives many useful things, and eventually married the daughter of the chief, and became a chief himself when his father-in-law died.
LOST IN THE HURRICANE.
Another man, who claimed to have visited half the islands of the Pacific, endeavored to prove his assertion by asking our friends to step inside for a few moments, where he removed his clothing and exhibited samples of the tattooing of pretty nearly every group. "That clouded pattern on my left leg," said he, "was done in the Kingsmill group, while those squares and fancy stripes on the right leg were put on in Samoa. My right arm and shoulder were done in the New Hebrides, while the left side was the work of the best artist of the Marquesas Islands. The fancy embroidery on my breast is of New Zealand, and that down my back was done in Tahiti."
MOTA, OR SUGAR-LOAF ISLAND.
Truly this man was a walking art-gallery of the Pacific Islanders, only his hands and face remaining unmarked by the tattoo. When the inspection was completed, and our friends had left the man to resume his dress, Frank suggested that he would be a fine prize for a medical museum, where his skin could be preserved after his death. Doctor Bronson agreed with him, but the suggestion was not offered to the subject of the conversation.
TWO-TREE ISLAND.
The party returned to Suva by the steamer that brought them to Levuka, and there a change of plans occurred. Doctor Bronson, with Frank and Fred, proceeded to New Zealand by the regular mail-steamer, while Colonel Bush, with thePera, continued his cruise among the islands of the Pacific. Our friends were sorry to part with their pleasant companions and the splendid hospitality of the yacht, but they did not feel justified in protracting their stay among the islands, since thereis a general similarity of the groups to each other, though they may differ greatly in detail.
A YOUNG STUDENT.
Frank and Fred regretted that they could not visit the Friendly, or Tonga, Islands, the first destination of thePera, but they consoled themselves by reading what they could find on the subject. They learned that the Tonga group was discovered by Tasman and visited by Cook, who gave the isles the name of Friendly, on account of the apparently amiable disposition of the inhabitants. They have a population of about twenty-five thousand, and are farther advanced in civilization than their neighbors of Feejee or Samoa. The Wesleyan missionaries have converted them to Christianity; many of them can speak English, and have learned reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, and on the whole stand high in the scale of education. The products of the Tonga Islands are similar to those of the Feejees, and the group is also subject to hurricanes, which are often very destructive.
STONE MONUMENT, TONGATABOO.
The principal island is Tongataboo, which is low and level, of coral formation, and about twenty miles long by twelve broad. Here the King resides, and here, too, is the principal mission station, the King being an earnest Christian, and a regularly ordained preacher in the pulpit. He wears European clothes, has European furniture in his house, employs an Englishman as his private secretary, and altogether is quite a civilized gentleman. He has caused good roads to be made around and across the island, and in other ways has made his little kingdom know the advantages of the lands beyond the seas.
A VOLCANO IN THE PACIFIC.
Fred was particularly interested in reading about a curious monument of former days that is to be seen in Tonga, and of which the natives have no tradition. It reminded him of the monuments of Easter Island, and he made the following note on the subject:
"It stands on a grassy lawn in the interior of the island, and is so surrounded by tropical growths that it is concealed from view until the visitor is close upon it. It consists of three huge stones, two of them upright like pillars, and the third resting upon them. This upper stone is eighteen feet long, twelve feet wide, and fifteen feet above the ground; resting upon it is, or was, an immense bowl of hewn stone, which is supposed to have been connected with some of the religious ceremonies of the people who erected this monument. But how they put the three stones in their places is an unfathomable mystery."
Fred also wanted to see a famous cavern in one of the Tonga Islands which can only be reached by diving into the sea, as the mouth is completely under water at all times. A young Tongan found it while diving after a turtle, and he afterwards utilized it as the place of concealment of the girl with whom he had fallen in love, and who was the daughter of a chief whose displeasure he had incurred. He persuaded her to flee with him and follow him into the water; these women swim like dolphins, and she dived after him and rose into the cave, which is beautifully lighted by the phosphorescent rays from the water, very much as is the famous Blue Grotto near Naples.
Here she remained for months, everybody wondering what had become of her, and also wondering why the young man absented himself so frequently, and always returned with wet hair. He carried her fruit and fish to eat and a supply of mats for carpeting the stone floor at one side of the cavern. One day his companions followed him, and dived where they had seen him disappear. Thus they found the cave; but what became of its inmates is not clearly recorded in the history of Tonga.
AN ISLAND CAVERN.
It takes an excellent swimmer to make the visit to the cave without danger of death from drowning. The entrance bristles with sharp points of rock, and when a native dives he turns on his back and uses his hands to keep himself clear of these dangerous obstructions. The captain of an English man-of-war tried to enter the cavern, but was so severely injured against the sharp rocks that he died in consequence.
We will leave thePerato pursue her course among the islands of the Pacific, while we accompany Doctor Bronson and the youths on their voyage to New Zealand and Australia. The mail-steamerZealandiacarried them swiftly along, and on the morning of the fifth day they were in sight of the shores which were their destination. From Suva to Auckland, the former capital of New Zealand, is a distance of about one thousand miles, and there is regular communication both ways monthly between the two points. There is also steam communication between Sydney and Feejee, about sixteen hundred miles—sometimes direct from one port to the other, and sometimes by way of New Caledonia, which lies a short distance out of the direct track.
TheZealandiaentered Hauraki Gulf, passing between the Great Barrier and Little Barrier islands, and holding her course almost due south; then, through the Rangitoto Channel, she turned, and the harbor of Auckland was before her.
"Shall we have to wait for the tide?" Frank asked, as they passed Great Barrier Island. "It often happens that we have to wait several hours for a tide when we're all impatience to get on shore."
"We don't have to wait for tides at Auckland," replied an officer of theZealandia, to whom the query was addressed. "We can come in at dead low-water and steam to an anchorage, or to the dock if we're ready to go there. The least depth is thirty-six feet at dead low-water of the spring-tide, and at the highest tides we have fifty feet.
"There is hardly a finer seaport anywhere," he added, "than Waitamata, as the harbor of Auckland is frequently called by the NewZealanders. It has, as I've told you, plenty of water at all times, and its entrances are superb. Rangitoto Channel is the one generally used; the other is Hieh Channel, and would be considered first-rate in many a place I know of. Rangitoto is about two miles wide; the section of the harbor between North Head and Kauri Point is about a mile across, and therefore is easily fortified in case we have to defend it against a hostile fleet."
ISLANDS ON THE COAST.
"I see," said Fred, who had been studying the map, "that the island is very narrow here."
"Yes," was the reply; "it is only six miles across; and if you examine carefully you'll see a good harbor on the other side. That is the harbor of Manakau, and there's a railway connecting it with Waitamata."
"It reminds me of Corinth, in Greece," said Fred, as he continued the contemplation of the map.
"No doubt it does," said the officer, in response. "Auckland is called the Corinth of the South Pacific; Corinth is now having a canal made through its isthmus, and we hope to have one for ours in due time."
The steamer made her way direct to the wharf, and as soon as she had made fast and the gang-plank was out, our friends stepped on shore in New Zealand. Under the guidance of a fellow-passenger, they entered a carriage and were driven up Queen Street, the principal thoroughfare,to the hotel they had selected for a resting-place during their sojourn in Auckland. They were favorably impressed with the activity that prevailed on the streets, and the general evidences of business prosperity. "A Missourian would call it 'a right smart place,'" said Frank, as they were alighting from the carriage at the end of their drive.
"Yes," responded Fred, "and even a New Yorker would treat its beautiful bay with respect after seeing it as we did."
"Where did the city get its name?" one of the youths asked Doctor Bronson.
AUCKLAND IN 1840.
"It was named after Lord Auckland, First Lord of the Admiralty, and afterwards Governor-general of India, by Captain Hobson, who founded the city. Captain Hobson was sent here, in 1838, to organize a colony. He saw this was a good site for a city, and accordingly he established the capital here. It remained the capital until 1865, when a royal commission moved the seat of government to Wellington, the latter place being more centrally located. Of course the Aucklanders were not at all pleased at the change, but their city is so well established commercially that there is no danger of their being ruined by it."
From various sources Frank and Fred found that Auckland had apopulation of nearly forty thousand within the municipality, and seventy thousand in the city and suburbs. "It has," said Frank, in his journal, "handsome streets, a great number of well-constructed public buildings, such as post-office, custom-house, exchange, courts, Government offices, and the other paraphernalia of a well-established city, and it has also a fine museum, a public library, and a park and botanical garden. No city would be complete without a cemetery, and Auckland is not behind in this respect, as it has a very pretty one, and, as the French say, it is well peopled.
"We were much interested in the Queen Street wharf, where we landed; it extends nearly two thousand feet into the harbor, and affords facilities for thirty or forty vessels to discharge or receive cargoes at once. There are several other wharves, including a fine one, nearly completed, at the end of Hobson Street. I have heard often of 'Hobson's Choice,' and never knew exactly what it was. This city seems to have been Hobson's choice, since Captain Hobson founded it; all I can say is, that I shall have more respect for the old saw than I ever had before.
"You can get an idea of the commerce of the place when you know that about two hundred and fifty sailing-vessels are owned here of an aggregate burden of twenty thousand tons, and sixty-five steamers of seven thousand tons altogether. It has regular steam communication with Australian ports by the vessels of the Union Steamship Company, has a monthly line to Feejee, and is a port of call for the mail-steamers between Australia and California. The Northern Steamship Company of Auckland has a fleet of thirteen steamers, principally engaged in coast navigation, so that New Zealand is well served by its own boats.
"Of course the port has graving or dry docks for the accommodation of the ships that need them. There was one three hundred feet long, and forty-two feet wide, but it was found inadequate after a few years, and now they are completing another five hundred feet long and ninety feet wide. This ought to be long and wide enough; but if ships go on increasing in size as they have been, it won't be a great while before another and longer dock will be needed at Auckland as well as in other ports."
While Frank was noting the foregoing points in regard to Auckland, Fred was writing a few paragraphs relative to New Zealand. And first he wondered how it came to be New Zealand instead of New England or New Britain.
"That's easily explained," said Doctor Bronson, "by the fact that itwas discovered by the Dutch navigator, Tasman; the French and Spaniards both lay claim to a previous discovery, but the evidence they offer is very doubtful. Tasman was sent in 1642 by Van Dieman, Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, to explore the coast of New Holland. He made the exploration and called the country Van Dieman's Land, in honor of the Governor-general, but the name has recently been changed to Tasmania. On this voyage he discovered this country, which he called New Zealand, in honor of the province of his birth; he also discovered the archipelagos of the Feejee and Friendly isles, and returned to Batavia, having been absent only ten months.