LITSI SORÉ AND MUNGAW.
LITSI, the only daughter of Namakei, had both in her own career and in
her connection with poor dear Mungaw, an almost unparalleled experience.
She was entrusted to us when very young, and became a bright, clever,
and attractive Christian girl. Many sought her hand, but she
disdainfully replied, "I am Queen of my own Island, and when I like I
will ask a husband in marriage, as your great Queen Victoria did!"
Her first husband, however won, was undoubtedly the tallest and most
handsome man on Aniwa; but he was a giddy fool, and, on his early death,
she again returned to live with us at the Mission House. Her second
marriage had everything to commend it, but it resulted in indescribable
disaster. Mungaw, heir to a Chief, had been trained with us, and gave
every evidence of decided Christianity. They were married in the Church,
and lived in the greatest happiness. He was able and eloquent, and was
first chosen as a deacon, then as an Elder of the Church, and finally as
High Chief of one half of the Island. He showed the finest Christian
spirit under many trying circumstances. Once, when working at the lime
for the building of our Church, two bad men, armed with muskets, sought
his life for blowing the conch to assemble the workers. Hearing of the
quarrel, I rushed to the scene, and heard him saying, "Don't call me
coward, or think me afraid to die. If I died now, I would go to be with
Jesus. But I am no longer a Heathen; I am a Christian, and wish to treat
you as a Christian should."
Two loaded muskets were leveled at him. I seized one in each of my
hands, and held their muzzles aloft in air, so that, if discharged, the
balls might pass over his head and mine; and thus I stood for some
minutes pleading with them.
Others soon coming to the rescue, the men were disarmed; and, after much
talk, they professed themselves ashamed, and promised better conduct for
the future. Next day they sent a large present as a peace-offering to
me, but I refused to receive it till they should first of all make peace
with the young Chief. They sent a larger present to him, praying him to
receive it, and to forgive them. Mungaw brought a still larger present
in exchange, laid it down at their feet in the Public Ground, shook
hands with them graciously, and forgave them in presence of all the
people. His constant saying was, "I am a Christian, and I must do the
conduct of a Christian."
In one of my furloughs to Australia I took the young Chief with me, in
the hope of interesting the Sabbath Schools and Congregations by his
eloquent addresses and noble personality. The late Dr. Cameron of
Melbourne, having heard him, as translated by me, publicly declared that
Mungaw's appearance and speech in his Church did more to show him the
grand results of the Gospel amongst the Heathen than all the Missionary
addresses he ever listened to or read.
Our lodging was in St. Kilda. My dear wife was suddenly seized with a
dangerous illness on a visit to Taradale, and I was telegraphed for.
Finding that I must remain with her, I got Mungaw booked for Melbourne,
on the road for St. Kilda, in charge of a railway guard. Some white
wretches, in the guise of gentlemen, offered to see him to the St. Kilda
Station, assuring the guard that they were friends of mine, and
interested in our Mission. They took him, instead, to some den of infamy
in Melbourne. On refusing to drink with them, he said they threw him
down on a sofa, and poured drink or drugs into him till he was nearly
dead. Having taken all his money (he had only two or three pounds, made
up of little presents from various friends), they thrust him out to the
street, with only one penny in his pocket.
On becoming conscious, he applied to a policeman, who either did not
understand or would not interfere. Hearing an engine whistle, he
followed the sound, and found his way to Spencer Street Station, where
he proffered his penny for a ticket, all in vain. At last a sailor took
pity on him, got him some food, and led him to the St. Kilda Station.
There he stood for a whole day, offering his penny for a ticket by every
train, only to meet with refusal after refusal, till he broke down, and
cried aloud in such English as desperation gave him:
"If me savvy road, me go. Me no savvy road, and stop here me die. My
Missi Paton live at Kilda. Me want go Kilda. Me no money. Bad fellow
took all! Send me Kilda."
Some gentle Samaritan gave him a ticket, and he reached our house at St.
Kilda at last. There for above three weeks the poor creature lay in a
sort of stupid doze. Food he could scarcely be induced to taste, and he
only rose now and again for a drink of water. When my wife was able to
be removed thither also, we found dear Mungaw dreadfully changed in
appearance and in conduct. Twice thereafter I took him with me on
Mission work; but, on medical advice, preparations were made for his
immediate return to the Islands. I intrusted him to the kind care of
Captain Logan, who undertook to see him safely on board the _Dayspring_,
then lying at Auckland. Mungaw was delighted, and we hoped everything
from his return to his own land and people. After some little trouble,
he was landed safely home on Aniwa. But his malady developed dangerous
and violent symptoms, characterized by long periods of quiet and sleep,
and then sudden paroxysms, in which he destroyed property, burned
houses, and was a terror to all.
On our return he was greatly delighted; but he complained bitterly that
the white men "had spoiled his head," and that when it "burned hot" he
did all these bad things for which he was extremely sorry. He
deliberately attempted my life, and most cruelly abused his dear and
gentle wife; and then, when the frenzy was over, he wept and lamented
over it. Many a time he marched round and round our house with loaded
musket and spear and tomahawk, while we had to keep doors and windows
locked and barricaded; then the paroxysm passed off, and he slept, long
and deep, like a child. When he came to himself, he wept and said, "The
white men spoiled my head! I know not what I do. My head burns hot, and
I am driven."
One day, in the Church, he leaped up during Worship with a loud yelling
war-cry, rushed off through the Imrai to his own house, set fire to it,
and danced around till everything he possessed was burned to ashes.
Nasi, a bad Tannese Chief living on Aniwa, had a quarrel with Mungaw
about a cask found at the shore, and threatened to shoot him. Others
encouraged him to do so, as Mungaw was growing every day more and more
destructive and violent. When any person became outrageous or insane on
Aniwa, as they had neither asylum nor prison, they first of all held him
fast and discharged a musket close to his ear; and then, if the shock
did not bring him back to his senses, they tied him up for two days or
so; and finally, if that did not restore him, they shot him dead. Thus
the plan of Nasi was favored by their own customs. One night, after
Family Worship--for amidst all his madness, when clear moments came, he
poured out his soul in faith and love to the Lord--he said, "Litsi, I am
melting! My head burns. Let us go out and get cooled in the open air."
She warned him not to go, as she heard voices whispering under the
verandah. He answered a little wildly, "I am not afraid to die. Life is
a curse and burden. The white men spoiled my head. If there is a hope of
dying, let me go quickly and die!"
As he crossed the door, a ball crashed through him, and he fell dead. We
got the mother and her children away to the Mission House; and next
morning they buried the remains of poor Mungaw under the floor of his
own hut, and enclosed the whole place with a fence. It was a sorrowful
close to so noble a career. I shed many a tear that I ever took him to
Australia. What will God have to say to those white fiends who poisoned
and maddened poor dear Mungaw?
After a while the good Queen Litsi was happily married again. She became
possessed with a great desire to go as a Missionary to the people and
tribe of Nasi, the very man who had murdered her husband. She used to
say, "Is there no Missionary to go and teach Nasi's people? I weep and
pray for them, that they too may come to know and love Jesus."
I answered, "Litsi, if I had only wept and prayed for you, but stayed at
home in Scotland, would that have brought you to know and love Jesus as
you do?"
"Certainly not," she replied.
"Now then," I proceeded, "would it not please Jesus, and be a grand and
holy revenge, if you, the Christians of Aniwa, could carry the Gospel to
the very people whose Chief murdered Mungaw?"
The idea took possession of her soul. She was never wearied talking and
praying over it. When at length a Missionary was got for Nasi's people,
Litsi and her new husband offered themselves as the head of a band of
six or eight Aniwan Christians and were engaged there to open up the way
and assist, as Teachers and Helpers, the Missionary and his wife. There
she and they have labored ever since. They are "strong" for the Worship.
Her son is being trained up by his cousin, an Elder of the Church, to be
"the good Chief of Aniwa"; so she calls him in her prayers, as she cries
on God to bless and watch over him, while she is serving the Lord in at
once serving the Mission family and ministering to the Natives in that
foreign field.
Many years have now passed; and when lately I visited that part of
Tanna, Litsi ran to me, clasped my hand, kissed it with many sobs, and
cried, "O my father! God has blessed me to see you again. Is my mother,
your dear wife, well? And your children, my brothers and sisters? My
love to them all! Oh my heart clings to you!"
We had sweet conversation, and then she said more calmly, "My days here
are hard. I might be happy and independent as Queen of my own Aniwa. But
the Heathen here are beginning to listen. The Missi sees them coming
nearer to Jesus. And oh, what a reward when we shall hear them sing and
pray to our dear Saviour! The hope of that makes me strong for
anything."