fishermen, who bartered their fish for the produce of the plantations
on the mainland. But the security of their island made them insolent,
and, to punish them, the chiefs resolved to attack and occupy their
village. The incursion was made about the year 1760, and the fishermen
were banished from the place for a time. With the help of their
dependants the chiefs scarped away the side of the hills and reclaimed
land from the shallow sea, facing it with slabs of stone. Thenceforth
Butoni was known as Bau, the place of chiefs.
Secure in their island stronghold, the chiefs of Bau soon forgot
their common origin with the poor relations they had left behind on
the mainland to cultivate the plantations. The pursuit of arms has in
every age conferred aristocracy, while the cultivation of the food on
which warriors and cultivators alike exist has ever tended to sink men
to serfdom. Under Banuve, the son of Durucoko, Bau had begun to make
her power felt. Banuve had a definite policy; he tolerated no rivals.
When the chief of Cautata presumed on his relationship to Bau by his
mother, no warning was given him. He was attacked in the night, and his
stronghold of Oloi burned. Yet this harsh discipline failed to satisfy
his jealous kinsman. Intrenchments could be rebuilt, and half-beaten
tribes are doubly dangerous. Eight times was Cautata rebuilt, and
eight times was it reduced to ashes; nor was there peace until earth
had been brought as a _soro_, and Cautata had acknowledged herself to
be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water for Bau. But Banuve did not
often risk open battle when there were so many who would fight for
fighting’s sake. In his day Bau was first known as the nest in which
plots were hatched, because Bau knew that the whale’s tooth proffered
to an ally in secret was a surer weapon than the club. When the comet
threw its glare over Bau, presaging evil, there were two States against
whom Banuve’s plots could not prevail. Seven miles north of the little
island was Verata, an intrenched fort in a deep bay that faces the
island of Viwa. Till Bau was colonised, Verata drew tribute from the
coast as far as Buretu, and the struggle for the mastery was ever
impending. To the southward was Dravo allied with Nakelo, too strong to
be yet attempted.
Such was the position of Bau when the pestilence reached it, by means,
it is said, of a canoe from Ovalau. Cholera, dysentery, or whatever it
may have been, it struck chief and commoner alike. “Their limbs became
light, and when they would walk they reeled and fell, and where they
fell they lay; nor was there any to tend them, for all were stricken
alike. Then did war cease, for the strong warriors were stricken and
withered like the _daiga_ that droops in the evening. They were as
men bereft of sense, for those who had strength launched the canoes
and sailed away, and the sick died more swiftly when there was none
left to bring them food: their bodies rotted in the houses, or were
devoured by the hogs. Yet the living could not escape by flight, for
the pestilence, borne on the wind that filled their sails, overtook
them even in the place whither they fled.... None can tell the terror
and the pity of that time.”
From Bau, however, they did not attempt to escape, for the sickness
was raging on the mainland opposite to them, and beyond the mountains
there were none but enemies. They stayed and sickened and died, and
the last to die was Banuve, surnamed Sevuniqele (“the first-fruits”),
their Vunivalu. And his spirit went and stood on the bank of the
swift stream at Lelele, and Cema answered his cry, and brought to him
the vesi canoe on which chiefs only may embark. And he crossed the
eel-bridge and made ready his stone to throw at the great pandanus
by which the love of wives is proved. And his stone went true to the
mark. So he rested, knowing that his wives must soon follow him to
bear him company in the world of spirits. Nor did he wait in vain, for
on that very day four of his wives were strangled and buried with him
in the same tomb. Henceforth he was not Banuve, but Bale-i-vavalagi
(“He-who-fell-by-the-foreign-pestilence”). The doom of the forked star
had fallen.
Banuve’s eldest son, Ra Matenikutu (“The lice-killer”), succeeded
naturally to the office of Vunivalu; but the rites of confirmation
could not be performed until the arrival of the men of Levuka, whose
peculiar province it is to conduct the ceremony. The traditions of
Oneata say that they took with them to Bau on this occasion one of the
white men; but the historians of Bau affirm that they came bringing
with them no strangers, but a canvas house and the first foreign
possessions seen by the Bauans.
We shall never know now what became of the red-capped sailors cast upon
the reef at the ends of the earth in that stormy night of 1803. Perhaps
they perished of the disease they brought with them; perhaps, like
Gordon in the New Hebrides, they were sacrificed to the Manes of those
whose death they had unwittingly brought about. Their fate is not even
one of the thousand mysteries of the sea which men would fain solve.
On the day fixed for the rite there was another portent. The sky was
cloudless at high noon, when the sun suddenly paled and turned to the
colour of blood. The air grew dark, the birds settled on the trees
to roost, and the stars came out. There was silence among the people
sitting before the spirit _bure_, Vatanitawake--the silence of a great
fear. Then the god entered into one of the priests, and he screamed
prophecies in the red darkness, foretelling war and the greatness of
Matenikutu, the son of Bale-i-vavalagi, and crying that the face of the
sun was red with the blood that he should shed.
This dramatic scene was no invention of the elders of Bau, for the
tradition of the eclipse is to be found in Rewa, in Nakelo, and
in Dawasamu, and in every case the day is fixed as the day of the
confirmation of Ra Matenikutu. He saw many strange sights during his
stormy reign, but assuredly none more weird and terrible than this
scene in the lurid twilight, when he was declared Vunivalu.
In that year there were other strange omens, foretelling the change of
the old order. The heavens rained lumps of ice, that broke down the
yam-vines and the stalks of the taro; and the people, touching them,
said that burning stars had fallen from heaven. There followed a great
storm. For many days the rain fell without ceasing, and the waters
rose. The basin of the Rewa river, draining half the island, was swept
with a torrent greater than any that have been seen before or since,
and the waters rose over the housetops, sweeping seawards in a roaring
muddy flood. The strong fled to the hills and saved their lives; the
sick and the aged were swept out to sea. When the waters subsided, the
face of the country was changed, for the flood had covered the land and
the reefs with a great layer of black earth. Thus were the flats of
Burebasaga raised above the reach of the water, and thus was the land
purged of the pestilence.
And now the new order was at hand. In 1808 the American brig Eliza,
with 40,000 dollars from the River Plate, was wrecked on the reef of
Nairai Island. The crew were allowed to live. Some of them made their
way in the ship’s boats to another American vessel that chanced to
be lying at Bua Bay, ninety miles distant; five others, two of them
Chinamen, were carried by the natives to Verata; one, named Charles
Savage, made his way to Bau in a canoe that chanced to be sailing
thither. The hull was looted by the natives, who used the silver
dollars--_lavo_ they call them still, from their resemblance to the
bean of that name--as playthings to be skimmed along the shallow water,
or buried with the posts of a new house. Eighty years have passed,
and though many sailors have deserted their ships with the purpose of
enriching themselves from this lost treasure, and the natives have long
ago learned the value of money, these records of the wreck are still
occasionally found.
As soon as Savage reached Bau he besought Ra Matenikutu to send him to
Nairai to search for a thing he wanted from the wreck, and when this
was not granted he promised that if the thing were brought to him he
would make Bau pre-eminent above all her enemies, even over Rewa and
Verata. The thing they were to look for was like a _ngata_ club, but
heavier, and they must also find a black powder such as men use to
paint their faces for war. The messengers searched diligently. They
found the black powder, but none knew this thing of which the White man
spoke. But at the last, when they were wearied with the search, one
remembered that a _ngata_ club of a strange pattern had been built
into a yam-house set up to hold the crop that was but just dug. There
they found it, as the ridge-pole of the yam-shed, the weapon that
should enable Bau to crush her rivals, and should bring even her at
last under the dominion of a stronger than she.
When they returned to Bau, Savage took the thing to his house, and shut
the doorway that no one might see. “And presently he bade Naulivou
summon all the elders of Bau to the _rara_ before the _bure_ of the
war-god Cagawalu--the same that was the untimely birth of the woman of
Batiki--and there on the seaward side he set on end the deck-plank of a
canoe; and he went with his weapon and stood before the foundation of
the _bure_. Then he cried to the elders to watch the deck-plank, and he
aimed and fired. And the people, knowing nothing of what would happen,
dashed their heads upon the ground so that the blood flowed, and they
were angry that the white man had not told them what he would do. He
did not listen to them, but only pointed to the plank that the lead
had pierced, saying that so would he slay the enemies of Bau. Then the
young men took their spears and clamoured to be led against Verata; but
Savage bade them be silent, saying that they could not prevail against
the place while there were white men like himself within the town. And
he took a piece of white _masi_, and mixed water with the powder so
as to make a black pigment, and with a reed split into many points he
painted words upon the _masi_, and put it in a gourd and fastened the
gourd to a stick.
“Then a canoe was made ready to carry him to Verata, where the other
white men were. But they could go no farther than the point of the bay
where the beach is open, for this was the frontier of Verata, and they
were enemies. Here they set up the stick with the gourd hanging to it;
and afterwards they sailed near to the town, but out of bow-shot, and
shouted to the people to go and take the gourd. Now within the gourd
were words from Savage to the white men bidding them leave Verata and
come to Bau, which, he said, was the stronger, and a land of chiefs,
where they would live unharmed.”
“On the next day these men fled to Bau in a canoe which they had taken,
and the forces were made ready to go against Verata. In the first canoe
went Savage with his musket. When they were near the town he made
them lower the sail and pole the canoe into the shallow water close
to the moat. And the warriors in the town ran up and down behind the
moat and taunted them, but their arrows fell short of the canoe. Then
Savage stood up and shot at a man standing on the bank of earth beating
the air with his club, and he fell forward into the moat. And all the
others ran to him to see his hurt, and there was silence for a moment
while they wondered, and fear gathered in their hearts. Then Savage
loaded his piece again and fired at the men as they stooped over him
that was wounded, and another fell; and panic seized the rest, and they
fled behind the war-fence. Then Savage fired many times at the fence,
and the lead passed through the banana-stumps that arrows could not
pierce, and wounded the men that stood behind; for it was not until
the bow gave place to the musket that the war-fence was made of earth.
Then the men of Verata began to flee, and Savage leaped from the canoe
and ran to tear down the fence. But as he broke through it a warrior of
Verata, who stood just within, stabbed him in the side with his spear.
The men of Bau who followed close upon him seized the man before he
could escape, and bound him, and took him to the canoes, and he was
afterwards slain at Bau and baked in the ovens. Meanwhile the warriors
from the other canoes were burning the houses and taking the spoil to
the canoes, and clubbing all who had not escaped except a few of the
women, who might serve as slaves for Bau. They took also a few of the
men as prisoners to be slain at the _bure_ of the war-god and cooked in
the ovens. Thus was the power of Verata broken.
“They carried Savage to his own house. Here he had hung a hammock of
sail-cloth between the posts, and in this he was laid, for he had lost
much blood. But when the old men came with their _losi_-sticks and
other implements to perform _cokalosi_ on his body, they found him
swinging in his hammock and swearing strange oaths with the pain of his
wound. Nor would he let them touch him, but rather cursed them when he
understood what they would do, and called for water to pour upon his
wound.
“Bau fought no more till Savage was recovered of his wound. None dared
touch his musket, for he had told them that there was magic in it that
would kill any that touched it except himself; nor did the other white
men dare to take it, for he had threatened them that if any disobeyed
him he would require his death at the hands of the chief, who would
refuse him nothing.”
When his wound was healed and he could move about the town, they
prepared to make him _koroi_ for the number of the enemy that he had
killed. In Fiji, when a man had slain another in battle, he was led to
the _bure_ with great honour and dedicated to the god; his old name was
taken from him, and a new name, with the prefix of “Koroi” (signifying
“dwelling of”), was given to him in its place. A stone’s-throw from
Bau lies the little islet of Nailusi, on which Ra Matenikutu had
built a house for his wives after it had been enlarged with stones
carried from the reef. To this islet was Savage taken by several of
the elders. There they stripped off his shirt and painted his face and
breast with black paint and turmeric, though he mocked the while at
their mummeries, protesting that he was cold. When all was ready they
embarked again in the canoe with their spears, and landed opposite
to the war-god’s _bure_, where the priests and the old men were
sitting. Here the warriors that were to be made “koroi,” taught by the
elders, poised their spears and crept slowly on the temple, dancing
the _cibi_, the death-dance. And Savage, painted and festooned like
the rest, but wearing his trousers, went with them; but he would not
dance to the chant of the old men. They planted their spears hung with
streamers against the wall of the temple, and took new spears from the
attendants. At night the feast was apportioned, and there was a great
dance that lasted till the sun was high on the next morning. And when
the dance was ended the chosen warriors brought offerings and piled
them in the _rara_, and as each approached the priests called his new
title. And after them all came Savage, bringing nothing but his musket,
and the priest cried “Koroi-na-Vunivalu,” a more honourable title
than them all. But when they were taken into the _bure_ and forbidden
to bathe or eat with their hands for the space of four days, Savage
scoffed fiercely at the priests who besought him to comply with their
customs, and broke the _tabu_, leaving the _bure_, and going to his own
home.
From this time they made Savage greater than any save the Vunivalu;
some say, indeed, that greater honours were paid to him than to Ra
Matenikutu himself. He was a chief of the tribe by adoption, not a
foreigner as the others were. Two ladies were given him to wife, the
daughters of the spiritual chief and of the Vunivalu himself, and
a great house was built for him at Muaidele, on the borders of the
fishermen’s town of Soso. We hear little of the other white men who
were living at Bau. They took wives, and ate and drank and slept, while
Savage sat in the councils of the tribe. Children were born to them,
but they were all destroyed except Maraia, the daughter of Savage by
a woman of Lomaloma--she who was afterwards married by force to the
master of the Manila ship before he was murdered by his crew. She died
in 1875.
Verata had given her submission with the basket of earth, and her
enmity was no longer to be feared. The rival of Bau now lay to the
southward. Through the system of navigable creeks in the delta of the
Rewa river there was a water highway to Rewa, interrupted only by a
narrow isthmus, over which the canoes had to be dragged. Commanding
this isthmus stood Nakelo, whose strength no enemy had broken. Nakelo
had refused to the Bau canoes the right of passing their town, and had
compelled the messengers between Bau and Rewa to make the long and
tedious journey by sea. The conquest of Nakelo would therefore be the
first step towards the sovereignty of the fertile delta. Savage took
entire command of this expedition. He ordered them to plait a litter
of sinnet large enough to hold him, and dense enough to turn arrows.
On one side a slit was left as an embrasure for the musket, but the
rest of it was arrow-proof. Then poles were fixed to it as handles,
and Savage was carried round the town of Bau to test its strength. The
force went against Nakelo by water, taking the litter in the canoes.
When they were near to the place and could see the embankment crowned
with the war-fence, Savage chose from among his followers two of the
strongest and most fearless, and ordered them to set the litter down
within bow-shot of the walls, and then to run back to their comrades,
for he would engage the enemy alone. No sooner was the litter set
down than it was stuck as full of arrows as the spines of an echinus.
But when the garrison saw that there was but one man against them and
no ambush, they were bolder, and made as if they would leave their
defences and rush down upon him. For this Savage was waiting. As they
mounted on the fence to take the better aim with their bows he fired
through the embrasure of his litter, and a chief among them fell. The
rest stood, helpless with terror, until he had loaded and fired again.
Then, as at Verata, a panic seized them, and one among them took a mat
and held it up to ward off the lead from the wounded chief as if he
would ward off arrows; but the bullets pierced this also and wounded
him who held it. Then they fled. And the warriors of Bau, who had been
waiting out of bow-shot, leaped over the fence into the town, clubbing
all they met and shouting their death-cry. So Nakelo the invincible
was burned, and many prisoners were taken to Bau, to be dashed against
the temple-stone and baked in the ovens. Savage was given of the
captive women as many as he would take, and he gave them to the other
foreigners that were in Bau. And the chief of Nakelo fled to Rewa, and
sent from thence his submission by the hand of Matainakelo, craving
leave to rebuild his village. So Ra Matenikutu took the whale’s teeth,
but ordered the men of Nakelo to dig a canal through the isthmus that
obstructed the water-way, and henceforward to suffer canoes from Bau to
pass to Rewa without hindrance, for the Queen of Rewa was a Bauan lady.
And Nakelo dug a ditch into which the water could wash at high tide,
and the swift current did the rest, making the wide channel through
which we pass to-day.
And now the power of Bau was swelled by the fame of these victories.
Broken tribes, fleeing from their enemies in Vugalei, came to Ra
Matenikutu, asking leave to settle on his waste lands in return for
the tribute they would pay him for protection. Thus did Namara become
_bati_ to Bau; for when they chanced to meet the chief at Kubuna where
they had come for salt, and he gave them a shark and a sting-ray
to eat, there was a friendly contest between two of them that were
brothers, as to which of them should be clubbed by the other as an
offering to the great chief in return for the fish; and their cousin
hearing the dispute cried, “You speak as if a man were as precious as a
banana. What is a man’s life? Let the elder be clubbed.” So the younger
clubbed him and presented his body to the chief. And when he knew what
they had done he was grieved, and bade them bury the body there and not
cook it; and he said, “I wanted no return for the fish, but ye have
shown that ye are true men. Return to your place, and bring your wives
and children, and come and settle on this land, and cultivate it, and
be my borderers, for I have need of true men.”
There is no need to tell of how Buretu and Kiuva were subdued, and
Tokatoka was driven out, until there remained only Rewa that was not
subject to Bau. Against all these Bau prevailed through Savage, who
ever led her forces with his musket. Other ships called in the group
for sandal-wood, and left deserters and discharged seamen, attracted by
the news of the dollars stored at Nairai, to swell the foreign colony
at Bau--Graham from Sydney, Mike Maccabe and Atkins discharged from the
“City of Edinburgh.” These men, and three others whose names are lost,
lived together in a house between Soso and the chief’s town, practising
every native custom except cannibalism, and far surpassing them in one
form of licence. When a ship called for a cargo of sandal-wood, they
would hire themselves out to pull the boats at a wage of £4 a-month,
to be paid in knives, tools, and beads, which clothed them with a
brief importance among the natives of Bau when they returned; but,
for the rest, the natives looked on them with scorn and fear, as men
with the manners of beasts and as breakers of the _tabu_. There came a
day when one of the tributary tribes of Bau brought a great offering
of food to the chief, Savage being absent with the army. The yams and
turtle were piled in the _rara_ opposite the dwelling of the white
men. Here it was apportioned by the chief’s _mata_; but when he called
out the names of those who were to come and take a share, he did not
cry the names of the white men. These then became very angry, and
two of them, less prudent than the others, ran into the _rara_ with
their knives and slashed at the heap of yams, trampling the food under
foot. Now the Fijians will endure any insult before this, and when
the tidings reached the town every man caught up his weapon and ran
towards Soso. But the white men were armed and ready, and as they came
on three muskets flashed out from the dark doorways and three fell. And
when they rushed on again it was the same. Many fell that day by the
muskets; but the Bauans knew them to be but three, and their thirst for
the blood of the white men only grew the stronger. Then one of them ran
and took a firestick, and bound dry _masi_ round it, and flung it into
the thatch on the windward side, and the wind fanned it into flame.
Still, though the white men knew that the house was burning, they would
not leave it, for they saw the clubs brandished without, and knew that
there was no escape. At last, when they could bear the heat no longer,
they ran out, hoping to reach the water, and two of them leapt into
the sea and dived, swimming out to sea; but three were clubbed and
slain as they ran. And while the men were preparing to follow those
who were escaping by swimming, the words came from the chief to spare
them. Thus were Graham and Buschart spared--the first to perish more
miserably at Wailea, and the other to be the means of discovering the
fate of De la Pérouse.