Show written for this paper TRAVELS LETTER NO sunday august ii after breakfast mr wm wilson the chief engineer of the nausori sugar mill placed me on a cane truck and called on two indians to act as propeller and off we started for na two and three fourth miles distant the poor fellows ran their best at least a part of the way endeavoring to give me a good ride which was pleasant throughout for me the road bed built to conduct the sugar cane from the vast plantation fields to the mill passing through the central apart of the fields na consists of a cluster of houses located on a hill which serves as quarters for one of the plantation overseers and a large lar e number of coolies and indians it at this place I 1 met according to appointment made the previous evening mr eardley J mare one of the plantation over overseers s aers and charles J morey a man who has spent twenty five anve years in fiji and understands the native language almott almost to perfection with these two gentlemen I 1 started out on a four mile walk through a hilly country covered with a dense tropical forest in the direction of bau ban the old native capital of I 1 on the road we passed a point where a pitched battle was fought many years ago between two tribes or nations of fijians Fiji ansin in which the side commanded by th the mg king of bau were victorious and killed about eight of their enemies whose bodies they took with them to the island ot of bau ban where they cooked and devoured them in regular cannibal style at the end of our walk we found ourselves in the native village of namata bamata which is pleasantly situated on the bank of a river or very wide creek called wai namata bamata here we were well received and treated to luncheon in the house of ruta marika manka who was once a great chief and also a judge under the colonial government he is a stout well built man iman witti a dignified bearing and a very intelligent intelli rut look for a fijian he also occupies the largest house in the villa village e and has an interesting family V he e could not tell us how old he was but said that he had bad a beard when the missionaries first arrived in the islands jin in 1835 he and his people seemed to leel eel quite proud oi 01 their little new church which had bad recently been built upon the hill top immediately behind the village upon which I 1 showed him a picture of the salt lake city temple and a sample of the rock of which it is built and had mr morey explain the nature and size ol of the building to him he seemed astonished as if he had never known before that buildings of such dimensions existed in the world he also for the first time in his life heard beard the name of utah and the mormons cormons mentioned and wanted to know if I 1 and my people were christians our explained to him that I 1 also cater christianity in its primeval purity and preached the gospel exactly the same as it had been preached by christ and his bis apostles in ancient days this seemed please him very much and I 1 only wis ed that I 1 had possessed a knowledge his language so that I 1 might have given him further explanations at the chiefs house we also met ratu Tuise vura the district doctor who is a grandson of old king Ca kobau he decided to accompany us to bau where his father the head bead chief of fiji still resides we next hired a boat with four stout young xoung fellows to row it and down the river river down the river it went merrily for the rowers seemed to be in the best of humor and broke out into hearty peals ol of laughter whenever they noticed anything in the movements ol of their passengers or surroundings which pleased them at length after rounding several points and bends in the river we reached the ocean when our jolly oarsmen oarsman pulled straight for the island of bau which we reached about 2 p nl about three miles from where we got into the boat we were met at the landing by quite a number of natives whose curiosity had been somewhat aroused at seeing three white men nearing their is land town soon after landing we met mr A J small the wesleyan methodist minister residing here and his wife they were going off to fill an appointment on a neighboring island I 1 had a hurried and quite interesting conversation with mr small who told me that the wesleyan methodists had adherents on the group to whom nine white missionaries and a large number ol of natives were discoursing the word of god every sabbath ten white missionaries were the number allotted to the group but one of their number had died quite recently so thorough has been the labors of the wesleyans wesleyann Wesle on fiji that there is not a village on the whole group which is not included in their field of operation the headquarters of the wesleyan mission are at the native town of navolou Na voloa sit situated u abed at the mouth of one of the outlets of the rewa rivers river about eight miles from bau mr small ex pressed his bis dislike for the catholics who were a continued menace to the labors of the wesleyans wesleyann Wesle as they were following in their track nearly everywhere sowing the seed ot of discord and dispute as he said among the natives bau is a little island with an area of about twenty five acres lying less than half a mile off the east coast of viti levu it consists of a small round tapped hill with a rim of flat bat land three parts around ita it a very narrow rim at the side but running out like the peak of a cap into a good od building level on the northeast the ahe mission premises occupy the hill top the native houses of the town with their tiny gardens trees and small water holes are all on the dat the wesleyan methodist church a rock building with an iron roof is also situated on the flat but right at the foot of the hill the flat portion of the island is artificial the natives perhaps centuries ago having brought the soil from the main land the hill rises to an height of about fifty feet above the sea level there is nothing on the hill except the missionary buildings and the grave of king I 1 Ca kobau pronounced the village on the flat consists of nearly fifty native houses built very irregularly with narrow alley ways between them and surrounding the raised square on which formerly lorr stood the heathen temple before the portals of which so many poor fijians in bygone years ended an inglorious ex istance by having their brains dashed out upon a large stone which still occupies a prominent position at the toot foot ot of the great pedestal after being killed they were eaten by their countrymen bau sustains the proud distinction of being the scene of more cannibalism than any other spot on the nian fijian islands tradition says that on one occasion when the king ot of bau returned from a victorious warfare war fare against the tribes in the mountain re regions g ions of viti levu the dead bodies 0 of f their hei r enemies were piled up in a long row about six feet high and the whole nation who obeyed the king of bau were invited to a grand cannibal feast on the island we spent about three hours on the island of bau ban during which we visited all the points of interest among which the old heathen temple site was one of the most important the pedestal on which the temple once stood is well preserved pre served and stands about ten feet above the level of the ground surround ing it the historic etione on which so i many heads were crushed in times past ishill is still there and mr john abraman a native of england and the only merchant of bau who was with us related some extravagant stories about old fijian cannibal times associated with bau and the heathen temple these however I 1 do not feel disposed to give to the readers of the at present but will merely say that the last carni bal tragedy enacted on ban according to the best memory was associated with a visit of some very high native dignitaries to the court of bau ban the king who de S sired ired to show extra honors to his distinguished guests sent his men out to secure long pi pig 9 for the occasion and these men seeing a number of women fishing on the island a short distance went and captured eight of them forced them tham up to the temple front killed them on the rock above mentioned and then delivered their bodies to the cooks who prepared them for the great cannibal least which follows we also called on the old chief ratu edeli who is the eldest living son of king he is a very stout and muscular built man unusually dark skinned for a fijian wears a heavy mustache and side whiskers and looked at first cross enough to eai eat a man even at this late day I 1 induced him to give me his autograph but he seemed too tired to get the ink so he wrote it with a lead pencil on one of my bu business cards he became became quite interested te when I 1 showed him my salt lake views and wanted to know if the navigation was very extensive on that great american inland sea by way of reciprocating he showed us a horrid picture of a cannibal least feast which took place at bau in 1849 it was painted irom from nature by some english sailors who were visiting the island at the time we also visited king Cako baus daughter in lawa tongan woman of bf rank and the relict of the late ratu timed timothy and mother of the so called princesses to whom I 1 was introduced ja in the native village near suva ayac y inquest she gave me her pheao ane dubou and s said she was hv vhf t eight years old though she might kv tor for twenty five she felt highly when we re erred to her appearance pe arance and that she was as s good looking as her daughter the princess litia who was about to get married the old king had three sons and three daughters ot of whom only this one daughter and one son of the old chief whom we visited are now alive having now become thoroughly introduced trod to the royal family oi of fiji it was but natural that I 1 should desire to see the grave ot of the old king himself consequently we ascended the hill and scon found ourselves within the royal cemetery which a space about feet surrounded by a low orna mental wall within the inclosure grows two young sandal wood trees and a number of bushes becu aar to the tropics while a beautiful tul carpet of grass covers the remainder of the ground in the centre of the inclosure stands a massive pedestal of rock work feet on which the monument proper is i raised it consists ot of a square cement obelisk of respectable dimensions inlaid with marble on one side of which 1 read alread the following ai kei ratu Ca kobau sa bale e oat nai ka dua ni siga ni ko e na paya labaki baki ni noda buraga e 1883 1 this is in memory of chiet who passed away on the day of february in the year of our lord 1883 cako baus original name was ratu but when he returned from one of his event ful war trips the women cried out Ha Ba kobau free trans evil has overtax overtaken en bau 11 the appellation appel lations suits me said the chief from henceforth my name shall be Ca kobau and with that suggestive name he was subsequently downed crowned king of fiji was made king of fiji in 1871 before that he had only been a king in fiji but he had bad reigned but three years when his offer of tue fijian kingdom to the british was accept accepted eci by queen victoria and her cabinet ti TA e king with his chief stood by the flag stall staff at basova a native village on the loth of Uc october tober 1874 and saw his national flag hauled down and the royal stan standard dato of england ascend majestically in its place amid the salvos of artillery and ringing british cheers triou goough gh he was as recognized by the english as king of the entire fijian groups tie he had never subdued the other chiefs of the islands to the same extent as the great kamehameha had the hawaiian Is lands was continually troubled with revolts annd uprisings on the part ot of the mountain chiefs this ibis together with certain claims on toe the part of the united states so annoyed him that he decided to lay down his scepter and let the ship of state be manned by a nation who had power and means to do so alter after his abdication the ex king lived a somewhat private lile life at his bis home homestead tead at bau but his bis advice and counsel was often sought by the cojo colonial nial govern ment finally a carbuncle termed formed in his back and this became the direct az copse cause ot of his death which occurred at bau february 1883 though at ai first bitterly opposed to the missionaries king calobat finally became a farm supporter of christianity and blvd d as a member of the wesleyan per satiation stia tion from the top of the hill where the remains ot oh king rests a fine abw is obtained ot of the surroundings chobo by is is the coast ot vitt viti levu lev where the he get their lood food and ancl a large area ot level country quite thickly populated stretches away to the south ending at rewa to the northeast stands the island of evalan twenty miles away where levuka letuka the old colonial capital is situated and other smaller islands among which are Motu riki in the far background the blue outlines ot of other islands are seen against the sky A mass of reefs and long guardian flats fiats covered at high water protected ban from all except skilled navigators in enose puzzling waters in the great old days when and his ancestors reigned with the hand of tyr rany blood and cannibalism on fiji the present population of bau is bout about they rank as the fijian aristocracy y like the fad ald romans it is considered as great an honor to ti be a common citizen of bau as to be a chief of any other part of the country the native houses of the ibe island are large and strong and though the outside appearance pe arance is somewhat uninviting the in interior is made very rich clean and comfortable mats with soft underlying material covering the floor while that portion thereof which is used tor for beds is generally raised a few inches to a loot foot above the rest of tre tie ti e floor it is not at all an uncommon thing to see six doors leading into the same room from the outside which means good ventilation the only white residents on the island asand are the wesleyan minister mr small and mr abraman with their respective families mr abraman is a native of england and has resided in fiji upwards of twenty years his wife is a half caste the minister is a native of london england and has spent sixteen years of his life in fiji As the sun was sinking quite low in the west we re embarked in our little craft and returned to the main island but landed some distance further up the wai namand creek than where we chartered the boat earlier in the day walking through the forest at a rapid rate we soon reached the quarters of mr mare where we took supper after which an indian pushed a truck having me on board back to nausori Nau sori and I 1 arrived at my lodging at lo 10 p ni mi well pleased with my curried visit to one of the most historic places tin fin the he south seas ANDREW JENSON NAUSORI island of vitt viti levu fiji august 1895 |