From The Saturday Review. It is not often that a book of the sort is so well done as this account of Fiji. The first volume furnishes a summary of the information respecting the islands of that group and their inhabitants which was obtained by Mr. Williams, a Wesleyan missionary, during a residence of thirteen years. The second volume contains an account of the mission in Fiji, the materials having been supplied by Mr. Calvert another Wesleyan missionary and the whole put into shape by a friend in England. Of course, the details of savage ie are always rather monotonous and the fluctuations in the success of missionaries form a subject requiring too frequent repetition and too minute a personal history of heathen converts to be very entertaining. But the execution of these volumes is very thorough. They contain an astonishing mass of small facts compressed skilfully together, and when we close them, we feel as if we understood the Fijians as well as civilized men can ever understand savages with whom they have never come into actual contact. course of a long experience, the Fijians were the only savage people he had ever met with who could give reasons, and with whom it was possible to hold a connected conversation. They also show a very creditable hatred of lying; and if Mr. Williams feels himself obliged to point out that they are revengeful, envious, cruel, and ungrateful, these are qualities which they have the honor of sharing with a large portion of the Christian and civilized world. success The character of the Fijians is interesting for two reasons. They are the most confirmed cannibals in the world, and the missionaries have had considerable among them. It is curious to ask what is the point of moral and intellectual degradation implied in cannibalism, and how far a nation practising it is capable of embracing Christianity. No part of these volumes is more interesting than that in which this custom of the natives is described. Certainly the thought of cannibalism is repulsive, but it is so wonderful a fact in the history of man that curiosity cannot fail to be awakened by it. It appears from the account given by Mr. Williams that the practice rests upon three principal motives. In the first place, a feast on human flesh is considered the appro Perhaps there may be a sort of religious feeling attending it, for an occasion is only great because a chief orders it to be considered great, and there seems to be no real distinction between the religious position of the chief and that of the lesser gods. Mr. Williams gives the following summary of the occasions on which bodies are eaten as a mark of solemnity, or as a means of courting good luck: The Fijians are of a race something between the Asiatic and the African varieties of the Polynesian type, inclining more nearly to the African The number of the popula-priate mode of celebrating a great occasion. tion on all the islands is not estimated by Mr. Williams to exceed one hundred and fifty thousand. It is also rapidly diminishing; and yet the Fijian is physically a fine man-tall, graceful, and with a skin of a purplish black. Among savages he deserves to rank tolerably high. His senses are keen, and he has plenty of tact and ready wit. He has also the intellectual gifts and the mental habits which have attained so much notoriety among the highest tribes of the Red Indians of "Human bodies are sometimes eaten in North America. He is full of small diplo- connection with the building of a temple or macy, and is skilful in concealing it. "His canoe; or on launching a large canoe; or on face and voice are all pleasantness, and he taking down the mast of one which has has the rare skill of finding out just the sub-brought some Chief on a visit; or for the ject on which you most like to talk." Like all superior savages he can generally command himself, and will plan a murder in the presence of his victim without letting the slightest sign betray his purpose. Perhaps, however, no testimony to the superiority of the Fijians is so striking as that of Mr. Hadley, who is quoted as saying that, in the *Fiji and the Fijians. By Thomas Williams and James Calvert. London: Heylin. 1858. pal place. A Chief has been known to kill These were al is sometimes the case, and would, without ing the unnatural feast. The woman was his doubt, have been one on a larger scale when equal, one with whom he lived comfortably; a firstrate canoe was completed at Somosomo, he had no quarrel with her or cause of comhad it not been for the exertion of the mis- plaint. Twice he might have defended his sionaries then stationed there. Vexed that the conduct to me, had he been so disposed, but noble vessel had reached Mbau unstained he only assented to the truth of what I here with blood, the Mbau Chiefs attacked a town, record. The only motives could have been and killed fourteen or fifteen men to eat on a fondness for human flesh, and a hope that taking down the mast for the first time. It he should be spoken of and pointed out as a was owing to Christian influence that men terrific fellow." were not killed at every place where the canoe It is worth observing that women are not called for the first time. If a Chief should allowed to eat of human flesh, nor are the not lower his mast within a day or two of his arrival at a place, some poor creature is killed priests as a rule; or, if they eat of it, they are and taken to him as the lowering of the condemned to taste only the worst parts. As mast. In every case an enemy is preferred; the wife of Tuikilalika, evidently a barbarian but when this is impracticable, the first com- esprit fort, remarked, the head, being the mon man at hand is taken. It is not unusual least esteemed part, is the portion of the to find black list' men on every island, and priests of religion.' There does not appear these are taken first. Names of villages or to be any superstitious feeling at work, or any islands are sometimes placed on the black- kind of secret remorse operating in thus cutVakambua, Chief of Mba, thus doomed Tavua, and gave a whale's tooth to the ting off women and priests from cannibal reNggara Chie, that he might, at a fitting time, pasts. The feeling seems rather to be one punish that place. Years passed away, and akin to that which in English society limits a reconciliation took place between Mba and the use of tobacco-women are absolutely Tavua. Unhappily the Mba Chief failed to forbidden it, and clergymen are only allowed neutralize the engagement made with Nggara. to smoke in a sort of half-and-half way. No A day came when human bodies were wanted, and the thoughts of those who held the tooth one, for instance, would expect to see a Bishop were turned towards Tavua. They invited walk up from the House of Lords after a late the people of that place to a friendly exchange division, with a cigar in his mouth; whereas of food, and slew twenty-three of their unsuspecting victims. When the treacherous Nggarans had gratified their own appetites by pieces of the flesh cut off and roasted on the spot, the bodies were taken to Vakambua, who was greatly astonished, expressed much regret that such a slaughter should have grown out of his carelessness, and then shared the bodies to be eaten." list. The second motive for cannibalism is revenge. It is pleasant not only to eat a man, but to think that he would not have liked to be eaten. But there can be no doubt that the third motive, that of really liking the flesh as a dainty, operates powerfully. Mr. Williams tells a story illustrating this in a curious way' "When I first knew Loti, he was living at Na Ruwai. A few years before, he killed his only wife and ate her. She accompanied him to plant taro, and when the work was done, he sent her to fetch wood, with which he made a fire, while she, at his bidding, collected leaves and grass to line the oven, and procured a bamboo to cut up what was to be cooked. When she had cheerfully obeyed his command, the monster seized his wife, deliberately dismembered her, and cooked and ate her, calling some to help him in consum nothing could be more appropriate for a temporal peer. And this suggests indeed, the really striking and interesting point in cannibalism. It becomes a fashion and a habit of society, and is governed in its execution by the laws of society. It does not imply any extreme of degradation, for the sense of the loathsomeness fades away exactly as the objections to the use of tobacco have disappeared-Ubi homines sunt, modi sunt. And a feeling of respectability and conservatism grows up to regulate and perpetuate cannibalism. When the missionaries came to work in the spiritual field of Fiji, they had every thing against them except one. The Fijians. indulged freely in every vice, mentionable and unmentionable, but they were not stupid. In the language of the greatest of modern Pagans, it is stupidity against which the gods contend in vain, and the whole record given in the second of these volumes shows that it was because the Fijians were not stupid-because they appreciated the logical thoroughness and the moral purpose of the missionaries-that so many of them lent a willing ear to the truths of the Gospel. Of course the missionaries were themselves often disap-erate in the pious work, but that the women pointed in their converts, and it is not im- taken are married. It is because she is a possible that a secular investigator of the wife among wives, and a mother among facts might be inclined to think that the general progress of the missionaries was not so great as they themselves believe it to have been. But there can be no doubt that very considerable results have been achieved, and if the editor of the second volume has a right to use any thing like the language of the following passage, the missionaries have indeed done great things: wins her way to the hearts of those who have mothers, that the missionary's companion the care of the young, and thus secures footing where it is most needed. Secondly, the missionaries in Fiji gained demonstrably by their insisting inflexibly on a rigorous code. They would not tolerate polygamy in any shape, and always refused to baptize one wife among several, or the husband of several wives. They would not allow dances which, in their opinion, approached indecency; and "The reader of the foregoing sketch-for they would not overlook a falsehood conveyed it is nothing else of the Fiji Mission history, either by the tongue or by gesture. If a canniwill be ready, as he considers the means by bal feast, or the ceremony of strangling survivwhich so much good has been effected, to look ing relatives over the grave of a dead man, was beyond the means and exclaim, "What hath being celebrated, there they went boldly, and God wrought!" The change which has taken stayed looking on at the horrid sight-promplace in Fiji during the last five-and-twenty ising, imploring, reasoning all the time, and years-a change going far beneath the broad contesting every point, fighting separately for surface over which it has extended-presents every life, and never content to lose any opto the philosophical student of history a phe-portunity of securing the decent interment of nomenon which cannot be explained except by any part of a human body. The Fijians seem recognizing the presence of a supernatural to have been persuaded that there must be force, Almighty and Divine. Let the nature something in a religion for which men inof this change be well considered. Many of the curred such protracted and continuous trouble. most strongly marked points which are de- At the same time, we must own that the misscribed in these volumes have almost or alto- sionaries were also apparently aided by what gether disappeared from the condition and in England we should call narrowness and general aspect of the people. Throughout fanaticism. The whole history of the world a great part of Fiji, cannibalism has become shows that it is not the judicious, impartial entirely extinct. Polygamy, in important and moderate men who spread new religions. districts, is fast passing away, and infanticide It is easy, for instance, to prove that the Puin the same proportion is diminishing. Arbitrary and despotic violence, on the part of rulers, is yielding to the control of justice and equity. Human life is no longer reckoned cheap, and the avenger of blood comes not now as a stealthy assassin, or backed by savage warriors, but invested with the solemn dignity of established law, founded on the Word of God. Other acts, once occurring daily without protest or reproof, are now recognized and punished as crimes." But we ritanical doctrine of the Sabbath is expressly discountenanced by Scripture, and opposed to the whole usage of Christendom; but it is also easy to understand that in preaching a creed where there is so little of positive observance to be inculcated as in Protestantism, it may be very convenient for missionaries to exact that every seventh day shall be brought into harmony with a misinterpretation of the Jewish Sabbath, in order that the courage and persistency of their converts may be periodically tested. Truth and charity, again, bid us recognize in Roman Catholics fellow-Christians and fellow-laborers in the vineyard. cannot doubt that the natives were spared much uncertainty, and the Wesleyans many prevailed on to prevent any priest landing on harassing anxieties, when the chiefs were men of the truest zeal, self-devotedness, and any pretence whatever. A little honest bigspiritual wisdom. But apart from the exer- otry may sometimes be productive of at least cise of personal qualities, this record shows, temporal advantage; and these Wesleyan we think two or three things whch are ministers, who, if they had remained in Engworth considering. In the first place, the land, would probably have chiefly figured as missionaries were greatly aided by the pres-obstacles to the establishment of a more libence of their wives. The married state of its ministers is an incalculable gain to Protestantism, in its relations with the heathen. It is not only that women are taken to co-op If, as we read this sketch of missionary history, we ask ourselves how (speaking only of human causes) this result has been obtained, we have first to acknowledge that those who have labored in this noble work have been eral, learned, and comprehensive creed, shine forth in Fiji with a brightness which ought to be a source of pride and thankfulness to every Christian. From Chambers's Journal. CHAPTER I. it, and by the time she got to the foot of the page, being in a comfortable position, and the hush of evening coming on, both inside IT was eight o'clock of an evening towards and out, she fell into a gentle doze. Meanthe end of July-a July long, long ago. The time, the children were all in bed. Jeanie sun was sending in his westering rays at the Miller, or "Miller," as Mrs. Black, since she windows of a substantial-looking house, the had been rising in the world, called her chilcountry residence of a professional gentleman, dren's nurse, had heard them lisp their evenwhose head-quarters were in Edinburgh. It ing prayer, and received the last sweet kiss, was known as Clydeview Villa, and the local- wondering, in her simplicity, that Mrs. Black ity in which it stood was somewhat famed. did not like to do this office for her children From the era of creation, the river that herself. If her mistress could have penetrated ran by it had come quietly on, as if gathering her thought, she would have answered thus: its strength, and hushing its breath for the Miller, as a mother, I might wish to do it wild and desperate leap it took with a roar occasionally, but my engagements put it out as of life and consciousness. For six thou- of my power." So Mrs. Black keeps her ensand years, the trees of the forest had shed gagements, and loses her children, for by the their annual glory of leaves by its brink. On time they can compete with mamma's encalm days, the leaves would fall gently on the gagements, they will be young ladies and genbits of foam, eddying about the edges of the tlemen. dark waters; but when a storm came, they would be swept, branches and all, down to the very bosom of the Atlantic. 66 It must be acknowledged that, on this particular evening, Miller rather hurried the ceremony-she had an engagement too-and she moved about on tiptoe, putting on her bonnet and shawl before all the weary little creatures had fairly closed their eyelids; but hood, and a regiment might have marched through the room without awaking the little sleepers. young man had been hanging about very impatient. For no other person would he have waited so long, and he was any thing but pleased at having to wait for this one. He had walked back and forward, and scanned the earth and sky, and decided that all the gates about needed painting, and thought many other things better and worse, before Jeanie came in sight. By the side of this river painted savages had stood and sharpened their arrows of flint; but at the times of which we write, parties of ladies and gentlemen came, with camp-down they went at last, in the sleep of childstools, parasols, and wide-awakes, and while they ate sandwiches, said how "nice" it was - instead. Some, further gone than others in literature and the fine arts, quoted Byron The moment they were safe and sound, she on the cataract of Velino, and said it would hastened from the house, and striking across be a fine subject for so-and-so's pencil; and the fields, made for the corner of a fir plansome looked and said nothing. In the pres-tation, where, for nearly half an hour, a ence of natural grandeur and beauty, silent homage is always grateful, and charity demands that the best construction be put upon it. This neighborhood had also, in modern times, been the scene of one of those experiments which benevolent and well-meaning men, who want a short cut to universal happiness, have sometimes tried, and always failed in. But we have not to do with Utopian theories at present. As has been said, the evening sun was Now, although she had been running, and looking in at the windows of Clydeview Villa. knew she was behind her time, no sooner did The drawing-room fronted the west, and the she see George Armour, than, from whatever blinds were all down. There was not much cause, she took to walking in a very slow and to see inside; merely a well furnished apart- | deliberate r. anner. We have it on the aument, and a lady lying on a sofa reading-thority of Mr. Milton, that when Eve saw reading only to pass time till her husband Adam, she slackened her pace; and we have came home, and not so much occupied but she all, men and women, remnants of the Garden could say to herself: "I wonder if the children of Eden hanging about us to this day. are in bed yet. What can Miller want out again to-night for?" Having lost the sense of the last paragraph, she went back upon "You're late, Jeanie." was the greeting of her lover. "I came as soon as I could," she replied; and arm in arm they turned into the shaded | face, expressive of good sense and feeling, path up the water-side. : and a general air of determination. As for George, no one needed to glance twice at him without being struck by his really handsome face and form so far as those were concerned, all the blood of all the Howards might have coursed in his veins. When we throw into the scale the fact, that he was sober and industrious, and a capital workman -not to mention that he had saved money When Mr. Black came in, his wife roused herself, and after ascertaining that there was nothing of much interest taking place in the city, she said: "Miller asked out again to-night-the second time this week. She didn't use to take up with any of the people about. Next time she asks out, I will consider it proper to question her." "Couldn't you guess, Mary, what her er--the general remarks on Jeanie's wonderfuì rand is ? " good-fortune are accounted for. In a small "Guess! If she were a light-headed crea- house, furnished with things new and neat, ture, I might guess it was some love-affair." and having a morsel of garden in front like a "And not be far wrong. We're all light- dainty apron tied on, there they were, these headed some time, you know. As I came two, with youth and health, and the probabilup, I saw her walking with one of the paint-ity of a long and happy life before them. ers who were here in spring-the one that did the ornamenta! work." It is an old saying—very old, probably, and true to the letter-that it is not all gold that glitters. Jeanie had not been very long married when she began to say to herself: "I am happy-very happy; I have every thing "That was the man I remember remarking for his good looks. Is it possible she can be thinking of marrying?" "Shouldn't wonder-it's curious what no- to make me so." Now, it is to be observed tions people take." "Curious! I call it ungrateful. Here did I take her into our nursery, a poor orphan girl, and have kept her for six years. She suits me exactly-speaks well and has no vulgar tricks or words; and she has taught the children to read almost as well as I could have done myself. They like her, and she likes them. Surely she does not know when she is well off." "I'm sorry you are losing her: I'll give her a gown, and you can give her some crockery." "If she is going, one thing will be quite enough, Robert." 66 Now, Mary, on your own showing, I think we are bound to be a little grateful." "She has had a very good place of it here, Robert, and there is no need for overdoing a thing. I wish I knew where to get one in her stead. It really is provoking." Nevertheless, be it recorded, Jeanie got her gown and her cups and saucers, and something more, when she left Clydeview Villa to become George Armour's wife, and was much and justly regretted by all the household. It was a fair sight to see this young couple. Not that Jeanie had much to boast of in the way of good looks; on the contrary, George's choice had been matter of surprise to their joint feminine acquaintance. What did he see about her? What he saw, we can't say; but what was to be seen was an open, honest A that when people keep assuring themselves If there was a thrifty, economical housewife in the country, it was Jeanie Armour; but she could not be thrifty enough for her husband's taste. It was an unnatural thing in one so young, this overweening propensity to save. It struck a chill to the very heart of his wife, although she tried to persuade |