2,2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



as Fijian custom demanded. Indeed, even to-day whenever a high chief 

 stumbles and falls all in his neighborhood must tumble like checkers 

 in a row, and, if he takes medicine, his subjects clamor for some of the 

 same sort. 



We must not assume thai all or even that most of the Fijians were 

 hypocrites in thus following their chief. For years the zealous spirit 

 of the missionaries had been at work among them and they had gained 

 the hearts of many of the poor and downtrodden, especially of the 

 women, upon whom the tyranny of savage days fell with a heavy hand. 

 It was the high chief and the warrior classes who had most to lose 

 through the levelling democracy of Christianity which denied their 

 divine right to rule through tabu, abolished their polygamy, discour- 

 aged war, prohibited cannibalism and in every way lessened their author- 

 ity and rendered ridiculous the proud traditions of their caste. While 

 the high chief remained unconverted, the missionary's lot was happy in 

 that he well could be the kind and simple friend of the distressed and 

 the brotherly adviser of the troubled, but with the conversion his tem- 

 poral power became paramount, for it was impossible for him to escape 

 the difficult double role of leader in secular as well as religious affairs, 

 and thus the simple-minded lover of mankind was suddenly exalted into 

 the position of the vicar of the terrible god of the white man whose favor 

 was hard to win and whose punishments were eternal. 



It is but fair to the missionaries to recognize that their temporal 

 ] tower was at the outset forced upon them, and that the mistakes which 

 they have at times fallen into are those which overshadow the spiritual 

 function of the clergy in all states wherein the government has fallen 

 under the domination of the priesthood. 



It was indeed fortunate for Fiji that the missionaries had been 

 obliged to labor for nineteen long and almost hopeless years, and to en- 

 deavor in every way to understand and endear themselves to the people 

 before any of the important chiefs had yielded to their teaching. 



Everywhere in the Pacific where missionary success was quickly and 

 easily attained, results more or less disastrous to the natives had fol- 

 lowed. Despite many notable and glorious exceptions such as Chalmers 

 of Papua, the old type of missionary was too often predisposed to re- 

 gard all customs not his own as " heathen," hence pernicious. Thus if 

 his success was immediate, as in Hawaii, his well-meant zeal impelled 

 him too quickly to overthrow old customs and at once to force upon his 

 converts a semblance of the habits of his own stratum of European 

 society. 



In this connection it should, however, be said that the blame for 

 most of the bigotry, which has been all too evident, especially in former 

 times, should fall but lightly if at all upon the field worker who, living 

 among the natives, comes to love them as his friends and at least deals with 



