36 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



orgies. Under the reign of a Christian monarch (these people 

 had never recognised Cacobau, who was only a king in Fiji, 

 and not king of Fiji) Christians would certainly get the upper 

 hand, and to do simple justice to the cannibal Kai Colos, the 

 Christian natives did unquestionably indulge in very unwise 

 boasting and rejoicing, which, of course, was gall and worm- 

 wood to the mountaineers. 



The Christian settlements in Viti Levu extend from the 

 coast upwards, and there are thus points over a great sweep of 

 country where the lotu people and the ' devil '-worshippers 

 infringe upon each other. The line is not a hard and fast one, 

 extending round any definite point of the mountain range, but 

 follows the ridges of the mountains in a broken line, now 

 dipping deeply towards the coast, now retreating into the 

 misty peaks which may be dimly seen as one sails along the 

 island-shores, or explores the inland territory. All the moun- 

 taineers are not cannibals, nor are all the towns and villages in 

 the plain Christian, nor, indeed, were all the cannibal towns 

 disaffected. The intense enmity which has always existed 

 between these two widely differing portions of the native popu- 

 lation broke out afresh just after our rule began. The 'devils,' 

 as they themselves expressed it, felt they must go in for a 

 moka a word which has exactly the same signification as the 

 Malay 'running a muck.' Doubling round a strong camp of 

 armed police, which the Governor had established at the first 

 rumours of their disaffection, they descended the Sigatoka river 

 (a large navigable stream, some hundred miles long), and 

 attacked and burnt several of the native Christian towns which 

 were especially obnoxious to them ; but their sudden and un- 

 expected attack was bravely met and repelled, though not 

 before many innocent women and children had been slaughtered. 

 The great chiefs, anxious to repay the confidence the Governor 



