40 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



hand struggle, in which the formidable Fiji club played a very 

 conspicuous part. About fifty of the cannibals were slain, and 

 many prisoners were taken. The main body escaped to other 

 towns of the same district, but they were quickly followed up, 

 and the bulk were either captured or surrendered to the chief 

 of Beimaua, who acted with the Government. Those captured 

 included the principal chiefs of the revolted cannibals, and 

 also the leaders of the atrocities on the Sigatoka river. The 

 Government loss was one man killed, and a very few wounded. 



Mr. Gordon having so successfully concluded the task con- 

 fided to him, of capturing the strongholds of the Quali Mari 

 and dispersing the rebels, returned to the coast with the prin- 

 cipal prisoners in charge of his militia. The rest of the 

 prisoners were brought down by the returning forces to Siga- 

 toka, and there lodged in the ' Bure,' or devil temple, which is 

 still preserved in that now Christian town. 



The captured mountaineers, filing in with bound hands and 

 dejected countenances, were no longer the proud Quali Mari of 

 the hills. Their hair, which in war they mass up in stiff locks 

 so as to give their heads an enormous and leonine appearance, 

 was cut off, and their proud boasts were silenced. Women and 

 children carrying their household goods on their backs, followed 

 with the women who had accompanied the Government force, 

 and all went to the same villages. There were no taunts or 

 cruelty to the prisoners or their women. They were taken 

 care of in the villages of the conquerors, until the Government 

 decided to let them return to their homes. 



A very different fate, however, was in store for the murderers 

 of peaceful women and children. Thirty of them were tried 

 before Mr. Gordon as a deputy-commissioner of Viti Levu, and 

 were found guilty of murder. The sentence of death being 

 submitted to the Governor, he selected fourteen of the most 



