"THE LARGE CAULDRON." 183 



praise be it said, did all he could to bring about an 

 issue favourable to humanity. At last Kuruduadua in- 

 formed us, that having duly considered our request with 

 his councillors, they had agreed to allow the Consul 

 and myself to put on the scanty clothing, the assump- 

 tion of which marked the transition from boyhood to 

 manhood. We lost no time to break through a custom 

 which will now never be repeated in the district, since 

 the son of a governing chief dispensed with it. 



The "large cauldron" which Macdonald mentions,'* 

 but did not see himself, stood close to the door of the 

 chiefs house. Our attention was drawn to it by our 

 interpreter, Mr. Charles Wise ; and the very thought 

 was agonizing to be so near the awful vessel in which 

 perhaps many a human being had been boiled. It was 

 one of those large iron pots used by traders for curing 

 beche-de-mer, or sea-slugs, so plentiful on the reefs of 

 Fiji, and a valuable article in the Chinese markets. It 

 was large enough for cooking two men entire. At the 

 mere sight of it my imagination ran riot, and a scene 

 presented itself similar to that in the last act of Halevy's 

 ' Jewess/ where the boiling cauldron is ready to receive 

 the victim of Christian intolerance. The nineteenth 

 century must be freed from so shocking a spectacle, and 

 Mr. Pritchard and myself let Kuruduadua have no peace 

 until he agreed to abolish and prohibit cannibalism 

 throughout his dominions. A few months earlier he 

 would have met with a most determined opposition in 

 promulgating such a law, for his half-brother at Namosi, 



* Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. xxvii. 

 p. 253. 



