HEAD-HUNTING. 15 



tribes. I gazed upon a region Avhicli had for ages worn the same 

 aspect, inhabited by the same savage races, the signs of whose exis- 

 tence played such an insignificant part in the panorama laid out 

 before me. Standing alone on this hill-top, I reflected on the deeds 

 of barbarity which these silent mountains must have witnessed " in 

 the days of other years," deeds which are only too frequent in our 

 own day when the hand of every tribe is against its neighbour, and 

 when the butchery of some unsuspecting hamlet too often supplies 

 the captors with tlie materials for the cannibal feast. 



By the unusual success of their treachery and cunning — the two 

 weapons most essential to savage warfare in St. Christoval as well 

 as in the otlier islands — some chiefs have acquired a predominance 

 over the neighbouring villages, and their name inspires terror 

 throughout the island. Amongst them, I may mention Taki, the 

 chief of the large village of Wano on the north coast of this 

 island. He has obtained the double reputation of being a friend 

 to the white man and of being the most accomplished head-hunter 

 in St. Christoval ; and, as mav be readilv imao-ined, the efforts 

 of the Melanesian Mission, by whom a station has been for many 

 years established in this village,^ have been greatly retarded by the 

 indifference of this powerful chief The resident teacher in the 

 village was his own son, who had been selected by Bishop Selwyn 

 and had undergone the usual training of teachers in Is orfolk Island. 

 I regret to write that he greatly lapsed during our stay in the 

 group, that he appears to have accompanied his father on a head- 

 hunting foray, and that he finall}^ met with an untimeU' fate, being 

 so severely wounded by a shark when fishing on the reef that he 

 died a few hours afterwards. Taki, although not a Christian con- 

 vert, was fond of displaying his connection with the Mission. He 

 showed me a certificate which he received from Bishop Patteson 

 in July, ISGG ; and in fact he is always ready to do the honours 

 of his village to the white man. Of his head-hunting propensities. 

 Captain Macdonald, an American trader resident in Santa Anna, 

 told us the followino- tale : Not long before the arrival of H.M.S. 

 " Lark " in the Solomon Islands, he was sailing along the St. Chiis- 

 toval coast, when he met Taki in his war-canoe proceeding on one 

 of these expeditions. He endeavoured to place hindrances in the 

 chief's way by telling him that he had native-traders living at the 



^ The Rev. J. Atkin was resident at Wano in 1871, shortly before he met his death with 

 Bishop Patteson in Santa Cruz. 



