IN FIJI 33 
Thakombau’s victories, and so crowded was the island, that 
Mr. Cross hesitated to settle there. In the meantime the 
king of Rewa, “whose authority and possessions were next 
in importance to those of Tanoa [Thakombau’s father], of- 
fered protection and land to Mr. Cross, and gave free per- 
mission to his people to become Christians as they might 
wish,” 
In the town of Rewa the missionary settled his family in 
a small house which the king allotted to them. There dark- 
ness and trouble came upon them. The house consisted of 
one room, “small and low and damp. And here the mission- 
ary sickened, and for six weeks he lay ill, first with intermit- 
tent fever, and then with cholera, and then with typhus fever, 
until his strength was all gone, and his poor wife saw closely 
threatening her the hard lot of being left alone with her little 
ones among cannibals. 
“At this distressing time, Mr. David Whippy, an American 
settler at Ovalau, went to Rewa, and gave invaluable help 
to the sufferer and his family. By God’s mercy, Mr. Cross 
recovered to a great extent from his sickness, and the king 
forthwith set about building a house for him in good earnest, 
so that he soon had a large and comfortable dwelling on a 
raised foundation.” 
As the mission became established, and its influence be- 
gan to affect the lives of some of the people, persecution 
arose, and at times even the lives of the missionary and his 
family were endangered. At last a powerful chief who had 
been foremost in war, rebellion, and cannibal savagery, ac- 
cepted the worship. Many of his people joined him in re- 
nouncing heathenism, and though the wild men of Fiji real- 
ized it not, the way was prepared for the evangelization of 
the whole group. | 
“Thus,” writes Mr. Williams, in his book, “Fiji and the 
Fijians,” “closes the first scene in the Fiji Mission. The 
work has begun at two important centers. Two men, single- 
handed, are battling with almost incredible difficulties, but 
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