AT SOMO SOMO ‘oe 
ticed plan of the savages among whom they were. Mr. Wil- 
liams has given us a wonderfully graphic description of 
the experience of these families in those early days of their 
life at Somo Somo, and I shall here let him tell the story 
as I find it on several pages of his wonderful book, “Fiji 
and the Fijians: ” 
“When they arrived, they found the people expecting the 
return of Ra Mbithi, the king’s youngest son, who had gone 
with a fleet of canoes to the Windward Islands. After the 
missionaries had got all their goods landed, and before the 
vessel in which they came had left, tidings reached Somo 
Somo that Ra Mbithi had been lost at sea. 
“The ill news caused terrible excitement in the town, and 
according to custom, several women were at once set apart 
to be strangled. The missionaries began their work by 
pleading for the lives of these wretched victims. The ut- 
most they could effect was to get the execution delayed 
until the schooner should have gone to search for the young 
chief, and bring back further information. 
“The vessel returned, but not with any more favorable 
news. Now a greater number of women were condemned, 
and again the missionaries pleaded hard that they might be 
spared; but the old king was angry with the strangers for 
presuming to interfere with the affairs of his people, and 
indignant at the thought of his favorite son dying without 
the customary honors. Once more, however, the strangling 
was put off. 
“Canoes, which had been sent out to search, at last re- 
turned, bringing the intelligence that all was true. It was 
generally known, but not openly talked about, that Ra Mbithi 
had drifted, on his wrecked canoe, to the island of Ngau, 
where he had been captured and eaten by the natives. Re- 
monstrance and entreaty were now in vain. Sixteen women 
were forthwith strangled in honor of the young chief and 
his companions, and the bodies of the principal women were 
buried within a few yards of the door of the missionaries’ 
house. 
