168 ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS 
“The conduct of Hnaisiline throughout the whole affair 
was remarkable. Only a few years before he himself was 
a savage, and a cannibal like the murderers of Tizelo and 
Waingara. While he was endeavoring to save them, his 
people who had been straggling, came up and urged him to 
fight; first, his own brother, then the deacons, then a man 
of the party, said, “Shall we stand and see you covered with 
blood, and not retaliate?’ To every proposal to fight the 
chief replied emphatically, ‘No!’ Had he yielded to the wish 
of his people, the probability is that many more would have 
been killed. 
“The reason, however, why Hnaisiline would not fight 
was not the fear of man, but the fear of doing what might 
be wrong for a Christian to do. He said he could have killed 
their enemies right and left with the ax he had in his hand, 
and his people might have got arms from the slain, and made 
a formidable defense; but even as a matter of policy the 
course he adopted was, all things considered, the best. 
“The reader will remember that a number of the Chris- 
tian party went to another place, and were to meet their 
brethren at Medu and go home together. Had a general 
fight taken place, the probability is that they would have 
been set upon and cut off to a man. As it was they were 
allowed to pass unmolested, but were told what had hap- 
pened, and learned the horrid fact that two of their brethren 
were being baked under mounds of earth near which they 
passed. So fell the first martyrs of Maré. Guilty of no 
crime, they died victims to the mad rage of their infuriated 
countrymen against the gospel of Christ. 
“But mark the sequel. The reader will remember the re- 
markable words uttered by Hnaisiline as he stood over the 
dead body of Tizelo. In less than twelve months, observes 
Mr. Jones, the words were fulfilled to the letter: the mur- 
derers were attacked in the early morning, many were killed, 
and the rest fled to the opposite side of the island, and so 
Hnaisiline’s prediction came to pass. He had no hand, how- 
ever, in bringing about its fulfillment. | 
