‘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 
chief’s 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 
béche-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 Halévy’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. 
