302 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



The captain of the vessel tells me that the last time he was 

 in Fiji, in 1847, he saw a hundred human bodies laid out at one 

 time, ready for cooking at a great feast. Sometimes they cook 

 a man whole (which they call a "long pig"), then put him in a 

 sitting posture, with a fan in his hand, and ornamented as if 

 alive ; and thus they carry him in state as a grand head dish for 

 a feast. Others chew little bits of raw human flesh (as sailors 

 chew tobacco), and put them into their children's mouths. If 

 this picture be not sufficiently revolting, I must refer you to the 

 published reports of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, where you 

 will rind plenty of similar or worse accounts — accounts which I 

 have heard confirmed by many witnesses not connected with the 

 mission work. Now picture to yourself a people like this, 

 numbering perhaps 200,000 souls : see a small band of mission- 

 aries, with their wives and families, going and sitting down among 

 them with their lives in their hands (literally " a living sacrifice, 

 holy and acceptable to God "), and thus remaining on without 

 human protection, through evil report or perhaps persecution, 

 for years and years, seeing scarcely any fruit of their labours till 

 their heads are growing grey, or until some of their number 

 have been laid in a Fijian grave. And then behold this same 

 mission, after twenty years' labours, appealing by its 10,000 

 converts to the sympathies of a Christian world. Contrast these 

 pictures, and I think you will join with me in praying that God 

 may prosper this great work, and that speedily. 



So far for my preface, and now for my main object, which, 

 when I have stated the case, will explain my reason for writing 

 all this to you, instead of to some other of my friends. I find 

 that the missionaries here, and at the other stations, are in the 

 habit of distributing, at an almost nominal charge, large 

 quantities of medicine ; these being entirely provided by the 

 devoted men out of their slender pittances. The funds of the 

 Parent Society, though large, are so overburdened, that no 

 assistance can be given in this respect. The missionaries there- 

 fore must continue to bear this expense themselves, or see the 

 poor creatures round them suffering and dying without assist- 

 ance. I need hardly add that the ability to minister to disease 

 is a valuable aid to a missionary's more especial Avork ; indeed, 

 in my opinion, so much so, that all persons educated for mis- 

 sionary work ought to receive a proper medical training ; and 



