310 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY 



have been converted into dwelling-houses, but the greater part 

 no longer exist ; the idols are " utterly abolished," and the hate- 

 ful crimes connected with that devil worship have ceased. One 

 realizes them a little, when standing as I did on the spot where 

 only eighteen months ago there had been a cannibal feast at 

 which multitudes perished. Can you fancy a single unprotected 

 man and his wife, with two small children, going to live amid 

 such scenes, prepared to bear all things, to hope all things ? 

 Surely nothing short of the charity that never faileth could 

 support any civilized person in such circumstances. But all- 

 enduring charity is the germ of that great power which, like the 

 stone cut out without hands, shall at length become a mountain 

 and fill the whole earth. The great temple at Bau was 

 accidentally burnt down, and all that remains of it is a double 

 tier of upright stones, each from six to eight feet high, which 

 resemble the Stonehenge architecture ; a significant fact, recall- 

 ing to one's thoughts what the state of England was, before the 

 same Christianity, or "Lotu" (as the Fijians call it), came to 

 her shores. I visited the king's palace, but his majesty was not 

 at home, so we walked about the house and looked at his wares. 

 Thakunibau (the king) is a man of considerable ability, and he 

 has played a very distinguished political part in Fiji, but I 

 fear his Christianity is of a low type ; yet, bad as it is, it greatly 

 influences the conversion and civilization of his subjects. We 

 also visited the Lasekauan chief and some others. After leaving 

 the group we had a very narrow escape of being wrecked on 

 one of the many coral reefs. We were going along briskly with 

 a fair aft trade wind, when we got into a deep bight of the reef 

 not laid down in our chart. We had to beat out of the difficulty 

 against the wind, through so narrow a passage, that breakers 

 were a-head every time the ship tacked. Every one but myself 

 was on deck. I heard the noise, and wondered what it meant ; 

 but consoling myself that I was " only a passenger," I turned 

 over and fell asleep. In the morning every one was full of the 

 story. Te Deum laudamus. 1 



1 An interesting account of the wreck of the John Wesley on a coral reef in 

 November, 1865, with the remarkable deliverance of the passengers (amongst 

 whom were Mr. and Mrs. Davis) by the simultaneous occurrence of an earth- 

 quake, that caused the vessel to be heaved upon a huge wave, and placed 

 within the reef, is given in the AVesleyan Mission Report of 1867. 



