104 UPOLU — MANONO — SAVAII. 



A native of Savaii, by name Seeovedi, was taken from that island 

 by a whale-ship, and did not return for several years. During his 

 absence he visited several ports, where it would seem he obtained 

 some notions of the forms and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic 

 Church. Possessed of considerable natural shrewdness, he founded 

 on this knowledge a plan to save himself from labour for the future, 

 by collecting followers at whose expense he might be maintained. 

 During his absence, and while on board the whale-ship, he had 

 received, as is usual in such cases, instead of his native name, that 

 of Joe Gimblet, and this cognomen is now firmly attached to the sect 

 of which he was the founder. 



Having formed the plan of founding a sect, he did not scruple as to 

 the means of carrying it into effect ; for he boldly claimed a heavenly 

 mission, professing to hold converse with God, and asserting that 

 he possessed the power of working miracles, raising the dead, &c. 

 He soon gained many proselytes, and had attained great conside- 

 ration and authority, when, unfortunately for him, he was called 

 upon to exert his pretended power of raising the dead, by restoring 

 to life the favourite son of a powerful chief called Lelomiava, who 

 had been murdered. 



Joe did not hesitate to undertake the accomplishment of this miracle. 

 He in the first place directed a house to be built for the reception of 

 the body, and when it was finished he required that it should be sup- 

 plied with the best provisions. In conformity with this requisition, 

 the choicest articles of food that could be obtained were regularly 

 handed to Joe for the use of the defunct, upon whom he alone 

 waited, while every other person except the chief and himself was 

 excluded from the building. 



The food thus regularly supplied as regularly disappeared, and 

 Joe assured the chief that his son had eaten it, and under this 

 bountiful allowance would soon recover his strength, and walk forth. 

 In this way time wore on, until the patience of the old chief began 

 to show symptoms of being exhausted. This somewhat alarmed Joe, 

 but as he was a fellow of infinite resources, he contrived to evade 

 inquiry and procrastinate, hoping, no doubt, that some lucky incident 

 might turn up, by which he should be enabled to extricate himself 

 from the dilemma. Unfortunately for him, however, after another 

 month of anxious suspense, the old man's pigs and taro fell short, 

 notwithstanding the chief's dependants had for a long time been 

 restricted from using them. All of them were in fact much reduced 

 by their compulsory fast, with the exception of Joe, whose rotundity 



