FIJI ISLANDS. 
97 
and retreat before an enemy. It would be difficult to exaggerate the picturesque and imposing 
effect produced by these warriors as they gradually emerged from the darkness of the night 
into the blaze of the torchlight. Not a sound was heard but the rhythmical hum of the band, 
the shrill voice of the young “ ballet-master,” and an occasional war-whoop. A large native 
crowd was seated on heaps of empty cocoa-nuts, and in front of some wooden huts appeared 
the white dresses of the chiefs and the blue uniforms of our naval officers. I believe we all 
left, not only much gratified, but deeply impressed by the novel spectacle, and after wading 
over coral reefs we reached our boats in safety. The missionaries discountenance these 
performances, and probably the next generation will grow up ignorant of the manly sports 
and graceful feats of their fathers. Then too will probably disappear the light elastic stride, 
the swift, flexible, and tiger-like action of every limb, compared with which the movements of 
civilised man are like those of an automaton driven by clock-work. 
While at anchor in the harbour of Levuka, we noticed a schooner crowded from stem 
to stern with what appeared to be over-grown monkeys, dressed as if for a show in blue 
trousers, scarlet jackets, and scarlet caps. They proved to be natives of the New Hebrides 
about to return home after labouring upon a plantation in Fiji, and the above tasteful outfit, 
to which were added a number of muskets, shovels, and other triumphs of Birmingham skill, 
were the result of three years’ labour. These make up the mess of pottage for which the 
South Sea Islander sells his birthright of freedom, and descends to the level of a hired 
labourer. When, subsequently, we landed at the New Hebrides, a fellow-countryman of theirs, 
when offered the usual trade-goods in exchange for his bow and arrows, contemptuously 
refused them, and asked for a sixpence and a glass of brandy. From these evidences of 
civilisation we concluded that this naked savage must have been employed on a plantation. 
But few of the iniquities and acts of meanness innumerable perpetrated against native races, 'by 
those whom some euphoniously style the “ pioneers of civilisation,” come to the knowledge 
of the home reader ; but one may guess at the character of the men who carry on and profit 
by the modern system of slavery called “ the importation of free labour,” and we can understand 
why that system should have led to a renewal of the old atrocities. Simple slavery was justified 
under the plea of religion ; the new plan hides itself under the ample cloak of civilisation. 
Fire-arms and fire-water are the first boons which the white man confers upon his dark-skinned 
brother. When, after many years, something more like true civilisation steps in, it is generally 
too late to undo the mischief: the aborigine has either disappeared totally, or has retreated 
to the inaccessible regions of the interior. It is easy to assert that he is incapable of adopting 
the ways of civilisation ; we ought to know that he has never really come in contact with it. 
He has, on the contrary, fallen a ready victim to the superior weapons and superior cunning 
of the white man. Hence we need not be astonished if the first use to which the islander 
puts his hardly-earned musket be to point it at the crew of the first ship that is wrecked upon 
the reefs of his native shore. In the present instance, the small schooner, crowded to 
overflowing from stem to stern, was about to perform a voyage of 700 miles under a tropical 
sun. Our destination being the same, we proposed to take about a dozen of these natives 
