p. 13 | The South Sea Islands

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · May 30, 1912

The South Sea Islands

Sister Lily M. Thorpe, in writing home to Australia regarding the great need in Fiji and adjacent islands, gives a very interesting and instructive account of present-day conditions as well as some early history in that island field. She says:—

"The native population of Fiji is 50,000. There are about 500 converts to the truth and work of the message. Is there still scope for our work among the native Fijian? "Let those of us who stretch out our hands to India's teeming millions, with their sordid misery and degradation, consider that the new India, fed and mothered by the old, lies at our very doors, not more than seven days' journey. Latest statistics show that 46,000 Hindus, an increase of 20,000 in ten years, have settled on the fertile shores of prosperous Fiji, and also that they have not come without their ancient religions. Can you see the picture—Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Buddhism, with their mysticism, their theosophy, their phantasies, and the degradation of their women, and their attendant sorrows, here at our doors? Do you ask for a greater field? Here are the needy native Fijians, willing to

be taught, calling for schools; and the great concourse of Hindu people subject to the call of the soft-toned, sandal-footed priests of Eastern mysteries. There is a Hindu temple near a certain mission station at Navau, and a Mohammedan mosque just across the river, where Indian priests daily chant the five calls to prayer, and the Islam formula, 'Allah is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.' Those of you who have looked forward to work in Java, consider that Mohammedanism has been brought to your doors. Eastern life, with its color and its customs, just seven days' journey from Sydney, opens an avenue through which your longings and aspirations may find vent. Is the Master beckoning you to this new India? "Samoa, two days' and four hours' journey from Fiji, has already yielded workers for the Master from among its warm blood. Our Samoan translator accepted the message there. "In Samoa we find many Chinese in addition to the native population. I learned a few interesting things concerning that field as we passed through this time, which I pass on to you with feelings of deep interest. It is not generally known that the Samoans originally came from Sumatra, over eight hundred years ago. A party of fifty set out in crazy canoes, it is said, in pursuit of some imaginary devils, whom they wished to overtake and destroy. They visited several points in the Philippines, and finally crossed the great expanse of the Pacific far enough north to take advantage of the westerly breezes. Tossed about by wind and wave, thirsting under a burning sun, and suffering untold agonies in their flimsy canoes, they resorted to cannibalism in order to preserve their lives. They finally reached the island of Oahu, in the neighborhood of Honolulu, where they were treated very kindly by the islanders, and after a long sojourn with their newly made friends, they set sail again, taking with them a Hawaiian chief and some others. Before reaching Samoa, the fleet of canoes reached the Hervey group and several uninhabited coral isles. Arriving at Upolu (Samoa) from the eastward, weary with travel and tired with straining their eyes for the fair country they hoped to gain, it would be difficult to describe their frantic delight to see the high peak of Manua in the dim distance. And so Samoa became peopled. It was many years before this little colony increased sufficiently to occupy to any great extent the westward isles of the group. "About six hundred years ago the Tongans first visited Samoa, and an intercourse sprang up, and many important marriages between chiefs and high families were contracted. Later the Tongans sought to gain control of the whole country. All the natives in the group fled to the mountain fastnesses, and defended the rugged passes and almost inaccessible cliffs against their active and cruelly relentless enemies. From time to time, the Fijians came to assist the Tongans, and the remains of their slain enemies were eaten, until finally the hitherto mild Samoans adopted the horrible custom of cannibalism. For nearly eighty years the Tongans held disputed possession of Samoa, and also the coast line of the three largest islands of the group, thus depriving the original inhabitants of the fisheries and the use of sea water in their cookery. During this time the Samoans built substantial roads over the roughest part of the mountains, some of which are still in use. Severe adversity finally drove the Samoans to desperate warfare, and after a comparatively short time they compelled the Tongans to leave the island. The practise of cannibalism survived the departure of the Tongans and Fijians for three hundred years, but was abandoned before the advent of the first white man. The missionaries first landed in Samoa in 1833."