An Interesting Trip (Fiji)
By A. G. Stewart
WHILE traveling in Fiji during the summer months, we called by boat at one place that particularly interested me. This was Labasa, a European village on the northwest coast of Vanua Levu, where the Colonial Sugar Refining Company has a very large sugar-mill, employing about six thousand Indians, or coolies as they are usually called. I found my way to the home of the Church of England minister, which was about half a mile from the village; but a hurricane had flattened his house like a brick falling on a cardboard box, and the poor man had removed to other quarters. As he was then out visiting, I left some papers for him, and a message telling him that I was aboard the steamer, and would probably call upon him the next morning. In the evening, however, he came aboard to see me, and we had a long and interesting conversation about his work. Before leaving that night, we arranged that I should accompany him the next morning on one of his visits to an outpost where some Buddhist believers have some interest in the Christian faith. This visit proved very interesting indeed, and I learned from our conversation that my friend has a knowledge of three Indian dialects, which he uses in his work for the coolies,—Hindi, Telegu, and Urdu. Hindi, however, seems to be the dialect chiefly spoken among the Indians of Fiji. Part of the time he acted as interpreter while a Buddhist priest and I compared the Christian religion with Buddhism. Such experiences make one long to be able to help these people let go the soulless doctrine of Buddha for the grand truths of the Christian religion. When the minister learned that we intended starting work among them, he said, "Well, there is plenty of room for us all, and anything that I can do to help you I will gladly do." He apologized for not being able to accommodate me while there, and said he hoped if ever I was around that way again, he could ask me to stay with him. It is good to find inquirers in these out-of-the-way places, and we trust that many of them will be included among those who will sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. We invite you all to have a part in helping them by continually praying for their conversion.