Transcribed by Julie Stokes, 19 June 1999

I have in my possession, a 1905 / 1906 compilation edition of the Dunedin, New Zealand-published magazine, The Red Funnel, which was produced for some years by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. The edition that I have is the first in a series and contains a compilation of the magazine's issues from August 1905 until January 1906. In it is an article and a transcript of a letter written in Fiji in 1810, written by Rev. Joseph King. The following is that article in its entirety and is followed by the transcript of the actual letter. Notice when you are reading the article and letter, the spelling of the place names and grammar used at the time of writing.

Fiji 1810

Rev. Joseph King

An English letter written from Fiji in the year 1810 is almost entitled to be described as a prehistoric curiosity. Tasman discovered some of the eastern islands of this group in 1643, and called them Prince Willem Islands; Cook sighted Turtle (Vatoa) Island in 1774; in 1789 Bligh, cast adrift by the mutineers of the Bounty, sailing westward in his boat 25 feet long, passed near to several of the islands; and in 1798 Wilson, the captain of the Duff, the first ship owned by the London Missionary Society, discovered and named Taviuni upon which that vessel bumped as she passed over it being still called the Duff Reef.

As the nineteenth century dawned, a few fearless sailors, searching for sandalwood - a valuable cargo - ventured to land, and in encounters with the people some of them lost their lives. The photographed letter which is given to illustration this article was written during these earliest days of European and American contact with this group. Theletter is headed "Takaunove, Fegees, January 5th 1810," and the writer says: "We are now at one of the islands known as Takaunove or Sandalwood Island, and on the point of sailing. In coming here we ran upon a reef in the night and were very near being lost; but the Lord in His providence wonderfully preserved us. This island is very large, probably as large, if not larger, than any of the West Indies, excepting Hispaniola. The Fejee group is but little known; it consists of a great number of islands, large and small. The inhabitants do not appear to be very numerous. Their complexion, language, customs, religious ceremonies etc. prove them to be a different race from the generality of the South Sea Islanders. They are very barbarous and inhospitable to strangers (at least, we found them so). The islands are divided between petty chiefs, who are continually at war with one another; and when a party is overcome, it is killed and eatenup by the other, not sparing age or sex. The navigation among these islands is most dangerous, there being but little clear sea; reefs and shoals abound in every direction."

The vessel on which this letter was written was the Hibernia, bound from Tahiti to Sydney, and anchored alongside her was the American ship Hope, and the letter was written to send to the latter to Dr. Mason, New York. The writer was John Davies, and who he was and what had brought him to Fiji may now be told. He was one of the pioneer missionaries of Tahiti. Since the Duff in 1798 landed missionaries there, a sustained but unsuccessful attempt had been made to evangelise the natives. When twelve years had passed without any encouraging results, and new signs of opposition, involving considerable danger to the workers, appeared, most of the missionaries availed themselves of the opportunity which the call of the Hibernia afforded for leaving Tahiti. The letter written at Fiji was a joint letter from the missionaries, and was intended as a vindication of their action in leaving their stations. It is a pathetic account of a prolonged struggle against adverse circumstances, and it throws considerable light upon the earlier conditions of missionary work in the Pacific. How effectually in those days did missionaries and others who chose to live in the South Sea Islands isolate themselves! Only twice in thirteen years did these Tahitian missionaries receive official communications from their Board of Directors in London. In writing to Dr. Mason they say: "We shall be glad to know the state of the religious world, both in Europe and America, and were it not too great a presumption in us, especially in our present circumstances, to request your correspondence, we would esteem it a great favour to receive any intelligence of a religious nature from you or any of our bretheren in America."

This period of Tahitian history has been well described by Mrs. Favelle Lee Mortimer in her volume entitled 'The Night of Toil'. It was a long and a dark night, but it was followed by a dawn of great promise, and several of the refugees who proceeded to Sydney in the Hibernia returned to participate in the great work of transformation.

Since the first decade of the nineteenth century how marvellously has the condition of the Pacific Islanders changed! When John Davies spread his foolscap sheet before him and took his pen to write this letter the European and American invasion of the Pacific had not been dreamed of. The islands around him still in undisputed possession of savages, the sounds which reached him from the villages ashore belonged to a barbarous age, the amusements of the children were settled by an appeal to club law, and cannibal devilry degraded powerful chiefs and filled the lives of others with panic and fear. The debased conditions of the Fijians was extreme beyond historical parallel. Few spots on the earth are more charming in natural beauty than Fiji, but beneath the exquisitely-wrought natural tapestry which draped its hills and valleys was "the lowest hell in the Pacific." The language which has been employed to describe old Fiji is so strong that doubts have arisen suggesting exaggeration. When, for example, we are told that the life of the people was "too horrible to be described, too full of fiendish cruelty to be imagined," and that they "went beyond the ordinary limits of rapine and bloodshed, violating the elementary instincts of mankind," we are justified in asking for supporting testimony.

To America and to Commodore Wilkes we are indebted for much accurate knowledge of the Pacific. In the year 1838 the United States sent a fleet of six vessels with a staff of scientists on board, comprising such men as Dana, Maury, and Pickering. With a keen sense of the responsibility which rested upon him as leader of such a scientific expedition, the commodore fulfilled the task of enquiry with rare discrimination and infinate care, and of the Fijians he recorded the testimony that they were "in many respects the most barbarous and savage race existing upon the globe." If Fijians have not yet attained to the highest possible standard of ethical perfection, they have, under Christian teaching, placed an appreciably long distance between them and the old reign of terror. The cannibal fires have been extinguished, and men, women and children pursue their business or their pleasures with no haunting fear of being hunted down by fiends hungering to devour.

The twentieth century has brought to the Pacific a day of possibilities which travellers of a century ago would have considered wildly Utopian. Instead of the old isolation, every island and islet has been brought within the arena of modern nation-building, cables have been laid along the great ocean's coral floor, mercantile steamers run with unfailing regularity from group to group, mail-boats convey streams of passengers over what was until recently an uncharted sea, and warships with a variety of ensigns patrol their respective national waters. What material there is here for the would-be prophet, the man who tries to write history before it has been enacted!

There is one thing in the bewilderment of the outlook which calls for thanksgiving. The Churches of Britain and America are trying to prepare the native population for the changes that are coming. The oldest marine service in the Pacific has been maintained without a break for 109 years. In 1796 the Duff left London flying her blue flagwith its three white doves, and last year our modern steamer, the John Williams, flying the same flag, covered a distance of 30,000 miles on her missionary errands. Thestory of the missionary marine service of the Pacific cannot now be told. Many vessels flying the flags of different societies have been and still are employed, and a deeply interesting account might be given of these messengers of peace.

Letter of the Tahitian Missionaries, written at Fiji, where they were detained en route to Port Jackson in the year 1810

Takaunove (Figees)

January 5th, 1810.

Rev. and Dear Sir

An opportunity offering by the Hope, of New York, Captain Chase, we have taken the liberty of writing a few lines to you, which also we have done twice before - viz. in November, 1805, by the Taber, of Providence, Captain Sowie, and again in August, 1806, by the same. These were dated from Taheete; this, as you see, from one of the Figee Islands. It would be too long to give you a full detail of the several occurrences which caused our removal from Taheete, and our coming to a place where we are on our way to the colony of New South Wales. It is well known to you that we have spent many years in the Taheetian Mission to very little purpose. Our want of success and the many discouragements arising there from were not, however, the immediate cause of our giving it up., though these had their influence in determining our minds as to our path of duty in this matter. In our former letter to you, as also in a letter we wrote in March, 1808, by the Amethyst, of Boston, Captain Smith, to the President of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, we gave some account of the means that had been, and were then, used by us for the purpose of planting Christianity in the South Sea Islands. We mentioned our little success therein, and our many discouragements from various quarters, and especially our want of correspondence with the Directors of the London Missionary Society. This has been our complaint (and we think a just one) for many years past, but more particularly so since 1805, since which period we have sent to them a number of letters and journals giving a full and fair representation of our circumstances, trials, discouragements, and views, asking their advice and direction, and earnestly entreating an answer to our various dispatches - but all in vain. As far as I know, nothing has reached us; the cause or causes we know not - whether they be the political state of Europe or the insignificancy of the Missionary Station we occupied, or any other, the case is eventually the same to us.

In the latter end of October 1808, while we were contemplating our uncomfortable circumstances and gloomy prospects, and at a loss what course to steer, a sudden rebellion broke out in the island, which in a few days determined what we were to do. It was impossible to remain any longer with safety in Taheete, and a vessel which providentially happened to be in the Bay at the time afforded us the means of removing to Huaheine, one of the Society Islands. But four single men only remained behind, who in a little time were obliged to flee to the neighbouring island, Eimes, the King being defeated in an engagement with the rebels. Our houses were quickly demolished, our gardens and plantations destroyed, out cattle and property (much of which had been left behind) were plundered and carried away, and the King with his few adherents also obliged to take shelter in Eimes. The Taheetians were resolved upon taking any vessel that might touch at their island. In their first attempt they were unsuccessful, the captain and vessel saved by means of a letter written by some of our number and signed by the King, and left secretly with a trusty friend in Onrybeean, who delivered it to the captain. Their second was upon a schooner from Port Jackson, which was taken, the first officer killed, and the rest made prisoners, though afterwards ransomed, and the hull of the vessel recovered.

The King, after receiving a reinforcement from the Society Islands, returned to Taheete, and had another engagement with the rebels, in which a considerable number were killed on both sides; yet, it not being decisive, both parties claiming the victory, he thought proper to act on the defensive and wait a further reinforcement under the conduct of a chief of Raiatea. Now, should the King of Taheete and his friends be again overthrown, there is no safety to be expected by Europeans either in Taheete or the Society Islands. War and confusion will be universal, as the common people are greatly disaffected by their chiefs. This being our view of affairs, and our minds being overwhelmed by the other discouraging circumstances above-mentioned, together with the non-success of our labours at Huaheine, we determined at last to relinquish the Mission and the islands, and take a passage to Port Jackson by way of the Figee Islands. We are now at one of the islands known by the name of Takaunove, or Sandal Wood Island, and on the point of sailing. In coming here we ran upon a reef in the night, and were very near being list, but the Lord in His providence wonderfully preserved us. This island is very large, probably as large, if not larger, than any of the West Indies except Hispaniola. The Figee group is but little know. It consists of a great number of islands, large and small. The inhabitants do not appear to be very numerous. Their complexion, language, customs, religious ceremonies, etc., prove them to be a different race from the generality of the South Sea Islanders. They are very barbarous and inhospitable to strangers - at least we found them so. The islands are divided between petty chiefs who are continually at war with one another; and when a party is overcome, it is killed and eaten up by the other, not sparing of age or sex. Several Europeans and some Americans have been killed and devoured by them. The navigation among the islands is most dangerous, there being but little clear sea. Reefs and shoals are found in every direction.

We should be glad to know the state of the religious world, both in Europe and America; and were it not perhaps too great a pre-umption in us - especially in our present circumstances - to request your correspondence, we would esteem it a great favour to receive any intelligence of a religious nature from you or any of our bretheren in America. Our intention is to settle in the colony of New South Wales, especially if we see any prospect of usefulness.

Dear sir, when we look back and take a review of the Taheetian Mission, the years we have spent in it, the expense that attended it, and the expectations that formed concerning it, sorrow fills our minds. We find much cause for humiliation before God. We lament our unfruitfulness, and acknowledge that we are not worthy to be employed in such a work. Yet after all we find it a hard matter to be reconciled to this present disposition. That the Gospel should be brought to Taheete, continued there so long, and we preserved amidst so may dangers, yet in the end be thus removed, leaving the poor natives in a very deplorable condition, are to us grievous consideration. But, praying that we may be able to acquiesce in the Divine will, and that this providence among others may in the end be over-ruled for our good, and the good of the heathen where we so long resided, and that this providence (though to us so unlikely) may in the end result in the further extension and glory of the Messiah's Kingdom.

We remain, Dear and Rev. Sir,

Your unworthy Servants and Bretheren,

John Davies, for the Missionaries

To: Rev. Dr. Mason, New York

Source: The Red Funnel, Vol. 1 No. 1, Dunedin, NZ, August 1905 pages 25-29

Editors notes: Inside the flyleaf of this hardbound compilation is the following message:

"Every Article written for this Magazine -- Nothing Borrowed, Nothing Stolen"

There are no copyright notices, as such, attached to any of the articles in this volume, although one would presume that the copyright owners of the article and the letter, of course would be the respective authors, and perhaps the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. I have tried here, to give a glimpse of life in the Pacific Islands in the early days, by placing this article online. If anyone can see reason for me to take it down, please convey your concerns to me personally and I will do just that.