Pages From The Past

The Navosa Massacre in Fiji

By Erle Wilson

OAVAGE man, the world over, is very much a creature of impulse. That is one of the lessons which field-officers in both the Papuan and New Guinea Ad ministration services are learning to-day.

Unopposed and apparently welcomed, one patrol may pass through new territory where another, as well led, equally cir cumspect and cautious, will meet only implacable hostility and active opposi tion.

As in the hinterland of New Guinea to-day, so it was with the kai colo (mountaineers) of Na Viti Levu 70 years ago. Where Captain H. M. Jones, V.C.. in the first crossing of the island (see February, 1937) was welcomed, feted, and assisted on his way by the hill tribes of Navosa, Mr. Thomas Baker, of the Methodist Mission of Fiji, two years

later, among the same pagan tribes, met a very different fate.

For three years previous to his Navosa expedition, Mr. Baker had been stationed at Davuilevu on the Rewa River as “Mis sionary to the Interior,” in which capa city he had gained a wide knowledge of native ways in contact with the tribes of Viria, Dawarua, and Soloira. He was a cautious, earnest man and as well fitted as any in the group to undertake the conversion of the mountain anthropo phagi.

Partly with that object in view and partly with the object of making a com-

plete crossing of the island to Vuda on the west coast, he started up-river from Davuilevu, on July 13, 1867, in his six oared mission boat manned by students.

Their boat, probably the first vzlovolo vaka papalagi seen by many of the people of the upper reaches, caused a mild stir among the river villages. By the evening of the 16th they reached the village of Navunimoli on the stretch of river known as the Wailevu.

Passing the night at Navunimoli, the party left the cutter and its crew and set out on foot for Namara in the Dawarau district where the recently converted chief Wagaligali welcomed them with lavish hospitality. two days the mission party re mained as Ratu Wagaligali’s guests, during which time Mr. Baker —always a cautious man—tried to find out the prob able reception his party would receive from the Navosa tribes whose territory lay a score of miles further in the mountains. In acordance with native custom, he presented a whale’s tooth ( tabua ) to Chief Wagaligali and then asked him to act as guide into the Navosa country. When accepting the tatua.

Wagaligali publicly agreed, but later he visited the missionary in the privacy of his Tmre and withdrew his promise on the plea that an infallible oracle had warned him that only danger lay ahead for the party.

Whether the bush-telegraph had been busy in the interim and Wagaligali had got wind of things stirring in the hills can never be known; but the most he would do was to supply two guides to lead the party to Nagagadelavatu. It is

The exact spot, marked by a clump of bamboos, where Rev. Thomas Baker was murdered in 1867. —Picture by courtesy of “Mission Review.”

said that he tried to persuade Mr. Baker to go no further, but, if that was so, the missionary makes no mention of it in the following letter, on the 19th, to his fello.w-worker, Rev. Jesse Carey, at Rewa.

“We have got this far, and I feel a dislike to return, as I am now about half way across the land. At any rate I am past Namosi. Tomorrow we start for Navosa, a district at the head of the Nadroga river, and this I expect will be the only difficulty I shall meet with. But, if they allow us, we will go right on to Vuda and return by way of Nadroga. If I cannot get fine weather to come up (i.e. the coast) by canoe, I will walk from Nadroga to Serua, and then come on in Samuel’s canoe. By hard walking I may see you by Saturday week. I have written to Mrs. Baker, and I may get another chance before I return. I think that Navosa is the last district that we shall have to try. I do not fear the natives, and we hope to do them good.

We are all well and strong.”

PEARLY next morning the party set out. accompanied by Ratu Wagaligali and a retinue of lesser chiefs who went with them for several miles of their way be fore leaving them to the guidance of two young men of Namara.

As they progressed into Navosa terri tory, the hills became steeper and more rugged and the going more difficult, while recent rains that had given an ineffable freshness to the jungle of mountain and gorge had made the tracks slippery underfoot. With only one brief halt they toiled on and by two o’clock sighted the thatched roofs of the fighting town of Nagagadelavatu, among the verdure on a high plateau ahead. While still in the valley. Mr. Baker halted the party and a quick meal was taken, after which they climbed the slope and fearlessly entered the town.

Almost at once the chief, Ratu Nawa wabalavu, came out into the village square and seated himself on a large stone. He was a big, powerful man whose features held the still, forbidding inscru

tability, typical of the savage kai colo.

Accompanied by Shadrach. a native teacher, Mr. Baker went unhesitatingly forward and shook hands. Then Shad rach, in accordance with native custom, squatted in front of the Ratu and gave ar. account of the expedition, its origin, and business, concluding by presenting a whale’s tooth and asking him to guide them as far as Magodra on their way through to Vuda.

Without any relaxation of his stern inscrutability, Nawawabalavu accepted the tabua and agreed to see them on the road to the west coast. As for the Infu (Christianity), “8a siga ni vinaka!” — It was no good. He would have nothing to do with it!

Listening and watching closely while Shadrach and the chief were conversing.

Mr. Baker decided at once not to tarry in

The Baker Memorial Hall erected by the Methodist Mission at Davuilevu, Fiji, in memory of the martyred missionary, —Photo: Rev. J. W. Burton.

Nagagadelavatu and straightway he asked the chief to allow them to proceed. Ratu Nawawabalavu frowned; “No!” he said, “The Consul (Captain Jones) slept here on his way across the land and so must you.” Dismissing them, he pointed to a bure into which they obediently went to await events.

They were not left long alone. The bure rapidly filled with a crowd of curi ous villagers who questioned them inter minably about the new faith. If the mission party derived any hope or satis faction from the interest shown in their teaching it must have been effectively extinguished by accompanying questions as to means of procuring muskets and ammunition and by an ominous remark made by Nawawabalavu who. during the evening, appeared among the crowd and, pointing to a hatchet on the wall, said: “There is the thing for the lotu!”

There was one other disturbing cir cumstance: Nawawabalavu had not given them food of any kind—an act of grave discourtesy. Yet, he had accepted their whale’s tooth and, early in the evening, had sent a special messenger to his nephew, the young chief of Nubutautau— who two years before had guided Captain Jones part of the way to Tavua —to come in the morning and guide Mr. Baker to the coast.

SINCE their setting out from Namara, lalis (drums) had been speaking over hill and valley. News of the expedition had gone abroad and, unknown to Mr.

Baker, back in the town of Naitasiri, the

district in which the missionary had his headquarters, a high chief nursed a sense of affront at the white man’s not having first obtained his permission to make the journey. Sobo! Such an insult could not be overlooked! Hot on the heels of the party travelled his Mata-ni-vanua bearing a whale’s tooth to Ratu Nawawabalavu and a request—which was almost a com mand—for the massacre of the party!

The messenger arrived at Nagagadela vatu during the night, presented his tabua —which Nawawabalavu accepted— and delivered the message of his chief before the mission party awoke to a per fect hill dawn and set about preparations for their journey.

Shortly after daylight, a quantity of hot yam was brought to the bure and while his party were hastily breakfasting Mr. Baker looking out through the door evidently saw something that aroused his suspicions. “ Ragone —” (lads), he cried, “Let us be quick or we shall be killed to-day!”

Almost at once, Ratu Nawawabalavu came to the door and bluntly told them that if they did not leave with him im mediately, they would be killed. Hurriedly they left the burc and formed* up in Fijian marching order: the Chief leading, followed by Mr. Baker, behind whom marched a Navosa tribesman carrying a long-handled steel battle-axe of American make. Then came Shadrach and in turn, strung out behind him, two other native teachers and six students.

They had gone scarcely a hundred

yards when the hindmost student, gian cing back, saw a party of Navosa men in full war-paint stealing silently after them. The sight was too much for the youngster; with a low cry he ran for ward to the middle of the column, leaving a fellow-student with a tin box on his shoulder the last in the line. A big warrior sprang forward and aimed a quick blow at the laden student who desperately twisted aside and the club fell with a loud impact on the tin box.

At once Mr. Baker halted and stepped out of the line to see the cause of the commotion. Before he had time to do more than raise his right arm in stern prohibition, the battle-axe of the Kavosa man w b° h a <i marched behind him came down in a murderous blow across his back and a little to the right of the neck, felling him instantly.

With the exception of the faithful Shadrach who dropped on his knees be side the fallen leader where he himself was swiftly butchered, the mission party broke and fled in all directions pursued by the fe a P in S> yelling killers of Navosa.

Tbe massacre was soon over; but by a miracle, it seemed, two of the students who went to earth in a great bank of high ree( ts remained undiscovered till night fall wben they stole off into the hills, ultimately, after much suffering and pri vation, winning to safety with their own People, TN Nagagadelavatu, bedlam broke loose, Quickly the bodies of the murdered mission men were dragged into the vil

lage square to an accompanying, re peated chant: “Drag me gently! Drag me gently!

I am the champion of the land!

Give thanks! Give thanks!”

Then a chorus of wild yells, hand clapping, and the sounding of the weird, measured tempo of the derua on the lalis, thundered forth through the beautiful Navosa hills the news that at Nqgagade lavatu a feast of boholo (human flesh) was under way. One after another the

hill villages took up the tale until the whole land seemed to be pulsing like a savage, primeval heart.

Into the town, as the barbaric orgy was reaching its height in the licentious, frenzied cibi cibi dances, there stalked a splendid-looking young chief, Ratu Nawa wabalavu’s nephew from Nubutautau, who had come to guide the mission party to the coast. Cold anger showed in the flash of his eyes and his wide-flaring nostrils. Taking in at a glance what had occurred, without a word he snatched a musket from a capering warrior, aimed it point-blank at the Mata-ni-vanua from Naitasiri and pressed the trigger. The musket misfired. Furiously he flung it aside and poured a tirade of wrath on the assembled chiefs and the slayers of the mission men, stilling and sobering all bystanders with the vehemence of his words - and his prophesies of the wrath of the Kai Peritania (British) which must surely follow. It was a greatly chastened crowd of cannibals who watched the young Ratu turn his back on their festivities and return home.

SINCE those far-off days, the Navosa people have given the land where the massacre took place to the Methodist Mission and on it a stone memorial has been placed; but for many years no white man knew who had sent the whale’s tooth that brought death to the little party.

Thirty-six years later, in 1903, while the Methodist Mission’s Annual Synod was in session at Rewa, a son of the chief of Naitasiri surprised the assembled missionaries with the ceremonious pre sentation of a whale’s tooth, humbly con fessing that a blight had rested on his tribe ever since his father had loosed the tambua that caused the Navosa massacre in 1867.