How the Chinese Came

to the Marquesas

By “Fae Hoko”

MANY years ago, when taking a stroll in Atuona Valley, on Hiva-Oa Island, home of the once savage Pailsi tribe, I came across an old China man, Ah Foo. He had passed some years in California before coming down to the islands, and he could speak quite a lot of ‘Meniki’ in his own quaint way; and so I was able to draw from him the reasons for coming to islands that, at that time, had quite a reputation as the habitat of ferocious cannibals.

It seems that during the war between the States, Captain Hart, an Englishman, had received large land concessions at Anaho on the island of Nukuhiva and at Tahauku, in Traitors’ Bay, on the island of Hiva-Oa, for the production of Sea Island cotton. But upon his arrival in these islands he had found that there was not sufficient reliable labour to work his plantations, and he had returned to California to recruit Chinese.

Ah Foo had been recommended to the Captain as a good recruiter and, looking into his crafty old face, I could quite understand why he had been chosen. He did his task so well that nothing would suit Hart, but that the old Celestial should go along to the islands as No. 1 labourer. rEY sailed from San Francisco on one of the sailing ships that were at that time running mails and pas sengers to Tahiti, via Nukuhiva. ’ When they arrived they found at anchor a trading schooner just in from Hiva-Oa Island, and shortly some of the native crew came to visit them. Upon hearing that the destination of the Chinamen was Tahauku, the rascally sailors started working on them with horror stories, giving the poor Chinks terrible accounts —mostly by gestures—of what they might expect from the Hamans and Naikis.

At that time there was a war going on between the Naikis (the tribe living in Atuona Valley immediately to the west of Tahauku) and the Haman tribe (living in the valleys of Punae Hauamate and Hanahehe, just to the east). Thus Hart’s Valley was a sort of “No Man’s Land” between them.

But for the most part their battles were verbal ones, each side vying with the other as to who could hurl the most damaging insults from their respective ridges. Very seldom did they come to close quarters and, from all the infor mation I have been able to gather, most Marquesan tribal wars were fought in this manner; the only casualties occur ring when one side or the other sent out a patrol to waylay some straggler in the bush, who would be carried off in great triumph as proof of their resounding victory.

However, the sailors, according to old Ah Foo, so played on the nerves of the labourers that before long, as he put it, “All Chineeman he too much kly, he tellem me, you lookee out you, suppose one Chineeman go make kai-kai kanaka, all Chineeman killum you.”

I asked him what he thought about it all, and his answer was; “Oh, me, too much flaid, me speakee Capinee Hart more better me go back Flisco.”

HART would not hear of his going back, and, as they worked on the plantations, during this period of tribal troubles, Ah Foo said that they could hear the blood-curdling yelps of the warriors on the ridges above—and

then all the labourers would work like the devil to keep their minds off the horrible noise. This last piece of infor mation, old Ah Foo told me with a crafty twinkle in his eyes, and I have grave doubts as to the seriousness of the tribal warfare—at least after the arrival of the sons of Cathay on the Tahauku plan tations. It certainly served its purpose as an incentive to the labourers to clear "the bush from their valley as quickly as possible; and, as well, any thought of desertion must have seemed to them suicidal.

The Rev. Oliver J. Brady, of the Angli can Mission and Principal of St. Aidan’s Training College, Dogura, Papua, will be leaving in the near future to resume his work after furlough in Australia.

The death of Mr. Frank (“Bill”) Bailey, well known in Nausori, Fiji, occurred in New Zealand on June 22. He was form erly employed on the staff of the CSR Co., at Nausori, but since retiring has been living in the King Country, NZ.

Dr. G. R. Baxter, MOH, and Mr. C. M.

Teulon, Acting Senior Executive Engineer, both of Suva, Fiji, have been appointed official members of the Suva Town Board.

The Yen. Archdeacon A. E. Teall, of the Anglican Mission, who has been in Australia for some months for furlough and medical attention, returned to the New Hebrides about the middle of July.

Mr. H. E. Maude, of the Western High Pacific Commission staff, was recently appointed by the Suva Town Board a trustee of the Fiji Museum.