sky' came to Fiji

When 'men from under the sky' came to Fiji

If the Fijians, as the first western ers found them 200 years ago, were implacable savages, their savagery and cunning were well matched by some of the white adventurers who visited their islands.

The stories of a dozen of these men —Europeans and Americans—who made first contact with Fiji, have now been told by Captain Stanley Brown of Suva in a book called Men from under the Sky. Although primarily biographical, the book fulfils a sec ondary purpose as a compact history of Fiji from the late 18th century until Cession to Britain in 1874.

Not all of Captain Brown’s sub jects were skallywags; but it is true that none of these early Westerners went to Fiji for his health. If he was not after sandalwood, beche-de mer, land or trade, then he wanted to introduce a foreign religion or foreign laws.

Some, of course, were there be cause their ships had been wrecked on one or other of Fiji’s reefs and if they were lucky could use their wits or talent with a musket to their own advantage.

Bligh, on the other hand, whose story comes first in the book, was there because he and 17 loyal mem bers of the Bounty crew had been cast adrift in a small boat to fend for themselves after the celebrated mu tiny. Faced with his dilemma Bligh decided that wending a way through the Fiji group was the quickest way of reaching Timor and safety.

Dead northwest, sailing before the wind, was the safest course for a 23 ft boat with low freeboard and tight huddle of sailors. With a rudimentary sail and the forward thwarts removed to build up the stern to prevent fol lowing waves breaking into the boat, Bligh navigated through the Koro Sea and out of the group.

In the course of the journey he sighted a surprising number of the islands of Fiji but landed on none.

The small craft was deliberately kept far enough to seaward to escape the attention of watchers ashore. Little was known about these islands then but that little left no doubt as to the fierceness of the inhabitants and Bligh’s party was unarmed.

On this forced voyage through the Group, harrassed though he was, Bligh sketched in all the islands that he sighted and, his party intact, reach ed Timor in March 1790. A year

later he sailed on another (and successful) attempt to transplant breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies and during this voyage he again visited the Fiji islands. This time he completed the sketches made on the forced voyage in Bounty’s boat and, with facilities for measure ing angles, made a fairly accurate survey of the extent of the group.

However, his impact on Fiji did not come from confrontation with untamed Fijians but the chart he was able to produce of the Group suf ficed to guide adventurers to those islands for another 50 years.

But whether the newcomers were there by chance, for gain, for con verting heathens or for bringing foreign laws, the Fijians’ reception to all continued to be a chancy business.

Where men proved immediately use ful they could be used or tolerated; others were as quickly despatched and found their way to the cooking fires.

Some, like Charlie Savage, the Swede, became fixtures, attached to a group, favourites of the local chief.

But as well as danger from individual Fijians or groups, there was also danger when, having established him self as a chief’s or group’s favourite, that group was beaten in the inter minable wars between the Fiji “king doms” that were part of savage life.

After half a dozen years as chief gun of the kingdom of Bau, Savage led a party to the sandalwood coast of Vanua Levu in the hope of earn ing supplies of powder and shot.

While there Savage and his party became embroiled in a local war and during it were trapped. Savage and others sought refuge on a rock pinn acle but Savage, who had a misplaced idea of his influence on all Fijians, was enticed down to parley. He was grabbed, upended and his head held under water until he died. His body was cut up and apportioned to his enemies.

Savage was more than a protege of the Bauan chiefs; he had been accep ted into the clan and his life-style was that of the highest chief. He had numerous wives, some of high birth but the Fijians were realists and none of his male children were allowed to live. He was survived by one daughter, then four years old.

This was not the case with another arrival a decade later. This was young David Whippy, son of a Nantucket sea captain who had gone to the sea in

family ships at the age of 16. In the 1820’s he was put ashore on Ovalau, ostensibly to supervise the drying of beche-de-mer which had superseded sandalwood as the most sought-after trade in the Fiji islands. His captain sailed away to other islands and didn’t come back for 13 years.

In the meantime young David had been befriended by Tui Levuka, the leading chief of the island of Ovalau, under whose protection he lived, had disposed of his cargo of beche de-mer onto another wandering ship master, at a satisfactory price, and had taken to wife the first four women who were to bear his child ren. Each gave him a son as well as daughters and from these have de scended the several branches of the very numerous Whippy family that flourishes in Fiji, adjacent groups and elsewhere today.

The original David was no Charlie Savage. He lived in harmony with his Fijian neighbours, was highly respec ted by the early missionaries for his upright character and social con science, was, until his death in No vember 1871, recognised as the leader of the European traders of Fiji and the founder of Levuka, Fiji’s first capital.

During his middle years, Whippy was of great assistance to Lt Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition. The information in The Narrative of the United States Ex ploring Expedition, still one of the most reliable works of reference on early Fiji, was largely supplied by Whippy. Because of his assistance to Wilkes, Whippy was made US vice consul in Fiji.

Bligh, Savage and Whippy are only three of the many characters that Captain Brown uses to tell the story of pre-Cession Fiji, in a consecutive, easy-to-read narrative. Bits and pieces about some of the people are known to most students of Fijiana, but, un like New Guinea, about which there is a large and ever expanding liter ature, there are few popular accounts of old Fiji.

Captain Brown is just the man to make good the deficiency. Well known as operator and commander of small ships and lately as an under water expert, he has taken a keen interest in Fiji history. —Judy Tudor.

(Men From Under The Sky, By

Stanley Brown. Charles E. Tuttle Co.

Susio.)