The Right Hon. R. J. Seddon's (the Premier of New Zealand) Visit to Tonga, Fiji, Savage Island and the Cook Islands (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 Excerpt: ...owing to the following cause: Soon after the native teachers had been driven away, an epidemic scourge of sickness (probably cholera; it included dysentery, hitherto unknown) set in, and hundreds of the islanders died. Some prophet arose and told the people that at Rarotonga where Christianity had taken root all was well, but that the refusal of the Mangaians to hear about the new strong gods of the white man was the origin of the terrible disease that was devouring them wholesale. His hearers became frightened, and sent across to Rarotonga to invite the missionaries to return. This request was acceded to, and Christianity became the religion of Mangaia. While Dr. W. Wyatt Gill was the resident minister his great goodness and lovable disposition won countless adherents and converts. How he understood the character of the people is shown even by the sympathy that alone could have enabled him to gather the religious and traditional.stories which, by his books, ." Myths and Songs of the South Pacific," "Life in the Southern Isles," &c, have made him famous among ethnologists. Others, however, succeeded him, and, if the stories current among white settlers of the Pacific are true, a pandemonium of virtue set in upon Mangaia. One hears of it everywhere. The missionary rule became dominant without let or hindrance. Such stories as those told in Tonga about Baker's rule are weak as water compared with the tales of the state of affairs in Mangaia. The missionaries obtained influence over the Arikis, the ruling princes, and Christianity became fashionable; but among a people so independent, so warlike, so devoted to the old religion, conversion was by no means universal. The Church party set up a Church police; every male communicant became a ...