IV. original publications

A number of books written by commanders of warships, resident missionaries and other people who went to Fiji in this period have been published. They are of unequal merit. The best account by any of the naval commanders was written by Charles Wilkes, commander of the United States Exploring Expedition. It must not be forgotten that there is a great difference in respect of reliability between the accounts published by visitors, and those written up by men who resided for many years in the archipelago. The descriptions of the islands, and of the outward appearance of the people and especially the chiefs, may be and generally are trustworthy; but when the visitors go deeper and discuss the habits, customs and mind of the people their observations must be read critically. I have generally found that for the more hidden characteristics they rely on information imparted to them by the missionaries. It almost invariably happens, too, that visitors dwell disproportionately on the atrocities and inhumanities practised by the Fijians in the thirties and forties of last century. That is natural: their attention was bound to be arrested by spectacular differences between Fijian civilization and their own; but it is also misleading, and the casual reader of such books needs to be very carefully on his guard lest he carries away an impression that is quite unfair to the Fijians who had many admirable qualities, and were in some respects a superior people.

Of these original publications written by visitors I have page 323made a discriminating use of the following: Life in Feejee by a Lady (Mrs Wallis) (Boston, 1851); Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition by Captain Charles Wilkes (Philadelphia, 1845); Narrative of a Voyage round the World performed in H.M.S. Sulphur by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, R.N. (London, 1843); Journal of a Cruise among the islands of the Western Pacific by Captain John Elphinstone Erskine, R.N. (Murray, 1853): Sketches in the Pacific by Conway Shipley, R.N., containing beautiful illustrations taken in the cruise of H.M.S. Calypso, Captain H. Worth (London, 1851). More important are the original publications of some of the resident missionaries: Memoirs of Mrs Margaret Cargill by her husband (J. Mason, London, 1841); Fiji and the Fijians by Thomas Williams and James Calvert (London, 1858); The King and People of Fiji containing a life of Thakombau by Joseph Waterhouse (London, 1866). In 1925 Sir Everard im Thurn and Mr Leonard C. Wharton edited the Journal of William Lockerby and included in the book the narratives of Samuel Patterson, the Tahitian missionaries on the Hibernia and the Journal of Captain Richard Siddons. It is a valuable publication.

I may say in conclusion that I believe the value of the evidence supplied by the missionaries in their correspondence throughout this period has been very much underrated, and too often overlooked. The early missionaries in Fiji were men of strong prepossessions, and the impartial student will soon discover that he must make due allowance for that; but they were also men of intelligence, with an acute sense of responsibility, and they knew a lot about the Fijians and their language before they were influenced to any great extent by the civilization of the white man. There is a wealth of carefully considered detail in their correspondence, journals and day-books which beggars the information page 324given by any other original authorities that I have read or studied. The material available for study in the vaults of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in London, and in the Mitchell Library in Sydney, opens up a mine of information which historians and anthropologists would do well to work for all it is worth. The early missionaries in the Pacific must not be judged only by their religious work; they were pioneers in other branches of thought and industry.