Show Me the Sky - Nicholas Hogg [69]
15 May 1835
Rev. Thomas and Collins go about their business of the Lord in a most spirited manner, as the numbers of the daily service gradually increase, so does their confidence of success in bringing light to where there is dark. Even though King Nayau is still reluctant to convert – fearing the ruling chiefdoms of Bau and Rewa will see it as a rejection of their power – he is keen to question the reverends about their religion. Like many of the converted, he is drawn to a Christian afterlife, and also wishes that he might be a dweller of the sky, ‘that good land among the stars named Heaven’. But only once chiefs more powerful than he permit this so.
True that Bau and Rewa would view King Nayau’s conversion a weakening of their kingdom, and send war canoes to Lakemba. But I also believe this a convenient excuse for a man who has a different wife for each day of the week, and drinks kava not from the husk of a coconut shell, but a hollowed-out skull.
16 May 1835
Work has begun on a chapel. Part of the king’s decision to grant land by the river previously decreed taboo is, I believe, a direct result of the service delivered this morning by Rev. Thomas.
Though his Fijian is fast improving – due to the necessity of communication if I, his translator, am not present – the service was delivered in English, with myself as orator to the congregation. He has already realised the power of dramatic gesture, and while recounting the story of Noah and his ark, acted each scene with bodily vigour, as though a dancing marionette worked by God Himself.
The tale of the ark running aground on the peak of Ararat also compares closely with the great flood of Fiji. Ndengei, the Fijian lord of creation, was greatly angered by the killing of his pet bird, Turkawa, murdered by his mischievous grandsons who then escaped to a fortified town. They resisted the attacks of Ndengei until he gathered the clouds and burst upon them an ocean of rain. The flood rose, and the grandsons begged not to be drowned. In an act of benevolence Ndengei taught them how to build a great canoe. Thus they floated upon the calamity, and when the waters subsided came ashore on the slopes of Mbengga, with the people of this island now considered their descendants and first in the rank of Fijians.
Though the details of Noah and the flood of Ndengei differed somewhat, many of the congregation heard this story as proof of a single God, the Lord of Creation who is the father of Jesus Christ, the son who died so that we may live.
18 May 1835
Rev. Thomas spent the afternoon somewhat annoyed, as I had not been present to translate his morning service due to fishing with my brother on the northern side of the island. Guilty for allowing the words of God to go silent, I pray that my Lord understands how important it is that I reconcile my ‘old’ and ‘new’ self by bringing salvation to my family.
My brother has already sworn himself to Jesus, and it was probably the noisy and excited questioning of His teachings that fled the fish from our hooks this morning.
But still my father hangs his head and avoids my eye. I took some papaya to my mother yesterday evening, and as I walked into the house he walked out.
25 May 1835
Several pots and pans have gone astray from the kitchen of Mrs Collins, and this morning I accompanied the Rev. Collins to see the king and request that these most vital articles be returned.
King Nayau apologised that such honoured guests had been victims of crime, and swore that the perpetrators would be caught and justice swiftly done.
Returning from the fort, the Rev. Collins seemed most pleased with himself and the promise of the king, but I fear that the missionaries are somewhat naive to the true meaning of Fijian justice.
27 May 1835
This afternoon, after a lunchtime service on the beach, Rev. Collins received a message to visit