The Floating Island (38 page)

Of these islets, mere fragments
of atolls, or summits of submarine mountains, fringed with coral, there are
none that measure more than a hundred and fifty superficial kilometres. This
political domain England has annexed to her colonial empire. If the Fijians
have at length decided to submit to a British Protectorate, it is because they
were in 1859 threatened with a Tongan invasion, which was checked by the United
Kingdom. The archipelago is divided into seventeen districts, administered by
the native chiefs, more or less related to the royal family of the last King,
Thakumbau.

“Is it the consequence of the
English system,” asked Commodore Simcoe, who was talking on this subject with
Frascolin, “that the Fijis will be like Tasmania? I do not know, but it is
certain that the natives are disappearing. The colony does not prosper, nor
does the population increase, as is shown by the numerical inferiority of the
women compared to the men.”

“That is a sign of the
approaching extinction of a race,” said Frascolin; “and in Europe there are
already a few States which this inferiority menaces.”

“Here,” said the commodore, “the
natives are really but serfs, like the natives of the neighbouring islands,
recruited by the planters for the work of clearing the ground. Diseases
decimate them, and in 1875 small-pox swept off more than thirty thousand. But
it is an admirable country, as you can see. If the temperature is high in the
interior of the islands, it is at least moderate on the shore. The country is
very fertile in fruits and vegetables, in trees
—
cocoanut
trees, bananas, etc. There is little more than the trouble of gathering the
yams and taros, and the nourishing sap of the palm which produces sago.”

“Sago!”  exclaimed Frascolin, “what
a remembrance of our Swiss Family Robinson ‘!”

“As to the pigs and the fowls,”
said the commodore, “these animals have multiplied since their importation with
extraordinary prolificness. They furnish all the means of subsistence.
Unfortunately, the natives are inclined to indolence, although they are
intelligent and witty.”

“And as they have high spirits
—
” said Frascolin.

“The children amuse themselves,”
replied Commodore Simcoe.

In fact, all these natives,
Polynesians, Melanesians, and others, are nothing but children.

In approaching Viti-Levu,
Floating Island sighted many intermediate islands, such as Vanua-Vatu, Moala,
Ngau, without stopping at them.

From all parts came scudding
along the coast flotillas of those long out-rigger canoes with intersecting
bamboos, which serve to maintain the equilibrium of the vessel and carry the
cargo. They were gracefully handled, but did not seek to enter Starboard
Harbour or Larboard Harbour. Probably they would not have been allowed to on
account of the evil reputation of these Fijians. These natives have embraced
Christianity, it is true. Since the European missionaries established
themselves at Lecumba, in 1835, they have nearly all become Wesleyans, mingled
with a few thousand Catholics. But previously they were so addicted to the
practice of cannibalism that perhaps they have not yet quite lost the taste for
human flesh. Besides, it is a matter of religion. Their gods love blood.
Kindness is regarded among these people as weakness, and even sin. To eat an
enemy is to do him honour. They cook the man they despise, but they do not eat
him. Children furnished the principal joints at their festivities, and the time
is not so distant when King Thakumbau delighted to sit under a tree, from every
branch of which hung a human limb reserved for the royal table. Sometimes a
tribe
—
as
happened to the Nulocas in Viti-Levu near Namosi
—
was
devoured completely except a few females, one of whom died in 1880

Decidedly if Pinchinat did not
meet on one of these islands the grandchildren of cannibals retaining the
customs of their ancestors, he would have to give up asking for local colour in
these archipelagoes of the Pacific.

The western group of the Fijis
comprises two large islands, Viti-Levu and Vanua-Levu, and two smaller islands,
Kandavu and Taviuni. More to the north-west lie the Wassava Islands and the
Ronde Passage, by which Commodore Simcoe would make his way out towards the New
Hebrides.

On the afternoon of the 25th of
January the heights of Viti-Levu appeared on the horizon. This mountainous
island is the largest of the archipelago, being a third larger than Corsica.
Its peaks run from twelve to fifteen hundred metres above the level of the sea.
These are volcanoes, extinct, or rather dormant, and apt to be disagreeable
when they wake up. Viti-Levu has an area of six thousand four hundred and
seventy-five square kilometres, and is connected with Vanua-Levu, its neighbour
to the north, by a submarine barrier of reefs, which were doubtless above water
when the land was formed. Above this barrier Floating Island could venture
without danger. To the north of Viti-Levu the depths are estimated at from four
to five hundred metres, and to the south from five hundred metres to two
thousand.

Formerly the capital of the
archipelago was Levuka, in the island of Ovalau, to the east of Viti-Levu.
Perhaps the offices founded by English houses are still more important than
those of Suva, the present capital, in the island of Viti-Levu. But the harbour
of the latter has many advantages, being situated at the south-east extremity
of the island, between two deltas. The port of call used by steamers in the
Fijis occupies the head of Ngalao Bay, at the south of the island of Kandavu,
the position of which is the nearest to New Zealand, Australia, and the French
islands of New Caledonia and the Loyalties.

Floating Island stopped at the
mouth of Suva harbour. The formalities were completed the same day and free
pratique was accorded. As the visit would be a source of profit to both
colonists, and natives, the Milliardites were sure of an excellent welcome, in
which there was probably more interest than sympathy.

Next day, the 26th of January,
the tradesmen of Floating Island who had purchases to make or sales to effect
went ashore early in the morning. The tourists, and among them our Parisians,
were almost as early. Although Pinchinat and Yvernès made fun of Frascolin
—
the distinguished
pupil of Commodore Simcoe
—
concerning
his ethno-geographical studies, they none the less availed themselves of his
knowledge. To the questions of his comrades on the inhabitants of Viti-Levu,
their customs, their practices, the replies of the second violin were always
instructive. Sebastien Zorn did not disdain to refer to him occasionally, and
when Pinchinat learnt that these regions were not long ago the principal
theatre of cannibalism, he could not restrain a sigh as he said:

“Yes
—
but we shall arrive too late, and you
will see that these Fijians, enervated by civilization, have come down to
fricasseed fowl and pigs’ feet
à la
Sainte Menehould!”

“Cannibal!” exclaimed Frascolin, “you
deserve to have figured on the table of King Thakumbau. Ah! ah!
Entrecote de
Pinchinat à la Bordelaise
.”

“Come,” said Sebastien Zorn, “if
we are to waste our time in these useless recriminations
—
”

“We shall make no progress by a
forward movement,” said Pinchinat. “That is the sort of phrase you like, isn’t
it, my old Violoncelluloidist? Well, forward, march!”

The town of Suva, built on the
right of a little bay, has its buildings scattered on the back of a green hill.
It has quays for mooring ships, roads furnished with plank sideways, like the
beaches of our large bathing places. The wooden houses have but one floor; a
few of them have two floors, but all are cheerful and fresh-looking. In the
suburbs the native huts display their gable-ends raised into horns and
ornamented with shells. The roofs are substantial, to resist the winter rains
from May to October, which fall in torrents. In fact in March, 1871, according
to Frascolin, who was very strong on statistics, Mbua, situated in the east of
the island, had a rainfall in one day of thirty-eight centimetres.

Viti-Levu, like the other islands
of the archipelago, is subject to great differences in climate, and the
vegetation differs on each shore. On the side exposed to the southeast trades
the atmosphere is humid, and magnificent forests cover the soil. On the other
side are immense savannahs suitable for cultivation. But it is noticeable that
certain trees tend to disappear, among others the sandal-wood, almost entirely
exhausted, and also the dakua, a pine peculiar to Fiji.

However, in their promenades, the
quartette discovered that the flora of the island is of tropical luxuriance.
Everywhere are forests of cocoanut trees and palms, their trunks covered with
parasitic orchids, clumps of casuarinas, pandanus, acacias, tree ferns, and in
the marshy parts numbers of mangrove trees with roots winding out of the
ground. But the cultivation of cotton and tea has not given the results the
climate had led people to expect. The soil of Viti-Levu, as in the rest of the
group, is clayey and yellowish in colour, formed of volcanic cinders to which
decomposition has given the productive qualities.

The fauna is not more varied than
in other parts of the Pacific; some forty species of birds, acclimatized
parrots and canaries, bats, rats in legions, reptiles of non-venomous species,
much appreciated by the natives from a commissariat point of view, lizards, and
horrible cockroaches of cannibalistic voracity. But of wild beasts there were
none which provoked this sally from Pinchinat.

“Our Governor, Cyrus Bikerstaff,
should have kept a few lions, tigers, panthers, crocodiles, and landed these
useful carnivores in the Fijis. It would be a curious experiment in
acclimatisation.”

The natives, of mixed Polynesian
and Melanesian race, still yield some fine examples, less remarkable, however,
than those of Samoa and the Marquesas. The men are copper-coloured, almost
black, their heads covered with a thick mass of hair, among them being a number
of half-breeds, and they are tall and strong. Their clothing is rudimentary
enough, oftenest being but mere cotton drawers made of the native fabric called
“masi,” produced by a species of mulberry tree, which also produces paper. In
its first stage this fabric is quite white, but the Fijians know how to dye it
and stripe it, and it is in demand in all the archipelagoes of the Eastern
Pacific. It must be added that the men do not disdain to clothe themselves,
when opportunity offers, in old European garments sent out from the old clothes
stores of the United Kingdom or Germany. A fine field for joking was thus
offered to a Parisian, when he saw these Fijians clad in worn-out trousers, a
great-coat the worse for age, and even a black coat, which, after many phases
of decadence, had come to end its days on the back of a native of Viti-Levu.

“You might make a romance out of
one of those coats!” observed Yvernès.

“A romance that might end in a
waistcoat.” replied Pinchinat.

The women have the short
petticoat and masi jacket, which they wear in a fashion more or less decent.
They are well-built, and with the attractions of youth some of them might pass
for pretty. But what a detestable habit they have
—
as
have also the men
—
in
plastering their hair with lime so as to form a sort of calcareous hat to
preserve themselves against sunstroke. And then they smoke as much as their
husbands and brothers the tobacco of the country, which has the odour of
burning hay, and when the cigarette is not between their teeth it is stuck into
the lobe of their ears in the place where in Europe you have the pendants of
diamonds and pearls.

In general these women are
reduced to the condition of slaves, doing the hardest of household work, and
the time is not distant when, after toiling to encourage the indolence of their
husband, they were strangled on his tomb.

On many occasions, during the
three days they devoted to their excursions round Suva, our tourists
endeavoured to visit the native huts. They were repulsed, not by the
inhospitality of their owners, but by the abominable odour that was given
forth. All these natives, rubbed over with cocoanut oil, live in promiscuity
with the pigs, the fowls, the dogs, the cats, in evil-smelling huts, the
choking light being obtained by burning the resinous gum of the dammana. No!
They could not stop there. And if they had taken their places at the Fijian
fireside, would they not, at the risk of failing in politeness, have had to
steep their lips in the bowl of kava, the special Fijian drink? Though
extracted from the dried bark of the pepper plant, this pimentoed kava is
unpleasing to European palates owing to the way in which it is prepared. Is it
not enough to provoke the most insurmountable repugnance? They do not grind
their pepper, they chew it, they triturate it through their teeth, then they
spit it out into the water in a vase, and offer it you with a savage insistence
that will hardly bear refusal. And nothing remains but to thank them by
pronouncing these words, which are current in the archipelago,
E mana ndina
,
otherwise
amen
.

Do not let us forget the
cockroaches which swarm in the huts, the white ants which devastate them, and
mosquitoes
—
mosquitoes
in thousands
—
that
can be seen on the walls, on the ground, on the clothes in innumerable bands.

WHILE our artistes were passing
their time in walking about, and taking note of the customs of the archipelago,
a few notables of Floating Island had not disdained to enter into communication
with the native authorities of the archipelago. The “papalangis,” as strangers
are called in these islands, had no fear of being badly received.