The Journal of William Lockerby, Sandalwood Trader in the Fijian Islands during the Years 1808-1809 by Leonard C. Wharton Sir Everard Im Thurn

Author:Leonard C. Wharton, Sir Everard Im Thurn [Leonard C. Wharton, Sir Everard Im Thurn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789354217234
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Alpha Edition
Published: 2020-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

1 The four Kings must have been Tui Mbua, Tui Mathuata, Tui Thakau, and Tui Ndama, or, as he should perhaps more correctly be called, Tui Vuya. (Tui is the official title of the principal Chief of a place.)

2 The total population of the Mbua District in 1865—when the area of the District was much the same as in Lockerby’s time—was estimated by David Wilkinson, a competent observer of long experience, at 40,000, notwithstanding the decrease which had undoubtedly been going on since the introduction of fire-arms (i.e. since the sandalwood episode) and the consequent increase in the frequency and deadliness of intertribal fighting (see Report...on Decrease of Native Population, Fiji Government Printing Office, 1896, p. 82). Lockerby’s estimate of the number of fighting men in his time was probably under rather than over the mark.

1 On the whole subject of cannibalism see Introduction.

2 See postscript XI, p. 83.

3 It has sometimes been suggested that bows and arrows were not used by the Fijians except in sport; but this is clearly erroneous.

4 See postscript XII, p. 84.

5 See postscript XIII, p. 84.

1 See postscript XIV, p. 84.

2 Myendam, properly Mai Ndama. Ndama was an important native town immediately south from Mbua Bay. Lockerby evidently regarded it as the chief town of the District (or Kingdom) in which it was situated; but there is a strong tradition that the natives regarded the district lying between Mbua and Vuya Point, at the southern extremity of the island, as the Kingdom of Vuya. Bulendam was regarded as Tui Ndama or as Tui Vuya.

1 Acute theka, or conjunctivitis, is still a very common malady in the Fijian Islands.

2 See postscript XV, p. 84.

1 It is worth noting that this first European building in the Fijian Islands was at Mbua and not at Mbau. See p. 198.

2 On the routine of yam-planting and its connection with the Fijian Calendar see Seemann’s Flora Vitiensis, p. 306; see also Brewster’s Hill Tribes of Fiji, p. 93.

1 The entrance to a Fijian Fort shown on Plate II has been very carefully reconstructed, by Miss Gardner King, from Lockerby’s detailed description here given, from the account by Commander Wilkes (U.S.A. Exploring Expedition, Vol. in, p. 80), and that by Wm. Mariner in his Account...of the Tonga Islands, Vol. 1, pp. 97-8, and also from a sketch, by Bishop Selwyn in a letter to his Father (reproduced in facsimile in Curteis’ Life of Bp. Selzvyn) of the fort at Bea in Tongataboo. Owing to the ephemeral nature of the building material used, no complete example now survives in these more peaceful times; but Miss King’s beautiful drawing may confidently be accepted as a correct reconstruction.

1 Sixty yards seems a surprising width; and the few traces that remain of these war-ditches seem to suggest that sixty feet, or even six yards, would have been a more accurate estimate.

1 Mandrai is native “bread” made by burying in the ground pulped bread-fruit, plantains or other such vegetable substances.

2 The Bure Kalou, or priest’s

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