Missionaries wrote account of Fiji murders

By ANNE BESTON

The grandparents of Aucklander Frieda McHugh spent 50 years in Fiji as Methodist missionaries, arriving in 1879.

Arthur and Emma Small both left written accounts of their time in the islands and included in Emma Small's Reminisces of Old Fiji is what she believed happened to missionary Thomas Baker and his party.

A Fijian village sought forgiveness at a ceremony yesterday for an act of cannibalism they believe has cursed them for 137 years.

In 1867, the men of Nabutautau murdered and ate Baker and eight of his Fijian supporters.

Emma Small begins by quoting a letter from Baker to his wife, written the night before he was killed, in which he says he believes the villagers will not kill him. "You must cheer up and pray for me," he wrote.

When Baker, "native minister" Setareki and a group of teachers and students arrived at the village, the village chief, Filimoni Nawawabalavu, came out to meet them and shook hands with Baker.

The chief said he would guide them to a neighbouring tribe but would have nothing to do with the "Lotu" - the Christian Church. Baker asked to continue his journey that day but the chief demanded the visitors stay overnight.

Setareki held a prayer service but Baker and his party were uneasy because, contrary to custom, the villagers had not offered them any food.

Next morning, Baker saw men gathering near the village and reportedly said, "Let us be quick or we shall be killed today".

The chief warned them to leave at once but they had walked only a few metres when armed warriors attacked.

Baker was struck "a terrible blow against the back and a little to the right side of his neck, felling him like an ox", Small wrote.

Two young students escaped the slaying but the bodies of the others were dragged into the village and laid in the village "square". A drum was sounded announcing a feast.

The bodies were distributed to various villages, Small wrote. Baker's was taken to "Cubue" and cooked. "Portions sent out all over the district as was customary when a chief or other person of distinction happened to be the victim."

The reasons for the massacre remains a mystery but author R.A. Derrick, who published his A History of Fiji in 1947, blamed Baker's religion.