An astounding sight greeted John when he stepped ashore in Raiatea. Three men from the church swaggered down the beach to greet him. They were obviously drunk! As he walked through the village, John saw children who had been enrolled in school now running around while their mothers lay inebriated on the doorsteps of their houses.
John hurried to find Edward Smith. “What has happened to the people?” he asked when he found him, although he was afraid to hear the answer.
“I’m sorry you have to see this,” Edward replied. “You must be amazed. I can hardly take it in myself, and I was here when it happened.”
“What happened?” John asked.
“The Sobel dropped anchor in the bay, and young Chief Tamatoa insisted on trading coconuts for a cask of spirits. Everyone started drinking the liquor, and the place went wild! The ship’s captain showed the chief how to make a still and produce his own liquor. Now there are twenty stills on the island providing a constant supply of cheap alcohol that even some of the deacons cannot resist!”
“And how have you been fighting this?” John asked.
“It’s not easy. In fact, I haven’t really made much headway at all. The people seem to want to drink the stuff, and there’s not much I can do to stop them.”
John took a deep breath and held his temper. He had to remember that this was a new missionary he was dealing with. “Let me see what I can do. This has to stop or the people will be ruined,” he replied.
John went straight to work. He called a church meeting to discuss the matter. Many of the Christians looked sheepishly at John as they walked into the chapel. From their greeting alone, it was easy for him to tell who had succumbed to the “demon alcohol” and who had stood firm in their faith.
As John began to speak, many of the Raiateans hung their heads in shame. “We have been wrong,” they said. “We do not know what we were thinking.”
John challenged the people that if they were truly sorry they would elect a new judge who would pass a law banning stills on the island. And that is what the people did. Old Chief Tamatoa’s daughter Maihara, who lived on an outlying island, did not agree with her brother’s stand on alcohol. When the new law was passed, she dispatched several men from the island to make sure every still on Raiatea was destroyed. Many people wanted the stills to stay, but Maihara was persistent, and within a week the island’s source of liquor had disappeared.
Before leaving Raiatea, John had several long talks with Edward Smith about what to do when unruly ships stopped in at the island. He then headed back to Tahiti to pick up Aaron and the food supplies for Rarotonga.
Chapter 14
A Day of Turning
Much to John’s relief, Aaron had everything ready for loading when the Messenger of Peace arrived at Tahiti. There were twelve Yorkshire cows and two bulls and about the same number of horses and donkeys to transport. An American ship had passed by, and Aaron had bought several barrels of flour from it. This was all loaded onto the Messenger of Peace, along with breadfruit, taro, and dried coconut. It was hoped that all this food would tide the Rarotongans over until their own crops grew once again. As well, Aaron had acquired the old printing press that William Ellis had brought to the island, along with a stockpile of paper.
The Messenger of Peace set sail for Rarotonga, and when the vessel arrived, word quickly spread that John had brought back with him strange, oversized pigs. The islanders had seen a cow before on board a passing ship, but they gathered nervously as the horses and donkeys were brought ashore. No one would come near the animals at first, though the people had a long discussion about what to call them. John listened with interest as they settled on e buaka apa tangata (the great pig that carries the man) for the horse and e buaka taringa roa (the pig with long ears) for the donkey.
The missionaries kept most of the animals for breeding purposes, but they decided to butcher and eat one of the cows. The three wives set to work preparing a traditional English meal, or as close to it as they could get. The roast beef was served up with great ceremony. John carved off thick slices for everyone, although the smell of the meat made his stomach turn.
Several minutes after the meal was served, Sarah burst into tears.
“What’s the matter?” Mary inquired.
“I don’t like it!” Sarah replied. “All these years I’ve been longing for roast beef, and now I’ve lost the taste for it. Its flavor is too strong.” She started sobbing again and then added, “What kind of barbarian have I become that I do not like roast beef?”
“I can’t eat it either,” Aaron confessed, “though I was not going to say anything.”
In fact, not one of them wanted to eat the beef, and the meat was collected and fed to the cats.
Now that everything seemed to be under control in Rarotonga, John decided to head for Samoa again. He had promised he would return there within a year, but the hurricane had altered his plans, and now over eighteen months had passed. John planned to take a strong Christian convert named Teava along to fulfill his promise to Matetau, the chief of Manono. Chief Makea announced that he was coming on the voyage as well.
At sunset on October 11, 1832, the Messenger of Peace glided out of Avarua harbor under full sail. The wind stayed strong, and the ship was able to cover eight hundred miles in five days. As day broke on October 17, Manu’a, the most easterly island of Samoa, came into view. As they neared the shore of the island, several canoes approached the ship. One of the paddlers stood up and shouted, “We are sons of the Word. We are waiting for a ship of God to bring us some workers of religion. Are you such a ship?”
John was amazed. As far as he knew, no missionary of any race had ever visited this remote island. When the islanders came on board, John asked them how they had become Christians. It turned out that some Christians from Raivavae, located among the Astral Islands, about three hundred miles to the south, had been driven off course in their canoe several years before. They drifted aimlessly for nearly three months, during which time twenty of them died. Finally the few remaining survivors reached Manu’a and settled among the local people. The Raivavae Christians set up a chapel, and Hura, their teacher, carried eight pages of Scripture with him. These pages were the Raivavae castaways’ most precious possession. Hura read them to their hosts, many of whom stopped their warring ways and became Christians.
“Now,” one of the men explained to John, “we need a worker of religion to tell us more things of God and to show us where we are walking crooked.”
John hated telling these eager converts that even though the Messenger of Peace was a missionary ship, he did not have any worker to leave with them. However, he promised to bring a missionary for their island back with him on a return visit.
The ship continued on to Tutuila, where it dropped anchor in Leone Bay. As John lowered the lighter over the side and headed for shore, a number of men raced down the beach and stood under a huge breadfruit tree. They looked wild, and John asked the rowers to stop. It was time to pray!
When he had finished praying, he noticed that a tall man was wading out toward them. “Son,” the man shouted, “will you not come ashore? I am Chief Amoamo. Will you not land among us? We are not savage now! We are Christians.”
“You, Christians?” John yelled back. “Where did you hear about Christianity?”
“A great chief from the white man’s country named Williams came to Savai’i about twenty moons ago and placed some workers of religion there. Several of our people heard the workers of religion speak, and when they returned to our island they began to instruct their friends in the way. Now many of us have become sons of the Word.” The chief then lifted his arm and pointed to shore. “See, there are fifty of us Christians come to greet you. You will know who we are because we have white cloth tied around our arms.”
John peered at what he thought were wild islanders. The islanders did indeed have white bands on their arms!
“Why,” John said, “I am the person you talk of. My name is Williams. It was I who took the workers to Savai’i twenty moons ago.”
As soon as Amoamo heard this, he motioned to the group on the beach. In unison they sprang into action, running into the water and swimming out to John’s boat. Once they reached it, they pulled it ashore and gathered around John.
“Do you have a chapel?” John asked, still trying to gauge how much they understood of the gospel.
Amoamo pointed to the left, and as John followed his direction he saw a small open building surrounded by banana trees.
“And who performs the services in the chapel?” he asked.
“I do,” said a young man stepping forward. “See that little canoe along the beach? That is my canoe, in which I paddle over to the teachers in Savai’i. I get some religion there, and I bring it carefully home and give it to the people. And when it is gone, I take my canoe again and fetch some more. Give us a man full of religion that I may not expose my life to danger by going on so long a journey to fetch it.”
The young man looked at John so expectantly that John hardly had the heart to tell him there was no missionary on the ship he could leave on the island. For the second time, all he could do was promise to return later with a missionary.
When the ship reached the island of Manono, Chief Matetau was delighted that John had returned bringing Teava and his family to be their missionaries. The Messenger of Peace then sailed on to Savai’i, where John had dropped off Fauea and the other Polynesian missionaries from Raiatea and Aitutaki nearly two years before.
The missionaries and their wives wept for joy as they embraced John and Chief Makea. “We have had a difficult time,” they told him. “Yet we have brought some into the church of God.”
As soon as supplies for the missionaries were unloaded from the ship, John heard all about their problems. Chief Malietoa was a man who loved to fight, and after the Messenger of Peace had sailed away, he had intensified his war against the people of Upolu. This had led to many people on both sides being killed or captured. The inhabitants of Savai’i appeared to like watching their captives die slow, painful deaths. About six months before, they had lit huge bonfires and thrown all of their prisoners—men, women, and children—into them. They then danced to the agonized screams of those perishing in the flames.
Still, the missionaries reported that many Samoans said they would give up their old ways and become Christians if and when John returned. This was great news to John, and the following morning a meeting was called. One of the Raiatean missionaries rose to address the seven hundred or so people who gathered for the meeting.
“Friends,” the missionary began, “for a long time past we have been subjected to ridicule and reproach by some of you. You have said much evil against us. Here is our minister, Mr. Williams, for whom you said you would wait. You can now ask him any question that you please about the truth of what we have told you. Mr. Williams is from the fountain of truth, England. He, with his brother missionaries, is the fountain from which all true knowledge in these seas has come. Now ask him about all the points where you have doubted our word. He is our root.”
No one said a word. The presence of John Williams was enough to convince them. After a few moments of silence, Malietoa rose to his feet. “Teachers,” he began, “you should not regard how the ignorant among us have goaded you. From this time on let each of us put away all evil and suspicion of one another. For now, surely, you all are convinced that what you have heard is true. Let Savai’i and let all Upolu embrace this great religion. For my part, my whole soul shall be given to the word of Jehovah, and I will use my utmost endeavors so that the word of Jehovah might encircle the land.”
When the meeting was over, the Polynesian missionaries came to John. “We are so happy you came back,” they told him. “Now the people can see that Christians are people of their word. Surely this day is a day of turning for Savai’i.”
