made a number of yet unfulfilled contracts, for which his successors would be liable; and the new Cabinet, competent though they were to conduct kava-bowl diplomacy, were filled with an unconcealed awe of the mysteries of office-work. "Was the High Commissioner," they asked, "going to leave them to themselves before their path was clear?" They were not afraid of Tongans, "but what about the white men? Could he send no one to help them for a time?" Sir John Thurston was prepared for the request. It was clear that they must have help without involving the Imperial Government in any direct responsibilities on their account. He told them that if the king made a formal request to him he would send them an officer not altogether unknown to them; but that if he came they must follow his advice, and he must have a seat in the Privy Council.

There being nothing more to do, the Rapid sailed for the northern groups of Haapai and Vavau, touching at each place, and telling the people the good news of the Jikota's" fall, and of the return of the exiles. In Vavau they received it with mixed feelings, for, while they hated Mr Baker, they could not forget that the exiles were Wesleyans, and Vavau is staunch Free Church.

1 Mr Baker had a number of nicknames-such as Kingfisher (Jikota), Empty Bottle, &c. The jikota of Tonga is an irrepressibly active and pugnacious bird, and Mr Baker seemed to be proud of the comparison. Of some of his other sobriquets he had less reason to be proud.

26

II.

HOW I TOOK OFFICE.

I HEARD the High Commissioner's announcement with rather mixed feelings. To be at the age of twenty-nine elder brother to a monarch of over ninety does not fall to the lot of many, and new adventures are always worth. undertaking; but, on the other hand, I had already been to Tonga, and I knew enough of the place and the people to realise that, after the enthusiasm and excitement of Mr Baker's ejectment, would come a strong reaction. By this time no doubt every Tongan had made up his mind that the millennium had arrived, in which there would be no more taxes nor Government, and every man would be a law unto himself. Any Government that tried to undeceive them on this point would be unpopular, and any white. man who was associated with such a Government would bear the whole brunt of the popular distrust, already aroused by the revelations of Mr Baker's delinquencies imperfectly understood. With a people who would pay no taxes, how were the liabilities to be paid off? Besides, I was to go there without any authority at my back but that which the king might choose to give me, and if I

MY INSTRUCTIONS.

27

failed, I alone must take the blame. The blame of failing in such a service would probably dog me for the rest of my official career.

On the other hand, I might have the luck to succeed, and the experience was certain to be amusing. On the whole it seemed worth the risk. The High Commissioner was still telling me his proposals when my mind was made up.

The plans were soon arranged. I was to go to Tonga in the steamer chartered to take back the Wesleyan exiles. I was not to be hampered by a detailed letter of instructions, but, furnished with a mere outline of the policy to be pursued, I was to present myself to the king, and thereafter be left with a free hand, to be guided by circumstances as to my future course.

Meanwhile the exiles had been sent for from the island of Koro, and on their arrival they were assembled to hear from the High Commissioner the steps that were to be taken on their behalf. They were, he said, to go back to their homes after three years of exile, which they had borne with praiseworthy fortitude. They were not sent back by the British Government: they were invited to return by their own king, to whom alone they owed allegiance. They were not to think that because they had been exiled for wishing to continue in their Church, this invitation implied that their Church had triumphed. If they adopted a triumphant attitude in Tonga, or tried to push forward the cause of their Church, disturbances would be quite certain to follow, and they would be in a worse plight than before. Any such conduct on their part would be a poor return to the British Government

who had befriended them, and whose one desire was to see Tonga at peace. They were especially to understand that the late events had come about from a true desire to help the king, and not from any ulterior object of extending British influence. Foolish things were often said in Tonga, and the most foolish of all was that England wished to take the country for her own. Victoria was not a "stealing Queen," and wanted no country that belonged to others. She and her officers were now, as ever, ready to endorse the proverb, "Tonga maa Tonga" (Tonga for the Tongans), and it was their duty, whenever they heard this foolish statement made, to contradict it. Then William Maealiuaki replied on behalf of the exiles. He began with a long and very wearisome list of the presents given to them by the Fijian chiefs, and finished with a flowery oration of thanks. Charlotte, the king's daughter, an old woman of past sixty, had called upon Lady Thurston with her women, and had presented an immense roll of native cloth, which, she explained, had been brought to Fiji to serve as her shroud, but since God had allowed her to see her native country again and would let her die there, she wished to leave the shroud behind her.

scene.

On August 16th the steamer Pukaki hauled into the wharf to receive her passengers. Counting children, the exiles numbered more than 120 souls. It was a curious Half the population of Suva had assembled to see them off, including the High Commissioner and the Government officials, and the wharf was crowded. Their native friends were weeping demonstratively, and the Tongans themselves were in a state of high emotion. The steamer,

THE PROFITS OF MARTYRDOM.

29

dressed with all her signal flags, cast off amid deafening cheers from the shore party, and as she swung out into the stream she fired a salute. As the echoes of the last shot died away, the voices of the exiles were heard singing "Home, Sweet Home," in their own language, taking well-sustained parts; and they continued singing until we passed through the white. line of reef-breakers, and the figures on shore had melted away in a cloud of white draperies. We had cast off our nationality, and were now Tongans.

Our fellow-passengers spent their first day at sea in holding religious services, and in fussing about their luggage. These exiles for conscience' sake had already reaped the reward. of their constancy-an earthly reward in the form of mats, native cloth, kava - bowls, and all things that are most precious to the native heart. They numbered more than 120, and had left their homes almost naked. They went back with eighty tons of luggage-far more than they could possibly have accumulated in three years had they remained in their own country. Persecution had not been unprofitable.

One of the Exiles.

A grey fuzzy line just above the horizon, gradually resolving itself into cocoanut-palms-such was our first sight of Tongatabu. We steamed along the south-east coast, the Liku, watching the surf spout up in a hundred