Every house had doors and Venetian windows, painted partly with lamp black made from the candle-nut, and partly with red ochre, which contrasted powerfully with the dazzling coral lime that covered the walls.On a prominent position stood a handsome church, which was quite a curiosity in its way.It was a hundred feet long by fifty broad, and was seated throughout to accommodate upwards of two thousand persons.It had six large folding doors and twelve windows with Venetian blinds; and, although a large and substantial edifice, it had been built, we were told by the teacher, in the space of two months! There was not a single iron nail in the fabric, and the natives had constructed it chiefly with their stone and bone axes and other tools, having only one or two axes or tools of European manufacture.Everything around this beautiful spot wore an aspect of peace and plenty, and, as we dropped our anchor within a stone's cast of the substantial coral wharf, I could not avoid contrasting it with the wretched village of Emo, where I had witnessed so many frightful scenes.When the teacher afterwards told me that the people of this tribe had become converts only a year previous to our arrival, and that they had been living before that in the practice of the most bloody system of idolatry, I could not refrain from exclaiming, "What a convincing proof that Christianity is of God!"On landing from our little boat, we were received with a warm welcome by the teacher and his wife; the latter being also a native, clothed in a ****** European gown and straw bonnet.The shore was lined with hundreds of natives, whose persons were all more or less clothed with native cloth.Some of the men had on a kind of poncho formed of this cloth, their legs being uncovered.
Others wore clumsily-fashioned trousers, and no upper garment except hats made of straw and cloth.Many of the dresses, both of women and men, were grotesque enough, being very bad imitations of the European garb; but all wore a dress of some sort or other.
They seemed very glad to see us, and crowded round us as the teacher led the way to his dwelling, where we were entertained, in the most sumptuous manner, on baked pig and all the varieties of fruits and vegetables that the island produced.We were much annoyed, however, by the rats: they seemed to run about the house like domestic animals.As we sat at table, one of them peeped up at us over the edge of the cloth, close to Peterkin's elbow, who floored it with a blow on the snout from his knife, exclaiming as he did so -"I say, Mister Teacher, why don't you set traps for these brutes? -surely you are not fond of them!"
"No," replied the teacher, with a smile; "we would be glad to get rid of them if we could; but if we were to trap all the rats on the island, it would occupy our whole time.""Are they, then, so numerous?" inquired Jack.
"They swarm everywhere.The poor heathens on the north side eat them, and think them very sweet.So did my people formerly; but they do not eat so many now, because the missionary who was last here expressed disgust at it.The poor people asked if it was wrong to eat rats; and he told them that it was certainly not wrong, but that the people of England would be much disgusted were they asked to eat rats."We had not been an hour in the house of this kind-hearted man when we were convinced of the truth of his statement as to their numbers, for the rats ran about the floors in dozens, and, during our meal, two men were stationed at the table to keep them off!
"What a pity you have no cats," said Peterkin, as he aimed a blow at another reckless intruder, and missed it.
"We would, indeed, be glad to have a few," rejoined the teacher, "but they are difficult to be got.The hogs, we find, are very good rat-killers, but they do not seem to be able to keep the numbers down.I have heard that they are better than cats."As the teacher said this, his good-natured black face was wrinkled with a smile of merriment.Observing that I had noticed it, he said:-"I smiled just now when I remembered the fate of the first cat that was taken to Raratonga.This is one of the stations of the London Missionary Society.It, like our own, is infested with rats, and a cat was brought at last to the island.It was a large black one.
On being turned loose, instead of being content to stay among men, the cat took to the mountains, and lived in a wild state, sometimes paying visits during the night to the houses of the natives; some of whom, living at a distance from the settlement, had not heard of the cat's arrival, and were dreadfully frightened in consequence, calling it a 'monster of the deep,' and flying in terror away from it.One night the cat, feeling a desire for company, I suppose, took its way to the house of a chief, who had recently been converted to Christianity, and had begun to learn to read and pray.
The chief's wife, who was sitting awake at his side while he slept, beheld with horror two fires glistening in the doorway, and heard with surprise a mysterious voice.Almost petrified with fear, she awoke her husband, and began to upbraid him for forsaking his old religion, and burning his god, who, she declared, was now come to be avenged of them.'Get up and pray! get up and pray!' she cried.
