The White Witch of the South Seas gs-11

by Dennis Wheatley

  Their short flight to Mexico City was uneventful, but when they came down at the air terminal they found it a scene of utter chaos. No fewer than four large jet aircraft had landed there within the hour; so the Customs and Immigration departments were a seething mass of between two and three hundred people.

  Having at last secured their luggage, they drove to the El Presidente Hotel, where Gregory had stayed on a previous occasion. Fortunately he had made a good friend of the manager, as the desk clerk told them that the hotel was full. But, on being sent for, the manager came to their rescue and fixed them up, although Gregory had to share a room with James.

  The following day, having learned to their relief from the QANTAS office that they had seats on the flight to Fiji, they spent the time renewing their acquaintance with the splendid modern city. Then, after an early dinner on the Saturday, they drove out to the airport.

  When their baggage and passports had been checked they went into the departure lounge. As Gregory thought quite a possibility, Lacost and Corbin were standing there, obviously about to fly out on the same plane.

  The faces of both showed almost comical surprise as they caught sight of Gregory and James. Corbin made a movement as though about to take to his heels in panic; but Lacost recovered swiftly, grabbed his companion by the arm, said something to him in a low voice then, without the least embarrassment, walked up to Gregory and greeted him with a toothy smile.

  `I had thought, Monsieur Sallust that our meeting on Lake Atitlan was to be our last. Had it not been so brief, I could have saved your heirs the cost of this journey you are obviously about to make to the South Seas. That you are making it shows that you are slow to learn; but, since you insist on tempting fortune, I can promise you one thing.'

  Turning on his heel, he threw a twisted smile over his shoulder and added, `You won't need the return half of your ticket.'

  8

  Of Cannibals and Paradise

  As Lacost moved away, James' dark eyes flashed with anger and he shot out a great hand to grab the Colon by the shoulder. But Gregory was quicker. With a swift movement he knocked up James' arm and said sharply

  `Don't act like a fool! If you start a brawl here it would lead to our all being pulled in by the police and we'd miss the aircraft. With luck we'll get him in a quiet corner sometime. Provided there's no risk of your being found out, I won't lift a finger then to prevent you from strangling the swine. He's asked for it by killing that poor boatman.'

  On seeing Lacost approach, Manon had kept her eyes averted, fearful lest anger at finding her two companions still alive should lead him, in a fit of spite, to disclose that she was his mistress and that they had been working together. Having heard him utter his new threat, she was greatly tempted again to urge Gregory to abandon his plans while there was still time. But, knowing that almost certainly it would be useless, she resisted it and decided to hold her fire until they were in Fiji.

  Twenty minutes later they boarded the aircraft. The economy section was full, but the first class compartment, in which Gregory had asked for seats, half empty. As the Colons were travelling economy, the two parties did not even see each other again until they arrived in Tahiti soon after half past five the following morning. Dawn was coming up and the mountains behind the airport provided a wonderful backdrop. Lacost and Corbin disappeared into the Customs, while Gregory and his friends went into the cafeteria to revive themselves, after their night flight, with coffee laced with cognac.

  There, Manon ran into a woman she had known well during the months she had lived on Tahiti; she was about to take a plane for Hawaii, where she intended to settle permanently. The friend said that, since Manon had left, conditions in Tahiti had worsened considerably.

  Not only were they still saddled with thousands of down at heel, often dangerous, Colons, but de Gaulle was now using the island as the headquarters of his nuclear bomb experiments in the Pacific. Why he should require such great numbers of troops for security purposes no one could imagine, but he had recently increased the garrison of the island by thirty thousand men. Added to that, France ’s great new aircraft carrier, with an escort of destroyers, was due to arrive shortly, and to remain stationed there indefinitely. This big influx of Servicemen was leading to an all time high boom in the bars and nightclubs, but had already become a terrible infliction on the residents. With so much easy money about, the shopkeepers had become insolent; menservants could earn more doing a job for the Army, and it was now almost impossible to get maidservants because so many of them had become prostitutes.

  After the usual hour for refuelling, the QANTAS aircraft left for Fiji, arriving at 7.40 a.m. Fiji time. And there it was still Wednesday, for some four hundred miles to the east they had crossed the Date Line; thus theoretically, having gained a day in their lives.

  Suva, the capital of Fiji, lies at the eastern end of Viti Levu, the largest and most populous of the three hundred islands in the group, but its airport is not big enough to receive jet liners, so these come down at Nandi, a hundred miles away at the western extremity of the island.

  From Guatemala, at Manon's suggestion, Gregory had cabled Hunt's Travel Service to make all arrangements for them, so they were duly met, seen through the Customs and promptly whisked away to the Mocambo Hotel. To Gregory's surprise, it was not simply a hostel for the overnight convenience of air passengers, but a luxury resort where scores of wealthy people were enjoying the attractions. After a good breakfast they went to bed, having agreed to meet again for drinks before dinner.

  As soon as they had settled down in the dim, cool lounge over their Planter's Punches, Manon endeavoured to persuade Gregory to go with her next day to Lautoka, the principal port at the western end of the island, where they could hire a boat to take them to her home in the Mamanuca Group, which lay only twenty miles to the west. But he firmly declined her invitation, on the grounds that they must secure salvaging equipment as soon as possible; and that he had already asked Hunt's representative to secure seats for them on the local flight to Suva the next morning.

  They had just ordered their second round of drinks when they were joined by a Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Knox Mawer, whom Manon had met soon after coming to live in Fiji. It emerged that he was the Puisne Judge, who administered justice throughout that part of Viti Levu, and that his wife, June, was the author of a recently published book called A Gift of Islands, describing life in Fiji. They had previously been stationed for several years in Aden, about which she had written an earlier book, The Sultans Came to Tea. Gregory happened to have read it, and greatly enjoyed its interest and humour, so he was delighted at this opportunity to talk to her and her husband for he felt that few couples could tell him more about this colony in which he expected to make his headquarters for several months.

  They all dined together, and afterwards, over their brandies, the young Judge told Gregory about the islands. The Dutch explorer Tasman had been the first, in 1643, to discover the Fiji Group; but the whole South Pacific remained on the imaginative maps of those days for another one hundred and forty years, under the description `Here be Dragons'. It was not until 1774 that Captain James Cook learned of them in Tonga, but only touched upon them. Then, fifteen years later, Lieutenant Bligh, of Bounty fame, when put overboard off Tonga by mutineers, with eighteen loyal officers and men in a six oared boat only twenty three feet long, had become the real discoverer of the Fijis. Tahiti had been nearer, but the winds contrary, so with great courage he had decided to attempt the three thousand miles voyage to the Dutch East Indies. During it he had passed right through the Fiji Group and in 1792 he had returned to chart many of its islands.

  This led to European and, a little later, American ships calling fairly frequently at the Fijis. Then, early in the nineteenth century, they began to arrive in scores. The reason was the discovery of sandalwood at the south west end of Vanua Levu, the second largest island. The wood was greatly prized by the Chinese for making articles used in religious ceremonies, and its
dust was turned into joss sticks. The profits in this trade were enormous, six hundred per cent being the average. One ship, the Jenny, traded fifty pounds' worth of trash for a cargo of two hundred and fifty tons which realised twenty thousand pounds.

  Eventually the supply of sandalwood gave out and new sources were found near Noumea. But in the 1830s and 40s the Fijis enjoyed another boom, owing to the discovery that the rocks in their innumerable shallow lagoons were great breeding grounds for beche de mer. These are the sea slug Holathusia, about eight inches long and three thick, having rough skins thickly coated with slime. Before shipping, the slugs were cleaned, par boiled and smoked. Again the Chinese were eager buyers, because when the cured slugs had been made into soup it was believed to be a marvellous aphrodisiac. At small expense native divers could be paid to collect the beche de mer and in less than a year a Captain could sail away with a cargo of them worth sixty thousand pounds.

  Before the coming of the white man, and for nearly a century afterwards, the Fijis were peopled by innumerable small and large tribes, ruled over by independent hereditary chiefs. They were nearly always at war with one another, although there was little loss of human life. Often, for months at a stretch, a war would consist of small parties creeping into their neighbours' territories, surprising a few of them cultivating their vegetable gardens, clubbing the men and carrying off the women. Occasionally, there would be a great gathering of ferociously painted warriors who, after much shouting and boasting, would set off in their canoes. This could lead to 'battles' with a thousand or more men on either side. When the clash came there was more shouting and still more boasting, but when half a dozen men had been killed or, to the superstitious terror of all concerned, a Chief had by accident been struck down both sides called it a day. Eventually, one side gave in and brought basket’s full of earth to the enemy in token of submission. The victors burned the huts and destroyed the vegetable gardens of the defeated, then went home happily declaiming on their bravery, taking with them the bodies of the slain to be cooked and eaten at a joyful celebration.

  With the arrival of the traders, matters changed for the worse, because the most prized objects they had to offer were firearms. The possession of even a few muskets meant that the warriors could kill without risking their lives in personal combat. So the wars became more frequent and casualties much more numerous. By the fifties there were occasions when over a hundred victims were eaten after a victory.

  Smiling, Gregory put in, `No wonder the Fijis became known as the Cannibal Isles.'

  June Knox Mawer laughed. `There is a nice story told about Ratu Edward Thakobau, the great grandson of the King of Fiji who ceded the country to Queen Victoria. Once, when he was on his way to Europe, a stupid woman at the Captain's table expressed her horror at cannibalism and would not leave the subject alone. Ratu Edward sent for the menu, read it right through, then said to the steward, “Is this all you have?” As the menu listed about a hundred items, the man looked very surprised, as he replied, “Why, yes, sir.” The Ratu shrugged and handed the menu back. “It all looks a little dull, and I am rather hungry. Please bring me the passenger list”.'

  `Another about him,' the Judge followed up, `is of his meeting a lady who asked his nationality. He replied, “Half Fijian and half Scottish”. Naturally she was surprised to hear that he had Scottish blood, so he explained, “You see, in my great grandfather's time quite a number of Scottish missionaries came to Fiji and our people found that they made a very pleasant change from pork.” Then he added with that charming smile of his, “But perhaps I should have said, `Scottish by absorption'.” '

  `He sounds a most delightful man,' Gregory remarked.

  `He is, and a brave one. He won both the O.B.E. and the M.C. in the last war. The Fijian Chiefs are splendid people. Ratu Penaia has the D.S.O. and the O.B.E., and both the Ratu George and the Ratu Mara are O.B.Es. Ratu George is the direct descendant of the hereditary King of Fiji. He is greatly respected by everybody. The Ratu Mara rules the widespread Lau group to the east of Fiji, and is the Chief Minister under the new Constitution.

  James grinned at Gregory. `He is the cousin I mentioned when you remarked on my height that night we met in Rio. Mara stands six foot seven and his wife, the sweet Adi Lala, is taller than you are. The Fijian Chiefly Families are all highly educated, modern in thought and wise in their decisions. They are greatly honoured by their people, who still have the good sense to be guided by them in everything.'

  `I find it a little surprising,' Gregory said, `that a family who were cannibals only one hundred years ago should have developed into such cultured people.'

  `That, I think,' said Knox Mawer, `is due to their being largely of Polynesian descent. As you doubtless know, the line dividing the Polynesian peoples from the Melanesians runs only a little to the east of Fiji, and they are utterly different races. The Polynesians of the Eastern Pacific are light skinned, comparatively gentle and evolved a high culture of their own. Based on root similarities in language, there is even a theory now that Scandinavian. Vikings came via South America to the Pacific and were among their ancestors. The Melanesians, on the other hand, infiltrated into the Western Pacific from New Guinea and came of Negroid stock. Until comparatively recent times they remained cruel and primitive savages.

  `The Fijians were originally pure Melanesians. But Tonga lies not very far to the south east of Fiji, and the Tongans, a very brave and adventurous people, are Polynesians. For many years they not only frequently raided the Fijis but established permanent settlements in some parts of the Group. At times some of the leading Fiji Chiefs secured them as allies against their enemies. That led to intermarriage between the ruling castes of the two countries and, of course, the Tongan warriors often had children by the Fijian women they captured.

  `The present people of Fiji include many of mixed blood, and it was not only the Tongans who account for that. The white man made his contribution. Then those who settled here found the Fijians unwilling to work on their cotton and sugar plantations, so 'in the 1860s they began to import labour from the islands to the north and west of Fiji, where there were great numbers of hardy natives for the taking, I say “taking” because it virtually developed into a slave trade. Thousands of them were kidnapped and many thousands more induced to agree to work here for six years for what seemed to those innocents a good wage, and a promise to be shipped home when their time was up. But. the planters played the wicked old game of selling them goods that got them into debt, and very few of the poor wretches ever saw their homes again.'

  After pausing to light a cigarette, the Judge continued to tell Gregory how Fiji had achieved civilisation the hard way.

  `The traffic had raised such indignation in the United States that there had been talk of America putting a stop to it by annexing the Fijis; but nothing came of that. Yet with every year it became clearer that the country needed some form of stable government. It had developed into a positive hell, where every man was a law unto himself. Half the white inhabitants were the dregs of humanity: castaways, deserters, escaped convicts and beachcombers who had brought with them liquor, firearms and disease. With whip and gun they terrorised the natives and battened upon them. The more prosperous defied the local Chiefs and ignored their ordinances. The warring feuds continued and tribes who were victorious carried out orgies of cruelty.

  `There had already emerged two major, if small, powers in Viti Levu: the people of Bau Island, which lies some twelve miles off the east coast, and those of Rewa, who occupied the delta region in the south east of the island, where afterwards Suva was to become the capital of the whole group. In 1843 a war between them broke out. As usual, it did not concern the interests of the common people on either side, but was brought about by a quarrel between two High Chiefs.

  `The Principal wife of Tui Tanoa, King of Ban, happened to be a sister of Tui Dreketi, King of Rewa, and she was unfaithful to her husband. On being found out, she fled to her brother. Instead of returning or pun
ishing her, Tui Dreketi gave her in marriage to a' Rewa Chief. In the light of Fiji customs there could have been no greater insult. Tu: Tanoa called on his son, Prince Thakobau, to avenge him.

  'Thakobau was an outstanding personality. He was brave, cunning, wise within the limits of his upbringing and by nature as well as birth an aristocrat. The war with Rewa" went on for years, and in the end Thakobau won it, but only through the backing of King George of Tonga, who allowed Prince Ma'afu to bring a Tongan army to Thakobau's assistance.

  `On his father's death, Thakobau conceived the ambition of becoming King of all Fiji, and this turned Ma'afu into his enemy. The Tongan Prince was a man of great ability. As his King's representative, he controlled the greater part of the islands in the north of the group and had a powerful army. There followed more years of wars, intrigue and treachery. There were still forty petty Kings in the Fijis, but real power lay in the hands of fewer than a dozen. At length these were brought together, Thakobau and Ma'afu agreed to sink their differences and in 1860 the Fijis were made a Confederacy.

  `Unfortunately, it did not last, because Thakobau and Ma'afu quarrelled again. Meanwhile, a reign of anarchy continued. A British Consul had long been resident in Fiji, but he had not been given the powers even of a magistrate over his own nationals. The white settlers rode roughshod over Thakobau's laws and American traders blackmailed him into making over to them large tracts of land in exchange for weapons to fight his wars against the tribes up in the mountains. Up till 1854, deaf to the pleas of missionaries, he continued to feast off his captured enemies. But in that year he suffered a sudden change of heart. The missionary Waterhouse succeeded in converting him, and on Sunday, April 30th, he was baptised into the Christian faith as Ebenezer.