The World Duology (World Odyssey / Fiji: A Novel) (27 page)

46

Levuka,
Fiji, 1848

N
athan couldn’t wait to get ashore as
Rainmaker
sailed into Levuka’s harbor at scenic Ovalau Island. The voyage out from Apia, in the Navigator Islands, had been the final leg in a three-month voyage from San Francisco, and it seemed to take forever. After the horrors of the tsunami, the young American had just wanted to get to Fiji and resume doing what he did best: trading and making money.

As
Rainmaker
was going into dry dock for scheduled maintenance in Levuka, Nathan needed to organize a berth aboard another vessel for the brief voyage to Momi Bay, on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu. There, he would trade his muskets to Fijians in return for their beche-de-mer. He’d heard the sought-after sea slugs were plentiful in that region, and the local tribes were warlike and hungry for the white man’s musket.

It
irked him that
Rainmaker
had sailed frustratingly close to Momi Bay on arrival in Fijian waters, but Captain Marsden was running behind schedule and had made it clear that any deviation was out of the question. So Nathan was resigned to having to cool his heels in Levuka until he could organize alternative transport.

#

Susannah never tired of looking out over Levuka from the bedroom window of the two bedroom cottage she shared with her father. The cottage was situated on a rise above the town in the well appointed grounds of the Wesley Methodist Mission Station. From her window, she could see the township, the harbor and beyond.

Fiji’s capital of the day was built around a harbor that
accommodated all manner of craft. The harbor and the township reminded her of Kororareka, the North Island settlement she and Drake Senior had stayed at in New Zealand. The same colorful characters wandered Levuka’s streets. They included adventurers, sailors, entrepreneurs, whalers, explorers, escaped convicts and the usual assortment of social misfits. Even so, Susannah felt safer here than she had in New Zealand. Exactly why, she wasn’t sure. She imagined it had something to do with the friendly Fijians whose dazzling smiles and generosity had made her feel instantly welcome.

In Levuka’s township and
down on the waterfront, the Europeans rubbed shoulders with the local Fijians who, to Susannah’s eyes, were even more colorful than the Maoris and other native races she’d observed in her travels. Especially the men, many of whom wore large, frizzy hairstyles – some dyed all colors of the rainbow.

If Susannah
had one complaint it was the weather. It reminded her of Bata, in Equatorial Guinea. The wet season was approaching and she found the heat and humidity oppressive. Although the rains hadn’t arrived yet, rain clouds constantly threatened. The high humidity they brought with them ensured residents and visitors alike were continually bathed in sweat. For new arrivals like Susannah and Drake Senior, it was an ordeal just getting through the day. And the nights were even more oppressive.

The Drakes had arrived in Fiji ten days earlier after an uneventful seventeen-day voyage from New Zealand aboard
Southern Cross
. Susannah had made use of the voyage out to immerse herself in her studies of Fiji and the Fijian language. Her studies had been aided in no small way by the presence of one Marika Serevi, a Fijian crewman aboard
Southern Cross
. Fluent in both English and Fijian, and with a good understanding of the languages spoken throughout many of the Pacific Islands, Mariki was used by
Southern Cross’s
master as an interpreter during stopovers at various ports. He was also a natural teacher, and Susannah hadn’t been slow to take advantage of that. By the end of the voyage, she had a much better understanding of Fiji’s culture and language.

Despite her application to her studies, and her devotion to he
r daily prayers and bible readings, Susannah remained torn between her spiritual and sexual selves. The fantasies and dreams she’d had about Goldie – and others if truth be known – on the voyage out had if anything increased since she and her father had arrived in Fiji. And the more she’d prayed about it and asked for God’s forgiveness, the more frequent and vivid her fantasies and dreams became.

Sus
annah hoped it was a passing phase. She was aware she needed to sort herself out – and quickly. Very soon, she and Drake Senior would be departing Levuka for Momi Bay, on the island of Viti Levu, to run the fledgling mission station there. That’s what they’d journeyed from the other side of the world to do, and as the departure date drew closer, Susannah’s misgivings over what she was getting herself into grew. She kept those misgivings to herself, however.

#

On arrival at Levuka, Jack Halliday wasted no time in making contact with his consort of the moment, a fetching lady of royal bloodlines. Talei Serevi was the first wife of a respected tribal headman, and she was as taken with Jack as he was with her. A secret tryst was arranged for the following morning when her husband was scheduled to depart the island for a three-day visit to Viti Levu.

That suited Jack just fine. He was confident he could achieve what he’d come to do before then. And so it transpired: the Cockney met with the ratu and landowner whose considerable land holdings in Viti Levu’s interior accommodated many of the Fijian kauri forests that he so desperately wanted to secure the cutting rights to. The ratu took a shine to Jack;
he also liked the sound of the profits he could make in the transaction that was on the table. And so a deal was struck.

The next day dawned full of promise – for Jack at least. He’d arranged to meet Talei as soon as her husband had departed for Viti Levu. The venue for their rendezvous was the vacant home of a
discreet friend of Talei’s. They planned to spend the next two days there pleasuring each other.

Jack was so full of anticipation he arrived a full hour before the scheduled assignation. The next
hour was the longest he’d experienced since receiving three hundred lashes at Parramatta. When Talei finally arrived, he felt ready to burst.

The two lovers went to it immediately and
remained locked in each other’s embrace, almost without a break, for the rest of the day and all that night.

Their pleasure was rudely interrupted after Talei’s husband Tahu, a surly man who was as big and tough as he was belligerent, returned to Levuka prematurely. On arrival at Viti Levu, he’d discovered his meetings with other ratus had been postponed. After returning home and finding his wife was mysteriously absent, he began making enquiries. Those enquiries led him to Talei’s friend
whose home she and Jack were currently using. Discretion went out the window when the friend told Tahu of his wife’s whereabouts in return for not being beaten to a pulp.

As luck would have it, Jack was
ensconced in the outside toilet when Tahu and two equally large male friends invaded the house he and Talei were using. A noise alerted him to their arrival and he watched them through a crack in the outhouse door as they entered the house. He was about to intervene when he noticed they carried knives and, in one case, a meat cleaver. And they appeared to be more than ready to use them.

A minute later, Tahu dragged a naked Talei outside by the hair. She was k
icking and screaming, but so far appeared unharmed.

Jack watched from his hiding place
as Talei interrogated his wife, using a combination of cajoling, questioning and slaps to her face. To Jack’s everlasting relief, whatever Talei said seemed to pacify her husband. Tahu gradually calmed down and ordered his wife to collect her possessions and accompany him home. This she did with alacrity.

Soon, the Cockney was alone on the property. Cautiously emerging from the outhouse, he breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he’d evaded a savage beating, or possibly worse.
Jack vowed that from then on he’d remain faithful to his darling Namosi. But of course that was a promise he could never keep.

Epilogue

A
fter narrowly avoiding being found out by the husband of his latest lady friend, Jack had wasted no time in preparing for the next stage of his venture into Viti Levu’s interior. Armed with the all important signature to the contract that gave him exclusive cutting rights to some of the island’s most lush Fijian kauri forests, he’d secured a berth on a sailing ship soon to depart for Nadi, the major settlement on Viti Levu’s west coast. From there, he would trek inland after purchasing the necessary supplies.

While he hated the thought of being parted from Namosi and their three – soon to be four – children
for any length of time, he was excited about what lay ahead. It was a gamble: there was no guarantee the traders who had lusted after Fiji’s sandalwood would be similarly enamored about the timber of the giant kauri. But that only added to his excitement.

Before he could even start approaching traders, he had to map the area he’d secured cutting rights for. It covered around a hundred square miles, and Jack imagined mapping an area that large could take the best part of several months.

The ship Jack was soon to depart Levuka on wasn’t just any sailing ship.
Seven Seas
was a magnificent fore and aft-rigged vessel whose overall length topped one hundred and twenty feet, and that wasn’t allowing for her bowsprit and aft spar. She was moored close to shore and, as happened wherever she dropped anchor, she commanded the attention and admiration of everyone within sight of her.

Few were
more admiring of her than Jack was at that moment. He took in her beautiful lines and curves as he was rowed out to her aboard the ship’s longboat.

Another who was equally taken with her was Nathan. He, too, only had eyes for
Seven Seas
as he was being rowed ashore from
Rainmaker
.

The two longboats passed within a few yards of each other. If the two men hadn’t been so enamored by
Seven Seas
, they may well have acknowledged each other. They could have exchanged pleasantries without even having to raise their voices – so close were the longboats when they passed by.

Today was the day
Nathan was parting company with
Rainmaker
. He was relocating to a boarding house he’d be staying in until he departed for Momi Bay. Since arriving at Levuka, the young American had been busy purchasing supplies for his forthcoming trading venture. And he’d overseen the transfer of his stockpile of muskets from
Rainmaker’s
hold to a secure warehouse on shore.

Nathan had also spoken to local seamen familiar with these waters
, and had learned as much as he could about the tribes domiciled on Viti Levu’s western coastline – around Momi Bay in particular – and on the outer islands west of Viti Levu. He was focused on that area because it was known for its reserves of the prized beche-de-mer.

What he
’d learned from the seamen he spoke to was music to his ears: the tribes to the west were warlike and they lusted after the weapons of the white man; muskets were in high demand and Nathan could expect his forthcoming trading venture would be highly profitable. That confirmed everything he’d been told back in San Francisco.

The young m
an had received some disquieting news from one old sea dog he’d spoken to. “This place ain’t called the Cannibal Isles for nuthin!” the old man had told him. He’d advised that cannibalism was still practiced by the natives in some of the areas Nathan was planning to visit. In particular, he warned about a tribe of outcasts – appropriately named
the outcasts
– who terrorized villagers on the western side of Viti Levu, and who took delight in eating their victims.

As the longboat ferrying Nathan and his possessions ashore berthed alongside the jetty,
he noticed crowds of people – whites and natives – walking up toward the mission station on the rise overlooking Levuka. The mood was festive with much singing and laughter, and no-one seemed remotely concerned about the rain clouds that were threatening overhead.

Enquiries would reveal it was market day, a weekly event hosted by the Wesleyan missionaries
, and enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. In return for hosting the event, the missionaries received a small percentage of the stallholders’ profits, which helped finance their work at the mission station.

Many of the residents among the procession of people carried goods
for sale. These ranged from clothing, wood carvings, tools and furniture to fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and all manner of foodstuffs. Some needed horse-drawn carts to transport their wares up the bumpy track leading to the mission station.

Nathan thought
he may check out the market after he’d settled in at the boarding house. First, he decided, he needed a cold bath and a change of clothes. Despite the early hour, the high humidity had left him drenched in sweat even though he hadn’t been exerting himself. He prayed for cooler temperatures.

Then, as if the weather gods had been listening, a gentle breeze blew in from the south, cooling the air and blowing the clouds away.

#

Before the sun was half way across the morning sky, the mission station’s grounds were almost packed to capacity. It seemed nearly everyone in the district had converged on it to enjoy the bustling market. The Drakes were also in attendance. They’d volunteered to help
their missionary hosts.

Market day was something Susannah looked forward to. She’d already experienced one since she and Drake Senior had arrived in Levuka, and she’d thoroughly enjoyed it. The confluence of Europeans and native
Fijian people socializing and conducting business together was like nothing she’d seen before, with the possible exception of Bata, in Equatorial Guinea. There, she’d glimpsed similar markets, but had been too busy keeping vigil over her gravely wounded father at Bata’s hospital to take any notice of them or anything else for that matter.

Bucket in
hand, Susannah was circulating amongst the market-goers, soliciting donations for the mission station. It was a task she enjoyed as it was for a worthy cause and it brought her into contact with many different people. Most were happy to donate, and the bucket was already a quarter full with coins.

Susannah spotted her father
in the crowd. Taller than other Europeans around him, Johnson Senior was assisting at one of several mission station stalls a short distance from where she was standing. He saw Susannah and waved.

The young Englishwoman returned her father’s wave. She
didn’t notice Nathan as he brushed past Johnson Senior in the crowd. The two men didn’t notice each other either. Their attention – along with everyone else’s at that moment – was on
Seven Seas
as the magnificent vessel departed the harbor and headed for the open sea.

“Thar she goes!” a man with a distinctive Cornish accent declared to one and all.

“Isn’t she beautiful!” a Scottish woman exclaimed.

“A sight for sore eyes,” a Welshman agreed.

Other such comments rippled through the crowd as
Seven Seas
ran before the strengthening offshore breeze, her massive sails billowing like clouds in what was now an otherwise cloudless sky.

Not twenty yards apart,
Susannah and Nathan stood watching the ship, each alone with their thoughts - each thinking ahead to the next stage of their world odyssey.

Neither
was aware of the other’s presence and neither knew what the future held, but it excited them and filled them with some trepidation at the same time for they were soon to venture into the unknown.

THE END