Jobs of great tapu significance were often performed by Europeans for the chiefs, whose persons and personal belongings were sacrosanct to their own people. Thomas Wright, formerly servant to the Reverend Walter Lawry on Tonga, remained on the island after the missionary left and was responsible for shaving several of the
104
chiefs. Similarly Thomas Sam was remuneratively 105 employed as spittoon carrier for Kamehameha I.
With regard to European development the most important function the beachcombers performed was the interpretation of the incoming civilization to the
101
Mrs S.M. Smythe, Ten Months in the Fiji Islands (Oxford, 1864), 66.
102
Berthold Seeman, ’Foreign Correspondence', The Athenaeum, January l86l, 120-1.
103
Herman Melville, Typee (London, 1 8 5 0) , 188-9* 104
Peter Bays, op. cit., 118-19- 105
Department of Land and Natural Resources, AH. , Foreign Register, TIT, claim no. 887-
island people. New products, plants and skills had been assimilated, but the Polynesians and Micronesians
still had no conception of the world beyond the islands; the power and economic systems of Western nations or
the empirical knowledge they had accumulated. On Tonga
Mariner attempted to explain to Finau the nature of money, the function of the pulse and its relation to disease and passion, the general laws of the solar
system and its effect on tide, and he taught him to use a c o m p a s s . L a m o n t spent much of his time among
107
the Tongarevans telling them of Western inventions.
Undoubtedly the islanders received some highly garbled answers to their constant questions, and frequently such lectures were considered amusing
entertainment on both sides. Vason on Tonga was much
respected and esteemed once he had learnt the language
because he could: 'amuse them with tales and
descriptions of European customs, inventions, and
108
events'. Similarly O'Connell and Keenan found:
Not the least interesting among our occupations and amusements on the islands was conversation with the natives, and watching the avidity
with which they swallowed whatever we told them, and the dexterity with which they applied the information thus gained to the improvement of their arts. ^ 9
106
J ohn M a r t i n , op. cit. , II, 4l-7
107 E.H. L a m o n t , op. ci t . , 248-9- 108 [George V a s o n ] , op. c i t . , 159* 109 J.F. Connell, op. c i t . , 191-2.
Notwithstanding the limitations of the knowledge the islanders gained, by the end of the beachcomber era they understood the function of money, although most of their trade was still based on barter. They
realized what importance Europeans put on individual ownership of property and land and that they were not governed by island gods and tapus.
In Samoa news of the new religion that the
missionaries had brought was received during the early 1 8 3 0s. Determined to enjoy the superior benefits of the white man's god, the Samoans turned to their beachcombers for explanation and guidance. Many improvised their own churches and ceremonies; some genuinely attempted to reproduce what they remembered of Christianity, but for most the opportunity to set oneself up in a position of power and plenty was
irresistible.**111* When John Williams returned to Samoa in 1832 he found many 'sailor religions' and other unorthodox creeds flourishing, the most successful of which was organized by Siovili, a Samoan who had lived
in newly converted Tahiti and been intimate with the members of the Mamaia sect.111
Contacts between incoming foreigners and islanders could be interpreted and mediated by a beachcomber. Robarts on the Marquesas made sure that his newly
110
George Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia (London, I86l), IO3-9.
Ill
John Williams, op. cit., 3 6O-9 6; J.D. Freeman, 'The Joe Gimlet or Siovili Cult', Anthropology in the South Seas, edited by J.D. Freeman and W.R. Geddes(New
adopted people were not mistreated and when they stole he returned the goods and protected them from
112
punishment. Whippy, with his companion Cary, acted as pilot, interpreter and messenger between the
b^che-de-mer traders and the Fijians. Through them provisions were procured and work gangs organized without misunderstanding and to the benefit of both r a c e s / ^ Young and Davis in Hawaii, Haggerstein in Tahiti, Read in Tonga and many others all played
similar roles.
It was seldom that a beachcomber remained the only representative of Western culture for long. Newly-arrived traders and missionaries who wanted to
settle in the islands, reacted in different ways to the European residents already established, but both were to undermine the latter* s position. Ship-bound traders, fearing plots on their property, vessels and even persons, were wary of unknown beachcombers who, if inclined, could entice their chiefs and people to acts of plunder and at times murder. The whites scattered round Viti Levu were justly notorious for
115
such activities. Many beachcombers, aware of the light in which the rest of the world held them,
112
Edward Robarts, Journal. 113
[William Cary], op. cit., 45-63* 11.4
George Vancouver, op. cit., V, 112-16; John Turnbull, op. cit., 297-8; J. Orlebar, op. cit., 70*
115
Cheever to J.B. Williams, 29 December 1843? J.B. Williams, MS. in PMS.
supplied themselves with certificates from ships1 captains who had found them reliable pilots and
116 ^
interpreters. Once traders became permanent residents they enjoyed many advantages over the beachcombers and had little cause to fear them.
To the missionaries a beachcomber was, without 117
question, a renegade, profligate and godless. Such opinions, however, did not prevent them from accepting beachcomber help when needed. On arrival in Tahiti in 1797 the LMS. missionaries asked the Swedish
beachcomber Peter Haggerstein to use his influence and knowledge of Tahitians on their behalf with Pomare.118 Through him land was made available and when the Duff
continued her voyage to the Marquesas and Tonga he went as pilot and interpreter. Despite this
assistance, and many other services, the missionaries refused to baptize his Tahitian mistress and then
116
Captain Vancouver wrote a commendatory letter for Young and Davis on Hawaii, which they showed to their benefit to many subsequent commanders - George
Vancouver, 'A letter from Vancouver March 2, 179^+' > HHS. Annual Report, 1908, 18-19; in Levuka Dumont
d'Urville found all the Europeans had certificates in 1838 - J.S.C. Dumont d'Urville, Voyage de l'Astrolabe IV Le Voyage au Pole Sud, typescript translation by Olive Wright in WTu.
117
Not all were godless. The Bounty mutineers said prayers every Sunday and celebrated Christmas Day - James Morrison, op. cit., 81-3* Missionary refusal to
judge beachcombers individually led to many would-be respectable men turning into violent missionary
detractors. 118
marry them as he requested. In Tonga and Fiji, the missionaries were similarly forced to accept beachcomber help to interpret their wishes to the chiefs, but few of them found it possible to change their stereotype conception of the beachcomber as a class. Whippy in Fiji was perhaps the only one whose worth all those
120