George Tabou, King of the Friendly Islands [pp. 97-100]

THE
LADIES' REPOSITORY.
AUGUST, 4876.
GEORGE TABOU; KING OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
"AND kings shall be thy nursing fa "- thers, and queens thy nursing
mothers, and thou shalt know that I am
the Lord." This passage of Scripture is
remarkably fulfilled in the career of the
person with wvhom we desire to make our
readers acquainted. He is the reigning
monarch of the Friendly Islands, in the
Southern Pacific, and since I865 has been
the acknowledged sovereign of the three
groups of which the islands consist. At
the time of his Christian baptism, he
took the name of George, and his queen
that of Charlotte. He has proved himself
worthy of the high position which he fills,
and his sovereignty is acknowledged by
England, America, and France.
Like the rest of the Friendly Islanders,
the family of the king were accustomed
to worship idols, and so much was his
father given to idolatry, that when his son
was a boyr he cut off both the child's little
fingers, and offered them in sacrifice to
the gods. At the time of his conversion,
he was king of one group of islands only.
Having heard of the wonderful effects of
the Gospel at Tonga, he went thither himself and desired a missionary to be sent
to his people, but no missionary could be
spared; however, a native teacher was
sent, but the King was not well pleased
with the appointment, as he thought it
was not sufficiently honorable to be put
off in that way; however, Peter Vi, the
teacher, event in the name of the Lord,
VOL. XXXVI.-7:
and, by means of his consistent deportment and the faithtllif proclamation of the
truth, hle not only won the hearts of many
of the people, but also overcame the prejudices of the King, lwho eventually resolved to abandon idolatry and embrace
the true religion. His public acknowledgment of the truth caused some heathen chiefs to take great offence, and
even threaten his life; indeed, poison was
administered unto lhim, and his life was
in danger, but bly the timely adminiistration of emetics, and, no doubt, in answer
to prayer-for there were many prayers
offered-his valuable life was spared.
The priests foretold the vengeance that
the gods would soon inflict; but to show
his defiance of their power, he caused
them all to be hung by the neck near his
sleeping apartment, at the same time
challenging them to hurt him if they
could. This was in I830.
For some years, His Majesty seemed
to be doing wvell in religion, but, like
many others, he left his first love and became a backslider, though he never wevent
back to heathen practices. In I845 there
was a glorious revival of religion which
swept like a tidal wave of mercy through
all the islands, in which several hundreds
of persons found redemiption through the
blood of Christ. Among others was a
Chief who had been very obnoxious to
the King, and when His Majesty saw the
offending Chief at the feet of Jesus, it