afford himself a wider field of fire. Concentrating only on aiming his musket, he received a spear wound in the side from a Verata warrior who had stayed to guard the stockade and had to be carried from the field of battle. His first musket shots had, however, ensured a victory in which the Bauans repaid the insults they had suffered over the years from their powerful neighbours.
On his return to Bau, Charlie was delirious and uttered "strange oaths" that the Fijians had not heard before but which were probably very ordinary swearing words in Swedish. He refused the attention of the various Fijian doctors and would only allow water to be poured over his wound. The treatment was apparently good, as he soon recovered.
Just before the attack on Verata he had sent word to several sailors living there to evacuate the area, and these men now joined him at Bau. They were important as at that time no Fijian could be prevailed upon to fire a musket. The whole firepower of an army was in the hands of the ex-sailors and beachcombers who were living under the protection of various chiefs. With these sailors Charlie formed the nucleus of an army of homeless whites whose ragged volleys were destined to push Bau into an eminence never previously known.
Savage had always been a protege of the chief of Bau, but now he was adopted into the clan itself and was no longer regarded as a foreigner.
Despite this he retained his unruly character and often derided the Fijian customs to which he was subject. He was always implacably opposed to cannibalism and on one occasion threatened with a loaded musket warriors who were proposing to eat the body of an enemy. Such was the power of his personality and the regard in which he was held by Ratu Naulivou that he was able to display this objection to rooted Fijian tradition.
Shortly after the battle for Verata, a ceremony to recognize the newly initiated warriors was performed. Charlie Savage was one of the young men so chosen, an honour never previously given to a foreigner. He was painted with black dye and turmeric as was the custom, but he laughed at these efforts to make him appear more fearsome.
The ceremony was to honour the young men who had gained distinction in battle, just as young squires had been awarded their spurs in the old days in England. As the name of each new warrior or koroi was called out he presented gifts to the chief and received his new name, won in battle, and a spear.
Savage appeared last, carrying his musket, and was given the name of Koroi na Vunivalu, the most honourable name of all, meaning "warrior of the commander in chief."
The newly designated koroi were now taken to a house where they were to stay for several days, but Savage broke the tabu and returned to his own house.
From this time onwards he was given more honour and respect than any other except the Vunivalu himself. He not only controlled the Fijian warriors and held absolute sway over them but was also recognized as chief by all the ex-sailors from the sandalwood ships who had joined the forces of Bau.
Two ladies of high rank were given to him as wives, and he set up his own establishment complete with menservants. The other Europeans who recognized his leadership lived separately and were only regarded as commoners and still foreigners. But Savage now sat in the councils of the chiefs of Bau.
Because of the high rank of his wives, any sons born to them would have been vasu or particularly favoured nephews to other chiefs. Such men, from whom no request could be refused, would therefore have much power in the land. Great care was taken to ensure that all Savage's children were stillborn. Only one child survived, a daughter named Maria, born to a Lomaloma woman of high rank.
Bau now enjoyed more power than at any time in the past. In swift succession, Buretu, Kuiva and Tokatoka-towns in the delta-fell before the Bau attack, so that only the powerful centre of Rewa remained un-conquered in this area.
More women were added to Savage's establishment, and he had as much power as any of his contemporaries. He had many women and servants and was feared among the Fijians of Bau as were the highest born chiefs, a lifestyle in great contrast to the cramped forecastles and weevily food he had known for years.
Two men, Lui, a Chinaman and cook, and a seaman named Thomas Dafny, who had been on the Eliza, had been with him for the longest period, but many others had joined his army since that time. Among them were John Graham from Sydney and Mike McCabe and John Atkin, recently discharged from the ship City of Edinburgh. Within a few years his band included a man named Terence Dunn, a German, a Lascar, a Tahitian, a Tongan, an American deserter and a convict from the New South Wales penal settlements whose names have not been recorded.
Foremost in Savage's mind was the need to replace stores of powder and shot, although each man joining his force had been required to bring with him a musket and ammunition. Two other lacks, dear to the heart of a roistering sailor, were the old forecastle standbys-liquor and tobacco.
After five years of guerrilla-type warfare, Savage's men had probably expended less ammunition than the forces in Lockerby's time had used to demolish the fort at Tacilevu. Still, their supplies ran short. It was to replenish these stocks that Savage finally led a party of his adherents to the sandalwood coast to earn from a visiting ship the money to get new supplies.
Sandalwood had by now become scarce, and the ship's boats had to range the whole length of the Macuata coast to obtain supplies. Men who could both fight and act as interpreters were much in demand to assist in obtaining cargoes.
Hearing that the ship Hunter was at Bua, Savage suggested that he and his band of sailors should seek work and take their pay in the supplies needed for further war and their own relaxation. After some argument, the Bau chiefs agreed.
Savage's daughter Maria, who was only four when he left on his journey to Bua, recalled that he took from his seaman's chest several articles, among which was a chain of "something that flashed"-probably a string of those much-sought-after dollars from the Eliza.
The offer of assistance was accepted immediately by Captain James Robson of the ship Hunter, and all of Savage's ragged men were engaged in working boats of the ship in the search for that now rare commodity-sandalwood. It appeared that the best opportunity to obtain a cargo would be from the people of Wailea, as there were no remaining trees on the shores of Sandal-wood Bay itself.
But the Waileans were at war with their neighbours and were unable to cut wood. It was usual to send shore working parties from the ship in case they were attacked by the enemies of Wail ea. The chief suggested that if Captain Robson would assist him in defeating his enemies he would guarantee to fill the ship's hold within two months. This new activity appealed not only to Charlie Savage, who was not enamoured of the mundane work of cutting sandalwood and pulling an oar, but to the ship's second mate, an Irishman named Peter Dillon.
The alliance was accordingly made, and the combined forces of Hunter's seamen, Savage's foreign legion, and Wailea's warriors laid siege to the fortress of Nabakavu. The fortress soon fell under this combined attack. The defenders were driven from the area, both fort and village being razed by fire.
The captain of the Hunter had kept his part of the bargain, but after four further months of effort the ship still lacked a full cargo. What the sailors did not realize was that the depredations over the last few years had all but exhausted the supplies of sandalwood. The goose that for so long had laid the golden egg had now lost most of its feathers and would soon expire. The Fijians could not appreciate the fact that this wood, so much desired by the sailors, and for which they had acquired so many desirable trade items, now no longer existed in their forests.
Only a year later, when a ship failed completely to get a load of sandalwood, did the realization come that commercially, as an exporter of sandalwood, Fiji was dead. But this was not comprehended by Robson, who thought that his allies were going back on their bargain, and he decided
