Conversion of Varani in Fiji
Sam Tamata wrote Hunt was a remarkable man. He was formerly a plough-boy in Lincolnshire. He had not trained as a linguist (unlike Aberdonian David Cargill), yet he quickly learned the Bauan dialect (which later became the standard for written Fijian). By the time of his early death, aged 36 years in 1848, he had translated the whole New Testament into Fijian and had begun translating the Old Testament. In 1845 an important breakthrough occurred. A formerly bloodthirsty and treacherous man named Varani became a Christian. He was nephew of the high chief of Viwa and comrade-in-arms of the feared Cakobau. It happened like this. Hunt was reading aloud one day the account of the crucifixion of Jesus from the newly translated Gospel of Matthew. He noted that Varani was visibly stirred. He then taught Varani to read the Bible for himself. Soon Varani began to follow Hunt's example of going into the bush to pray alone. Important convert Varani told his friend Cakobau that he was going to ...
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