For thirty years I have been walking near Alyth and I have often thought of David Cargill, a son of east Scotland, who, when homesick in faraway Fiji, wrote that he was longing to be walking on the Hill of Alyth.
Born in Brechin, he was a graduate of Aberdeen University. In 1831, David Cargill attended a sermon by Robert Newton a Wesleyan Methodist Minister, whose account of a voyage aboard the DUFF thirty years before inspired his interest in the Pacific.
Recently married to Margaret, may be both a little too pious, they were determined to go to the uttermost ends of the earth to lead newly discovered peoples to Jesus.
Some challenge!
In October 1832 they took passage aboard the Caroline bound for Australia. They were both 22. In January 1834 they reached Tongataboo in the friendly Isles (Tonga) where they found a Methodist’s mission already well established. They liked the locals who were easy to convert.
There were already Tongan missionaries but the Cargills were alarmed as the local preachers were “happy”. This was a complete anathema to a pious man from north-east Scotland, without any sense of humour, who was expected to enter the chapel sombre.
So far, so good but David was subject to restless youth and the desire for converts.
West of Tonga, the Fiji Islands presented an entirely different challenge to the Methodists. The Fijians were warlike, blacker than the Tongans and wore their hair in spectacular, coloured displays. Their overall appearance was frightening and they were meant to be.
They were excellent navigators and craftsmen, and also cannibals.
They fought civil wars and not content with that, cast around for others to attack. War canoes were spotted off the coasts of Tonga.
So, what did the Cargills think? Opportunities for preaching the Gospel of course!
Those remarkable Tongan missionaries had already reached out to their Fijian cousins. The Cargills were ready to establish a mission and were delighted when a party of Fijians arrived in Tonga and invited them to come.
In the meantime, several ships were wrecked on the coast of Fiji at Oneata. The cargoes were “salvaged” i.e. looted, a common practice in Cornwall and the east coast of Scotland in the 1830’s. What was not so common in the east coast of Scotland was the fate of the crews. They were killed and eaten!
In October 1835, the Cargills arrived in Lakemba Fiji, complete with their baby daughter and the Rev. William Cross and his family. They were the first Europeans to land with the intent to set up home. Margaret was the first white women in Fiji and shortly after, she would give birth to the first European baby born there.
Margaret wrote to her mother “after three years journeying, we have at last arrived at Feejee, a land of darkness and superstition, where men delight in cruelty and bloodshed…… when we look round us we are ready to say who is sufficient for this great work? But we can say with the Apostle of old, “our sufficiency is of God….”
What were they thinking! Here they were, several attractive “carry out meals” dumped on the beach of an extremely hostile shore without adequate provisions and back up.
Yet, they succeeded! Nearly two hundred years after, I have witnessed full circle. I attended a Methodist School that was in association with Wesley Chapel, the HQ of the Methodists. Tongan and Fijian preachers preach in London to this day. It was at school where I met the King of Tonga, King Tufa.
The reasons for their success? One theory of my own, were the presence of the women, Margaret and Augusta Cross and their bairns. The Fijians, especially the girls and women were fascinated by them. Margaret was pregnant again. This was the way into Fijian society and David was able to take advantage of this to preach.
The second factor was David’s gift for languages. Within weeks of their arrival in Tonga, he was preaching the Gospel in Tongan. He quickly mastered Fijian. By April he was able to translate some of St. Mark into the local dialect. More importantly, he was able to get the grammar and diction sufficient to order up printed pamphlets in Fijian.
David’s roots were in the Doric. He wrote of his boyhood “I dinna forget the days of auld lang syne, where I was running’ about the braes of Tullybelton wi’ the ither loons. We were wild as March hares”. Imagine, a pious Scot with speech like that preaching from a book published by a Scottish King in the 1600’s from Greek and Hebrew sources of events taking place 1800 years before in Palestine to frightening folk in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Some challenge!
Writing of Cargill’s contribution, the High Commissioner of Fiji, Sir Josua Rabukawaqa, wrote in 1975 to one of David’s descendants, a gracious knowledgeable and moving letter which said “There is so much about him I need to write on but briefly for the wonderful work he had done….” He went on to explain that Cargill is remembered as much for his skill as a linguist as for his skill as a preacher.
By 1835, Cargill had a congregation.
However, satisfaction could give way to despair at the work still be done. Margaret gave birth to her third daughter Augusta on 5th December 1835. The congregation presented the Cargills with a basket of human hearts and livers to make the baby strong and courageous!
There were other horrors too. One old man decided that he was tired of living and had his wife strangled. Then he asked his friends to strangle him as well. They cheerfully carried out his orders but not well enough. The old man recovered and said “You are making a fool of me” and invited them to try again. The “friends” failed again, so he had a grave dug and lay down next to his missus in the grave. The friends buried him alive!
The Cargills had work to do, clearly.
Half starving, under sustained scrutiny, subject to the whims of the chiefs and opposition from local “heathen” priests, the Cargills carried on. Surprisingly, they made progress. One community after another “came over” to the Methodists as word reached one island after another. Soon, David and William Cross had trouble visiting the out islands. They could barely keep up.
In 1838, the Tongan missionaries offered help. Led by Job Soakai, they were “burning with zeal”. David treated them as valued colleagues which should be a source of pride in Scotland now.
David would be entitled to feel pride also. Surely, his ambitions were being fulfilled? Yet he considered it was God’s work, not his. Also, tragedy was about to enter his world. Margaret died shortly after giving birth to a sixth daughter on 1st June 1840. Sadly, the baby died too.
David returned with his four surviving daughters to London. However, he was not finished with the Fiji challenge yet.
He launched an attack in print on Le Chevalier Dillon, an Irishman honoured by the French. He was a sandalwood trader who was undermining the Methodists and profiteering at their expense. The last thing he wanted was Christian converts who would affect his growing exploitation of the Fijians.
In 1841, Cargill married Augusta Bicknell and set off once again for Fiji aboard the Haidee on 1st May 1842. At last, a son was born, aboard ship. He was also named David.
Cargill landed in Tonga. He never made it back to Fiji. He became ill, some say small pox, others dengue fever. The only effective medicine was laudanum. David died on 25th April 1842. He was only 34. Were their tears of dew on the Hill of Alyth that day?
What of the legacy of the Cargills? They are not forgotten in Fiji as the letter from the High commissioner, Sir Josua Rabukawaqa makes clear.
About four years ago I was walking – yes, you guessed – on the Hill of Alyth. I broke a branch for firewood. It snapped and drove a large splinter into my eye socket. On arrival at A&E, there were doctors and nurses and the mystery man. I have a certain instinct. I asked “Are you Fijian?” He looked startled. “yes I am”. As the doctor stitched me up, John said he was a Royal Marine based at Arbroath gathering experience of first aid. He spoke with touching enthusiasm about David Cargill. The doctor had to shut me up as he stitched.
What of the Cargill legacy in Scotland? He is all but forgotten. Maybe there is a reason. David had “taken on” Le Chevalier Dillon and he had enemies even amongst the Methodists. William Cross his colleague in Fiji was also a critic, maybe anxious to preserve his own reputation as pioneer preacher.
Aberdeen University is one exception. They host some artefacts believed to be linked to the Cargills and they also have the portraits of David Cargill and Augusta. About four years ago they hosted an exhibition.
The infant David Jnr. was sent back to London. As a young man, he took a post as the Superintendent of the Police in the North West Frontier Provinces in India. Portraits of David Cargill and his wife and a carved canoe paddle from Fiji belonging to his father accompanied him to India.
David Jnr had two wives and like father, a host of daughters. One of David’s great grandsons William Macandrew Marshall seems heir to David’s talent for languages. He composed and read the Proclamation of Baghdad as General Maude liberated the city in the First World War and was assassinated shortly after.
David Cargills “Chip” Carved Canoe Paddle from Fiji
<Blade of the paddle
Handle of the paddle
Maybe David Cargill’s genes have made it back to east Scotland? Yes! In the 1990’s I visited Simon Pepper, a great great great grandson in Aberfeldy. He founded the Scottish branch of the WWF and was instrumental in the Millennium Forest for Scotland. He was a board member of the Forestry Commission Scotland. I was delighted when I found out he had married his cousin, Morag, also a descendant meaning there were two Cargill relatives for the price of one.
One of Cargill’s granddaughters married Charles Pitman, later a Commander of the Indian Empire. They had two daughters and a son, Capt C R S Pitman MC, DSO, CBE who became a white hunter and after, headed the Uganda game reserves, wrote books famously on snakes and animals in Africa and wrote the forward to the book Born Free, later a film. (Note to my little friend, Sophia. He shot the crocodile!!). It was Capt Pitman who gave the portraits of David Cargill and his wife to Aberdeen University.
His sister, Dorothy, served in military intelligence (MI5) in WW1. Dorothy who was born in Calcutta, brought back to Britain her great grandfather’s canoe paddle from India. She remembered using the Fijian paddle on her house boat in Kashmir.
My Grandmother - Dorothy
She was widowed in 1958 and decided to follow in the footsteps of her great grandfather. David Cargill. She travelled all over Fiji in the 1950’s and 1960’s. She inherited David’s gift for languages and could swear in Hindi, German, French, English and I dare say, Fijian and frequently did so. Dorothy married Teddy Woods, an officer in the Royal Artillery, later Major-General.
Lucy Maud Cargill Nell Cargill
David Cargill’s Granddaughter David’s Cargill’s Granddaughter
My Great Grandmother My Great Aunt
Ruby and Pearl Cargill
David Cargill’s Granddaughters
My Great Aunts
Leonard Cargill
David Cargill’s Grandson
Dorothy had three children including Elizabeth who served as a Wren in WW2 and married a lieutenant, Tony who commanded a Motor Torpedo Boat. They had two sons. Dorothy gave David Cargill’s canoe paddle to one of her grandsons, Richard.
That “Richard” was me and David Cargill is my great, great, great, grandfather.
The canoe paddle is now in Alyth where I bought a house 30 years ago.
Was this purely chance? It was my mother who exclaimed “that was where David was walking”.
I do not have to dream of walking on the Hill of Alyth, as I can walk there any day and do so two or three times a week, in the footsteps of David Cargill in the 1820’s.