Thomas Baker has the distinction of being the last missionary to be killed and eaten in Fiji, his fates shared by seven other Fijian Christian workers.

Two men escape the massacre.

After Baker's death, Davuilevu mission will be temporarily closed for the following year.

Baker was born at Playden, Sussex, England, on February 6, 1832.

His father Jeremiah was a carpenter and in 1838, despite his wife's feelings, had taken the family to New South Wales, arriving at Port Jackson on March 17, 1839.

Baker had married Harriet Moon and was accepted as a probationary Methodist minister in February 1859 to be sent to a mission field.

He had arrived there with his wife a month later.

After being in Fiji for six years, he had settled his family into the new Methodist mission station at Davuilevu on the Rewa River.

In July, 1867, he leads a party to spread the gospel in the interior of Viti Levu, passing through the Taukei ni Waluvu's Christian enclave on the east bank of the Wainimala river.

In Methodist folklore, the tabua (whale's tooth) sealing the plot to ambush the party had preceded him along the non-Christian west bank of the Wainimala river.