FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 91 
of grass-thatched houses, usually of one room, with no opening 
but a single door. These villages became larger as we advanced, 
and groups of people could be seen, some of them with no clothing 
but a narrow strip called the ‘‘sulu.’’ Children were quite in a 
state of nature and the women retired modestly to the background 
as we passed. There were a few trees such as mangos, coconut 
palms, bread-fruit trees, etc. in each village, and small garden 
patches which seemed common property were in evidence. 
At about four in the afternoon we reached the west coast of 
the island; the sea was not rough and we had a pleasant run of 
eight or ten miles past occasional picturesque islets on our right, 
some of which were quite rocky with eroded shore-lines. It was 
almost sun-down when we reached the island of Bau, one of the 
most historic places in all Fiji, and very picturesque it was with 
hilly contour and many trees of kinds strange to us. We stepped 
from the launch onto a rickety pier and were at once surrounded 
by a group of Fijians, not one of whom appeared to know a word 
of English. However, our skipper found a boy who agreed to 
deliver my letter of introduction to Ratu Popé and I saw him go 
to a group of men, kneel and deliver the letter to his chief. Mean- 
while, we waited until the lad returned and motioned me to follow 
him. We found the chief playing cricket with the Bau Cricket 
Club in which he takes great pride. With a pleasant greeting in 
excellent English he asked me to be seated for a few minutes un- 
til the game was over. Then he had my suit case taken to his 
home and arranged for the rest of the party who were to be 
accommodated at the rest house. 
Ratu Popé is a very handsome man, speaks English as well as 
any of us, is a member of the Executive Council of Fiji and ab- 
solute ruler of this little island with a population of about seven 
hundred happy looking natives. I find in the account of the 
Wilkes expedition that in 1840 ‘‘Ambau,’’ which was the old 
spelling for Bau, was the most important district in Fiji and had 
a population of about 6,000 people, not confined, however, to the 
island itself. Ratu Popé is a grandson of Cakobau, the last king 
of Fiji, and says that he is in all probability the last of his line. 
I have never experienced finer courtesy than while a guest in his 
home. The house itself is of the same pattern as the rest but 
much larger. It has but one room, about twenty by forty feet. 
The floor is covered with fine matting and the walls made of slen- 
der reeds, bound together with sennit on the inside and thatched 
