42 



petty tribes, who were almost constantly at war with 

 each other, except when they patched up their differ- 

 ences to settle any difficulty they might have with 

 their neighbours on the coast. 



From the fort I went to Pickering's Peak (Koroba) 

 to see the sandalwood which was said to grow on its 

 sides, returning by way of Wai-wai, and the bridle 

 path between Nadi and Fort Carnarvon. The coun- 

 try here was very hilly and the land covered with 

 long grass and clumps of the vunga tree, metrosideros 

 polymorpha, &c. On the tops of the mountains and 

 in many of the valleys there are patches of forest. 

 In these a large amount of excellent timber and other 

 useful trees, the lauci s aleurites triloba, are found, a 

 portion of which is annually cleared by the Fijians to 

 make room for their food plantations, or destroyed by 

 raging fires. The land was from fair to good in quality. 

 In many places it is suitable for coii'ec, and in some 

 others, as at na Sau-coka, for sugar cane. In the 

 vicinity of Fort Carnarvon I visited some large caves 

 among the calcareous rocks there, which were once 

 a stronghold of the cannibals. The entrance to the 

 cave- was defended by walls and a fence of lemon 

 trees, on which I found some human bones which the 

 inhabitants of the caves had exposed to view to show 

 all who passed what might be the result of a quarrel 

 with them. This custom was not uncommon among 

 the Fijians when they were cannibals, the shaddock 

 being the favourite tree on which to expose the bones 

 of their victims. These bones were generally put in 

 the forks of the branches, or where the branches 

 united with the trunk. If the trees were young 

 and thriving, the bones in a few years became em- 

 bedded in the wood. I could not learn why the 



