FEJEE ISLANDS. 139 



Though mountainous, it is very fertile and picturesque. 

 Change of place changed not the scene. Everywhere it pre- 

 sented the richest soil and most luxuriant vegetation the 

 verdure running even into the sea. Vines and trees sprung 

 from the very rocks, while the neatly- thatched cottages of the 

 natives, seemingly dropped, perchance, over the landscape, 

 and peeping through cocoa-nut and bread-fruit tree groves, 

 gave a lively appearance to the coup-d'oeil. In this delightful 

 walk we met numbers of people, some traveling down to the 

 ships with their burdens of fruit, others returning empty. 

 They all gave us the road, turning to the right and left, arid 

 standing still till we passed. 



We got back to the town just in time to witness another in- 

 teresting sight. During our walk several of the " Peacock's" 

 officers came on shore, and they prevailed on Levuka to give 

 them a native dance and song. The performers were all 

 young unmarried women, and the dance consisted of a kind of 

 a hopping-step, accompanied with clapping of the hands. The 

 subject of the song was the return of the king, Tanoa, to 

 Ambou, after a war which obliged him to fly to a neighbor- 

 ing island. When the performance was over, most of these 

 damsels came to the place where we were standing, and de- 

 sired us to give them some paint. We each happened to have 

 some about us, and shared it out among them, and in a few 

 minutes after we saw them with their faces besmeared with it. 

 They, like all the other women we had seen, were almost 

 na^ed. In color they were a shade lighter than the men, and 

 several had delicate, pleasing features. 



On the morning of the llth, several of the boats left the 

 ship on surveying duties. About noon the " Flying Fish" ar- 

 rived. Her Commander reported that she had run on the 

 reef off the Island of Nirai, and for several hours was threat 



