176 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



capital was judiciously invested in the group, there would not 

 he a more prosperous colony under the British or under any 

 other flag.' 



I elected to visit the second-largest island of the group 

 that of Vanua Levu (or Big Land), and a very nice journey we 

 had there. Our only means of communication was a 14-ton 

 schooner nearly full of cargo, and five passengers besides. 

 From Levuka to Daku post-office in Savu Savu Bay is about 



00 miles' sailing, and we had something like a 30-hour sail. 

 Our commissariat was of the most deplorable kind, consisting 

 chiefly of strips of sun-dried something called beef, and yams. 

 Who does not recollect in Mark Twain's ' Innocents Abroad ' 

 how the associated friends all agreed in saying ' I pass,' as the 

 greasy Turkish cook offered to each the already dog-licked 

 .sausage-meat ? Well, ' I passed' with a vengeance, when my 

 brother, who had very considerately offered to show me some of 

 the beauties of Coral Lands, suggested that ' there was my 

 meal.' New to that part of the Pacific I was not new to 

 travel, and had fortunately provided myself with a cask of 

 bottled Bass and some canned meat jpro bono publico, and great 

 was the xvdo$ I obtained when these were produced. 



Our crew consisted of some three or four natives, with a 

 half-caste mate and a European captain. After a night on 

 deck (there were cockroaches below!) and drifting all the morn- 

 ing and afternoon, we leisurely rounded Savu Savu Point, and 



1 soon learnt something of the proportions of one of the finest 

 bays I have ever entered. The bay of Savu Savu lies to the 

 south-east of Vanua Levu, and is about 18 miles long, in a 

 straight line drawn from north-east to south-west, and has a 

 coast line between the points of over 40 miles. For 8 miles 

 the north-east corner of the bay is land-locked on all sides save 

 the west, and has a magnificent anchorage for ships of the 



