160 Cruise of the "Alert" 



educated, and accordingly spent three years at the university 

 there. There was no topic of general interest -on which he did 

 not possess a fair amount of knowledge. He wore his hair in 

 the fashion of the country, i.e. in a mop frizzled out to an immense 

 size, and in other respects he was got up as a native chief of 

 distinction. He spoke favourably of British rule, although, as 

 we were otherwise informed, he himself had recently acquired a 

 practical experience of the unpleasant consequences attending the 

 commission of an indictable offence, in having to undergo a 

 sentence of three months' hard labour. 



On the 25 th of September a party of us made an excursion in 

 one of the ship's steam-cutters to Bau, the old native capital of 

 the Fiji Group. We started from Levuka harbour at nine o'clock 

 in the morning, accompanied by our friend the Ratu Joe, who 

 most kindly and hospitably volunteered to pilot us over, and to 

 entertain us in his hut at Bau. 



We steamed along in smooth water inside the barrier reef 

 which protects the S. E. side of Ovalau for about three miles, 

 when we passed out into the open sea through a narrow opening 

 in the reef. We then steamed for about five miles through deep 

 water, until we entered an intricate system of channels which 

 wind among the submerged reefs extending across the Strait 

 between Ovalau and Viti Levu. The distance from Levuka to 

 Bau is about twenty-four miles, and after a pleasant passage of 

 five hours we reached our destination and anchored the boat in 

 smooth water at about forty yards from the shore. After deposit- 

 ing our baggage in Joe's hut, we went in a body to pay our 

 respects to King Cacobau the "Vunivalu" (kingly title mean- 

 ing the " Root of War "), to whom we were formally introduced 

 by Joe, the latter also acting as interpreter, for Cacobau does not 

 speak English at all. We were received in a small smoky hut, in 

 which the aged monarch spends most of his time during this, the 

 cold, season of Fiji. He seemed to be a feeble old man, aged 

 about seventy, and almost entirely blind, yet evidently possessing 



