58 



CHAPTEE IV. 



DEPAETUEE FEOM SOMOSOMO. ISLAND OF WAKAYA. THE BALOLO. ARRI- 

 VAL AT LEVUKA. H.B.M. CONSUL. THE LATE MR. WILLIAMS. LADO 



AND ITS ORIGIN. SITE FOE THE NEW CAPITAL. THE KING OF FIJI. 

 BAU. CAUSES OF ITS SUPEEMACY. VIWA. 



THE 'Paul Jones' had been seven days on her voyage 

 from Port Kinnaird to Somosomo, having had to beat up, 

 but in going back she had a fair though not a very 

 strong wind. We left Somosomo in the afternoon of the 

 20th of June, and called at Wairiki to wish good-bye to 

 the missionaries, and return them several articles they 

 had kindly lent us. The first night we anchored in a 

 small bay on the southern coast of Vanua Levu, and 

 went on shore the next morning to botanize. The town, 

 built near a great swamp, consists of about forty houses. 

 We had scarcely shown our white faces in the first 

 house when all the little children set up a perfect 

 scream, and nothing their parents said or did could pa- 

 cify them. If they had seen the " old gentleman " him- 

 self in proprid persona, they could not have been more 

 frightened. The piercing screams brought children of 

 all the other houses out, till the whole formed one 

 great yelling chorus, so terribly grating on our ears that 

 we made all possible haste to escape into the woods. Our 



