LADO. 65 



the bargain ; yet I remember, quite in the interior of 

 Viti Levu, Chief Kuruduadua publicly declaring at an 

 official meeting that his brother had sold land to Mr. 

 Williams, and that he, regarding the purchase as valid, 

 had no wish to dispute it. This was a great deal from 

 a man like Kuruduadua, who had a violent dislike to 

 Americans, as some of them had burnt Navua, his sea- 

 side residence, a few years previously. Towards the 

 natives Mr. Williams appears to have been very kind, 

 and would not refuse them anything. I heard of a 

 bet which a chief made, that he would obtain a water- 

 proof coat just sent out to Mr. Williams, merely by 

 asking for it, and which was won by him who trusted 

 in Mr. Williams's generosity. The whole of the land 

 on which the mission-station at Mataisuva is built, an 

 extensive piece of ground, was presented by Mr. Wil- 

 liams to the Wesleyan body at the very time when 

 some of their members were engaged in the hottest po- 

 lemical struggle with him. 



Dispatching my collections made in the eastern parts 

 of the group by a vessel about to sail for Sydney, I 

 started with Mr. Pritchard, in the consular gig, for Lado 

 alewa, a little rocky islet on the western side of the 

 island of Ovalau, which we reached about sunset, after 

 a sail of about an hour and a half, and which Mr. 

 Pritchard kindly invited me to look upon as my home 

 during my stay in the islands. 



Let me tell the history of this rock : Once upon a 

 time, a god and goddess, who rejoiced in the name of 

 Lado (= Lando) were directed to block up the Motn- 

 riki passage leading into Port Kinnaird and the Bau 



