COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE. 71 



no reefs, this would be an impossibility. Suva Point 

 is a gently undulated country, free from swamps, and 

 about three miles wide or thereabout at the base. It 

 has on one side Suva Bay, on the other Laucala ( = Lau- 

 thala) Bay; the latter first surveyed by Sir Edward 

 Belcher,* and offering many conveniences. The point 

 itself is open to the prevailing winds ; it is thinly tim- ' 

 bered with bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, dawa, and other trees 

 of no great growth, and thus requires but little clearing. 



A few days after my arrival at Lado, we were grati- 

 fied by a visit from Mr. Caesar Godeffroy, of Hamburg, 

 who had been several years in the South Sea es- 

 tablishing a direct trade with Germany, and planting 

 agencies in the most important groups. Messrs. Go- 

 deffroy and Co. are the first great house who have 

 entered this comparatively new field of commercial en- 

 terprise, and there is every reason to believe their ope- 

 rations successful. There is a great market in the 

 South Seas, but only those who have an intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the articles required should ever be 

 tempted to enter it. Even the comparatively few things 

 I took out for barter taught me the value of inquiring 

 most minutely into the exact nature of the articles here 

 current. Knives with white handles were rejected or 

 but slightly esteemed, though their blades were even 

 better than those having Black ones, and so with every- 

 thing else. 



Judging from the crowds of boats and canoes daily 

 arriving at Lado for every one here has either the one 



* Bcwa Beads are called in the Admiralty Chart Nukulau Harbour ; the 

 special chart published embraces the surreys of Sir E. Belcher. 



