CAUSES OF BAU'S SUPREMACY. 79 



having, amongst other great acts of kindness conferred, 

 never failed to supply me in this land of pork and yams 

 with bread, cakes, and other acceptable presents when- 

 ever I came in that neighbourhood. 



Bau is said to own its present superiority to the for- 

 tunate accident of having been the first familiar with 

 the use of fire-arms. Charles Savage, a Swede, intro 

 duced it about the beginning of this century. But it 

 was not only to this accident that Bau is indebted to 

 its permanent ascendency. Like England, but on a 

 lilliputian scale, it is a great naval power, able to send 

 its fleets of canoes to any part rebelling against its 

 authority, or refusing to discharge its annual tribute. 

 The Bauans are a fine race, nearly all members of noble 

 families or gentlefolks. Most of them are tall, well- 

 proportioned, and often with a handsome cast of coun- 

 tenance. In Fiji, as in fact all over the South Sea, a 

 man is estimated by the height of his body, and little 

 men are regarded with contempt. Their tall figures prove 

 a great advantage to the Bauans. This general con- 

 tempt for small men arises from the fact, that through- 

 out Polynesia the chiefs and upper classes are taller 

 than the lower orders, and with a finer physical they 

 combine a greater mental development. They are in 

 every respect superior to the people whom they rule. 

 They are as genuine an aristocracy as ever existed in 

 any country. They know every plant, animal, rock, 

 river, and mountain; are familiar with their history, 

 legends, and traditions ; and strict in observing every 

 point of their complicated etiquette. They swim, row, 

 sail, shoot, and fight better than the common people, and 



