80 A MISSION TO VITI. 



excel in house and canoe building. Thus they keep their 

 place amongst a people not able to fall back upon dress 

 and finery to lend distinction to rank, dignity to person. 



We were desirous of pushing on early the next morn- 

 ing, but as the tide did not suit, we ran over to Viwa, 

 a small island close to Bau, where a permanent print- 

 ing-press has been established in the first stone house 

 ever built in the group. The greater portion of the 

 Fijian Bible has been printed at this establishment; 

 and the edition, now exhausted, is very much esteemed 

 by the natives. A Fijian and English Dictionary, com- 

 posed by D. Hazelwood, is another great work pro- 

 duced here in 1850. This Dictionary is full of a mass 

 of reliable information, and must be regarded as the 

 best contribution the Fijian missionaries have made 

 to science. Ethnologists, geographers, and naturalists, 

 and philologists as a matter of course, will find here 

 facts and observations not met with elsewhere.* Viwa 

 is full of fruit-trees, and altogether a charming spot. 

 The cocoa-nut palm seems to be the only plant that 

 does not flourish. After having attained a certain 

 height it begins to wither the foliage looking as if boil- 

 ing water had been poured over it. 



We found Messrs. Martin and Baker, the two gentle- 

 men connected with the mission of this place, absent, 

 they having gone to look for an eligible new station on 

 Vanua Levu. But their wives were at home, and glad 

 to see us safe. Through telescopes they had watched 

 our boat on the previous evening, as long as daylight 



* I believe Messrs. Triibner and Co., Paternoster Row, London, have 

 still a few copies of this publication on hand. 



