224 A MISSION TO VITI. 



to be inhabited, because all the tribes of the islands 

 acknowledge Degei as their chief god, and own their 

 knowledge of him to be derived from Rakiraki. There 

 is nothing very remarkable either in the shape or cha- 

 racter of the mountain, and, as far as our present in- 

 formation goes, we are unable to account for the dis- 

 tinction it enjoys. The accompanying sketch, obligingly 

 furnished by Mrs. Smythe, will help to bear me out. 



About noon on the llth of October we were off Bua, 

 no longer teeming with sandalwood as in days of yore. 

 Our object was to invite Tui Bua, or King of Bua, to 

 attend the meeting at Waikava. Our schooner not going 

 close in, we went on shore in the dingy. The town of 

 Bua is built on the banks of a river, the mouth of 

 which for about a mile and a half is densely covered 

 with mangroves:^ The district is low, the soil a rich 

 alluvial clay. Bua has proved so unhealthy to Europeans 

 that the white missionaries, after several deaths had 

 thinned their ranks, were compelled to relinquish it, and 

 fill their places with Tonguese teachers. This circum- 

 stance is the more to be regretted as Bua was a most 

 complete station. The church is a very neat building, 

 and has a good tolling-bell, instead of those hideous 

 wooden drums used in other parts for calling the con- 

 gregation together ; the dwelling-houses are also highly 

 finished. We found the principal one inhabited by the 

 Tonguese teacher, who, together with his wife, was 

 scenting cocoa-nut oil by adding rasped sandalwood and 

 the white odoriferous flowers of the Bua (Fagrcea Ber- 

 teriana, A. Gray), a tree from which the place probably 

 derives its name. They were very attentive to us, and 



