230 A MISSION TO VITI. 



Having rounded Mua i Udu, we came in sight of 

 Eabe and Taviuni, the wind being favourable all the 

 while. At night we anchored in Na Ceva (=Natheva) 

 Bay, partly to avoid rocks and reefs, partly because we 

 could not keep our crew awake. The bay derives its 

 name from Na Ceva (i.e. the south-east wind, to which it 

 is open) ; Natava is therefore an erroneous spelling. In 

 Wilkes's, and other charts founded upon his survey, it is 

 not made deep enough, and the isthmus separating it 

 from the southern shores of Vanua Levu, about ten 

 miles too wide. The isthmus is scarcely more than a 

 mile and a half across, and canoes are dragged from one 

 side to the other, as is the case in Kadavu, though its 

 surface is hilly. Colonel Smythe made an excursion to 

 it from Waikava ; and in the chart Mr. Arrowsmith has 

 constructed for him, this error of long standing has been 

 corrected, as it is in the map accompanying this work. 



On the following morning we called at Rabe, a fine 

 island, of which the Tonguese have made desperate 

 attempts to obtain permanent possession, and towards 

 the afternoon we reached Waikava, where the mission- 

 aries from Taviuni had now established themselves, 

 and where the official meeting with the principal chiefs 

 of Vanua Levu was to be held. We found Colonel 

 Smythe's vessel, the ' Pegasus,' at anchor, just returned 

 from Lakeba, where, under pressure from the Tonguese, 

 the chiefs had behaved rather rudely. 



On the following day I ran over to Somosomo, where, 

 in the beginning of June, I had established an experi- 

 mental cotton plantation. It took me nearly a whole 

 day to cross the strait of Somosomo, there being almost 

 a perfect calm. I found the plantation in the best 



