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CHAPTER XV. 



HISTORY OF THE TONGAMEN IN FIJI. THEIR PHYSICAL SUPERIORITY 

 OVER THE FIJIANS. THEIR ARROGANCE. CAPTAIN CROKER's DEFEAT. 



EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN TONGA AND FIJI. INCREASE OF TON- 



GUESE IMMIGRATION. CHIEF MAAFU. KING GEORGE OF TONGA VISITS 

 FIJI. CONQUEST OF KABA AND BABE. ARRIVAL OF BRITISH CONSUL. 

 CESSION OF FIJI. MAAFU'8 ATTEMPTED CONQUEST. RITOVA AND 

 BETE. MAAFU'S AMBITION CURBED. PEACE RESTORED. RITOVA IN- 

 STALLED IN HIS ESTATES. TONGUESE INTRIGUES RENEWED. BETE's 



DEATH. COMMODORE SEYMOUR'S VISIT. TERMINATION OF THE WARS 



BETWEEN FIJIANS AND TONGANS. 



ONE of the many reasons which induced the King and 

 Chiefs of Fiji to tender a formal cession of their beau- 

 tiful island to the British Crown, and to ratify it with 

 alacrity, was to escape from the insupportable exactions 

 and tyrannies of the Tonguese. The Tonguese, or 

 Friendly Islanders, may well be called the flower of the 

 Polynesian race ; and Commander Wilkes was only sta- 

 ting a truism when saying, that there were few spots on 

 the whole face of the earth where one could behold so 

 many handsome people together. They are tall men, with 

 fine intelligent features, dark, often curly, hair, and of a 

 light-brown complexion. They are far beyond the Fi- 

 jians in good looks. This physical superiority, which, 

 independent of the difference of race, the Tonguese en- 

 joy over the Fijians, may partly result from the different 

 treatment to which the women are subjected amongst 



