240 A MISSION TO VITI. 



parts of Fiji, Lakeba, and the adjacent islands, being 

 the most accessible from their proximity to Tonga, were 

 those chiefly visited ; and as it took considerable time to 

 construct the larger canoes, a strong influx of Tonguese 

 blood was soon perceptible in the population of those 

 districts. Not unfrequently it happened that parties 

 going or coming were drifted by the prevailing winds 

 on the shores of Kadavu, and hence the mixed race in- 

 habiting that fine island is accounted for. Lakeba and 

 Cakaudrove were formerly intimately connected, and 

 the latter being the high-road to Bua, the Tonguese 

 seem to have become introduced to the locality, where, 

 above all others, the famous Sandal-wood (Yasi), so 

 highly valued both in Tonga and Samoa for scenting 

 cocoa-nut oil, grew in abundance.* They were not long 

 before they made regular trading voyages to Bua, bring- 

 ing with them printed tapa, fine mats, and large pearl- 

 shells, skilfully inlaid with pieces of whales'-teeth. Hav- 

 ing often to wait two or three months before a cargo 

 of sandal-wood could be got ready, a close intimacy 

 naturally sprang up between the trading parties, inter- 

 marriages took place, and thus another district received 

 a mixed population. 



Up to this period the Tonguese had been peaceful 

 traders, glad to exchange their manufactures for na- 

 tural products denied to their own islands. Gradually 

 they adopted a different line of policy. Being men of 

 athletic frames, of courage and daring, they were often 



* Cakaudrove (= Thakaundrove) lias been corrupted by the Tonguese 

 into " Tacownove," and in some old charts is applied to the whole of Va- 

 nua Levu. 



