262 A MISSION TO VITI. 



and obliged to leave so inhospitable a neighbourhood 

 with all possible speed. Ritova, on the other hand, 

 is the exact contrast of Bete. He is a tall, well-made 

 man, with intelligent features ; every inch a chief. Both 

 his mother and grandmother were the great Macu- 

 ata Queens, which gave him an advantage over Bete, 

 whose mother was a degree below them in birth. All 

 over Fiji the rank of the mother is of importance in 

 regulating that of her offspring, but in Macuata a still 

 greater stress is laid upon this circumstance than else- 

 where ; hence, after Bete's father died, the office of Tui 

 Macuata, or King of Macuata, vacant by his death, was 

 offered by the landholders to Bitova as the highest 

 chief. However, he waived his claims in favour of his 

 son, who accordingly was duly elected, and invested 

 with the title. After Ritova had been driven away, 

 Maafu made Bete King of Macuata ; hence there were 

 two claimants to that dignity. In his dealings with the 

 white men, Ritova always behaved creditably. Traders 

 left large stocks of goods in his hand, taking no other 

 security for their payment than his reputation for ho- 

 nesty, and that at a time when nearly the whole of Fiji 

 was addicted to cannibalism, and the lives of foreigners 

 trembled in the balance. In the complicated process of 

 collecting and curing beche-de-mer, Ritova displayed as 

 much energy in making his people work as he did ho- 

 nesty in the pecuniary transactions which it involved. 

 The benefits arising from the beche-de-mer trade were 

 felt on all hands, and when, with Ritova's removal, this 

 lucrative traffic came to an end, even the most humble 

 became mindful that they had not simply experienced a 



