VAVAU. 91 



I found a convenient landing-place on a jetty of coral. On 

 reaching the shore there were a few natives who treated me 

 with great respect. Seeing a little hillock before me covered 

 with grass, I took a fancy to go to the top, and there found 

 a pretty house surrounded by an enclosure made of cocoa- 

 nut leaves very neatly intertwined. I learnt it was the 

 dwelUug of the governor, David Unga, the son of King 

 George of Tougatabu. Thence I followed a broad path 

 leading gently downwards covered with grass, and edged 

 with two lines of cocoa-nut trees, forming an avenue, leading 

 to the Protestant Mission, which consisted of two houses 

 erected very near to each other. The two resident 

 missionaries informed me they belonged to the London 

 Wesleyan Missionary Society : their houses had glass doors, 

 and it appeared to me they were Uving there veiy com- 

 fortably with their wives and children. They showed me 

 some implements, weapons, and curiosities, which they had 

 on sale for the benefit of the mission ; it struck me the 

 greater part of the tomahawks, spears, and bowls for drink- 

 ing ava had come from the Fiji Islands. After having 

 examined these things, I requested them to give me a guide, 

 and took hasty leave of them, for the purpose of making 

 a little round in the neighbourhood. The country appeared 

 to me very pleasing, pretty even, with convenient roads, 

 or rather paths, in all directions, continuously shaded either 

 by the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, the bread-fruit tree, or the 

 kukui {Aleurites). The temperature was slightly lower than 

 that of the Samoan group, but the air so much drier that I 



