14 GOVERNMENT. 



his wealth or by the number of his fighting men, assumes a degree 

 of suzerainty over the less powerful chiefs in his vicinity. Tims, 

 the influence of Gorai, the Shortland chief, is not only dominant 

 over tlie islands of Bougainville Straits, but extends to the adjacent 

 coast of the large islands of Bougainville and Choiscul, and reaches, 

 even to Bouka, more than a hundred miles away. The small island 

 i)f Simbo or Eddystone, the Narovo of the natives, is under the 

 sway of a powerful chief who resides,, together wnth nearly all his 

 titTJitin"- men, on an islet bordering its south-east side. His influence 

 extends to the neighbouring larger islands, and is probably as des- 

 potic as tJjat of any of the numerous chiefs witli whom I was 

 brought into contact. I might mention otner instances in this group 

 where a comparativel}'^ small island becomes the political centre of 

 a laro-e district. Similar instances are familiar amongst the other 

 Pacific archipelagos, and notably in the case of Bau in Fiji; and they 

 may all be attributed to the fact that the coast-tribes are of more 

 rolnist physique and of more enterprising character than the in- 

 habitants of the interior of the larger island, or " bushmen " as they 

 are often termed. 



The larcre island of St. Christoval is divided amongst immerous 

 tribes between which there are constant feuds, each tribe having its 

 own chief. A wide distinction exists between the inhabitants of 

 the interior and those of the coast ; and an miceasing hostility pre- 

 vails between the one and the other. The distinction often extends 

 to language, a circumstance which points to a long continuation of 

 these feuds ; and from it we may infer that the isolation has con- 

 tinued during a considerable period. The bush-tribes find their 

 best protection on the summits of the high hills and on the crests 

 (jf the mountain-ridgL's which traverse the interior of the island. I 

 passed one night in the busli-villagc of Lawa, which is situated on a 

 hill-top about 1,400 feet above the sea near the north coast of St. 

 (vhristoval. As I was in a locality wliere probably no white man 

 had been before, the novelt^' of my situation kept me awake the 

 greater part of the night; and very early the next morning I rose 

 up from my mat in the tambu-hou.se to view, undisturbed, the interioiv 

 n.'gion of the island. It was a gloomy morning. Thin lines of 

 mist were still encircling the loftier summits or lincrerins in the 

 valleys below. Here and there on the crest of some distant hill a 

 cluster of cocoa-nut palms marked the houie of a bush-tribe effectu- 

 ally isolated by deep intervening valleys from the neighbourinfr 



