KANDAVU. 177 



are dragged for the purpose of effecting a direct passage 

 between north and south, thus avoiding much circuitous 

 coasting. The use to which it is put is denoted by its name, 

 Yarabah, Uterally ' haul across.' The island has a population 

 of between 10,000 and 11,000, the whole of which has 

 been Christianized. Its surface is very hilly, but it is re- 

 ported to be well cultivated. The great mountain cliff of 

 Buke-Levu was ascended by Mr. Pritchard and Dr. Seemann 

 in 1860 (the first white men who had ever visited it), who 

 found patches of cultivation as high as 1,500 feet. Between 

 Levuka and Buke-Levu is the village of Yawe, the place most 

 famous in Fiji for its pottery.^ 



At the end of the year 1866, more than a year after the 

 Cura9oa's being there, H.M.S. ' Esk ' went to make a longer 

 stay in Kandavu than we did. Captain Luce, who com- 

 manded the corvette, and the Hon. Mr. Meade, who ac- 

 companied him as gunnery lieutenant, visited the mission- 

 houses, with which they were highly satisfied, and of which 

 they gave me a pleasing account. I may here insert, in 

 reference to this visit, a translation of a letter which some 

 native canoe-men addressed to the captain, thanking him 

 for some small presents he had sent them as an acknow- 

 ledgment of a slight service they had rendered him. 

 This letter has struck me as noteworthy, if only as 

 evidence of the present disposition of a people once so 

 barbarous : — 



' Seemann, pp. 138, 215. 



