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CHAPTER II. 
ISLAND OF TAVIUNI.—THE KING OF CAKAUDROVE.—ELEPHANTIASIS.— 
KIND OFFER OF MR. WATERHOUSE AND CAPTAIN WILSON.—SOMOSOMO, 
ITS ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES.—QUEEN ELEANOR.—ASCENT OF 
SUMMIT OF TAVIUNI.—A ROYAL ESCORT.—SYLVAN SCENE.—ARRIVAL AT 
THE TOP.—SINGULAR SWAMP OF VEGETABLE TURTLE FAT.—DINNER.— 
TIMIDITY OF THE NATIVES.—CHIEF GOLEA’S RETURN FROM A MILI- 
TARY EXPEDITION.—POLYGAMY.—THE ROTUMA-MEN.—WAIRIKI.—aARRI- 
VAL OF THE ‘PAUL JONES.’ 
Tue island off which we were now anchored is properly 
called Taviuni, erroneously Vuna by Wilkes and the 
latest Admiralty charts. It is the third island in size 
of the Vitian group, being about twenty-four miles long 
and nine broad, running from south-west to north-east, 
and being traversed by a chain of mountains about 
two thousand feet high, the tops of which are nearly 
always enveloped in clouds. Stately cocoa-nut palms 
gird the beach, whilst the mountain-sides are covered 
by dense forests full of fine timber, and abounding 
in wild pigeons and the Kula, a species of paroquet 
(Coriphilus solitarius, Latham), valued on account of 
its scarlet feathers, by the Tonguese, and still more 
by the Samoans, for ornamenting mats. Numerous 
streams and mountain-torrents, fed principally by a lake 
at the summit, descend in every direction and greatly 
C 32 
