76 A MISSION TO VITI. 
ceive these general sentiments to have taken hold of 
the popular mind with such force, if the people had 
always been divided into petty states as at present. 
Away from the capital and Cakobau, some of the Fijian 
kinglets talk very boastfully of their total independence, 
and wish you to believe the suzerainty of Bau merely 
applies to certain inferior chieftains; whilst the social 
supremacy is seldom disputed, and the court dialect is 
understood by all the chiefs, even those living in the 
remotest parts of the group, and it has therefore very 
properly been adopted by the Wesleyan missionaries in 
their translation of the Bible. Each of these states or 
principalities has its ambassador at Bau (Mataki Bau), 
who, however, does not constantly reside in the capital, 
but only when there is any business to transact, which 
may occasionally last for weeks or months. On arriving 
at Bau, he takes up his abode at the house of the Bauan 
“minister,” if he may be called so, charged with the 
affairs of the district from which he comes as ambas- 
sador, and he is by his host introduced to the King of 
Fiji. When Bau has any business to transact abroad, 
the ambassador selected is invariably the minister of 
the affairs of the district to which he is sent, and his 
place at the capital is temporarily filled by a relative. 
The office of these diplomatic agents is hereditary in 
certain families, and they are appointed by the ruling 
chiefs. Title and office are quite as much valued as 
they are in Europe by ourselves,—human nature being 
human nature all the world over. 
On the 28th of July, Mr. Pritchard and myself set 
out in the consular gig for Navua, Viti Levu, to pay our 
