78 A MISSION TO VITI. 
be added, the sum swells to the respectable amount of 
£80,000. 
Bau is built on a small island on the east side of Viti 
Levu, with which it is connected by a long flat of coral, 
fordable at high water, and in places bare at low. The 
annexed sketch, taken in 1860, by Mrs. Smythe, and 
kindly placed at my disposal, will give a better idea 
of the place than any description. The island is at the 
back about a hundred feet high, and around the beach 
thickly covered with native houses, arranged in crooked 
streets. The top of the island, where the British flag is 
waving, was a mere receptacle for rubbish, until the in- 
dustry of the missionaries converted it into smiling gar- 
dens and eligible sites for dwelling-houses. At my first 
visit the natives were just finishing their new Bure ni sa, 
—a building, one or several of which are found in every 
town, and which may be described as a compromise be- 
tween our club-houses and town-halls. It was 125 feet 
long, but not quite so high as the adjoining church, 
which is 100 feet high, and seems a tremendous edifice 
for natives to erect without nails, and the use of such 
tools as are employed by us. 
The King’s residence is close to the beach, and a 
large native-built house, to which several out-houses 
are attached: one of which is inhabited by Peter, a Ton- 
guese, who fills the office of prime minister, and seems 
much attached to the King. In front of the house is a 
fine lawn of couch-grass, and groups of iron-wood, and 
other native shrubs and trees,—the whole, I believe, a 
creation of Mrs. Collis, the wife of the resident training 
master at Bau, who will ever live in my memory, for 
