224 A MISSION TO VITI. 
to be inhabited, because all the tribes of the islands 
acknowledge Degei as their chief god, and own their 
knowledge of him to be derived from Rakiraki. There 
is nothing very remarkable either in the shape or cha- 
racter of the mountain, and, as far as our present in- 
formation goes, we are unable to account for the dis- 
tinction it enjoys. The accompanying sketch, obligingly 
furnished by Mrs. Smythe, will help to bear me out. 
About noon on the 11th of October we were off Bua, 
no longer teeming with sandalwood as in days of yore. 
Our object was to invite Tui Bua, or King of Bua, to 
attend the meeting at Waikava. Our schooner not going 
close in, we went on shore in the dingy. The town of 
Bua is built on the banks of a river, the mouth of 
which for about a mile and a half is densely covered 
with mangroves. The district is low, the soil a rich 
alluvial clay. Bua has proved so unhealthy to Europeans 
that the white missionaries, after several deaths had 
thinned their ranks, were compelled to relinquish it, and 
fill their places with Tonguese teachers. This circum- 
stance is the more to be regretted as Bua was a most 
complete station. The church is a very neat building, 
and has a good tolling-bell, instead of those hideous 
wooden drums used in other parts for calling the con- 
gregation together; the dwelling-houses are also highly 
finished. We found the principal one inhabited by the 
Tonguese teacher, who, together with his wife, was 
scenting cocoa-nut oil by adding rasped sandalwood and 
the white odoriferous flowers of the Bua (Fagrwa Ber- 
teriana, A. Gray), a tree from which the place probably 
derives itsname. They were very attentive to us, and 
