230 A MISSION TO VITI. 
Having rounded Mua i Udu, we came in sight of 
Rabe and Taviuni, the wind being favourable all the 
while. At night we anchored in Na Ceva (=Natheva) 
Bay, partly to avoid rocks and reefs, partly because we 
could not keep our crew awake. The bay derives its 
name from Na Ceva (i.e. the south-east wind, to which it 
is open); Natava is therefore an erroneous spelling. In 
Wilkes’s, and other charts founded upon his survey, it is 
not made deep enough, and the isthmus separating it 
from the southern shores of Vanua Levu, about ten 
miles too wide. The isthmus is scarcely more than a 
mile and a half across, and canoes are dragged from one 
side to the other, as is the case in Kadavu, though its 
surface is hilly. Colonel Smythe made an excursion to 
it from Waikava; and in the chart Mr. Arrowsmith has 
constructed for him, this error of long standing has been 
corrected, as it is in the map accompanying this work. 
On the following morning we called at Rabe, a fine 
island, of which the Tonguese have made desperate 
attempts to obtain permanent possession, and towards 
the afternoon we reached Waikava, where the mission- 
aries from Taviuni had now established themselves, 
and where the official meeting with the principal chiefs 
of Vanua Levu was to be held. We found Colonel 
Smythe’s vessel, the ‘ Pegasus,’ at anchor, just returned 
from Lakeba, where, under pressure from the Tonguese, 
the chiefs had behaved rather rudely. 
On the following day I ran over to Somosomo, where, 
in the beginning of June, I had established an experi- 
mental cotton plantation. It took me nearly a whole 
day to cross the strait of Somosomo, there being almost 
a perfect calm. I found the plantation in the best 
