262 A MISSION TO VITI. 
and obliged to leave so inhospitable a neighbourhood 
with all possible speed. Ritova, on the other hand, 
is the exact contrast of Bete. He is a tall, well-made 
man, with intelligent features; every inch a chief. Both 
his mother and grandmother were the great Macu- 
ata Queens, which gave him an advantage over Bete, 
whose mother was a degree below them in birth. All 
over Fiji the rank of the mother is of importance in 
regulating that of her offspring, but in Macuata a still 
greater stress is laid upon this circumstance than else- 
where; hence, after Bete’s father died, the office of Tui 
Macuata, or King of Macuata, vacant by his death, was 
offered by the landholders to Ritova as the highest 
chief. However, he waived his claims in favour of his 
son, who accordingly was duly elected, and invested 
with the title. After Ritova had been driven away, 
Maafu made Bete King of Macuata; hence there were 
two claimants to that dignity. In his dealings with the 
white men, Ritova always behaved creditably. Traders 
left large stocks of goods in his hand, taking no other 
security for their payment than his reputation for ho- 
nesty, and that at a time when nearly the whole of Fiji 
was addicted to cannibalism, and the lives of foreigners 
trembled in the balance. In the complicated process of 
collecting and curing béche-de-mer, Ritova displayed as 
much energy in making his people work as he did ho- 
nesty in the pecuniary transactions which it involved. 
The benefits arising from the béche-de-mer trade were 
felt on all hands, and when, with Ritova’s removal, this 
lucrative traffic came to an end, even the most humble 
became mindful that they had not simply experienced a 
