410 A MISSION TO VITI. 
their dignity to comply with, which led to fatal conse- 
quences. 
Some of the old convict gang were still alive when 
a few of a more respectable class of white traders and 
missionaries took up their abode in the group, princi- 
pally at Lakeba, Levuka, and Rewa. Of the traders we 
know little except the incidental notices here and there 
preserved; but of the doings of the missionaries ample 
records have been placed before the world in their own 
publications. When the latter commenced their labours 
the political state of Fiji was little understood, and we 
can therefore not wonder that they should have made a 
serious mistake in the very outset. They began their 
work of christianization at Lakeba, one of the windward 
islands. Now Lakeba is dependent on Cakaudrove, and 
the chiefs of the latter state were naturally jealous to 
see vassals assume a greater importance than themselves, 
and they opposed the spread of the new doctrine with 
all means in their power. When, after a time, mission- 
aries established themselves at Somosomo, then the ca- 
pital of Cakaudrove, at Viwa and Rewa, they struggled 
against similar disadvantages. These three states were 
more or less dependent on Bau, and Bau, irritated at see- 
ing its subordinates in possession of all the good things 
that an active intercourse with the Christian teachers 
threw in their way, tried to crush the new doctrine by 
its mighty influence. There can be no doubt that many 
atrocities were committed in the native capital, merely 
to prove how little Bau was influenced by the religious 
change going on in other parts of the group. It appears 
that at an early date Cakobau had invited the mission- 
