226 MBUA BAY AND MUTHUATA. 



This kind of talk is very common among the Feejee chiefs, for 

 deceit is a part of their national character. They are very quick in 

 discerning what will please those whom they wish to conciliate, 

 and readily accede to their views. That this was the case with these 

 people, there can be but little doubt; for, as far as my experience 

 goes, the Feejee character is entirely at variance with the ideas 

 they expressed. They have imbibed these notions from the whites, 

 which will, in time, however, do good, because they believe that 

 what the whites possess is better than that belonging to the dark- 

 coloured race. They may thus become fixed, and rendered really 

 desirous of obtaining the residence of those who are not only 

 the pioneers of religion, but of civilization also, in the islands of 

 Polynesia. 



On the 8th June, Captain Hudson set about the survey of Sandal- 

 wood Bay. He then, with the naturalists and many of the officers, 

 visited the shore. There are three rivers that flow into the bay ; the 

 middle one of these they entered. It has two entrances for boats. It 

 is bordered on each side by extensive mud-flats, which are bare at 

 low water for a considerable distance. Parts of these flats are covered 

 by thick mangrove-bushes, among which inany women and children 

 were seen catching a large kind of crab, whilst flocks of paroquets 

 were flying around them. This river is about two hundred feet wide, 

 and very tortuous. 



The town, named Vaturua, is situated about a mile up the river. 

 The entrance to it is through a hollow way, to pass through which it 

 was almost necessary to creep. 



They were warned of their approach to it by the chattering of the 

 women and children, who were assembled in numbers to greet their 

 arrival. The village is about two hundred yards from the bank of 

 the river ; it is surrounded with palisades of cocoa-nut trees and other 

 timber, and a ditch, with gates, &c, very much on the same plan 

 as that observed by us at Moa on the island of Tongataboo. It con- 

 tains fifty or sixty houses, among which are several mbures. In some 

 of their houses graves were observed, which the natives said were 

 placed there to protect them from their neighbours. They seemed 

 the most good-natured set we had yet met with, and appeared quite 

 familiar with the whites. This was, however, to have been expected ; 

 for their intercourse with foreigners has been, until recently, more 

 frequent than that of any other part of the group. It is here that so 

 large a quantity of sandalwood has been shipped. 



