310 MALOLO. 



tide. It is also a custom with them to dam up small streams, and 

 stupify the fish with the Glycine. 



Hand-nets are sometimes used in a peculiar manner, thus : when 

 they see a large fish take refuge in the coral shelf, they surround the 

 place with a net and drive the fish out into it. 



We passed round the island, in the tender, as far as the island of 

 Moturiki, under which we anchored, intending to proceed the next 

 day to examine the bay of Ambau, and to have communication if pos- 

 sible with that town. 



On the 5th, at an early hour, we stood for Ambau. The wind, 

 however, was ahead for the greater part of the distance, and so light 

 that I found we could not reach that place without much detention. 

 Having no business to transact there, I thought it might occasion 

 some delay if I landed, and thus interfere with our other duties, as 

 well as prolong the time of our stay in the group. We, therefore, 

 contented ourselves with surveying those parts that required correc- 

 tion, and testing the accuracy of the former examinations. 



Ambau is one of the most striking of the Feejee towns ; its mbure 

 is very conspicuous, and it is, upon the whole, one of the most extra- 

 ordinary places in this group, holding as it does so much of the poli- 

 tical power. The island on which it is situated is not more than a 

 mile long by half a mile wide, and the place has literally been made 

 of importance by the assistance of a few renegade whites, who, besides 

 aiding the inhabitants in their wars, have taught them all manner of 

 roguery. Among those who thus added all the vices of civilized life 

 to their own native barbarity, I would include the people of Viwa and 

 Verata, who have frequently been enabled to carry on their wars at a 

 distance by the assistance of the foreign vessels that have been here, 

 and in return have in several instances massacred their white coad- 

 jutors. 



It was at Ambau that the French brig Aimable Josephine, Captain 

 Bureau, was cut off, on the night of the 19th July, 1834. In retalia- 

 tion for this act, Captain D'Urville destroyed the town of Viwa in 

 1839. It appears that this vessel had been frequently employed in 

 transporting the warriors of Ambau from place to place. In return 

 for this service, a promise was made to supply Captain Bureau with a 

 cargo of biche de mar and shell. Instead of fulfilling this promise, 

 the chief Namosimalua, in whom he had long trusted, seized upon 

 his vessel and caused him to be put to death. The chief was, it is 

 said, averse to the latter crime, but was constrained to it by the chiefs 



