LAKEMBA AND SAVU-SAVU. 183 
The king of Rewa, it is necessary to say, is a heathen, and has been 
much opposed to the missionaries making proselytes. The messenger 
presented Mr. Cargill with three reeds of different lengths, the longest 
of which signified that he thought the Feejee fashions and customs 
bad; the second, that it was wrong to injure white men, and that any 
Feejee man who did so hereafter should be punished; the third, that 
Captain Belcher was a wrongheaded and bad man; that he did not 
wish to see his ship there again, or have any thing to do with him, as 
he only came to make trouble, and look at the sun, and consequently 
they believed him to be a foolish fellow. The letter was to condole 
with the missionary, Mr. Cargill, whom he supposed the captain had 
maltreated. 
After finishing my observations, we returned to the schooner, and a 
chief of Rewa brought us a present of pigs, for which he received an 
ample return. We saw but few natives, and they all behaved civilly. 
Nukalau is a low, sandy island, well covered with wood. On the 
eastern side it has an extensive coral reef; but the western is clear, 
and may be approached closely. There is a pool of water on the 
island, but no one could water a ship there without the risk of causing 
sickness on board. During the night we were awakened by a great 
noise on deck, and some alarm was experienced. It proved, however, 
to be the chief’s pigs that had jumped overboard, and the look-out 
endeavouring to take them; and before steps could be taken to recap- 
ture them, they had reached the island and effected their escape. 
The Rev. Mr. Hunt here left us for Rewa, and in the morning, 
before daylight, we got under way, on our return to Ovolau. The 
day having proved calm, we were at sunset yet some distance from 
the island. I concluded, therefore, to lay under Ambatiki for the 
night, and by 10 a. m. on the 18th, we again anchored at Levuka. 
The night of the 17th, during my absence at Rewa, there was a 
report that the observatory was to be attacked. Thirty men were, in 
consequence, landed by Lieutenant Carr, and double guards placed. 
The alarm arose from six war-canoes having anchored behind the 
point nearest to the ship, where they were concealed from view. The 
people of the small town of Vi Tonga left their town with all their 
moveable property and fled to the mountains, so apprehensive were 
they of an attack. Natives were seen during the night passing to and 
from the point, who were believed to be spies; nothing, however, oc- 
curred. In the morning these war-canoes made their appearance, 
when it was given out that it was Seru, with a war-party, on his way 
to attack Goro. His real intention, it was thought, was an attack 
upon the observatory, as he must have known that the usual vigilance 
