210 MBUA BAY AND MUTHUATA. 
said was owing to some ill conduct on their part. After a while a 
few were induced to venture near, and were much pleased at having 
their faces and noses daubed with vermilion. They belonged to the 
town of Dongaloa, and gave the name of their chief as Aleokalou. 
They said they were mbati to the king of Ambau, being obliged to 
furnish him with fighting men. Paddy said they spoke a different 
dialect from that of either Ambau or Ra.* In looks they did not 
differ from the natives of other parts of the island. ‘There were one 
or two Tonga vitis seen, but Mr. Hale found they did not understand 
a word of their paternal language. 
The country in this vicinity so far changes its aspect, that the high- 
lands approach nearer the shore, and level ground is only to be seen 
in narrow and contracted valleys. Little appearance of cultivation is 
to be seen, proving, conclusively, that there are but few people in this 
district. 
On the 2d of June, they reached and landed on the island of Ma- 
laki, which is a high islet. Malaki is divided from the large island by 
a narrow strait, near which is the town of Rake-rake, which is also 
subject to Ambau. <A few young native boys, one of whom was the 
chief of Rake-rake’s son, were looking for shell-fish on the rocks, and 
were at first very timid, but were induced to approach. Being treated 
well, their fears subsided and they became communicative. 
The island of Malaki had once a large fishing town on it, and its 
inhabitants were compelled to send, yearly, a number of turtles to 
Tanoa at Ambau. Unfortunately for them, they one day ate one of 
the turtles they had caught. This soon reached the ears of Tanoa 
and the other Ambau chiefs, and was considered so high a crime 
that orders were immediately given for an expedition to be prepared 
against them. On the war-party reaching Malaki, they put to death 
every man and woman on the island, and carried off the children 
captive. It is said that they returned to Ambau with some of the little 
ones suspended to the masts and sails of their canoes; and it is further 
alleged, that the rest were kept for the rising generation, to exercise 
them in the art of killing! However extraordinary these circum- 
stances may appear, | can readily believe, from the knowledge I have 
of the people, that far greater atrocities than even these are occasion- 
ally practised. 
Malaki has the appearance of having once been well cultivated 
and there are a number of terraced taro-patches of great extent, 
which had been erected with great care, but are now entirely de- 
* Ra is the name given to the easterrf end of Vitilevu. 
