152 SOMU-SOMU. 
to pass the night there. Its only inhabitants were goats, which we 
drove from a cave, in which we built our fire, and made ourselves 
comfortable for the night, keeping two men on guard to prevent 
surprise. The tender did not reach the anchorage until late. On 
anchoring, they made signals, but I was snug in the cave and did not 
see or hear them, and of course they got no answer. Lieutenant Case 
and the officers on board became uneasy, for there was shouting and 
yelling on shore, with war-songs and dances, as at their cannibal 
feasts; and it required but little imagination in the vicinity of such a 
people as the Feejees, to give birth to the idea that we had been sur- 
prised and cut off. They had their boarding-nettings triced up, and 
spent a very uncomfortable night. At daylight, however, they dis- 
covered the gig under Goat Island, and I joined them soon after. In 
the forenoon I visited the missionaries, Messrs. Hunt and Lythe, with 
their ladies. 'They were living in a large house, formerly occupied 
by the king, called Tui Thakau. As he was an old man and incapable 
of moving about, I at once called upon him. He was a fine specimen 
of a Feejee Islander, and bore no slight resemblance to our ideas of an 
old Roman. His figure was particularly tall and manly, and he had a 
head fit for a monarch. The king’s oldest son now exercises all the 
powers of king; he is a large, well-made, and truly savage-looking 
fellow; and from the accounts of the missionaries and others, his 
temper and disposition correspond with his looks. His name is Tui 
Tlla-illa. 
Somu-somu, although one of the chief towns of Feejee, acknow- 
ledges a sort of subjection to Ambau. The cause of this is found in an 
ancient tradition of a contest between their respective tutelar spirits, 
in which the spirit of Somu-somu was overcome, and compelled to 
perform the tama or salute due to a superior, to the god of Ambau. 
The town of Somu-somu contains about two hundred houses, which 
are more straggling than any I had yet seen. It is partly built below 
a bluff, which affords a very safe retreat and strong defence to its in- 
habitants, and is divided, therefore, into a lower and upper town. The 
old mbure near the missionaries’ house is nearly gone to decay. Here 
was found the only carved image I saw in the group; it was a small 
figure cut out of solid wood, and the missionaries did not seem to think 
that it was regarded by the people with any reverence. The priest 
appears to have taken up his abode with the old king, and was appa- 
rently held in great reverence. ! 
The town is situated on the northwest side of the island of Vuna, 
which is separated from the island of Vanua-levu, or the large land, 
by a strait five miles wide in its narrowest part, which I have called 
; 
