MBUA BAY AND MUTHUATA. 207 
rence of these squalls every thing in the boats became wet, compelling 
them to sleep in their wet clothes. 
On the 20th, the boats stood over for Mbenga. They found the 
current setting very strong to the eastward, which made a disagree- 
able short sea, obliging them to keep two hands baling to prevent the 
boat from swamping. ‘Towards night they entered the reef that sur- 
rounds Mbenga through a shallow passage, and anchored off a deep 
harbour, where they remained for the night. The next morning, 
Lieutenant Emmons examined Sawau Harbour, which he found two 
miles deep and one wide, contracting at the entrance to a quarter of a 
mile; it has good anchorage in from four to ten fathoms water, on a 
muddy bottom. This harbour enters from the north, and nearly 
divides the island in two. 
Mbenga rises on all sides towards two very prominent peaks, which 
were found by triangulation to be twelve hundred and eighty-nine feet 
in height. The land round the harbour of Sawau rises in most places 
from one to two hundred feet. At the head of the harbour a few huts 
were seen perched upon a perpendicular craggy rock, about five 
hundred feet higher than the surrounding land. The natives were 
very civil, and laid aside their arms at some distance from the party, 
before they approached; they brought bread-fruit, yams, &c., to trade. 
The island appears in many places burnt, the natives setting fire to the 
tall grass before planting their crops. Another harbour was found on 
the west side, which I have called Elliott’s. This is not so deep as 
the one on the north, but is more open at its entrance, and is sur- 
rounded by equally high land. On the left of the entrance is a white 
sand beach, and a neat village of about thirty huts. There are two 
small islands in the neighbourhood of Mbenga, one of which lies to 
the south, and is called Stuart’s, and the other to the eastward, to 
which Lieutenant Emmons gave the name of Elizabeth. 
The island of Mbenga has suffered severely of late years from the 
tyrannical power of the Rewa chiefs, and is now ygali to Rewa. 
Formerly, its inhabitants had a high idea of their importance, styling 
themselves “ Ygali dura ki langi”—subject only to heaven ; but of late 
years, in consequence of their having offended the king of Rewa, he 
sent a force which finally overcame them, and butchered nearly all the 
inhabitants. 
Ngaraningiou is said to have been the bloody executioner of this 
act. Since that time these descendants of the gods, according to their 
mythology, have lost their political influence. 
Mbenga, like all the large islands of this group, is basaltic. Its 
shape is an oval, five miles long by three wide. 
