232 MBUA BAY AND MUTHUATA. 
did. He seemed desirous of obtaining the murderers, and together 
with the chief Gingi, advised that the town to which they belonged 
should be burnt, although all the other inhabitants were innocent. 
This Captain Hudson refused to do, as he did not wish to punish the 
innocent for the guilty. 
Gingi himself was suspected of having had a hand in the murder 
of Cunningham. Although not of the royal blood, he has much influ- 
ence in Muthuata, and is, in all respects, a disreputable character. 
He has four houses, which are the best in the town, and are occupied 
by as many wives. He possesses a considerable quantity of other 
property, which he has accumulated from his earnings in the biche 
de mar fishery. He does not hesitate to boast of his savage actions, 
and to reckon up a dozen men whom he has killed with his own 
musket. When I come to speak of the Asaua cluster of islands, some 
of his wholesale massacres will be recorded. In these encounters he 
has not escaped unscathed, for he received on one occasion a musket- 
ball, which entered beneath his shoulder-blade and came out beneath 
the nipple of his breast. Gingi is remarkable for the energy of his 
character, and his savage disposition when offended. 
While the Peacock lay at Muthuata, the naturalists employed them- 
selves in excursions to the mountains. The bright tin boxes carried 
by the botanists attracted much attention, and excited no little alarm, 
for a report had got abroad, that these boxes contained our “ fiery 
- spirits.” In consequence of this idea, when one of these gentlemen, 
after his return from an excursion, opened his box for the purpose of 
looking at the plants he had gathered, there was a general outcry and 
flight among the younger natives. They frequently met native women 
in their walks, who seemed very much amused with the Papalangis, 
and laughed immoderately at the shaking of hands, which some were 
bold enough to venture upon. Those they met would, if alone and 
carrying any thing, throw down their load and run like the wind to 
escape. 
On their mountain excursions, they were accompanied by a Rotuma 
man who spoke English. On their way up, as they were about to 
enter a hamlet, he advised them to load and prepare their fire-arms, 
saying that the people of the mountain did not like those of the coast, 
and that to visit them was dangerous. It did not prove so, however, 
on this occasion; yet the advice clearly shows that a state of hostility 
exists between those who live in the mountains and those on the coast. 
The former are probably those who have escaped punishment for 
crimes, or from the cruelty of the chiefs on the coast, and who fled to 
the mountains for safety. 
