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 highlands 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 Malaki, 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 circumstances may appear, I can readily believe, from the knowledge I have of the people, that far greater atrocities than even these are occasionally 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 eastern end of Vitilevu.

serted. This island is eight hundred feet high, and on the top are the remains of a fortification of stone, whose walls are four feet high, surrounded by a moat several feet deep, and ten feet wide. From this height the passages through the reefs were very distinctly seen, and could be traced for a long distance. On presents being distributed to all the natives who were present, it was amusing to see the young son of a chief, according to the custom of his country, very deliberately taking possession of the whole, and rolling them up in his maro.

On the 3d, they were still beating up for the Malaki Passage, and were in hopes of being able to pass out of it; but the wind being ahead, it was found too narrow to beat through. After sustaining two sharp thumps, it was deemed advisable to return and await a more favourable opportunity. Some of the officers again landed on a small island of much less height than Malaki, but nothing interesting was found. It had evidently been inhabited, from the overgrown and deserted plantations which were every where to be seen. The island was, for the most part, covered with a sweet-scented grass, (Andropogon schoenanthus.)

They had now been seven days upon this coast, with the wind blowing directly along it, and had only made about fifty miles. This channel through the reefs must always be fatiguing and wearing to both vessel and crew. For the whole distance they found the bottom a white clay, and the depth of water varying from five to twenty fathoms. As they approached the windward side of the island, they found the weather to become more rainy, and the winds much stronger.

On the 5th, at daylight, they passed out of the reef and stood over for Mbua or Sandalwood Bay. The weather during the day set in stormy, so much so as to make their situation not only unpleasant but dangerous, in consequence of the many reefs by which they were surrounded, and which they had to pass through before reaching their destination. These reefs on the shores of Vanua-levu, in the most favourable times, are dangerous, but particularly so in thick and stormy weather. Fortunately, when near the passage, they were able to see the land for a short time, and soon after reached their destination in safety.

In passing into the bay they discovered the buoy I had left for Captain Hudson, with the despatches enclosed in a bottle, and had it brought on board.

Lieutenant Underwood joined them soon after, and set out the next morning with the ship's rudder-pintles for Captain Belcher. Captain Hudson then sent a boat to the town for the king or one of the princi

pal chiefs, which brought off Tui Mora, the son of Tui Mbua, from whom he learned that the whole district was in a state of civil war, and had been so for the last year; that all their towns were barricadoed and their canoes broken up. This was an unforeseen event, putting a stop to the plans we had entertained of getting a chief to accompany the surveying party to the Asaua Group. On no consideration would Tui Mora leave his district, nor had he any one to send. Captain Hudson, under these circumstances, after talking to the chief, determined, in the first place, to effect a peace, to which he found this chief favourably disposed.

He was desired to send a message to the town of the old chief Tui Mbua, which was but a few miles off, in order to ask him to come on board. He at once said the king was absent at the Bay of Naloa, where the ship Leonidas was fishing. The distance thither, he said, was ten miles by land, and thirty by water, and no one's life would be safe in going there, as they would have to pass several of the enemy's towns, and must certainly be killed. On being asked to send a canoe, he said they had none, and if they had had any, it would be impossible to reach the desired point, for it would be captured and the men killed. Captain Hudson at once determined to proceed himself to the Leonidas, and bring the old king back with him, retaining Tui Mora on board in the mean time. Accordingly, he left the ship at noon, and reached the Leonidas after dark. Tui Mbua was at once sent for and proper explanations being made to him respecting the object in view, to restore peace, he readily consented to accompany Captain Hudson back to the ship. They set out near midnight, and reached the Peacock by eight o'clock the next morning.

The two rival chiefs were kept out of sight of each other, until they had been made to understand the object in view. When brought together they were soon reconciled, and every thing amicably arranged they shook hands and solemnly promised to forget all that had passed. They could not, however, help passing an occasional accusation against each other, as having been the cause of the war. Messengers were immediately despatched by both to their respective towns, to proclaim peace, and with orders to the people to put aside their preparations for war, and to plant and cultivate their taro and yam grounds. This was an end worthy of the exertions that Captain Hudson had made to secure it.

The rules and regulations that had been signed by the chiefs of Ambau and Rewa were now explained to both parties, by sections. To all of these they agreed, saying they were glad to enter into them and that they should be strictly observed by their people.

After all this business was finished, a feast was given to the king and chiefs. At this they took a particular fancy to the wine, of which they seemed inordinately fond. Presents were then made to them, consisting of brass kettles, shawls, hatchets, pipes, tobacco, plane-irons, and small looking-glasses.

Old Tui Mbua readily agreed to accompany the boats to the Asaua Group, showing thereby great confidence on his part, and an intention to be at peace, by leaving his people at the time certainly liable to many contingencies, which it was impossible for us to guard against, from the treachery of those with whom he had been at war. He, however, left an old chief, called Raritona, his counsellor, to act for him during his absence.

During the time occupied in the arrangement of these affairs, the first and second cutters were prepared for an expedition to the Asaua Cluster. Of this, Lieutenant Emmons, with Passed Midshipman Blunt, were placed in charge, with his majesty for a pilot, and two white men as interpreters. Tui Mora, who was quite an intelligent young man, remained on board, with several of his chiefs. Divine service was performed, at which they were present, and behaved with great decorum and propriety. They all, including the old king, expressed a great desire to have missionaries settle among them, and said they would take good care of them, believing that they would put an end to their wars; for "where missionaries lived there were no wars.” This kind of talk is very common among the Feejee chiefs, for deceit is a part of their national character. They are very quick in discerning what will please those whom they wish to conciliate, and readily accede to their views. That this was the case with these people, there can be but little doubt; for, as far as my experience goes, the Feejee character is entirely at variance with the ideas they expressed. They have imbibed these notions from the whites, which will, in time, however, do good, because they believe that what the whites possess is better than that belonging to the darkcoloured race. They may thus become fixed, and rendered really desirous of obtaining the residence of those who are not only the pioneers of religion, but of civilization also, in the islands of Polynesia.

On the 8th June, Captain Hudson set about the survey of Sandal wood Bay. He then, with the naturalists and many of the officers, visited the shore. There are three rivers that flow into the bay; the middle one of these they entered. It has two entrances for boats. It is bordered on each side by extensive mud-flats, which are bare at low water for a considerable distance. Parts of these flats are covered

by thick mangrove-bushes, among which many women and children were seen catching a large kind of crab, whilst flocks of paroquets were flying around them. This river is about two hundred feet wide, and very tortuous.

The town, named Vaturua, is situated about a mile up the river. The entrance to it is through a hollow way, to pass through which it was almost necessary to creep.

They were warned of their approach to it by the chattering of the women and children, who were assembled in numbers to greet their arrival. The village is about two hundred yards from the bank of the river; it is surrounded with palisades of cocoa-nut trees and other timber, and a ditch, with gates, &c., very much on the same plan as that observed by us at Moa on the island of Tongataboo. It contains fifty or sixty houses, among which are several mbures. In some of their houses graves were observed, which the natives said were placed there to protect them from their neighbours. They seemed the most good-natured set we had yet met with, and appeared quite familiar with the whites. This was, however, to have been expected; for their intercourse with foreigners has been, until recently, more frequent than that of any other part of the group. It is here that so large a quantity of sandalwood has been shipped.

It was said that the chief, Tui Mora, had even made the people break up their canoes for the purpose of constructing the palisades to fortify the village, and thus at the same time to prevent his people from deserting to his enemy.

On their landing they saw an albino, who had the features of his countrymen, although he resembled the lower class of Irish, so much so that the sailors jocosely remarked that a blunder had been committed by his having been born in a wrong country. His skin was a dirty white, and fairer than that of an European would be if exposed to the sun; he was marked with many brown spots, about the size of a sixpence or less; his hair was of the same colour as that of the natives who use lime-water for cleaning it; his eyebrows and eyelashes were of a flaxen colour; his eyes were almost constantly closed, as if the light affected them; the iris was blue, with no tinge of red. On a subsequent visit he had dyed his hair a coal-black, which gave him an odd and ludicrous appearance. The natives called him Areea. He was about thirty years of age.

The white men say that albinos are not unfrequently seen. I saw a man who was partially so, having an appearance as if he had been scalded about the face and upper part of his body. Dr. Pickering suggests that it is not improbable that the white individuals reported to