Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/25

FIJI. O canoe in its heaving bed of foam ; the strained exertions of the men at the steer-oar ; the anxiety which shoYed itself on every face ; were all ill broad contrast with the felt security, the easy progress, and undis- turbed repose which were attained the moment the interior of the basin was reached. Vulanga, although having its own beauty, is so barren that little except hardy timber is found growing upon it. Its gullies are bare of earth, so that neither the yam nor the banana repays culture. Smaller roots, with fish, which abound here, and yavato^ — a large wood maggot, — give food to the inhabitants of four villages. MoTHE, lying to the N. E. of Vulanga, is very fruitful, having an undulating surface much more free from wood than the island to the south. A fortress occupies its highest elevation, in walking to which the traveller finds himself surrounded by scenery of the richest loveli- ness. A sandy beach of seven miles nearly surrounds it. There are many islands of this size in the group, each containing from 200 to 400 inhabitants. Lakemba, the largest of the eastern islands, is nearly round, having a diameter of five or six niiles, and a population of about 2,000 souls. ToTOTA, MoALA, Nairai, Koro, Ngau, Mbengga, exhibit on a largei scale the beauties of those islands already named, having, in addition, the imposing charms of volcanic irregularities. Among their attrac- tions are high mountains, abrupt precipices, conical hills, fantastic tur- rets and crags of rock frowning down like olden battlements, vast domes, peaks shattered into strange forms ; native to^^ls on eyrie cliffs, apparently inaccessible ; and deep ravines, down which some mountain stream, after long murmuring in its stony bed, falls headlong, glittering as a silver line on a block of jet, or spreading, like a sheet of glass, over bare rocks which refuse it a chamiel. Here also are found the softer features of rich vales, cocoa-nut groves, clumps of dark chestnuts, stately palms and bread-fruit, patches of graceful bananas, or well tilled taro- beds, jningling in unchecked luxuriance, and forming, with the wild reef-scenery of the girdling shore, its beating surf, and far-stretching ocean beyond, pictures of surpassing beauty. Matuku is eminent for lovelmess where all are lovely. These islands are from fifteen to thirty miles in circumference, having popula- tions of from 1,000 to 7,000 each. Mbau is a small island, scarcely a mile long, joined to the main — Viti Levu — by a long flat of coral, which at low water is nearly dry, and at high water fordable. Tlie town, bearing the same name as the island, is one of the most striking in appearance of any in Fiji, covering, as it does, a great part of the island with irregularly placed houses of