Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/268

GEATE OF MR. CEOSS. CHAPTEE II SOMOSOiMO. One of the new Stations to be supplied with a Missionary was Somosomo. Tliis place is a town of very great importance, situated on Taviuni, an island lying off the south-eastern point of Yanua Levu, or the Great Land. In the year 1837, not very long after the first arrival of Mission- aries, Tuithakau, King of Somosomo, accompanied by his two sons and some hundreds of his people, visited Lakemba, where he saw the Mission Station and its inmates. What chiefly struck the royal visitors was the supply of knives, hatchets, iron pots, and other useful things, which the Lakembans were able to procure from the JNIission- house ; and it seemed a very unbecoming thing that so unimportant a people should be enjoying such great advantage, while they, who were so powerful, were without it. Very strongly was their plea for a Mis- sionary urged. They said, " The Chief of Lakemba is not powerful ; his people are very few and poor, and he cannot practise what you