Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/425

 CHAPTEK YIII. VIWA AND MBAU. . With the beginning of another chapter, this history once more returns to the commencement of the Fijian Mission in 1835, in order to trace the most important branch of its operations ; to record its greatest difficulties and its highest enterprise ; to tell of the most appall- ing dangers, and to chronicle the most noble heroism to be found in this or perhaps any other Mission ; to describe its most patient endur- ance, and register its most important success. As soon as the first Missionaries were settled in Lakemba, their minds passed anxiously over the sea to the distant part of the group to the westward. There was Viti Levu — Great Fiji — ^which, in compari- son with the many islets of Polynesia, was worthy of the title of conti- nent. But it was not to this large island itself that the Missionaries looked with the greatest interest. Outside the beautiful and fertile plain which skirts all round the frowning hills of the interior, and where the reef stretches away beyond, are many small islands, some of which can hardly claim the name, being scarcely separated from the coast when the tide is down. One of these little islets, near the south-eastern extremity of Viti Levu, is called Mbau, and its Chiefs had, for a long time, been gaining power in Fiji. A strong and well-organized rebel- lion, instead of overturning this power, had only resulted in its being more firmly and broadly founded. The old King Tanoa had been brought back from the asylum to which he was compelled to flee, and once more saw his authority acknowledged, while his young son, Tha- kombau, to whose policy and daring he was indebted for his restoration, actually held the reins of government. The influence of Mbau was felt not only in the states and islands in its own immediate neighbourhood, but in the more distant parts of the group it gained ground over Chiefs of large districts, who were strengthened by seeking the aid of a power, the superiority of which they were forced to acknowledge. But while such interest belonged to Mbau because of its great and