When we landed there on Tuesday there was a large gathering of Fijians, playing at throwing spears, and a game called _tinqua_—which consists in throwing reeds, with oval wooden heads, called _toa_, that skim along the ground for 100 or 150 yards—and other sports. They were all adorned with the usual festal garlands and green leaves; their faces painted, some of a rich black, which is truly hideous, though I do not consider scarlet or blue to be much better. One man was painted all over spots like a leopard; some wore white cloth _sulus_ as full as an opera-dancer’s skirt; others wore little but the fringe of long black water-weed, with a great bunch of white _tappa_, _en panier_. The Vuni Valu’s daughter, Andi Arietta Kuilla (Lady Harriet Flag), was looking on. She is a huge, good-natured-looking woman; very clever, I am told. There was quite a stir in Levuka last Monday in honour of Miss Cudlip’s marriage to Mr Tucker. The bride’s family being very popular in the isles, a large number of the planters came to it, and they had a merry dance. The young couple started for their home on the big isle, three days’ journey in an open boat, _hoping_, if wind and tide prove favourable, to be able to touch at a friend’s house each night. No nice yacht-cabins here. I wonder how you would like such a life! Now little Rachel has come to carry me off to tea, so I must say good-bye.—Ever lovingly yours. CHAPTER VI. FIJIAN SPELLING—THE FUTURE CAPITAL—A PLANTER’S LIFE—FOREIGN LABOUR—QUAINT POSTAGE-STAMPS. LEVUKA, _November 1, 1875_. MY DEAR GEORGE,—We are settling down into the quietest of lives, and I have no special news to give you; but the day is so lovely that I could not stay in the house, so I wandered up the hill to a huge boulder of grey rock, fringed with the loveliest ferns, on which I am now sitting, looking across the bluest of seas to the great isle of Viti Levu, whose mountains lie dreamily on the horizon. I must tell you that Viti Levu simply means Great Viti, which is the name by which these islands are always called by their own inhabitants, the name of Fiji, which we have adopted, being simply the Tongan mispronunciation of the word. If you look at a map of the group, you will see that this isle of Ovalau, though important by reason of its being the site of Levuka, the white men’s capital, is only a small isle lying off Viti Levu, as does also the tiny isle of Bau, on which is King Thakombau’s own particular capital.