- Cakobau's Fall And Restoration
- 1850 To Kaba (1855)
During the lull in the war with Rewa, Cakobau turned his attention to his traditional enemies at Verata.
The Somosomo people and their lavish gifts were doubly welcome at Bau, for Cakobau's prestige had continued to decline. An expedition against the Rewa party at Nakelo had failed; and all his attempts to dislodge Qaraniqio from Rewa had been ostentatious act of homage did something to bolster up Cakobau's waning authority. However, he did not long survive his return to Somosomo. His murder, and the events that followed it, have already been described. The new Tui Cakau, who achieved notoriety during the next twenty five years, was the eldest surviving son of Tui Kilakila. Seemann described him as "a miserable-looking man, without any chiefly attributes, possessing appearance". Fison calls him a drunken chief who, to pay for liquor and arms, sold whole islands over the heads of his wretched people. In 1800, when Seemann was at Somosomo, this man and his young brother Ratu Golea were the only survivors of the family, but the feud begun in 1854 was still going on. On 31st May, Seemann saw Golea return from punishing the people who had murdered his brother three years before; he had taken and burnt nine empty towns, and killed one old woman and one child.
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The policy to be developed by Ma'afu was laid down by King George before the Tongans left Lakeba on the last stage of their return journey. How much of what followed was due to the Tongan king's instructions, and how much to Ma'afu's personal ambition, can never be known. From that time Ma'afu openly pursued a course of personal aggrandisement. He established his headquarters at Lomaloma, on Vanua Balavu. He added to his fleet by laying down the keel of a 45-ton schooner, which would have obvious advantages over the war-canoes of his rivals. He held the balance of power in Fijian politics, and was able to pursue a policy of Divide et imopera. Under his astute leadership the Tongans in Fiji won prestige and power altogether out of proportion to their numbers, which fluctuated, but were at all times comparatively small. Minor Fijian chiefs were ever ready to grasp any opportunity to achieve notoriety by resisting the ruling chiefs; and the Tongans had only to make a gesture of support to such men, to precipitate a crisis in almost any district in Fiji. Playing off one chief's party against another, and posing as deliverers while meaning to be exploiters, they divided the Fijian forces and dealt with each faction in turn. so far-reaching, indeed, was Tongan influence upon the events of the twenty years that elapsed between the Battle of Kaba and the establishment of British colonial government in Fiji, that it forms the background against which all these events must be viewed.