in the early 1820s, levuka was established as the first modern town in fiji, on the island of ovalau. the intervention of european traders and missionaries, of whom the first arrived from tahiti in 1830, led to increasingly serious wars among the native fijian confederacies. supplied with weapons by swedish mercenary charlie savage, ratu tanoa visawaqa, the vunivalu (a chiefly title meaning "warlord," often translated also as "paramount chief") of bau island, defeated the much larger burebasaga confederacy and succeeded in subduing much of western fiji.