[Illustration]
AT HOME IN FIJI
[Illustration: OUR HOME IN FIJI.
_Frontispiece._]
AT HOME IN FIJI
BY
C. F. GORDON CUMMING
AUTHOR OF ‘A LADY’S CRUISE IN A FRENCH MAN-OF-WAR’
‘FROM THE HEBRIDES TO THE HIMALAYAS,’ ETC.
NEW EDITION, COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
_WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS_
New York
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 714 BROADWAY
MDCCCLXXXII
TO
DEAR LITTLE NEVIL
AND
GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON
THESE NOTES OF ONE OF THE MANY SUNNY HOMES
OF THEIR HAPPY CHILDHOOD
ARE LOVINGLY DEDICATED
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION, 1
CHAPTER I.
The voyage out, 9
CHAPTER II.
Sydney—Camellia trees—Orange gardens, 12
CHAPTER III.
Life in the Blue Mountains—Death of Commodore Goodenough—Life
in the bush, 19
CHAPTER IV.
Arrive in Fiji—Tropical luxury in Levuka—King Thakombau—Plague
of measles, 26
CHAPTER V.
Levuka—The harbour—Coral-reef—Churches—Animal life—Plants—How
to brew yangona—Picnics—Spear-throwing, 35
CHAPTER VI.
Fijian spelling—The future capital—A planter’s life—Foreign
labour—Quaint postage-stamps, 53
CHAPTER VII.
A canoe adventure—Sharks—Fever—The feast of worms—Results of
mission work—No means of locomotion—God’s acre, 61
CHAPTER VIII.
Life on Viti Levu—Suva—A floral clock—The Rewa river—Obsolete
customs—First night in a native house, 70
CHAPTER IX.
Bathing _al fresco_—The Upper Rewa—Barter—Native houses—A
funeral—Weddings—Grace, 80
CHAPTER X.
Upper Rewa—Sunday among the converts—School examinations—A
“missionary meeting”—Savage ornaments—Red tape—_Mékés_—Evening
prayer—Marriages, 85
CHAPTER XI.
Christmas in Great Fiji—Pig feasts—Weddings—Fijian
names—Cannibal dainties—Christmas chimes—Sneezing—“Our Father”
in Fijian, 96
CHAPTER XII.
Quite alone in a mountain village—Return to Rewa—Basaltic
pillars—Rewa pottery—Bau—New Year’s eve—King Thakombau as an
elder of the Wesleyan Church—Pre-Christian times, 107
CHAPTER XIII.
A strange volcanic isle—Joeli Mbulu, a Tongan apostle—The
conversion of the people of Ono—Thakombau’s canoe—A royal
gardener—A small hurricane—Early prayers—Breakfast on
Thangalei—Between the breakers—At home at Nasova, 121
CHAPTER XIV.
Life at Nasova—Farmyard—Convict thatchers—Native festival at
Bau—Return to Nasova—Battles with crabs—Beginning of cannibal
disturbance—Fijian fairies—A storm, 134
CHAPTER XV.
Government House—Pets—Curios—Crabs—Native police—Death of Mrs
de Ricci, 147
CHAPTER XVI.
Good Friday in Fiji—Isle Koro—Planters’ Houses—Labour—Making
native cloth—Great feasts—Weddings—Salaries of Wesleyan
missionaries and teachers, 156
CHAPTER XVII.
Isle Ngau—Mud-crabs—Albinos—Bathing in the tropics—An earnest
congregation—A typical village—Fijian students—The burnt
waters—A narrow escape—Wreck of the Fitzroy, 173
CHAPTER XVIII.
Taviuni—Tui Thakow—Missionary perils—Their fruit of peace—Ratu
Lala—Rambi Isle—Gipsy life—Vanua Levu—A mission conference—The
isle of Kia—A village feast, 191
CHAPTER XIX.
The Chief of Mbua—Feudal rights—A night in a miserable
village—Church _à la_ St Columba—Night on a desert isle—Savu
Savu—Boiling springs—Their use—Past and future, 211
CHAPTER XX.
Nasova—The mountain war—A year’s progress—Fijian homage, 219
CHAPTER XXI.
A planter’s house—Angora goats—A lovely shore—Sericulture—The
mosquito plague, 235
CHAPTER XXII.
The pottery districts of Viti Levu—A cannibal’s register—A
night in a corn-shed—Funeral of Ratu Taivita, 243
CHAPTER XXIII.
Start for New Zealand—Extinct volcanoes—Sir George Grey’s
treasures—Tree-kangaroos, 260
CHAPTER XXIV.
Gold-mines—A new city—Native defences—Kauri forest—A hard
ride—Kati Kati—Tauranga Gate Pah, and cemetery—Ohinemutu—A
volcanic region, 272
CHAPTER XXV.
Bewildering new surroundings—The Maori dragon—Breakfast at
Wairoa—The mission-house—The hot lake—White terraces—Sulphur
and mud volcanoes—An unjust claim resisted—Champions from the
Antipodes, 290
CHAPTER XXVI.
Fijian rivers—Samoan envoys—Death of a true apostle—A
revival—Making a race-course—Mission to New Britain, 307
CHAPTER XXVII.
Various plantations—Crotons—Foreign labour—Green beetles—Loma
Loma—A Tongan colony—Hot springs, 328
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Notes on Fijian folk-lore—Legend of the rat and cuttle-fish:
the crane and the crab: essay of roast-pig: of gigantic
birds—Serpents worshipped as incarnate gods—Sacred stones
worshipped—Mythology and witchcraft, 345
APPENDIX, 356
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
OUR HOME IN FIJI, _Frontispiece_
ISLES OF OVALAU, MOTURIKI, BAU, AND VIWA. FROM VITI LEVU, 111
HOT SPRINGS, ISLE NGAU, 180
A CHIEF’S KITCHEN, 208
MAP, _At the end_
NOTE.—CANNIBAL FORK.
The Cannibal Fork represented on the binding of this book is a facsimile
of a fair average specimen. Some of the chiefs had forks eighteen inches
long, of dark polished wood, with handles richly carved.
* * * * *
With reference to the vegetables specially reserved for cannibal feasts,
Dr Seemann describes the Boro dina (_Solanum anthropophagorum_) as a
bushy shrub, seldom higher than six feet, with a dark glossy foliage,
and berries of the shape and colour of tomatoes. This fruit has a faint
aromatic smell, and is occasionally prepared like tomato-sauce. The
leaves of this plant, and also of two middle-sized trees (the Mala wathi,
_Trophis anthropophagorum_, and the Tudano, _Omalanthus pedicellatus_),
were wrapped round the _bokola_ and baked with it on heated stones.
AT HOME IN FIJI.
INTRODUCTION.
In the autumn of 1874 it was announced that Fiji had been formally
annexed by Great Britain: in other words, that her Majesty’s Government
had finally decided to accept the offer of cession of the group
repeatedly made by the highest chiefs of Fiji. To this course they were
impelled chiefly by the conviction of their own utter inability to cope
with certain unscrupulous white men, who had here established a footing
beyond reach of English law, and who, to promote their own selfish
schemes, did not scruple, by every means in their power, to foster the
jealousies of the chiefs, and so to keep up the bloody intertribal wars
by which the lands were laid waste, and the population decimated.
In the prolonged struggle for power, two great chiefs rose
pre-eminent—namely, Maafu, a powerful Tongan chief, who ruled supreme in
one portion of the group; and Thakombau, who (at the instigation of the
foreigners who had formed themselves into a government of which he was
the nominal head) had been formally crowned as Tui Viti—_i.e._, King of
Fiji. The position thus assumed by Thakombau proved, however, untenable.
An adverse party of white men opposed every measure which the Government
strove to enforce; and at length this nominal king, then upwards of
seventy years of age, wearied by these unprofitable contentions,
persuaded the other great chiefs to crave the protection of England’s
Queen. Their petition was at first rejected; but, when repeated as an act
of absolute and unconditional cession, it was deemed wise to accept it.
Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G., Governor of New South Wales, was
deputed by the Home Government to visit the group in person. Accordingly,
on 12th September 1874, he sailed from Sydney in H.M.S. Pearl, Commodore
Goodenough, and arrived in Levuka (the headquarters of the white
population of Fiji) on the 23d inst. Two days later he had a formal
interview with Thakombau, in which he explained her Majesty’s willingness
to accept the responsibility, and to endeavour to exercise her authority
in such a manner as should best secure the prosperity and happiness of
the people; adding, that such conditions as had been at first attached
would render impracticable the proper government of the country. To this
Thakombau replied—
“The Queen is right; conditions are not chief-like. I was myself from the
first opposed to them, but was overruled. If I give a chief a canoe, and
he knows that I expect something from him, I do not say, ‘I give you this
canoe on condition of your only sailing it on certain days, of your not
letting such and such a man on to it, or of your only using a particular
kind of rope with it;’ but I give him the canoe right out, and trust to
his generosity and good faith to make me the return which he knows I
expect. If I were to attach conditions, he would say, ‘I do not care to
be bothered with your canoe; keep it yourself.’
“Why should we have any anxiety about the future? What is the future?
Britain.
“Any Fijian chief who refuses to cede cannot have much wisdom. If matters
remain as they are, Fiji will become like a piece of drift-wood on the
sea, and be picked up by the first passer-by.
“The whites who have come to Fiji are a bad lot. They are mere stalkers
on the beach. The wars here have been far more the result of interference
of intruders than the fault of the inhabitants.
“Of one thing I am assured, that if we do not cede Fiji, the white
stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their maws and swallow
us.
“The white residents are going about influencing the minds of Tui Thakau
and others, so as to prevent annexation, fearing that in case order is
established a period may be put to their lawless proceedings.
“By annexation the two races, white and black, will be bound together,
and it will be impossible to sever them. The ‘interlacing’ has come.
Fijians, as a nation, are of an unstable character; and a white man
who wishes to get anything out of a Fijian, if he does not succeed in
his object to-day will try again to-morrow, until the Fijian is either
wearied out or over-persuaded, and gives in. But law will bind us
together, and the stronger nation will lend stability to the weaker.”
Sir Hercules Robinson next proceeded in H.M.S. Pearl to visit the great
chief Maafu at his capital, Loma-Loma. Tui Thakau, another powerful
chief, was present; and both declared their full assent to the cession
and to the document already signed by Thakombau, which runs as follows:—
“We, King of Fiji, together with other high chiefs of Fiji, hereby give
our country, Fiji, unreservedly to her Britannic Majesty, Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland. And we trust and repose fully in her that she will
rule Fiji justly and affectionately, that we may continue to live in
peace and prosperity.”
Finally, on the 10th of October 1874, all the great chiefs assembled at
Nasova (which was, and still continues to be, the seat of government, and
is situated one mile from the town of Levuka), and there signed the deed
of cession.
The signatures affixed are as follows:—
CAKOBAU, R.
_Tui Viti and Vunivalu._
MAAFAU.
TUI CAKAU.
RATU EPELI.
VAKAWALETABUA.
_Tui Bua._
SAVENAKA.
ISIKELI.
ROKO TUI DREKETI.
NACAGILEVU.
RATU KINI.
RITOVA.
KATUNIVERE.
MATANITOBUA.
HERCULES ROBINSON.
Thus did Fiji pass from the dominion of misrule to the orderly position
of a British colony,—a change touchingly alluded to by the old king (or,
as he is called by his own people, the Vuni Valu, or Root of War), who
on this occasion desired his Prime Minister, Mr Thurston, to present his
war-club to Queen Victoria. Mr Thurston interpreted the king’s words as
follows:—
“Your Excellency,—Before finally ceding his country to her Majesty the
Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the king desires, through your
Excellency, to give her Majesty the only thing he possesses that may
interest her.
“The king gives her Majesty his old and favourite war-club, the former,
and, until lately the only known, law of Fiji.
“In abandoning club law, and adopting the forms and principles of
civilised societies, he laid by his old weapon and covered it with the
emblems of peace. Many of his people, whole tribes, died and passed away
under the old law; but hundreds of thousands still survive to learn and
enjoy the newer and better state of things. The king adds only a few
words. With this emblem of the past he sends his love to her Majesty,
saying that he fully confides in her and in her children, who, succeeding
her, shall become kings of Fiji, to exercise a watchful control over the
welfare of his children and people; and who, having survived the barbaric
law and age, are now submitting themselves, under her Majesty’s rule, to
civilisation.”
The king then handed the club to his Excellency, who informed Thakombau
that he would not fail to transmit to the Queen the historic gift
which he desired to present to her, and that he would at the same time
communicate to her Majesty, _verbatim_, the trustful and gratifying
message by which the gift was accompanied.
This magnificent club, together with Thakombau’s huge _yangona_ bowl, is
now in the safe keeping of Mr Franks (of the British Museum), and is kept
with the Christie Collection in Victoria Street. Both club and bowl are
at least twice the size of any others we have seen in the isles.
Five days later Sir Hercules held a farewell meeting with the chiefs,
many of whom had hitherto met only as open foes. In closing his farewell
speech, he said—
“I hope that all differences and animosities will now be forgotten and
subdued. The Vuni Valu’s (Root of War) war-club has been sent with a
dutiful and loving message to our Queen. I hope all other weapons of
strife have in like manner been buried at the foot of the staff upon
which we have raised the Union Jack.”
To this the two chiefs, hitherto rivals for the supreme power, thus
replied. First spoke Thakombau.
“I hope that all present will now understand that they are her Majesty’s
subjects and servants, and that, as the Governor has said, their future
is in their own hands. They will be judged according to their behaviour
and their deserts, and according to such judgment they will stand or fall.
“We know that we are not here now simply as an independent body of Fijian
chiefs, but as subordinate agents of the British Crown; and being bound
together by strength and power, that strength and power will be able to
overcome anything which tends to interfere with or interrupt the present
unity.
“Any chief attempting to pursue a course of disloyalty must expect to be
dealt with on his own merits, and not to escape by any subterfuge, or by
relying upon any Fijian customs, or upon his high family connections.”
Maafu then said—
“What more can any of us say? The unity of to-day has been our desire
for years. I have now been twenty years in Fiji, and I have never before
seen such a sight as I see to-day—Fiji actually and truly united. We
tried a government ourselves; we did not succeed. That has passed away.
Another and a better and more permanent state of things has been brought
into existence. I believe that I speak the mind of all present when I say
that we are really and truly united in heart and will, and we are all
gratified with what we have heard. We are true men, and will return to
our homes knowing that the unity of Fiji is a fact, and that peace and
prosperity will follow.”
On the eve of Sir Hercules’s departure, a deputation of the Wesleyan
Mission waited upon him to express their intense satisfaction with the
deed of cession; but for which, they considered that their work as
Christian missionaries would have received serious injury. They added:
“We venture to remind your Excellency that it is not forty years since
missionaries representing the British Wesleyan Churches came to Fiji,
then in a state of savage heathenism; and that, but for the blessing of
God upon their labours, there would have been no British Fiji at the
present day.”
Sir Hercules’s reply must have been truly gratifying to his hearers. Its
conclusion was—
“I fervently trust that a new era has now dawned upon Fiji, and that
under British rule the moral as well as the material progress of the
new colony may, by the blessing of Providence, be effectually secured.
The great social advances which have already been made within the last
forty years from savage heathenism, are due to the self-denying and
unostentatious labours of the Wesleyan Church; and I can therefore
heartily wish to your missionary enterprise in this country continued
vitality and success.
“With renewed thanks for the good wishes which you are pleased to express
for myself personally, I have, &c.,
“HERCULES ROBINSON.
“To the Rev. JOSEPH WATERHOUSE,
” SAMUEL BROOKES,
” D. S. WYLIE.”
With reference to the provision to be made for the chiefs who had thus
voluntarily resigned their rights, without knowing to what extent these
might be really taken from them, Sir Hercules suggested that Thakombau
should receive a pension of £1500 a-year, and a present of £1000 to buy
a much-coveted little vessel for his own use; that in the event of his
death, his queen, Andi Lydia, should continue to receive £1000 a-year
for her life. Their three sons would probably find employment under
Government, with suitable salaries; as would also be the case with the
principal chiefs, all of whom would continue to hold their office of
Rokos of the twelve Provinces—a native dignity held in much reverence.
In January 1875 the Hon. Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, K.C.M.G. (son
of George, fourth Earl of Aberdeen), was appointed first Governor of
Fiji,—an archipelago containing seventy or eighty inhabited islands, some
of which are of considerable size, the largest, Viti Levu, or Great Fiji,
being about ninety miles long by fifty broad, nearly the same area as the
counties of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, Berkshire, and Hampshire.
The next in size, Vanua Levu, the Great Land, is upwards of one hundred
miles long by twenty-five wide, somewhat smaller than Cornwall,
Devonshire, and Somerset. Taviuni and Khandavu are each twenty-five
miles long; while Bau, the native capital, is scarcely a mile in length.
Besides these, there are upwards of one hundred and fifty uninhabited
islets; and each of the principal islands forms a centre round which
cluster from twenty to thirty minor isles, forming groups as distinct
and as widely separated as are the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Scilly
Isles, and their people are equally unknown to one another. The climate
is, for the tropics, unusually healthy. At the time of the cession, they
were inhabited by about 1500 whites and 150,000 natives.[1] It was June
1875 ere Sir Arthur reached the colony, and, to quote his own words[2]—
“The state of things which disclosed itself to me on my
arrival was not encouraging. A terrible pestilence, heedlessly
admitted, had swept away one-third of the entire native
population. Though its violence had diminished, its ravages had
not wholly ceased. Even where it had passed by, it had left
behind it terror and despair. The same cause had carried off
many of the imported labourers of the planters, who, from a
variety of causes, were themselves, for the most part, reduced
to the greatest straits. The revenue had fallen short of even
the modest estimate of Sir H. Robinson, whilst the expenditure
had largely exceeded his anticipations. The introduction of
labour from other parts of the Pacific had almost ceased.
The season had been unfavourable for agriculture, wet, and
unhealthy, and gloom and discontent pervaded all classes.
“The white settlers had apparently imagined that, by some
magical process, the assumption of sovereignty by Great
Britain was to be followed by an immediate change from
poverty to wealth, from struggling indigence to prosperity;
that their claims to land would be at once allowed; that an
abundant supply of labour would be at once found for them;
and that their claims to supremacy over the natives, which
the Government of Cakobau—whatever its faults—had steadily
refused to recognise, would be at once acknowledged. They
were, therefore, bitterly disappointed to find their hopes not
realised.
“The natives were cowed and disheartened by the pestilence,
which they believed to have been introduced purposely to
destroy them,—a belief encouraged, I am ashamed to say, by some
of our own countrymen, and which was probably the main cause of
the disturbances in the Highlands of Viti Levu in the following
year. They were perplexed by reiterated assurances, from the
whites living among them, that by the mere fact of annexation
to Great Britain their own laws and customs had been abolished;
that their rules of succession, and for the transmission of
property, had no longer any existence; that many of their
cherished habits were illegal; that their lands had become
the property of the Crown; and that they would themselves
be expected, if not required, to labour on white men’s
plantations. They were told, moreover, that all distinctions of
rank among them were at an end,—a notification more perplexing
than pleasing, in its suddenness, to the people generally, and
which naturally caused irritation and distrust among the higher
chiefs.
“A third element in the population, the immigrant labourers
from other parts of Polynesia, whose contracts of service had
long expired, but whose employers had no means to send them
back to their homes, and who had remained, in some cases, for
many years in by no means voluntary servitude, were exasperated
by the bad faith they had experienced.
“At the end of the year 1875 I found myself with a revenue
of £16,000, from which I had to meet an expenditure of over
£70,000, and at the head of a dissatisfied and impoverished
white population of some 1500 persons, in the midst of a native
population nearly one hundred times as large, suspicious,
watchful, and uneasy; while on but too many estates, bands of
wrongfully detained immigrants formed a real, though apparently
unrecognised, source of danger.
“It is not my object, in the present paper, to narrate the
steps taken in the administration of the government since that
time. Suffice it to say, generally, that the revenue of the
colony has swelled rapidly from £16,000 in 1875 to £38,000
in 1876; £47,000 in 1877, and over £61,000 in 1878,[3] while
the expenditure has been reduced to a level with the income;
that the receipts from customs, which were, in 1875, but
£8000, amounted in 1878, under practically the same tariff,
to £20,000; that the imports have nearly doubled in value,
and the exports (which exceed the imports) have quite done
so; that the Polynesian labourers, whose term of service had
expired, have been conveyed home and replaced by labour newly
recruited; that more than 800 land titles have been settled
after laborious and minute investigation; that measures have
been passed by the Legislative Council which do honour to those
who framed them, and compare favourably with those of many
older colonies; that the Government service has been organised,
Courts of Law established; that a dangerous disturbance has
been put down quickly, cheaply, and effectually; that capital
is being invested; and that, after a careful investigation,
extending over more than a year, it has been reported to me,
by most competent and most cautious scientific authority, that
the annual value of the agricultural exports of the colony,
when its powers of production have been fully developed, will
probably exceed £10,000,000 sterling.”
After alluding to the purely native organisation of Bulis, Rokos, and
other functionaries whom Sir Arthur found it desirable to continue to
employ in the same capacities, in the administration of local government,
and in carrying out various measures, he goes on to speak of the system
on which these were framed.
“It was always borne in mind that these regulations had, to a
great extent, to be administered by the natives themselves, and
that a code which they thoroughly understood and had taken part
in preparing, and which was in harmony with their own ideas
and modes of thought, would be far more easily worked, and
far more willingly and intelligently obeyed, than much better
regulations imposed by external force, but which they might
neither comprehend nor appreciate, and which would therefore be
of far less real utility....
“I may say that I have no reason to be dissatisfied with
the results. I have no doubt that the native magistrates
make mistakes, and sometimes grave mistakes; I have no doubt
that in individual instances the Roko Tuis are harsh and
overbearing; but it is, I think, far better that they should
now and then be so than that all share in the administration
should be taken away from them. The employment of natives in
the administration of the government was, indeed, a financial
necessity, for the means did not exist, and do not yet exist,
for the payment of such a staff of white officials as would
have been required had the services of natives been dispensed
with. But had no such imperative cause existed to render
their employment inevitable, I should equally have deemed it
to be required by considerations of policy. Unless removed
from their habitual places of residence, and treated with a
harshness wholly incompatible with the understanding on which
the islands had been ceded to England, chiefs of intelligence,
high rank, and great social influence, would have become, if
stripped of all authority, and deprived of all employment
except that of brooding over their own changed condition, very
dangerous elements in the colony. For, be it remembered, the
legal non-recognition of their position would not have in any
way deprived them of the power they possessed over those who
yielded to them an instinctive and unquestioning obedience.
As it is, they are cheerful and willing assistants to the
Government in the performance of its duties.
“The results of the system actually adopted were apparent when
the mountaineers of Viti Levu attacked the Christian villages
of the Singatoka. I appealed to the Rokos for help, and named
thirty men as the contingent each was to send. Had the same
state of mind existed that I found on my arrival, sullen and
reluctant submission would at best have been given to the
order, and more probably excuses would have been made for the
non-appearance of the force; the mischief would have spread,
and a long and costly war would have resulted. What was in
fact the answer to the appeal? From almost every province came
double the number of men asked for—picked men out of a host of
volunteers—and the troubles were suppressed by native forces
alone, without delay and at a trifling cost....
“I will only say one word on the future prospects of the
colony—namely, that I believe Fiji to be an admirable field for
the investment of large capital, whether in sugar or coffee
estates. Sugar grows spontaneously, is of the first quality,
and has a practically boundless market in Australia. As regards
coffee culture, Fiji is now in much the same position as Ceylon
thirty or forty years ago, and I have no doubt that those who
now found estates there will find them in no long time amply
remunerative. I have never seen finer tobacco than that raised
in Fiji, and the cotton produced there is admitted to be of the
best description.”
Fiji lies 1760 miles N.-E. of Sydney, and 1175 miles N. of Auckland. The
value of its principal exports may be gathered from the following table:—
Coppra. Cotton. Sugar.
1875, £40,003 £28,706 £3,417
1876, 45,908 21,122 10,433
1877, 79,403 15,690 16,170
1878, 122,194 20,700 18,640
At the close of 1878 the area under cultivation was as follows:—
Coppra—_i.e._, cocoa-nut, 9166 acres.
Cotton, 2390 ”
Sugar, 1772 ”
Maize, 1000 ”
Coffee, 1219 ”
The cultivation of coffee is as yet in its infancy.
Tobacco, arrowroot, cocoa, cinchona, tea, vanilla, rice, pepper, &c.,
have been produced as yet only in small quantities, experimentally.
The export of green fruit for Australia and New Zealand is a rapidly
increasing item. Thus in 1877, 3100 bunches of bananas were exported; in
1878, 21,316 bunches; in 1879, 43,062 bunches.
The form of Government is that of a Crown Colony, with Executive and
Legislative Councils.
CHAPTER I.
THE VOYAGE OUT.
ON BOARD THE MESSAGERIES MARITIMES S.S. ANADYR,
NEARING POINT DE GALLE, _April 17, 1875_.
MY DEAR FELLOW-ARAB,—You see I am “once more upon the waters,” but
whither I am now bound is a problem which I defy you to guess. I had not
time to write to you before my hurried departure from England, but you
see my locomotive demon has allowed me a very short spell of rest (if
rest it can be called, to rush all over England and Scotland, visiting
innumerable friends and relations! Practically, I find such visiting
involves more wear and tear of mind and body, than any amount of
travelling in distant lands).
Well, as you know, it is not yet six months since I returned home, after
eighteen months of the most delightful wanderings in every corner of
beautiful Ceylon. It needed all the warmth of family affection to make
the bitter cold of an English winter even endurable, and my yearning for
tropical heat and sunlight was for ever being reawakened by aggravating
acquaintances, who invariably asked me, “Where are you going next?” As
I had not the smallest prospect of ever again escaping from my native
shores, I always answered, “To Fiji,” as being the most absurd answer
that suggested itself to so foolish a question,—a place known to me only
as being somehow associated with a schoolboy song about the King of the
Cannibal Islands. Judge, then, of my amazement, when, one morning, I
received a letter to tell me that Fiji had been annexed, and that Sir
Arthur Hamilton Gordon had been appointed first Governor, and gravely
suggesting that I should accompany Lady Gordon to her remote home. I need
scarcely tell you that the temptation proved irresistible.
To begin with, a cruise in the South Pacific has been one of the dreams
of my life; and the idea of going actually to live for an indefinite
period on isles where there are still a number of ferocious cannibals,
has a savour of romance which you can imagine does not lack charm. And
then to do it all so comfortably, gliding into the adventure so easily,
without the slightest exertion on my own part, is far too rare a chance
to be lost, in spite of the remonstrances of my sisters, who consider it
quite unnatural of me to care to leave home again so soon.
Naturally, when I announced my intention of really going, every one
replied, “Of course you are only joking!” And indeed, even now, I myself
find it difficult to think of Fiji or anything connected with it in any
other light than that of a great joke; its very name has always been
considered funny!
Its whereabouts, and everything connected with it, are evidently matters
of the vaguest uncertainty to all my friends. I did my best to appear
astonished at their ignorance, but, between ourselves, I honestly confess
to having possessed the very haziest ideas on the subject, up to the
moment when that letter reached me, when, of course, I got an atlas and
hunted Fiji up. As you probably have no map at hand, and are certain to
be equally in the dark, I may as well tell you that it is a group of
about 250 islands, of which about 70 are inhabited. That it is in the
South Pacific, about ten degrees south of the Equator, thirty degrees
east of the north coast of Australia, and twenty degrees north of New
Zealand. This is a very rough description, but it is sufficient to make
you realise the position.
As yet, I only know of two people who have been there—one of whom, Harry
Leefe, started from Cresswell last year to join an uncle who owns an
island there, and grows cotton and cocoa-nuts. This Robinson Crusoe of
the South Seas has for years past been to us enveloped in a halo of
romance; and now I am looking forward to seeing him in his own home,
and myself becoming “a resident in the South Seas.” Does it not sound
delightful, and don’t you envy me? Before leaving London, I managed to
get up some information by reading a cleverly compiled book on Fiji,
by a man who has never been there; but he vouches for the group being
a terrestrial paradise, where the soil need only be scratched to yield
abundant harvests of every sort, and where every form of volcanic crag
combines with tropical foliage to produce endless beauties. So I have
invested in a goodly stock of drawing paper, and enough paints and
brushes to last me a lifetime, and look forward to a most interesting
sketching tour. The ground will have the advantage of being altogether
new, which is an immense charm.
And now we are fairly started, and a very large pleasant party we are.
We (the Fijian family) assembled in London on the 22d March, for a
short special service at King’s College Chapel, Somerset House, and
next morning started for Paris, where we halted four days, embarking at
Marseilles on Easter morning—an unsatisfactory moment for starting, but
travellers cannot always choose their own times and seasons. This is a
splendid steamer, 3600 tons, most comfortable in every respect, and with
a capital table for such as appreciate French cookery.
Our party consists of Sir Arthur and Lady Gordon, and two particularly
nice little ones—namely, Nevil, a picturesque girl of six, with silky
brown curls, and dark thoughtful eyes; and George, aged four, who is
always called Jack, because from his boyhood he has worn real sailor’s
clothes, made by a man-of-war’s tailor. Then comes their cousin, Arthur
Gordon, who has a fine talent for drawing, and is Sir Arthur’s secretary.
Captain Knollys, A.D.C., only joined us at Aden, bringing with him a
very important member of the family—namely, Snip, a tiny black and tan
terrier. Dr Mayo, Mr Mitchell, Mr Eyre, and Mr Le Hunte, at present
complete our party, the latter being a young lawyer, and, moreover,
our typical Briton,—a stalwart combination of Ireland and Yorkshire.
Mr Mitchell was a tried friend in the West Indies. And Dr Mayo is a
keen, clever man, a fellow of New College, Oxford, who has followed his
profession in every camp in Europe, and in some in Asia, and now hopes
to find an ample field for studying new forms of the ills that flesh is
heir to among the various races of the Pacific. He is a good botanist and
antiquarian, and is a mine of information on all topics. All these spend
several hours a day learning Fijian, with the most exemplary patience and
determination, by the help of vocabularies and dictionaries. Last but not
least come the excellent Welsh nurse and faithful Portuguese under-nurse;
and Mr and Mrs Abbey, major-domo and general heads of all departments,
who have already lived with the Gordons in Trinidad and Mauritius, and
there proved themselves pillars of Government House: a most comfortable
and reliable couple, warranted to take good care of everything and
everybody. They have two little boys—the youngest, Arky, a sunny-headed
little mite.
Captain and Mrs Havelock, and Dr and Mrs Macgregor, are to join us at
Sydney, as are also the Judge and Attorney-General, Sir William and Lady
Hackett, and Mr and Mrs de Ricci, so that the white population of Fiji
will receive a large accession.
I will add no more at present, except to say that, with my usual luck at
this point, it was bitterly cold and very grey coming through the Suez
Canal and down the Red Sea. There had been a heavy storm, which turned
the sea to mud for some miles ere we reached Port Said, which was dirty
and dull as usual,—heavy waves dashing over the breakwater, and Lake
Menzaleh looking grey and dreary....—Ever yours.