THE FIJI ISLANDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 359, 2 May 1868, Page 2

THE FIJI ISLANDS.

Aft considerable interest is at present, attached to these islands, and many in-, quiries are made for reliable information concerning them, we give the following interesting details, copied from a correspondent's letter in the Melbourne Argus ? Na Tuka Moka; February, 1867. I arrived in Levuka, island of Ovalau, on 27th April last, after a bad passage of twenty-four days. Levuka, which is head quarters here, is a town of twentyweatherboard houses, inhabited by about, 100 whites, It is capital, seaport, and only white peopled township in the islands^ T.he houses are built along the sea beach^ which is the only street, so to call it* There is an English and an American consulate, and head missionary house there ; and also two hotels, who give board and lodging at one dollar (the money is American) for the day. The houses are thatched with reeds and grass, and the floors covered with ditto. The people sit. on the ground a la Turk, and smoke, nearly all of them, cigarettes of native: tobacco, The native men and women are fine looking people, of a bronze color, tall,, and, as to the men, muscular, and mostly feet in height. Their clothing is jusi* %wo yards of blue calico round the hips % They remind you of the pictures of Adam and Eve which you find in old Bibles. Fish and vegetables make their diet. They are. cunning, but not intelligent j-> not cleanly in their habits^ and not desirous to be, improved in any way,. What the Hindoos term nigban ia their delight — &zy vacuity, a way of passing tune listlessly and la^ly, such, agthe cat enjoys all day on the hearthrug. Though this island, looks pleasant and pretty from the sea, it is very unhealthy to white, people, being full of swamps. I Btarted from Levuka after eight days' stay, having made there; the acquaintance of a Melbournjte, with whom I went in search of land. We went to sea in an open whaleboat, with a crew of six men, and after a day's sail on a, rough sea, full of sharks, I reached Bau^ the Ring's residence, only inhabited by

natives. The King and Queen are old people, partial to gin, and not indisposed towards the whites, who frequently visit them, and generally have something to grumble about. The complaint when I was there was about Mr Baker's late murder, which accident appeared to vex the King very much. He would rather such things did not happen. The King wears pnly the strip of calico, but the Queen adds to it a skirt of the same material for herself. I had a long interview with them, smoked, and drank of their gin, pnd slept in their palace, wrapt in a mosquito curtain. You fancy, in Melbourne, that you know something of mosquitos, but we can here grjn at your ignorance of them — grin and bear it, I may say. Yet jt is difficult to bear, for a man's health requires sleep of nights. In the morning J breakfasted with the King and Queen pf turtle and yams— a sort of native root, between potatoes and beet root — and then to the whaleboat once more, and for the last time. It is dangerous boating about £hese islands. I was twice capsized, and but for the native boatmen, should have been snapped in half by sharks, which ppem here to be always on the feed, and very sharp set. 1 then went up the Rewa River to see a white settler, and passed the day and night with him to learn " his experience" of the place. By his advice J engaged a canoe, and went, with two natives, further up the river, I here passed the day with another planter, and heard of land for sale, which, after some negotiation, my partuer and myself purphased — 500 acres— paid for by eight guns, tworevolvers, six myall wood pipes, and ten plasp knives. We calculated the cost at about 2s. 6d, per acre, including a house that was to be built for us as part of the bargain. We lodged ourselves and traps under canvas during the fourteen days that the natives took to build the house. To our surprise, they then and thenceforth for three months refused to do any more work for us. At the end of that time about twenty came and consented to help at the wage of two yards of calico for eight days' labour. We were to feed them, however. After much labour and trouble, we got twenty-five acres of cotton planted, besides patches of yams, maize, coffee, tobacco, arrowroot, banana, and orange. Within three miles of us are two towns — of native population, all. We ; jvre furthest interior settlers, and have the pleasant fact to record that the neighbouring natives killed the Rev. Mr. Baker very lately, at a distance of fourteen miles ] from us. Anything that the natives profess in the way of Christianity is mere formality, and is professed mostly to get presents from the missionaries. The natives around ns are a treacherous and powardly lot, and we have to take constant care of ourselves. The plan we adopt with them is to show nothing of the white feather, but to keep the high hand. Much as many folks in Melbourne do, we keep pur position by sheer bounce, The blacks, or bronzes, respect us for it, and think we feave the powers we assume. This is native life around us :— They clear a piece pf ground for themselves in a couple of days, plant it in another day with what will grow up in a few days and keep them j fed for a year. All trouble is then off their minds. The women look after the crops and do all the rest. You will see that it is three days' work and 362 days' leisure. Talk about Tennyson's Lotus Eaters and their island after that ! I may ftdd, that they are liars and thieves beyond all compare, and that the pleasure pf their long laziness is how most to annoy their white neighbours, in which they are too often successful. Their holiday attire fop 362 days of the year is a tremendous wig, bigger than a f usileer's chapeau, made of skins and goodness knows what, and a painted face wonderfully picked up in a Variety of colors. The ears <»f most of the men are split up in strips, which has, to white eyes, a pretty and peculiar effect. If an earring could be put at the end of each strip the effect would be a bunch of fringe, golden finished. Then comes the calico girdle before spoken of. The death of a relative is commemorated in a very impressive way, which is really a lesson to you fellows who so goon forget your (friends. On such an event these children of the sun cut. off a joint of a finger. A i man. of family, therefore, who lives long gets to be s.hort-handed in the end. They do not tatto, but brand their bodies with fire-marks in a fantastic way. The women wear leaves and twigs of flowers on their heads, looking much like the flat things called bonnets that were coming into fashion in Melbourne when I left. To keep the head of hair clean, it is all pasted up closely with a mixture of mud and ashes, which answers the purpose, I am told, of saving the necessity of small-tooth , Combs. On their arms and round their 1 necks are bracelets of shells. These natives never lobo their tempers, are never angry, never excited, and never in a hurry. I have not seen anyone in a hurry, a fidget, or a bustle since 1 left civilization. These children of nature sing and laugh and are joyous all day Jong. Lighting a cigar in the morning, they go out fishing or shooting, and return to lie about in the sun, smoking, chatting, dancing, and singing. They trust each other ; such a thing as secrets are unknown amongst them — each one knows the other's doings, possessions, and intentions. All domestic labor falls upon the women, who ta'<e all the hard work upon them very willingly. You see the lordly Fijiman walking along smoking, whilst behind him toils his bride with a load of firewood that nearly breaks her back, Each tribe looks up to and respects its chief, whom they have to salute on meetin? — much as I used to take off my hat to Justice Barry when in Melbourne. The drink to be obtained here, besides water, is a kind of grog called yangona. It' is made of a root, and manufactured thus : — A Fijiman sits down and slices up the root in small pieces, which another man at once puts into his mouth and masticates. After being we,ll masticated the result is dropped into a wooden bowl, and water added to it. The man who has macerated it with his teeth then kneads it well with both hands, and strains it off through fine grass. The liquid residue is then this yangona — Fiji grog, ready for drinking. I shall bring some of it bottled tip for you Meiboumites when I come. It will be a new thing for Morton and Joske, and may become as popular as the Ballan waters. It tastes very like soapsuds, and it does make the natives drunk, though the whites, myself included, seem never able to drink enough of it to get exhilarated : we only get dightly sick. To conclude my persoiial experiences — for the flies tease me so x'auch that I tire of writing, as I do of evfaythinp here— pur crop of cotton has had to be planted

four times over, and it is still very doubtful if cotton-growing will pay here. The price offered to us for it is only 3c per lb in seed. We have had so much rain that our first three crops were destroyed, and I fear that this wet is nothing unusual. The planters tell me that there is always something to destroy the crop — hurricane, wet, blight, or drought. If I were not fixed and had to see it out, I should have sailed long ere this, the climate not agreeing with 1 me at all ; off and on I have been ill for five months. Coffee or sugar growing will not pay, unless you can get plenty i and certain lalior to assist you — fifty men at least — and that you cannot get here. ' It is folly for men of small means, like myself, to come here with only a few hundreds of pounds, except such men will be contented (as I cannot be) with a sort of animal existence, out of all civilization, and in the densest ignorance of everything, on a diet of yams and salt meat, in a climate that when not too sultry is too rainy, and in a land too flat and swampy to be healthy to white people, The following is the way in which my days are passed, and life dragged through :— 1 rise at daylight, light my fire, and set yams to roast at it, and then go round the fields, coming back wet with perspiration or rain, eat the yams, and have a smoke-^that is breakfast. Go then to work in the fields, and come back at noon to dinner; consisting of yams again and a piece of salt pork or beef, such as you get on board of ship. Sometimes 1 can buy an eel or wildfowl of the natives, but very seldom are they to be had. After dinner, I have another smoke, and then read right through that number of The Atistvalasian whjeh. I brought with me, and now know from beginning to end by heart. A civilised man, as I have been, must read a newspaper. Then to work again in the fields, and come back to yams, and tea without milk, and to go to bed at sundown. Such is every day existence, for I know not Sundays from week days, never see a. white face, and forget dates of days and mouths, and become lazy, demoralised, and wild. Our nearest white neighbours are miles off, and we cannot both leave out hut, and it is dangerous to travel alone. "Give my kind regards to all inquiring friends and tell them to know when thov are well off, and keep in Victoria, as I wish to my soul that I had done."