THE FIJI ISLANDS.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 82, 27 July 1868, Page 179

THE FIJI ISLANDS.

(Prom the Correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald.)

Thakombau has collected his forces, and is now in the interior of the “ Large-land.” His army is divided into five divisions. The' island being about 100 miles in diameter, and Navosa nearly in the centre, he has sent each division in at a different point with orders to force their way to Navosa, where he expects tounite his forces Old men, women, and children are to be spared, and all who will lay down their arms.. All the people who can be collected are brought to the coast as prisoners. Itis now more evident than ever that the murder of the party was a political move against Bau. Towns by the dozen are arrayed against the chief, and have determined to stand or fall with Navosa. What to many seemed a trilling matter, viz., the capture of the murderers, turns out to be the greatest war that has yet taken place in Fiji. . I have only time to forward the following particulars The army, under the Chief Judge Ratu Savanaca Naulivou, have succeeded in taking nine towns. Killed of the enemy, about 200 ; on the side of JBau, about 50; 300 are prisoners. They were about to attaek the tenth town'when the messenger left, and, when carri-d, they would be before the town at which the murder took place. The division under Roko Tui Viwa has suffered a sad reverse. The Yunivalu (Thakombau) gave orders that they were to attack the town at which Setereki Seileka, the native minister, was eaten; and wait until they could see his signal fires; then inarch on in a line, with himself to Navosa. r ! he town was taken with a loss on the Bau side of 32, and of 37 of the enemy. Instead of waiting, however, they pressed on and took four other towns, and were nearing Navosa from the north, when, through their own carelessness, thpy fell'into an ambuscade. Three parties of the enemy were passed as they lay hid in the bush; the fourth then attacked the Bauans in the front while they were roasting their yams, and the ambuscade jumped up and took them in the rear; the Bauans fled and many were slain. Fourteen fine young men of the town of Bau were among the killed, many of them the sons of the principal chiefs. The officers of the Brisk would now miss some of the fine young men for whom they formed a liking when at Bau. Ratu Peni Yeku is among the fallen. He was a trustworthy and good man. He had engaged to furnish me with the particulars of tho war as far as connected with the division to which he belonged- Sixtyeight, including the thirty-two slain at the town, is their reported loss. The challenge from the enemy is a picked thigh-bone flourished in the- air, and the Bauans challenge to “ come on.” The Magellan Cloud is preparing to leave; I cannot, therefore, send mure particulars just now. The agents of the Melbourne Com any who are negotiating for the purchase of King Thakonfbau’s rights over tho Fiji Islands, have concluded thei- arrangements with that sable potentate, by which he agrees to grant them 200,000 acres, and the presumptive right over the whole territory, with other concessions of an important character. In return they guarantee to assist King Thakombau in the defence ol his territory, and pay the American debt at present held over it. They further agree to give the King an annuity of £2OO, and to continue the same to liis son, who succeeds him. The settlers in the islands have protested energetically against this arrangement, which is denounced by the Sydney Morning Herald as being dangerous and unconstitutional.

Private intelligence has been received from the Fiji Islands to the effect that King Thakombau has written to the British Consul there, intimating that the charter prepared by the representatives of the new company which it is proposed to form in Melbourne was misrepresented to him when he agreed to it and signed it; and that, since its were made'known amongst the settlers and the natives, it had caused a vast amount of dissatisfaction. The British Consul has, therefore, entered a strong prptf st against the proceedings of the new company’s representatives, and it is not probable that the charter will be confirmed. —Sydpey Morning Herald. The Melbourne Herald has been requested to contradict the statement that King Thakombau had granted a charter to the Fiji Company in ignorance of the real contents and purposes of the document. “On the contrary,” says the journal referred to, “we are informed that the King is not only fully acquainted but also highly pleased with the arrangement, and anxious to carry it out. .He signed the said charter in the presence of several most unimpeachable witnesses, his chiefs signing under him. The following certificate is appended to tho charter :— ‘ This is to certify that the within writing was faithfully and fully explained to King Thakombau, in the presence of the undersigned, by the Rev. William Moore, of Lavuka, Ovalau, the 23rd day of "May, 186 S. (Signed) John F. Horsley, Samuel W. Brooks, Wesleyan missionaries.’ ”