THE FIJIS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 349, 12 September 1868, Page 5

THE FIJIS.

We extract the following- letter re ceived in Dunedin by the Banshee, and •which was handed to the Otago Daily Times for publication. The following letter from the Eiji Islands has just been received by the Banshee, and has been handed to u for publication :—" Levuka, 23rd July, 1868.—Here I am, at last, in Fiji, after a passage of 15 days from Dunedin, having a narrow t scape from running on a reef near Levuka. I can tell you I would never wish to live in a better place than the Fiji. The climate is splendid. True it is rather hot; but that is only in the middle of the day. I have now been travelling among the natives for the last month, and I enjoyed myself very well, although they were burning and killing each other not more than 15 or 20 miles from where we were. Things are rather unsettled in reference to the natives, as King Thakambou has been defeated ; so that makes the mountain tribes very independent and saucy. But in about a month, all the petty chiefs and the King are going to collect their men from round the cost, and are determined to go right up the mountains, and drive them out. All the fighting is confined to one island, so the religious natives will get on better this time. One party will go into the mountains at one side, and another at the other ; so there will he warm work there in a few days. The " devils" —that is what the mountaineers are called—are friendly enough to the white settlers : it is the missionaries and native Uachers that they try to kill and eat. They are cannibals in the mountains yet. K the white men get killed, they bring it on themselves. There are two men-of-war in Levuka just now, and I am told that

they are going to send some of the sailors up tAe lie wa river to burn down some villages, so I fancy the " devils" will be quiet enough directly. The Brisk will leave here to-morrow, for Sydney, and she takes two men out of the island altogether. What do you think it is for 1 One biute, because a native boy annoyed him, took up a red hot iron, and branded him on the back. The natives fined him LI, but he would not pay, so he is now to be taken to Sydney. The other one was for robbery. Another man, because he thought that he conld not get enough work from his men, tied one up and flogged him, and then rubbed hot chili peppers on his sore back. He has been fined Ll5O by the British Consul and Thakambou, but he refused to pay it until an American man-of-war comes in, as he claims to be an American subject. These are the kind of men that will get the whites into trouble, lam now just starting for a plase called ' Sava Sava,' where I intend buying 500 acres of land. Of course, I have had a great many difficulties to contend with, but lam very hopeful. It was only to-day, that the Melbourne Company succeeded in getting old Thakambou to sign the charter in reference to the American Debt. He binds himself to hand over certain lands to the Company, so they will now set to work to bring down machinery for sugarmaking, and likewise open a Banking establishment. It they succeed in raising the capital, it will be the making of the Fiji, as the settlers will now set to work to get sugarcane planted, as well as cotton and coffee. By-the-bye, Mr Johnson has arrived with press, plant, &c. lam very much afraid he is too soon. The place is too young ; you can scarcely credit how the white people are scattered ; the Sewa Siver is the only place where there is anything like a white population—there are only 90 settled there, and about 50 or 60 in Levuka. It might do in another 12 months to start a paper, but lam afraid he will have a hard fight. I would not have let the chance slip, if I thought it would pay. I was offered the use of the press and plant belonging to tha Wesleyan Mission, if I would start a paper, bnt I did not like the idea. In reference to any coming here, I should not advise them to come with less than L 250 or L3OO ; if you come with less, you will find yourself in a fly, that is, if you intend to go into cotton planting. Levuka consists of six stores, five hotels, and Wesleyan church, Beading-room, British and American Consuls' offices, and about 20 or 30 other houses.

A Burlesque ox Loyalty.—According to the chroniqueur of one of the Paris papers, in 1812 there flourished on the shores of G-uinea a chief of blacks, himself as black as ebony, who insisted on being styled King Napoleon, and whose august consort was called Queen Maria Theresa. Their historic reminiscences were somewhat peculiar, inasmuch as they entitled their first chamberlain His Excellency Monseigneur Due de Guise, the said excellency being a gigantic negro, thick-lipped and curlyheaded. The rest of the Court functionaries were styled Dukes of Montmorency, of Richelieu, of Villars, and of Petre. The Royal troops, consisting of eighty men, all patronising the costume adopted by Adam, were commanded by the Prinee Conde. To complete the parody, King Napoleon had a rival competitor to his throne, whosereal name was Tata-PuschKayou? Napoleon, however, entitled and addressed him as Lous XVIII. This pretender marched against his rival at the head of thirty negroes ; deserters, however, flocked to his standard, and the armies met. Louis XVIII. lost five men, that is, two more than Napoleon. He acknowledged himself defeated, and obtained peace on the following conditions: —Art. 1. That TataPuschkayou would renounce the title of King, and would henceforth style himself Prince of Soubise. (Shade of the lovely and adored Mancini, if she could but have dreamt of her son being represented by a thick-lipped native black savage!). Art. 2. The Prince of Soubise will neither assume stockings nor shoes when sent on offical missions on board European vessels, that distinction being reserved to the King. Art. 3. The King will bestow the moßt beautiful of his daughters on the Hrince in marriage. Hep dowry will consist of an English sabre, as well as its scabbard, six bottles of rum, and, moreover, a pair of white pantaloons, : neatly mended. This glorious treaty concluded, and a Danish vessel having I cast anchor on the coast, Hid Majesty ' ■ put on his shoes and stockings, went 1 ' ou board and purchased as a gift for ; his Royal house a bottle of brandy and a tin snuffbox."