Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/175

Rh of the Feejees at 120,000; afterwards he obtained at Suva the figures of the census of 1884, which were as follows: European residents, 3513; native Feejeeans, 115,635; Polynesian laborers, 5634; Asiatics, about 5000; and Rotumah men, about 2600.

"What is a Rotumah man?" said Fred, when the above figures were obtained and read aloud by Frank.

"Rotumah," said the Doctor, "is a small island lying in mid-ocean about four hundred miles north of Feejee, and recently made a British possession. The natives are a kindly race; the women are prettier than most other Polynesians, and the men strong and of good size. They make excellent sailors, and you find them in ships all over the South Pacific, and even in other parts of the world. A gentleman who visited Rotumah told me it was no uncommon thing to find natives who had been in New York, London, Liverpool, or Hamburg, and they could discuss the relative merits of sailing and steam vessels with an intelligence not always found among white sailors.

"Though living in an island where nature is kindly and the wants of man are few, the Rotumah men are not unwilling to work; they are consequently sought as laborers in the Samoan, Tahitian, and other groups, and especially in Feejee. So many men have been taken from the island that the supply has been practically exhausted, and the planters are compelled to look elsewhere. Some of the laborers were kidnapped in the manner described in our discussion of the labor-trade, but the most of those who emigrated were fairly and honestly obtained."

The outlying islets of the Feejee group were first sighted by our friends on the yacht, and in due time the peaks of the larger islands came into view. The Feejeean Archipelago is situated between the