Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/22

 2 FIJI AJU) THE FIJIAXS. beyond the scanty information supplied by Captain Cook, neither stand- ard geographies nor Admiralty charts deserve confidence. Recent visits by British ships of war, added to the elaborate survey of the group by the United States Exploring Expedition, have resulted in more correct information.* The early history of Fiji is necessarily obscure. Whether the first stranger who gazed upon its extent and beauty was a Tongan or Euro- pean, is doubtful. If it can be admitted that up to the time of Captain Cook's visit to the Friendly Islanders, in 1772, they were unused to war, and were then only beginning to practise its horrors as learned by them in Fiji, the probability is in favor of the latter. But whether these islanders, age after age, enjoyed the peace implied in the above supposition, is more than questionable. The evil passions " whence come wars and fightings " are, in Tongan nature, of ruling power ; and to suppose these at rest in a thousand heathen bosoms for a single year, is extremely difficult, — a difficulty which groAvs as we increase either the number of persons or the length of time. Tongan intercourse with Fiji dates far back, and originated, undoubtedly, in their canoes being driven among the windward islands by strong easterly winds. More than a hundred years ago the recollection of the first of such voyages was lost, which seems to put back its occurrence even beyond Tasman's visit in 1643. About the year 1804 a number of convicts escaped from New South Wales and settled among the islands. Most of these desperadoes lived either on Mbau or Rewa, the chiefs of which allowed them whatever they chose to demand, receiving, in return, their aid in carrying on war. The new settlers made themselves dreaded by the natives, who were awed by the murderous effect of their fire-arms. The hostile chiefs, see- ing their bravest warriors fiill in the battle without an apparent cause, believed their enemies to be more than human, against whom no force of theirs availed, whose victory was always sure, while their progress of Fiji :— Wilkes's Xarraiive of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1S3S-1S42. New York. (Two abridged editions have been published in England.) Captain Erskine's Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western racific. Lon- don. 1853. Life in Feejee: or. Five Years among the Cannilials. By a Lady. Boston. 1S51. First and Second Ifissionari/ Visits to the Fi-iendhj and Feejee Islands. By the Eev. Walter Lawry. London. Journal of a Deputation to the Southern World. By the Eev. Kobcrt Young. London. 1S55. n. M. S. " Herald," under the command of Captain H. IkT, Denham, E.N., F.E.S., has now been engaged for some time in exploring and more accurately surveying the islands, from which expe- dition the most valuable results maj' be expected.
 * The following works contain reliable information concerning tlie islands and inhabitants