Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/99

 INDUSTRIAL PEODIJCE, ETC. 73 For nearly one hundred year^ past the Friendly Islanders have traded with Fiji. The scarlet feathers of a beautiful paroquet were a leading attraction. Tliese birds abounded in one part of Taviuni, where they were caught by nets, and purchased by the Tongans, who traded with them in exchange for the fine mats of the Samoans. They paid the Fijians for the paroquets with small articles of European manufac- ture, bowls, and the loan of their women. Iron goods were thus intro- duced among the Somosomans. The first article of steel owned by them seems to have been the half of a ship-carpenter's draw-knife, ground to an edge at the broken end. This was fixed as an adze, and greatly prized, receiving the name of Fulifuli, after the Chief who brought it to Fiji. One of their first hatchets came through the Ton- gans, and was named Sitia. This intercourse between the Friendly Islanders and Mbua came to an end in consequence of the quarrels and bloodshed to which it gave rise. A Tongan canoe — the Ndulu-ko- Fiji — ^was appropriated by the natives of Mbua, who had murdered the crew. The inhabitants of the Friendly Islands still depend on Fiji for their canoes, spars, sail-mats, pottery, and mosquito curtains. They also consume large quantities of Fijian sinnet and food, bringing in exchange whales' teeth, the same made into necklaces, inlaid clubs, small white cowries, Tonga cloth, axes, and muskets, together with the loan of their canoes and crews, and, too often, their services in war. This kind of intercourse has greatly increased of late years, and its injurious effects on the morals of the Tongans, and the advance of Christianity in Fiji, are incalculable. A plan for so regulating this commerce, as to secure to the Tongans its advantages, and to the Fijians a protection from its evils, is yet needed. Commercial intercourse between Europeans and the people of Fiji was commenced about the year 1806, probably by vessels of the East India Company visiting the north-east part of Vanua Levu to procure sandal-wood for the Chinese market. The payments in exchange were made with iron hoop, spikes, beads, red paint, and similar trifles. On the failure of sandal-wood, biche-de-mar — the trepang of old books — began to be collected, and the natives were encouraged to preserve the turtle-shell. Traffic in these articles has been, and is still chiefly in the hands of Americans from the port of Salem. Biche-de-mar, to the value of about 30,000 dollars, is picked up annually fi:-om the reefs, prmcipally on the north coast of Vanua Levu, and the north-west of Viti Levu. Quite recently small lots of arrow-root, cocoa-nut oil, and swan timber have been taken from the islands. The supply of oil is not