CHAPTER VI 
THE FIJIANS’ 
The population of the Fiji group of some two hundred islands 
lying between 15° and 22° South latitude was, in 1921, 155,234, 
of which 89,562 were native Fijians, 61,150 Indians (that is 
natives of India), and 4,552 whites; or in the proportion of 58 
Fijians, 40 Indians, and 2 whites per 100 persons. It will be seen, 
therefore, that there were nearly fifty ‘‘blacks’’ to every white 
person on the islands. 
These latter, the Colonials, are the officials, planters, traders, 
and missionaries. The Indians are mostly small farmers, laborers, 
house servants, and small shop-keepers. Usually the Fijians live 
in small communistic villages and work only enough to supply 
their exceedingly simple needs. They are independent and seldom 
belong to the servant class. Occasionally they work ‘‘by the job’’ 
on the Government roads or as dock laborers on ‘‘steamer day.’’ 
The whites are, of course, the ruling class and are almost all 
British; most of the Indians were imported as laborers on the 
plantations, the Fijians being the only real natives. As such they 
interested us greatly. We found them extremely different from 
our preconceived notions gained from various publications of 
travelers from the South Seas. Indeed, our friends received the 
news of our departure for Fiji with cheerful predictions that we 
would be welcomed with gastronomic fervor, which may serve as 
an index to the ordinary notions Americans entertain regarding 
the Fijians,—that they are degraded savages and cannibals. This 
opinion is just about as up-to-date as a belief that the present 
Americans are given over to the practice of burning witches! 
A hasty review of recent publications regarding the South Sea 
Islands gives the impression that most Europeans and Americans 
go there without any idea of learning things of ethical importance. 
Some go to exploit the natives commercially, some to teach them 
1 The author is indebted for much of the information in this chapter to a 
work called ‘‘Fiji, its Problems and Resources’’ by Major W. A. Chapple, 
Whitcomb and Tombs, Limited, 1921; and also to the narrative of the 
Wilkes Expedition, Vol. 3 which gives an excellent account of the Fijian 
natives as they were in 1840. 
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