THE CESSION OF FIJI. 27 



did they make the houses they died in, that I have had to destroy 

 the walls to let the trade-wind purify the air. . . . Two of our 

 children have had the measles, and are not quite recovered yet. 

 Reports still come in from different parts of Fiji ; and atRewa 

 the workings of the disease and its accompaniments are simply 

 horrible. It is to be feared that the frightfully impure state of 

 some of the villages may engender typhus fever, which would 

 sweep off numbers that measles and dysentery have spared. 

 The imported labourers are dying on the plantations, the occu- 

 pations of the planters are seriously interfered with by disease, 

 and, in fact, Fiji has received a most serious wound through 

 the introduction of this disease, and a partial paralysis must 

 occur in all commercial operations and in inter-island navi- 

 gation.' 



Next we have the terrible testimony of Captain Barrack, a 

 planter, who writes from his estate in Savu-Savu Bay, Vanua 

 Levu : 



' I am sorry to say that the country is in a deplorable state ; 

 I hardly know how to describe it to you. The greatest trouble 

 is to get the dead buried. The whites have done all they can 

 in their several neighbourhoods, and in most cases get them 

 over the measles ; but a malignant type of dysentery follows, 

 they get unmanageable, and the result is death. 



' They likewise seem quite indifferent about one another, 

 and, unless some white person is near, neglect the sick, and sit 

 and look at them dying for want of a drink or a bit of food. 

 It is a sad tale, and I don't know who is responsible. 



' The whites, too, have had their trouble with sickness, and 

 many have been carried off. We have to be very thankful, for, 

 although Mrs. Barrack 'has been daily amongst the sick, none 

 of our family have been ill as yet. Neither have any of 



