96 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



him ; he is a miserable creature : he is guca, or going down- 

 hill. 



Since Fiji has been annexed, the people have been ostensibly 

 governed according to the principles of British law alone, but 

 such has not been the case except in the law-courts of Levuka. 

 In the provinces, so great was the Fijians' dread of the delays 

 of British law, that not unfrequently they took the law into 

 their own hands and executed summary justice. For instance, 

 a particularly brutal murder was committed by a native. His 

 chief said : ' Let us not send him to court to be tried in the 

 white man's incomprehensible fashion, and then allowed to 

 escape punishment ; let us kill him at once,' and they did so. 

 This district has been Christian for several years. The chief 

 was a Government servant receiving Government pay. This 

 chief came to an English gentleman a week after the execution 

 and confessed the whole affair, but thepapafagi wisely kept his 

 counsel till it had blown over. There has been no crime since 

 in that large district. 



The dual system has worked well. For capital and very 

 serious offences a native is tried before the supreme court ; 

 minor matters are settled by his chief, or /if any difficulty occurs 

 with that authority, by the local British magistrate. Some of 

 the native laws are exceedingly severe, and in some places 

 working on Sunday is an offence. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MORE ABOUT THE FIJIAN OF TO-DAY. 



WHEN Commodore Wilkes of the United States Navy visited 

 the Fiji Group some years back, he landed a party of his blue- 



