THE FIJI ISLANDS. 47 



A few hours' sail from Honolulu some of the largest and most wonderful volcanoes 

 in the world are to be found. Two of them, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, are each 

 over 13,000 feet in elevation. The eruptions from the great crater of Kilauea, which is 

 ten miles in circumference, are something fearful. One explosion ejected streams of red 

 mud three miles, killing thirty-one people and 500 head of cattle. This was followed 

 by several earthquakes, which destroyed a number of houses. These, again, were succeeded 

 by a great earthquake wave, during the continuance of which three villages were swept 

 away and seventy people killed. Next a new crater formed upon Mauna Loa, from 

 which rose four fountains of red-hot lava to a height of 600 feet. A lava stream, 

 eight to ten miles long, and half a mile wide in some places, carried all before it. In 

 one place it tumbled, in a molten cataract of fiery liquid, over a precipice several hundred feet 

 in height. The interior of Hawaii is a vast underground lake of fire, and were it not 

 for the safety-valves provided by Nature in the form of craters, it would be shaken to 

 pieces by successive earthquakes. 



And now the passenger has before him a fortnight of the most tranquil part of 

 the ocean called the Pacific. He must not be surprised if the heat rises to 90 or so in the 

 .saloon. The distance from San Francisco to Sydney direct is 6,500 miles, and Fiji is 

 naturally en route; the detour to New Zealand considerably increases the length of the 

 voyage. It will be remembered that these islands were formally annexed to Britain in 

 1874, after vain attempts at a mixed native and European government. The population 

 was then 140,000 ; in a year or two afterwards 40,000 of the poor natives fell victims to 

 the measles, another of the importations apparently inseparable from civilisation. The 

 Wesley an missionaries, in particular, have worked with so much zeal in these islands 

 that more than half the people are Christians. There are 600 chapels in the 140 islands 

 comprising the Fiji group. Formerly the natives were the worst kind of cannibals. 

 They not merely killed and ate the victims of their island wars, but no shipwrecked or 

 helpless person was safe among them. Numbers were sfein at the caprice of the chiefs, 

 especially at the building of a house or canoe, or at the reception of a native embassj-. 

 Widows were strangled at the death of their husbands, and slaves killed on the decease of 



O * 



their masters. The introduction of Christianity and partial civilisation has changed all that 

 for the better ; and the natives of to-day are described as mild and gentle, and little given 

 to quarrelling. Among their customs is that of powdering the hair (always closely cropped) 

 with lime, which is often coloured. Their huts are of dried reeds, lashed to a strong 

 framework of poles, and have lofty arched roofs, but are without windows or chimneys- 

 Each has two low doors, through which one must crawl. The best native huts have a 

 partition between the dwelling and bed room, and all are carpeted with mats. The 

 only furniture consists of one article, a short piece of wood on two small legs, used for 

 a pillow ! Clay pots are used for cooking their principal diet, yams and fish. Many 

 of them nowadays have houses well furnished with mats, curtains, baskets, jars, &c. 



Mr. Guillemard describes a tropical dinner, served to himself and companions in one 

 of these huts. A couple of banana-leaves formed the dishes, on which boiled fish and 

 half a dozen yams, or sweet potatoes, were offered. A large block of rock-salt was handed 

 them to use a discretion. Then followed ripe cocoa-nuts. Dried leaves of somewhat 



