VITI: 



AN 



ACCOUNT OF A GOVERNMENT MISSION TO THE 

 TITIAN OR FIJIAN ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER I. 



DEPAETUEE FEOM ENGLAND. AEEIVAL AT SYDNEY. VOYAGE TO FIJI. 

 THE ' JOHN WESLEY.' THE PITCAIENEES AT NOEFOLK ISLAND. FIEST 

 GLIMPSE OF FIJI. LAKEBA. THE TONGUESE. VISIT TO A MISSION 

 STATION. FIEST BOTANICAL EXCUESION. HINTS TO COLLECTOES. NA- 

 TIVE CHUECH. BAEK-CLOTH MANUFACTUEE. TOMB OF A CHIEF. MIS- 

 SIONAEY LIFE. DEPAETUEE FEOM LAKEBA. 



HAVING left Southampton on the 12th of February, 1860, 

 by the overland mail, and having touched at Mauritius, 

 King George's Sound, and Melbourne, I arrived at Syd- 

 ney on the 16th of April, where I was to join Colonel 

 Smythe, R.A., who had gone out by the previous mail, 

 and proceed with him in her Majesty's ship ' Cordelia,' 

 it was supposed, to Fiji. The first news heard was, that 

 a war had broken out in New Zealand, in consequence 

 of which all available naval force had been dispatched 

 to the scene of action. This altered our plans consider- 

 ably. Colonel Smythe, thinking that the outbreak of 

 native discontent would be only of short duration, and 



B 



