yiii PREFACE. 



fact, by all naval men who knew anything about the 

 subject. Men high in office were equally favourably in- 

 clined towards the cession. However, before coming to 

 any definite decision, the Government determined to 

 obtain more ample -information than was at hand, and 

 early in 1860 I was asked to join a "Mission to Viti" 

 dispatched for that purpose. 



Whilst in Fiji, I was induced to write a series of 

 letters on the country, its people, and productions, to 

 the 'Athenaeum,' which that journal did me the honour 

 to publish, and which, whole or in part, found their 

 way into several other home and colonial papers, were 

 translated into German and French, and altogether ob- 

 tained a circulation for which their original place of 

 publication alone can account. On my return to Lon- 

 don I was urged to make additions to this series, and I 

 acceded to this wish by bringing the subject before the 

 Royal Geographical Society, and writing papers for the 

 ' Gardeners' Chronicle * and Galton's well-known ' Va- 

 cation Tourists and Notes of Travel.' But a good deal 

 of matter remained still unpublished, which, together 

 with the pith of all I have previously made known, will 

 be found in the following pages. 



In order that the public may have the means of form- 

 ing a correct judgment on the Fijian question, I have 

 reprinted in the Appendix Colonel Smythe's Official 

 Report, at variance as it is with all that has been 

 written on the islands. My impression of Fiji and its 

 inhabitants was most favourable, and I am convinced 

 that, under judicious management, the country would 



