54 A MISSION TO VITI. 



there will be a marked increase in the crops, when the 

 numerous young plants added to the old stock at Mr. 

 Pritchard's investigation begin to produce their harvest. 



On leaving England in February, 1860, the Man- 

 chester Cotton Supply Association, through their able 

 secretary, Mr. Haywood, furnished me with a large 

 quantity of New Orleans and Sea Island cotton-seeds, 

 together with printed instructions for their cultivation. 

 Distributing a fair share of the seeds and papers amongst 

 white settlers, who, I felt persuaded, would make use 

 of them, I myself was enabled to establish a small cotton 

 plantation on the Somosomo estate of Captain Wilson, 

 and M. Joubert, of Sydney, in the island of Taviuni. 

 None of the seeds of the Sea Island sort possessed any 

 germinating power ; but those of the New Orleans cot- 

 ton were very good, and readily grew. Sown on the 

 9th of June,, they began to yield ripe pods within three 

 months, and I was thus enabled to take home a crop 

 from the very seed I brought out, though my absence 

 from England only amounted to thirteen months alto- 

 gether. This may truly be termed growing cotton by 

 steam. When I paid a second visit to Somosomo, on 

 the 18th of October, my plants were from four to seven 

 feet high, full of ripe pods and flowers, which in the 

 morning were of a pale yellow, but towards evening 

 turned pink. Koytoo, the Rotuma native, whom I had 

 desired to look after the plantation, said that the field 

 only required weeding once; after that the cotton-plants 

 grew so rapidly that they kept down the weeds, and he 

 had no further trouble. 



Simultaneously, Dr. Brower, United States Vice-Con- 



