56 A MISSION TO VITI. 



cumulated by the lower classes, a favourable result will 

 be the immediate consequence, and a fresh impulse be 

 imparted to all branches of industry. Let the common 

 people once be assured that nobody can legally take 

 their fair earnings away from them, and that the little 

 comforts with which they have managed to surround 

 themselves may be openly displayed without the dan- 

 ger of being coveted by the chiefs and their favourites, 

 and they will doubtless be eager to engage in any work 

 that does not require any great mechanical skill or 

 violent exertion, and at the same time will yield them 

 reasonable returns.* 



* Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, the Fijian contri- 

 bution to the Great Exhibition of 1862 has arrived, which Mr. Consul 

 Pritchard, in a letter to me, dated Levuka, Fiji, March 12th, 1862, accom- 

 panies with explanations, of which the following have an important bearing 

 upon the cotton question : " The box No. 1 contains eight samples of 

 cotton. Of these samples, No. 1 is New Orleans cotton, from the planta- 

 tion you established at Somosomo, which since your departure has been 

 sadly neglected; the trees are half withered and overgrown with bush, 

 and I fear the quality has much deteriorated. No. 2 is kidney cotton, 

 grown by Mr. Storck on his plantation at Nukumoto (Eewa Eiver). It 

 was planted in July and gathered in December last. No. 3 is kidney cot- 

 ton, native-grown at Eewa. No. 4 is native-grown, from Burebasaga (Eewa 

 Eiver). No. 5 is Sea Island cotton, grown on Nukulau, the little island 

 in the Eewa roads, and planted by an Englishman, Mr. Smytherman, in 

 January, and collected in August, 1861." I should here add, that Mr. 

 M'Clintock, nephew of Sir Leopold M'Clintock, sowed some Sea Island 

 cotton at Eewa ; in twenty-four hours it was up, with the first two leaves 

 quite open ; in two months and twelve days it was in full blossom, and 

 is now almost ready to gather, not having been planted three months ! 

 " No. 7 is from Mr. Eggerstrom's plantation at Nagara, and was gathered 

 four months after planting. No. 8 is native-grown." 



Sea Island cotton delights in sandy soil impregnated with saline par- 

 ticles, and localities wafted by sea-breezes, such as Eewa and Nukulau are. 

 With the high prices now commanded by this kind, and the prospect of 

 continuance of civil wars in the United States, speculators would find it 

 highly remunerative to hire or purchase land about Eewa, or localities simi- 

 larly situated, for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. 



