232 A MISSION TO V1TI. 



it sounds as pleasing as Spanish or Italian. They are 

 certainly not an idle people, and though not working 

 like our own labourers, from six to six, they are great 

 cultivators of the soil, skilful fishermen, and able builders 

 and managers of canoes. Far from living under an ab- 

 solute despotism, as is erroneously supposed, all the dif- 

 ferent States of which Fiji is composed have institutions 

 hallowed by age and tradition, fundamentally almost 

 identical with those cherished by the most advanced 

 nations. The real power of the State resides in the 

 landholders or gentry, who, at the death of a ruler, pro- 

 ceed to elect a new one in his stead from amongst the 

 members of the royal family. Generally the son, but 

 not unfrequently the brother, or even a more distant re- 

 lation of the deceased, is elevated to the chieftainship, 

 and loyally supported in his dignity as long as he car- 

 ries out the policy of those who have set him up. If 

 this " House of Commons," as by a stretch of language 

 it may be called, finds its wishes and aims disregarded, 

 the members avail themselves of the privilege of re- 

 fusing supplies, which, in the total absence of money, 

 consist in yams, taro, pigs, fowls, native cloth, canoes 

 (the naval estimates !), and all the other requirements 

 of a great Fijian establishment. The intractable chief 

 who has attempted to play the despot is thus generally 

 brought to a proper sense of his condition. Of course, 

 chiefs who, by strong family connections, can afford to 

 set the " Commons " at defiance, will occasionally do so ; 

 then new expedients have to be resorted to, and the 

 trial of strength which follows provides one of the ele- 

 ments of political activity. Europeans might fancy that 

 a barbarous people would readily adopt the more simple 



