APPENDIX. 421 



should prove to be the case, it would at o'nce double their value 

 as a station. 



In the above statements I have confined myself to answering 

 the questions in the Colonial Office letter, but on looking into 

 the subject I have been much struck by the entire want by Great 

 Britain of any advanced position in the Pacific Ocean. We have 

 valuable possessions on either side, as at Vancouver and Sydney, 

 but not an islet or a rock in the 7000 miles of ocean that sepa- 

 rate them. The Panama and Sydney mail communication is 

 likely to be established, yet we have no island on which to place 

 a coaling station, and where we could insure fresh supplies. 

 * &* And it may hereafter be found very inconvenient that 

 England should be shut out from any station in the Pacific, and 

 that an enemy should have possession of Tongatabu, where there 

 is a good harbour, within a few hundred miles of the track of 

 our homeward-bound gold-ships from Sydney and Melbourne. 

 Neither forts nor batteries would be necessary to hold the ground; 

 a single cruizing ship should suffice for all the wants of the islands; 

 coral reefs and the hearty goodwill of the natives would do the 

 rest. 



I have, etc., 

 (Signed) JOHN WASHINGTON, 



Admiralty, March 12th, 1859. Hydrographer. 



II. REPORT OF COLONEL SMYTHE, R.A., TO 

 COLONIAL OFFICE, 



The Fiji group of islands is situated in the Pacific Ocean, be- 

 tween the meridians of 176 east and 178 west longitude, and 

 between the parellels of 15 and 20 south latitude. It is com- 

 posed of about 200 islands and islets, of which less than one-half 

 is inhabited. Two of the islands (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu) 

 are of unusual size for the Pacific Ocean, having each a circum- 

 ference of 250 miles. The islands rise in general abruptly from 



