vill 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 ‘ Atheneum,’ 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.’ Buta 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of matter remained still unpublished, which, together 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 
