VITI: 
AN 
ACCOUNT OF A GOVERNMENT MISSION TO THE 
VITIAN OR FIJIAN ISLANDS. 
CHAPTER I. 
DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND.—ARRIVAL AT SYDNEY.—VOYAGE TO FIJI.— 
THE ‘JOHN WESLEY.’—THE PITCAIRNERS AT NORFOLK ISLAND.—FIRST 
GLIMPSE OF FIJI.—LAKEBA.—THE TONGUESE.—VISIT TO A MISSION 
STATION.—FIRST BOTANICAL EXCURSION.—HINTS TO COLLECTORS.—NA- 
TIVE CHURCH.—BARK-CLOTH MANUFACTURE.—TOMB OF A CHIEF.—MIS- 
SIONARY LIFE.—DEPARTURE FROM LAKEBA. 
Havine left Southampton on the 12th of February, 1860, 
by the overland mail, and having touched at Mauritius, 
King George’s Sound, and Melbourne, I arrived at Syd- 
ney on the 16th of April, where I was to join Colonel 
Smythe, R.A..—who had gone out by the previous mail, 
—and proceed with him in her Majesty’s ship ‘ Cordelia,’ 
it was supposed, to Fiji. The first news heard was, that 
a war had broken out in New Zealand, in consequence 
of which all available naval force had been dispatched 
to the scene of action. This altered our plans consider- 
ably. Colonel Smythe, thinking that the outbreak of 
native discontent would be only of short duration, and 
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