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 (Rewa River). It 
was planted in July and gathered in December last. No. 3 is kidney cot- 
ton, native-grown at Rewa. No. 4is native-grown, from Burebasaga (Rewa 
River). No. 5 is Sea Island cotton, grown on Nukulau, the little island 
in the Rewa 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 Rewa; 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. Eggerstrém’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 Rewa 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 remuneratire to hire or purchase land about Rewa, or localities simi- 
larly situated, for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. 
