70 A MISSION TO VITI. 
ingress and egress to be easy. Port Kinnaird would 
doubtless become the future capital if its advantages 
were not totally eclipsed by Suva in Viti Levu. So 
convinced has every one capable of forming an opinion 
become that Suva will be the capital, that the land 
around the harbour has enormously risen of late; £20 
an acre was asked in November, 1860; and £10 I saw 
actually refused for land a few years previously not 
worth more than a few pence at the utmost. Not a 
single house had then been built. The general con- 
viction that Suva must become the capital seems to 
have been the sole cause of this sudden rise. If one 
were to write a puff for a land speculator, one would 
hardly string together a greater number of favour- 
able conditions. There is a good harbour, with mud 
bottom, deep water right alongside of the shore, shel- 
tered by a reef, and having a wide passage for the 
largest vessels to beat out. When once inside the pas- 
sage there is clear sea-room, no outlying shoals or 
reefs. Suva commands the most extensive agricultural 
district in Fiji, through which run fine rivers (the Navua 
and Wai Levu or Rewa) navigable for boats for many 
miles inland. Suva has besides outside reef communi- 
cation completely around Viti Levu, with the exception 
of a few miles on the southern shore and the westward, 
and continuing to the northward to Vanua Levu, and 
along the entire southern shore of that island. The 
convenience of inside reef communication is demon- 
strated in the case of parties employed in sawing. Logs 
are purchased at a distance of forty miles from the pits, 
and floated up by natives at a trifling cost. Were there 
