ROTUMA. 
571 
plume-like beads in the breeze. Nature is clothed in her magnificent 
multiplication of colours ; the great forest trees are festooned with 
vines of every shade of gold, green, and crimson. There sits fair 
Rotuma in gorgeous beauty, unknown outside the tropics as an 
emerald isle on a sapphire sea. The shallow water enclosed by the 
coral reef presents a great variety of green tints ; beyond is the deep 
ocean blue, while the perennial verdure of the "island and the 
glowing azure of the oft-times cloudless sky present to the eye of the 
beholder such a blending of colour as the earth can scarcely duplicate. 
Productions, . — The fertility of the soil is very great ; everything 
grows luxuriantly and quickly. The chief productions are cocoa- 
nuts, oranges, lemons, limes, taro, yams, kawai, bananas, sweet- 
potato, sugar-cane, sago, bread-fruit, coffee, cocoa, mummy apple, 
arrowroot, and maize; and other esculents they find in tlie bush in the 
form of roots, berries, nuts, and fruit. Patches of tobacco are often 
seen. Kava ( Piper meihisticum') is very largely grown, a single root 
sometimes weighing more than 100 lbs. 
The Fauna. — The fauna of the island is somewhat disappointing 
With the exception of wild pigeons and sea birds, there are few other 
species at present. Report says that they were plentiful, but during 
a very severe hurricane that visited the islands some years ago they 
nearly all died. There are no wild animals, but a few" non-venomous 
snakes. The sciences of entomology and conchology are full of 
interest. 
Seven Tribes. — Rotuma, although of such limited dimensions, is 
divided into seven sections or tribes — namely, Noatau, Oinafa, 
Mai ah a, Itutea, Itumutu, Eaguta, and Pepsei. Each tribe has its own 
chief. Eonnerly there was but little intercourse between these tribes, 
and often they were at war with each other. 
Annexation, — In the year 1881, at the request of the Kotumans, 
the island was annexed to the colony of Fiji, and thus became part 
of the British Empire. 
Adjacent Islands. — Lying in a line with the coral reef that 
surrounds Rotuma, there are four small islands ; also, some four 
miles to the west there are three islands in a line. The most 
northerly of these, IJea, is inhabited at present by some thirty 
persons. The island is in the form of a sugarloaf, and, strange to 
say, possesses a never-failing stream of pure water. Because of its 
exposed position, tlie island can only be approached in the calmest of 
weather. Hoflua, another of these westerly islands, is uninhabited, 
hut is remarkable owing to the fact that it is divided into two parts 
by a narrow strait of deep water just wide enough for a boat to pull 
through, while high overhead the rocks are connected, forming a huge 
archway. 
II. — THE ROTHMANS. 
The population of Rotuma at present is not much above 2,000. 
In complexion they are a light copper colour, more resembling the 
Samoan and Tongan than the Fijian, though not as big-boned as the 
Tongan. The oblique eye, flat, wide nose, straight, coarse, black 
hair seem to indicate that originally the Rotumans were of Asiatic 
origin, probably Malay ; but their own tradition says that they came 
from Samoa. 
