THE FIJI ISLANDS 
471 
2. History. 
Fiji was a discovery of the Dutch, Tasman having 
passed through the group from east to west in the 
celebrated voyage in which he made himself famous 
by the still greater discoveries of Tasmania and New 
Zealand. From this date—1643—the. islands remained 
practically unvisited for more than a century and a half. 
Cook anchored off the outlying and southernmost island 
in 1773, but only for a single night, and Bligh passed 
the group in 1789 while on his memorable boat-voyage 
to Timor after the mutiny. Dumont d’Urville was the 
first to make, in 1827, a detailed reconnaissance of the 
archipelago, and he was succeeded in 1840 by the 
American Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes, 
who made a tolerably complete survey. Since then 
Sir E. Belcher and other English naval officers have 
filled in the necessary hydrographical details, and land- 
surveys of the principal islands have been carried out 
by Government surveyors. 
Early in the present century a number of escaped 
convicts from New South Wales established themselves 
on Yiti, and being men of reckless character and pro¬ 
vided with firearms, managed to acquire a considerable 
amount of power among the murderous cannibals by 
whom they were surrounded. Partly through their 
assistance, it came to be recognised that a lucrative, 
if somewhat dangerous, trade was possible to the 
adventurous, and schooners soon visited the archipelago 
in some numbers to obtain beche-de-mer, sandal-wood, 
and other products. A few years later a small colony 
of Australians of a rather more reputable character 
settled in Levuka, and received fresh additions from 
time to time, especially on the waning of the Cali- 
