472 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
fornian goldfields. Almost at the same date as this 
settlement, namely, about 1835, the Wesleyan mission¬ 
aries began work in the islands, aided by Tongan 
teachers. The Tongan power had always Veen dreaded 
by the Fijians, and had made considerable conquests 
in the group, and the missionaries, taking the former 
people as their allies, were able to make the abolition of 
cannibalism and the adoption of Christianity compulsory 
on the natives who fell under Tongan rule. 
In 1859 King Thakombau,. who, in consequence of 
some alleged injuries inflicted upon an American subject, 
had been fined a sum of £9000 by that nation, formally 
offered to cede the islands to Great Britain at the price 
of the settlement of this claim, but the offer was not 
accepted, and Fiji remained for some years in an un¬ 
settled state as regards its government, an attempt 
at a Constitution in 1871, which vested almost all 
the power in the hands of the European planters and 
traders, having failed. In 1874 Mr. Layard and 
Commodore Goodenough were sent to report upon the 
advisability of annexation, and as a result the islands 
were unconditionally ceded by Thakombau to Great 
Britain on the 30 th September of that year. The 
little island of Rotuma, about 300 miles north of 
Fiji, was annexed by the British in 1880. 
3. Geology and Climate, 
The formation of the group appears to be almost purely 
volcanic, and everywhere tuffs and basalts, both compact 
and scoriaceous, give evidence of past eruptive action. 
At the present time, however, there are no active 
volcanoes, although extinct craters are numerous, as 
in Kandavu, the Ringgold Islands, and others. The 
