dotted with the white sails of pleasure-crafts, racing, it may be, out of one entrance of the coral-reef and in at the other. The German becomes a naturalised British subject, and in time learns almost. to forget the Fatherland—nay, as I know from personal experience in America, repudiates all connection with it; but John Bull is John Bull wherever he may be found. The average British pioneer colonist always reminds one of a commercial traveller; he is eternally pushing the claims and introducing the specialities of Messrs. Jno. Bull & Co.

And here a line in defence of gentlemen who used to be much maligned in dear stop-at-home Old England. I allude to the majority of the settlers whom I happened to come across, and I use the word 'gentlemen' advisedly. To many, both in Australia and the Mother Country, a Fijian colonist has meant nothing else than a runaway bankrupt from Australia or New Zealand, happy enough to have settled down years ago in a little-known archipelago which, if it did boast man-eaters, was equally able to glory in the non-existence of the principles of extradition. An editorial of mine, contributed to the Fiji Times towards the end of 1876, deals with this opinion in the following fashion:

"The people in England know nothing of us; the vast majority of them believe firmly that these islands were annexed by the Imperial Government because the cannibals residing here were a dangerous nuisance to the few semi-crazed settlers who, in defiance of everything practical, would paradoxically insist on courting death by living here; that not only were these colonists mad themselves, but almost as objectionable to the world's pacific relations as the cannibals. with whom they so willingly took up their abode. The whites in Fiji were supposed to be the offscourings of the Australian colonies, men who, having failed by want of honesty, industry,

or temperance in New Zealand or New South Wales, had obligingly come down to Fiji, there to add to immoderate gindrinking a taste for slave-driving, which, with tropical effrontery, they called the labour trade; and as their proceedings in this exhilarating branch of commerce often required the interference of Her Majesty's war-ships, with possible inconvenience to their officers and crews, it was judged far better to take the whole thing over, annex these obnoxious islands as a Crown colony of a severe type, and so prevent the cannibals from eating the madmen, and the madmen from selling the cannibals.'

I need hardly add that the assumptions referred to are gratuitous libels. There was such a thing as 'blackbirding' or man-stealing for providing labour carried on by scoundrels of every nationality under heaven, and to a limited extent Fiji was for a time one of the numerous centres of their operations. But I do not hesitate to say that the great majority of the Fiji settlers never countenanced the trade, and only asked for labourers on fair terms. The colonists I met with were as a rule gentlemen by birth and education; and if one takes grasp of subject, general knowledge, and honest courtesy as a criterion of intellectual strength, a comparison might be established between a smoking-party of Fijian planters and an equal number of men in the smoking-room of a London club, and I fancy that the comparison would end favourably for Fiji. In matters ecclesiastical Levuka is not behind the times. The best church is undoubtedly that of the Catholics, which possesses a peal of bells. The chief of the Roman missionaries, Father Bretheret, has been thirty-five years in the group, and is most deservedly loved by all, whether inside the 'pale' or out of it. Father Bretheret is one of the Marist order, and is, I believe, Vicar Apostolic of Fiji. The Catholics have not any

thing like the following of the Wesleyans, but if I remember aright, they count 9000 communicants. The number of the priests in the mission is ten. Father Bretheret is a good sailor, and anything but an indifferent boat-builder.

The Anglican Church boasts a neat chapel, attended by his Excellency, and served by the Rev. W. Floyd, M.A., who did good service during the measles epidemic. The Church of England has, however, no missionary establishment in the group, the only two Christian bodies possessing such, being the Catholics and Wesleyans.

According to a late return, the statistics of the Wesleyan body are as follows: Churches, etc., 841; European missionaries, 10; Native ministers, 48.

There are three medical men in Levuka, and a well-conducted hospital is located on an elevated plateau above the town, surrounded by the most exquisite foliage, and commanding an extensive sea view of great beauty.

The fourth estate is represented by the Fiji Times bi-weekly, and the Fiji Argus weekly; the former being in bitter opposition to the present régime, while the latter is more or less on the side of the Government. If a little more spirit was infused into the conduct of the latter paper it would do better. Apparently, its course of action hitherto has invariably been to let 'I dare not wait upon I would.' At the new political capital, Suva, a weekly Times is now issued. The Royal Gazette is published monthly, and at irregular intervals a native paper appears.

The Governor, Geo. W. des Voeux, Esq., C.M.G., is assisted in his labours by the Executive Council, consisting of the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. J. B. Thurston, C.M.G., Attorney and Receiver Generals, the Commissioner of Lands, and the Chief Justice. The Legislative Assembly consists of these

gentlemen and a few of the prominent planters and merchants. Justice is represented by Sir J. Gorrie as Chief; while there is a chief police magistrate and registrar-general, and eight European stipendiary magistrates, who are scattered over the group of islands.

The group is divided into twelve provinces: Lau, Lomai Viti, Tai Levu, Rewa, Naitasiri, Nadroga, Ba, Yasawas, Ra, Kandavu, Bua and Macauta. Each of these has its roko, or chief, while there are eighty-two bulis, or sub-chiefs, who receive small salaries. The Armed Constabulary, soldiers in all but the name, number about one hundred, and are under the command of Englishmen. There is, in addition, a Levukan town and provincial civil police, while the rokos of each province maintain a sort of militia, more or less trained after the British model.

CHAPTER VII.

LIFE IN LEVUKA.

LIFE in Levuka is very pleasant to those to whom enjoyment is possible without the roar of a big city. A delightful climate, comfortable quarters, and good food, ought to make up a great part of man's terrestrial happiness, and these he can enjoy in the capital of Fiji.

I do not for one minute pretend that Carnarvon House, or the Levuka Hotel, rival European or American luxury; but they are clean and comfortable, and everything is done to make you happy. As regards food, a professional gourmet would turn up his scientific nose at a Levukan breakfast; but, at any rate, it suffices for the planters and merchants, who, in

their crass ignorance, think a meal of eggs poached and boiled, bacon fried, or cured ham, chops and steaks, curries, and preserved salmon 'fixed' in half a dozen ways, tea and coffee, watercress and oranges, is good enough for them.

A day in a Levukan boarding-house may not be uninteresting to my readers. You are awakened about six a.m. by your 'boy' (or native servant) bringing the matutinal tea; and you put on a pair of light shoes or slippers, and start for the falls —although it should be added that all the hotels, etc., have excellent baths, shower and otherwise. A good quarter of a mile in rear of town and hospital is a most delightful waterfall, some 3 feet in breadth (I have seen it 4) by some 10 feet in height. This falls into a pool about 20 feet in circumference and 4 to 5 feet in depth. A cave of refuge lies to the rear of the waterfall, and it makes a capital bathing-place. Surrounded by the most exquisite tropical foliage, with views extending all down the Totoga valley, added to clear, and, for the tropics, ice-cold water, the bathing-hole of the southern Levukans has no parallel except in that paradise of bathing-places, Waitova, described by the late Commodore Goodenough as his ideal of a perfect bathing locality.

About 2 miles from the centre of the town are these falls of Waitova. They are approached by a gradual ascent through a dense mass of the most luxuriant vegetation, terminating in some extensive patches of taro, which the natives have shown skill in irrigating. Leaving these, you find a steeper ascent, and then skirt a rocky promontory, on the sides of which a few steps have been cut. Behind this rocky guardian is a large-sized and most magnificent pool, shallow as you approach it from the rock, but of great depth at the other end. It is surrounded on both sides by precipitous hills, clothed to their summits with the richest trees, plants, and flowers, and backed