THE FIJIS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2055, 5 September 1868, Page 3

THE FIJIS.

The following letter from the Fiji Islands has just been.received by the Banshee, and has been handed to us for publication:— " Levuka, 23rd July, IS6S.—Here I am, at last, in Fiji, after a passage of 15 days from Dunedin, having had a narrow escape from running on a reef near Levuka. I. can tell you I would never wish to live in a better place than .Fiji. The climate is splendid. True, it is rather hot; but that is only in the middle of the day. I have been now travelling among the natives for the last month, and I enjoyed myself very well, although they were burning and killing each othernotmorethan 15or 20miles from where we were» Things are rather unsettled in reference to the natives, as King Thakambou has been defeated; so that makes the mountain tribes very independent and saucy. But in about a month, all the petty chiefs and the King are going to collect their. men from round the .coast, and are determined to go right up the mountains, and drive them . out. All the fighting is confined to one island, so the religious natives will get on better this time. One party will go into the mountains at one side, and another party at the other; so there will be warm work there in a short time. The " devils"—that is what the mountaineers are called — are friendly enough to the white settlers : it is the missionaries and native teachers that they try to, kill and eat. They are cannibals in the mountains yet. If the white men get killed, they bring it on themselves. There are two men-of-war in Levuka. just now; so lam told that they,are going to send some of the sailors up the Rewa river to burn down some villages, so I fancy the "devils" will be quiet enough directly. ' The Brisk will leave here to-morrow, for Sydney, and she takes two men out of the island altogether. What do you think itis for ? One brute, because a native boy annoyed him, took, up a red hot iron, and branded him on the back.- ..The natives fined him Ll, but he would not pay, so he is now going to be taken to Sydney.. The other one was for a "robbery. Another man, because, he thought, that he could not get enough work from his men, tied oae up and flogged him, and. then rubbed hot chilipeppers on his sore back. .He has been fined Ll5O by the British Consul and Thakambou, but he refuses to pay it until an American man-of-war comes in, as he claims to be an American subject. These are the kind of men that will get the whites into trouble:* lam now just starting for a place called'SavaSava,' where ~I intend buying 500 acres of land. Of course, I-have had a greatr many difficulties to contend with, but I am very hopeful. It was only to-day, that the Melbourne Company succeeded in getting old Thakambou to sign the charter in reference to the American Debfr. He binds himself to hand over certain lands to the Company, so-, they-will now! set towork to bring down machinery for sugar makings and likewise open a Banking establishment. If they succeed in raising the capital, it will be the making of Fiji, as the .settlers will now set to work to get sugar-cane planted, as well as cotton and coffee. By-the-bye, Mr Johnson has arrived : with press, plant,; &c. I am very much afraid he is tco soon. The place is too voung '-.;- you can scarcely credit how the white people are scattered; the Rewa River is, the only place where there is .anything like a whitepopulation- there are'only 90 settled there, and about 50 or 60 :in Levuka. It might do in another 12 months td start a paper, but I am afraid he will have a hard fight. I would not have: let the chance slip, if I thought it would pay. I was offered the use of the press and plant belonging to : the Wesleyan Mission, if 1 would start a paper, but 1 did not like, the idea. In reference to any one coining here,. I should not advise them to come with ■ less than L 250 or L3OO ; Ait you come with less, you. will find yourself in a fix, that is, if you intend to go into cotton planting. Levuka consists of six stores, fivu hotels, one. Wesleyan Church, Reading room; British and American Consuls' office?, and about 20 or 30 other houses. That does not include Native villages—they are all round Levuka. If you look at the Melbourne papers in about a couple of weeks, you will see what the Banking Company- have done, as Messrs Brewer and Evans, started for Sydney, this morning, in the John Wesley."