“I will only say one word on the future prospects of the colony—namely, that I believe Fiji to be an admirable field for the investment of large capital, whether in sugar or coffee estates. Sugar grows spontaneously, is of the first quality, and has a practically boundless market in Australia. As regards coffee culture, Fiji is now in much the same position as Ceylon thirty or forty years ago, and I have no doubt that those who now found estates there will find them in no long time amply remunerative. I have never seen finer tobacco than that raised in Fiji, and the cotton produced there is admitted to be of the best description.” Fiji lies 1760 miles N.-E. of Sydney, and 1175 miles N. of Auckland. The value of its principal exports may be gathered from the following table:— Coppra. Cotton. Sugar. 1875, £40,003 £28,706 £3,417 1876, 45,908 21,122 10,433 1877, 79,403 15,690 16,170 1878, 122,194 20,700 18,640 At the close of 1878 the area under cultivation was as follows:— Coppra—_i.e._, cocoa-nut, 9166 acres. Cotton, 2390 ” Sugar, 1772 ” Maize, 1000 ” Coffee, 1219 ” The cultivation of coffee is as yet in its infancy. Tobacco, arrowroot, cocoa, cinchona, tea, vanilla, rice, pepper, &c., have been produced as yet only in small quantities, experimentally. The export of green fruit for Australia and New Zealand is a rapidly increasing item. Thus in 1877, 3100 bunches of bananas were exported; in 1878, 21,316 bunches; in 1879, 43,062 bunches. The form of Government is that of a Crown Colony, with Executive and Legislative Councils. CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE OUT. ON BOARD THE MESSAGERIES MARITIMES S.S. ANADYR, NEARING POINT DE GALLE, _April 17, 1875_. MY DEAR FELLOW-ARAB,—You see I am “once more upon the waters,” but whither I am now bound is a problem which I defy you to guess. I had not time to write to you before my hurried departure from England, but you see my locomotive demon has allowed me a very short spell of rest (if rest it can be called, to rush all over England and Scotland, visiting innumerable friends and relations! Practically, I find such visiting involves more wear and tear of mind and body, than any amount of travelling in distant lands).