of political power in Fiji. Its inhabitants, instead of being exclusively natives, are largely from the neighboring islands. Taviuni, usually called Somo-somo from its town of that name, which is the residence of the chiefs, is about twentyfive miles long, with a coast of sixty miles, and rises gradually from the sea into a central ridge of 2100 feet in elevation. On its summit, generally hid by light clouds, lies a lake from which a stream, issuing through an outlet at the west, tumbles and dashes down the steep descent, and running through the town, supplies it with fresh water. At a smaller outlet at the east, the water passes over a precipice and forms a beautiful cascade. This lake is supposed to have as its bed the crater of an extinct volcano. However wild and barren the appearance of this island may once have been, it is now graced with unrivalled luxuriance and beauty. Nearly every pleasing characteristic of Fijian scenery is found in it, while it yields all the tropical productions in perfection. It has only a land reef which is in many places very narrow, and in others broken into patches. Kandavu is another mountainous island, twenty-five miles long, and six to eight wide. It has a very irregular shore, abounds in timber, and has a population of from 10,000 to 12,000. Islands of this class, appear in their general outlines like elevated portions of submerged contiThe central part is, in many, a single hill or mountain, in others a range, the slopes of which, with the plains spread at their feet, constitute the whole. nents. The two large islands have, in comparison with the others, the rank almost of continents. Vanua Levu (great land) is more than a hundred miles long, and has an average breadth of twenty-five. Its western extremity is notable for the growth of sandal-wood. The population is estimated at 31,000; the other, Na Viti Levu (the great Fiji), measures ninety miles from east to west, and fifty from north to south. A great variety of landscape is presented by its shores. On the S.E. side, tolerably level ground extends upwards of thirty miles inland, edged in places by sandstone cliffs 500 feet high. The luxuriant and cheerful beauty of the lowland then gives place to the dark and barren grandeur of the mountains. To the S.W. are low shores with patches of barren land, then suc LIBRAR ceed narrow vales, beyond which rise hills whose tops, covered with wood, present a fine contrast to the waste at their base. Back of these tower the highest mountains in the group; they rise bleak and sterile to an altitude of from 4000 to 5000 feet. Westward and to the east, high land is close to the shore; a narrow strip only of level. ground separating it from the sea. Northward, the scenery is of greater beauty perhaps than in any other part of Fiji. The lower level, skirted by a velvety border of mangrove bushes, and enriched with tropical shrubs, is backed to the depth of four or five miles by hilly ground gradually reaching an elevation of from 400 to 700 feet with the lofty blue mountains visible through deep ravines in the distance. Great Fiji has a continuous land or shore reef, with a broken sea reef extending from the west to the north. Vanua Levu has also in most parts a shore reef, with a barrier reef stretching from its N.E. point the whole length of the island. Great Fiji is supposed to contain 50,000 inhabitants. These islands are undoubtedly of volcanic formation, the indications of extinct craters being numerous, but as no lava now flows, they were thrown up, probably, many ages ago. Volcanic action, however, has not entirely ceased; violent shocks of earthquakes, are at times felt, and on Vanua Levu and Ngau there are boiling springs. The high peaks and needles on the large islands are mostly basaltic. Volcanic conglomerate, tufaceous stones, porous and compact basalts, are found of every texture, and in various stages of decomposition. The reefs are grey barriers of rock, either continuous or broken, and of all varieties of outline, their upper surface ranging from a few yards to miles in width. The seaward edge, over which the breakers curve, stands higher than the surface a few feet within, where the waves pitch with a ceaseless and heavy fall. Enclosed by the reef is the lagoon, like a calm lake, underneath the waters of which spread gardens that fill the beholder with wonder. Mr. Williams does not assent to the theory that these reefs are the work of the coral insect; close and constant inspection by those who have had the fullest opportunity for research furnishes, he alleges, no support to that hypothesis. Wasting and not growth, ruining and not building up, characterize the land and rock beds of the southern seas. Nor does the hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, that equal gain and loss, elevation in one part and depression in another, are taking place, seem to be supported by the best ascertained facts. They The Fijians are apparently a blended race, sprung from a confluence of the Polynesians of the west and the east, between whom they are interposed: the former having a touch of the negro, the latter being purely Indian. are or were, undoubtedly, the most brutalized and savage of the human race; being almost wholly without culture, engaged in incessant wars with one another, and addicted to the most inhuman and debasing of all habits, a rabid and insatiable cannibalism. Many hundreds, probably thousands, of human beings have been killed and eaten since the commencement of the mission among them. The population. of the group is supposed to be about 150,000. They are above the ordinary size, muscular, active, restless, of the fiercest passions, of the darkest and most fiendish malignity, implacable in their resentments, delighting in cruelty and blood, and wholly devoid of the sympathy, the pity, the generousness, the kindness that belong in a measure even to the uncivilized of the human family. The first throb of tenderness that ever swelled in a Fijian breast, the first feeling of good-will to others that ever rose in that race, took place after the introduction of Christianity among them. The first rays of light that broke on the benighted scene were reflected from Tonga, one of the friendly islands at the south-east, where the Wesleyans had established a successful mission. Some Tongans having settled in Lakemba, the largest island in the eastern Fijian group, and a continual intercourse being in consequence maintained between Tonga and Lakemba, it happened at length that among the Tonga sailors who visited Lakemba, there were persons who, under the teaching of the missionaries at Tonga, had become converts to Christianity, and who made known to their relations and countrymen at Lakemba, and others, what they had learned of salvation. The way being thus apparently open for the introduction of the gospel into Fiji, soon after the remarkable outpouring of the Spirit with which Tonga was visited in 1834, a desire sprang up in the native church there to establish a mission in Lakemba; and at the Friendly Islands' District Meeting in December of that year, it was decided that two of the missionaries, Mr. Cross and Mr. Cargill, should be assigned to that work; and they accordingly sailed in October, 1835, and after a voyage of four days landed on Lakemba; and being able to speak a language that was understood by Fijians, met with a friendly reception; the king consenting that they should remain and preach, and providing them a house. The missionaries began their work by preaching on the first Sabbath, in the Tongan language, to a considerable audience. Among the listeners was the king. They continued to preach on the Sabbath, and other services were held during the week in the Tongan tongue. Decided effects almost immediately followed: many Tongans who had before lived in unrestrained vice in Fiji, felt the power of the gospel; and a considerable number became truly penitent. These converts being desirous to abandon their roving habits and lead a new life, returned home to their native land. In July, 1836, a canoe with fifty persons, principally Tongans, and in October, 1837, a fleet of canoes with about three hundred, who had been brought to a profession of Christianity at Lakemba, removed to the Friendly Islands for a fixed residence. Before these Tongans had been notoriously wicked even in Fiji; they were influential and were courted by the chiefs to secure their help in war, and the transmission of property in their canoes. Leading at all other times an idle life, they were ready for pleasure and mischief. When some of the most famous and stout-hearted of them became converted, and changed their manner of life, it had a great effect on the Fijians. Many of the Tongans who became Christians. remained in the land of their adoption. Some indeed were half-hearted and insincere, but most were genuine converts; and religion elevated them from the degradation that reigned around them to purity and dignity; it gave birth in their bosoms to affections never felt before-sympathy, good-will, love; and they became animated with a desire to spread, as they could, the knowledge of the gospel which had been the means of working in them so great a change. They labored in schools, they were active as classleaders and exhorters, and were, at the juncture, invaluable aids to the Mission: no better pioneers could have been chosen. They went also with their chiefs to many of the. neighboring islands, and had an important influence there with those high in power. The missionaries continued their labors with unremitted diligence, preaching the gospel in its simplicity, proclaiming the universal and absolute authority of its laws, pointing out the guilt of the various forms in which the heathen transgressed them :-cannibalism, murder, revenge, cruelty, robbery, injustice, deceit, polygamy, idolatry—and calling them to repentance, faith in Christ, and a holy life, in order to pardon and salvation. And they soon were cheered by very decided signals of the Divine favor. In March, 1836, they baptized thirty-one, chiefly Tongans, and a number of Fijians also openly renounced heathenism, and joined the worshippers of Jehovah. The island of Lakemba, which is about thirty miles in circumference, contains, besides the king's town and three Tongan settlements, eight other towns, and the population of the whole is about 4000. These eleven secondary towns are situated at intervals round the coast, and their people, having frequent occasion to go to the capital, were accustomed, while there, to visit the mission premises, and to describe on returning home, the objects that had excited their interest and wonder. The curiosity thus awakened, led others to visit the missionaries, and the result soon was, that many were induced to abandon their own gods and priests, and attend regularly the services at the chapel on the Sabbath. This awakened the jealousy and resentment of the heathen priests and king, and led to a measure of resistance to the new religion, and persecution of those who had embraced it. Threats of violence were uttered; the houses of some of the converts were pillaged, their crops destroyed, and their wives carried away; no life, however, was sacrificed; and the steadfastness with which the Christians adhered to their principles, in spite of injuries and menaces; and the meekness, patience, and superiority to revenge which they exhibited, so astonished their assailants, and impressed them with the feeling that the new religion was a real and supernatural power, that they soon relinquished their repressive measures, and the tide of popular feeling turned in their favor, |