14 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. as the original proprietors of his native soil ; while the race has been preserved pure from the direct admixture of Malayan blood, by the hitherto strict observance of their custom to slaughter all shipwrecked or distressed foreigners, who may have been cast on their inhospitable coasts. The light mulatto skin and well-developed muscles seen to windward, are chiefly the result of long intercourse with the Tongan race. These evidences of mixture are, however, feeble, compared with those marks which indicate a long isolation from other varieties of mankind. Murray, in his " Encyclopaedia of Geography," speaks incorrectly of the invasion and subjugation of this people by the Friendly Islanders, and seems to have copied the mistake from the account of the voyage of the " Duff." * The Fijians have never acknowledged any power but such as exists among themselves. The government of Fiji, before the last hundred years, was probably patriarchal, or consisted of many independent states, having little inter- course, and many of them no political comiexion, with each other ; mutual dread tending to detach the various tribes, and keep them asun- der. The great variety of dialects spoken, the comparative ignorance of some of the present kingdoms about each other, and the existence until now of a kind of independence in some of the smaller divisions of the same state, countenance the above supposition. At this day there is a close resemblance between the political state of Fiji and the old feudal system of the north. There are many independent Kings who have been constantly at war with each other ; and intestine broils make up, for the most part, the past history of Fiji. Still, though to a much less extent, civil dissensions abound, and it is not uncommon for several garrisons on the same island to be fighting against each other. The chiefs have ever been v^-arring among themselves, though the advantage of the victor is but precarious, often involving his own destruction. The chiefs of Mbengga Avere formerly of high rank, and still style themselves Gali-cuva-Ici-Iaffi, which means, " Subject only to Heaven." They do not now stand high, being subject to Ecwa. On the matter of supremacy nothing is known further back than 1800, at which time, it is certain, Verata took the lead. A part of Great Fiji and several islands of importance owned its sway. At this date Na-Ulivou ruled in Mbau. He succeeded Mbanuvi, his father, and the father also of Tanoa. Na-Ulivou was an energetic Chief, and distinguished himself in a war with the sons of Savon, numbering, it is said, thirty, who contended with him the right of succession. He overcame his enemies, and was hon
- 4to., p. 274.
