--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - John Q. Adams collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 9 published: 1914-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'John Q. Adams, "Fiji, Remote and Picturesque," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 9 (July 1914): 826–830.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1709unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1709unse start_page: 826 end_page: 830 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1709unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Fiji, Remote and Picturesque Fiji, Remote and Picturesque BY JOHN Q. ADAMS Nine good round days of steaming south of Honolulu and we are in close proximity to the Fiji group. Not many stray bits of land have been encountered and we are now aware of our where- abouts by the way islands begin suddenly springing up about us, mushroom-like. The sailors' assertion that there are between two hundred and three hundred island dots in the group bids fair to FIJIAN DANCE become a reality. For nearly two full days there are islands of all shapes and sizes, through which we thread our devious way with trepidation. At one time I counted eight in view simultaneously, each interesting because of some distinctive feature. One small one, in particular, attracted attention because of its strikingly odd appearance. At a distance, with its rounding outline surmounted FIJI, REMOTE AND PICTURESQUE 827 with a straggling growth of cocoanut palms, it resembled remark- ably a pincushion, the tall palms, with their peculiar head of leaves, appearing on the dim horizon as pins ready for Mother Nature's use. At 10 o'clock on Christmas day (1907) we steamed slowly into Suva bay, announced by the boom of a cannon, for we were on the Royal Mail Line, and each month's arrival is a distinct event in the realm of isolation. What a Christmas compared with FIJIAN VILLAGE conditions at home ! Cocoanuts, bananas, breadfruit, pineapples, melons and many other varieties of fruit never seen in America, together with a profusion of flowers of all colors, set amid a mass of green verdure, all combined to form a paradoxical winter scene. The natives were a source of wonder, as first seen especially. Tall, fierce-looking, muscular fellows, straight as an arrow, and bushy-headed, they are easily connected in one's mind with the cannibals of a few years back. It is still whispered about that oc- casionally some luckless victim forms a table delicacy in the deep interior of some of the large islands, a number of which contain hundreds of square miles, and whose impenetrably dense forests are supposed to whisper no tales of clandestine encounter. One old veteran still stalked about the streets of Suva, on our outward voyage, but was missing when we touched there for a week three and a-half years later. He still carried the once-deadly 828 IMPROVEMENT ERA war club. With drooping shoulders and whitened hair he is now powerless, but in his youth, some three score ten years back, he ate human flesh as a matter of course, and as a memento of what he once was, he is designated as "Cannibal Tom." The American aborigine counted his victims by the number of scalps dangling from his belt. On old Tom's knotted war club fifty-two notches spoke mutely but forcibly of a like record of prowess and valor. The disposition of the Fijians as a whole is now rather more affectionate than otherwise, it being no uncommon sight to see a group of men walking along, chatting and holding hands like children. Any posi- tion of trust consider- ably dignifies them. The mere honor of carrying a written message tends to send the naturally erect head of the bearer to a dangerous backward tilt. As we were ma- rooned twenty-three days on Fiji, awaiting connections with the line that reaches Sa- moa, we were able to nose about consider- ably, and as a conse- quence, inland and coast-line jaunts be- came a daily occur- rence. The seaport of Suva, the most important within a radius of "Tall, fierce-looking, muscular fellows." one thousand miles, is of striking appearance. Lying upon a rising slope of sufficient angle to show its details to incoming vessels, a pleasing panorama unfolds itself with each hundred yards of closer creeping in. Smothered in a dense mass of tropical verdure that is terraced in close, parallel lines from beach to hill-top, white-faced cottages peep shyly from beneath and between its sheltering green the — very essence of quiet retreat. Upon gaining the streets, views of cosmopolitan variance greet one on every hand. Thither comes a rattling, rumbling ve- FIJI, REMOTE AND PICTURESQUE 829 hide of ancient English type, rolling along the beach boulevard in noisy complacency. Following it may be a group of thin- limbed Hindoos from distant India. In striking contrast are they to the swarthy, muscular type of islander following closely upon them in their noiseless, unshod tread. From the opposite direction comes a long-drawn, penetrating blast from a sea-shell trumpet, announcing that at the fish market some lucky fisherman is acquainting the x^% 1 H -- ! town with his success- ful arrival. On the beach near at hand, a small schooner is grounded, laden with pineapples, while just beyond a snorting, energetic, JirC« miniature steamer is telling, in intermittent screeshes, of its near \ departure for the great sugar mills up the river, on the other side of the island we are on. In strolling along we pass a group of men squatting at their labor of cutting close- ly the grass from the roadside, with large knives, and we sur- mise correctly from jy'jr >f%gj| the close proximity of . - armed guards that they are prisoners. Now let us take a CANNIBAL TOM stroll to the table land above and back of the town. The thing we are struck with, and which we came to see is a vast expanse of marshy land, upon which are located great rice fields. Looking like grain, to which family it belongs, it is of itself no great curiosity, but note the method of its transplanting. First grown in a hot bed, it is then taken to the field to be set out. Along comes a" Jap with an armful of stalks. One stalk is taken at a time and gently thrown with the root end down between the first two toes of his drill-foot. As the soil is semi-mud, with a slight pressure of the foot the roots ! 830 IMPROVEMENT ERA are imbedded and another stalk replaces it in machine-like regu- larity, and thus he walks steadily and with scarcely a pause. One more phase of Fiji we shall take up in conclusion, and that is a peep at the banana industry. Without detailing its pre- vious history we shall simply place ourselves at the wharf beside • ' Y.. ; *w- s < "White-faced cottages peep out" which lies a liner, and note the interesting process of taking on cargo. Word has already gone out to outlying banana plantations to have their output at the wharf at the appointed time, and they surely respond. Surrounding the vessel is a swarm of scows, tug boats and craft of every description, stacked high with the green-fingered bunches, and pushed, drawn and jerked hither and thither by oars- men, sails, and gasoline launches. What a jabbering, chattering, noisy bunch of humanity and what an aggregation of varied craft To gain an idea of the amount of bananas taken on board and bound for New Zealand ports, I timed a load from the mo- ment the huge rope net left the scow laden with ten crates or fif- teen loose bunches, until it had returned for another like amount, after the great derrick or crane, manipulated by a donkey engine, had deposited the net-load in the bowels of the liner. The time consumed was but seventy seconds, and as three cranes were working day and night for 72 hours, the aggregate of bunches,