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  The
Fijian Islands are located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, south of the equator
and north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Nearby islands include Australia,
New Zealand, Tonga and Vanuatu, to name just a few. Located so far from
other cultures, it's a wonder Fiji attracted so many visitors from 1643 through
the 19th century. Today we visit Fiji for flora, fauna, diving, snorkeling,
adventure and the number-one reason, her people and culture.
Fiki’s first known European explorer, Abel Tasman, negotiated Fiji's
treacherous reefs in 1643. His description alone of the reef system kept
mariners out of her waters for the next 130 years! Then Captain James Cook
met Fijians in Tonga who described their people as formidable warriors and
ferocious cannibals. (Archeological evidence supports Fijians practicing
cannibalism – details are available if you can stomach them!) Despite
this warning, Cook stopped in Fiji in 1774 and from his stop, the reputation
Fiji gained deterred sailors from visiting the islands for even more time. These
days you don't need to worry: On you visit to Fiji you will encounter amazing
friendliness and warmth.
Fiji's history is alive with explorers, traders, beachcombers, missionaries and
Europeans, all hoping to profit, despite the dangers of war and cannibalism.
Such a unique destination offered several luxuries and delicacies, including sandalwood and
beche-de-mer (sea cucumber). Tongans traded for weapons, masi (printed bark
cloth) and colorful kula-bird feathers. Early 19th century whalers,
sandalwood and beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) traders brought trade and changes to
the Fijian culture with weapons and different values. One survivor of the
shipwreck Argo, Oliver Slater, was responsible for discovering and spreading the
whereabouts of sandalwood and trade began directly with the Fijians – at high
risk but also at high profit. Is it possible there may have been trades of
food for food: human flesh for beche-de-mer? Highly likely.
Today when you visit Fiji, you can snorkel and dive the reefs and see
beche-de-mer. But remember, traders used to barter for this delicacy with metal
tools, tobacco, cloth, muskets and their lives. Beche-de-Mer was considered
a delicacy and trade in it was lucrative. It's interesting to learn that it
took literally hundreds of workers for a beche-de-mer station. Processing it
involved collecting from the reefs, cleaning, boiling, cutting wood, drying,
smoking and packaging. Chiefs sent villagers to work at the stations to
increase their wealth and power. One chief from Bau, received 5,000
muskets and 600 kegs of powder for helping suppress objections to the trade. Yes,
politics were no better then than they are now.
The many people who reached Fiji’s shores in the 17th and 18th
centuries ranged from shipwrecked or deserted sailors to escaped Australian
convicts, traders, explorers and missionaries. Among those resolved or forced to
stay, many did not survive long before being eaten. Others quickly adopted
Fijian dress, hairstyles and body painting, and received special treatment for
helping chiefs in war. After all, would you want to be the conspicuous white man
in battle?
 Charlie
Savage, a Swede and influential beachcomber who became shipwrecked, quickly
retrieved muskets and ammunition from the ship and went down in history as
helping Bau's chief become one of the most powerful chiefs in Fiji. Of
course he got privileges and many wives, but he only lived about five years
before being killed. They preserved his skull as a kava bowl. (What's
kava? That's another story I’d love to share with you! )
Fiji is now dedicated to adventure, rejuvenation, romance, fun and water sports
galore. That orientation is quite a change from earlier explorers' descriptions
of it
– when they survived to
tell.
 
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