Discovery of Fiji

Located in the centralPacific Ocean,Fiji'sgeographyhas made it both a destination and a crossroads for migrations for many centuries.

Melanesian and Polynesian Settlement

Austronesian peoples,who were from theLapita Culturehave settled in theFijianislands some 3,500 years ago, withMelanesiansfollowing around a thousand years later. Most authorities agree that they originated in Southeast Asia and came viaMalay Archipelago.Archeologicalevidence shows signs of settlement onMoturikifrom 600 BC and possibly as far back as 900 BC.

In the 10th century, theTu'i Tonga Empirewas established inTonga,and Fiji came within its sphere of influence. The Tongan influence broughtPolynesiancustoms and language into Fiji. The empire began to decline in the 13th century.

TheFiji Timesreported on 3 July 2005 that recent research by theFiji Museumand theUniversity of the South Pacific(USP) has found that skeletons excavated at Bourewa, nearNatadolainSigatoka,at least 3000 years old, belonged to the first settlers of Fiji, with their origins in SouthChinaorTaiwan.The skeletons are to be sent to Japan for assembling and further research.Obsidian,a rare volcanic glass found only inPapua New Guineahad been discovered there, according toDr Patrick D. Nunn,USPProfessorofOcean ScienceandGeography,who theorized that the people could originally have left southern China or Taiwan some 7000 years ago, settling in Papua New Guinea before drifting on to Fiji and other countries.Lapitapottery found on the surface of the graves was almost 2500 years old, he said. Fiji Museum archaeologistSepeti Matararabasaid that the area beside the sea must have been occupied, because a great deal of pottery, hunting tools, and ancient shell jewellery had been discovered. More than 20 pits had been dug following the discovery of lapita in the area.

On 15 July 2005, it was reported that the same teams had uncovered 16 skeletons at Bourewa, near Natadola. The skeletons were found in a layer of undisturbed soil containing pottery from around 550 BC. Professor Nunn said there was now abundant evidence that Bourewa had been the first human settlement in the Fiji archipelago, occupied from around 1200 BC onwards."Lapita people were the first people to come to Fiji,Vanuatu,New Caledonia,TongaandSamoa.These people left evidence of their existence by mainly their elaborately decorated and finely fashioned pottery, "Nunn said. He said the evidence pointed to Papua New Guinea or theSolomon Islandsas the place from where the earliest Fijians came, as the pottery fragments were typical of the early Lapita period in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons, but not readily found on Lapita Pottery in Fiji.

Nunn announced on 9 November 2005 that a blackobsidianrock discovered near Natadola in southwestViti Levuhad originated in theKutau-Baoobsidian mine onTalasea Peninsulaon the island ofNew Britain,in Papua New Guinea, some 4500 kilometers away. Although carried throughout the Western Pacific by the Lapita people, it is not often found in Fiji. The obsidian, which showed signs of being "worked," probably arrived soon after the initial Lapita settlement in Bourewa circa1150BC,Nunn said. He theorized that it was kept by the Lapita settlers as atalisman,a reminder of where they had come from.

Fiji Televisionreported on 20 March 2006 that an ancient Fijian village, believed to have been occupied bychiefssometime between 1250 and 1560, had been discovered atKuku,inNausori.Its heavily fortified battle fort contained unique features not seen elsewhere in Fiji.ArcheologistSepeti Matararaba of the Fiji Museum expressed astonishment at some of the discoveries at the site, which included an iron axe used by white traders in exchange for Fijian artefacts. Local villages were reported to be rebuilding the site with a view to opening it up to tourists in July 2006.

European discovery (18th century)

DutchnavigatorAbel Tasmanwas the first known European visitor to Fiji, sighting the northern island ofVanua Levuand the NorthTaveuniarchipelago in 1643.James Cook,theBritishnavigator, visited one of the southernLau islandsin 1774. It was not until 1789, however, that the islands were charted and plotted, whenWilliam Bligh,the castaway captain ofHMSBounty,passedOvalauand sailed between the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu en route toBatavia,in what is now Indonesia.Bligh Water,the strait between the two main islands, is named after him, and for a time, the Fiji Islands were known as the "Bligh Islands."

The first Europeans to settle among the Fijians were shipwrecked sailors and runaway convicts fromAustralianpenal colonies. In 1804, the discovery ofsandalwoodon the southwestern coast of Vanua Levu led to an increase in the number and frequency of Western trading ships visiting Fiji. A sandalwood rush began in the first few years but it dried up when supplies dropped between 1810 and 1814. By 1820, the traders returned forbeche-de-merorsea cucumber.In the early 1820s,Levukawas established as the first European-style town in Fiji, on the island of Ovalau.