1858: Ma’afu the most powerful man in Fiji

Heneli Ma’afu was son of Josiah Tupo’u, the previous Kanokupulo. It is often suggested that George Tupou, King of Tonga sent Ma’afu to Fiji to make a kingdom for himself in in 1947 because he was a potential rival whose high birth and cleverness could make him a leader for the Kings energies. However there [...]

24 May 1738: John Wesley’s conversion, while reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans was a foretaste of religious revivals at Vewa, Ono, Lakemba and Mbua Bay 100 years later

24 May 1738 was day and hour of John Wesley’s conversion, while reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.  “It came, somewhat unexpectedly it would appear, at 8.45 on the evening of 24 May 1738 at a meeting in London of which he has left a definite record in his Journal: In the [...]

the 28th of September, 1857 William Pritchard appointed Consul only 30-40 Europeans in Fiji

IN December, 1856, my father sailed from Samoa for England, leaving me as Acting Consul. On the 28th of September, 1857, I was appointed H. M. Consul at Fiji, though I still served in Samoa until the middle of 1858. Prior to my appointment there had not been a British Consul resident in Fiji, for [...]

1829: birth of first Fiji Consul, W. T. Pritchard, son of George Pritchard counseller to Queen Pomare, later, British Consul to Tahiti

First Fiji Consul, W. T. Pritchard, was the son of Missionaries (London Missionary Society) and born in Tahiti, of English parents. ”I hardly knew whether to call England or Tahiti my fatherland. When, as a boy, playing at my mother’s feet, I heard her talk of ” Old England ” as every daughter of England [...]