1810 -1812 – Peter Dillon lived on the island of Borabora assembling cargoes of salt pork for Sydney merchant, Thomas Reibey

“Between 1809 and 1813 (age  21 – 25) Peter Dillon served, first as seaman and later as officer, on vessels trading mainly from Sydney to Fiji, New Zealand, and the Society Islands. This work involved lengthy periods ashore. In particular, he lived on the island of Borabora in 1810-12 assembling cargoes of salt pork for [...]

1808: Peter Dillon – 6ft 4in red-haired Irish Catholic, arrived in Fiji from India on a vessel trading for sandalwood

“Peter Dillon (1788-1847), adventurer, (and entreprenuer) was born (by his own account) of Irish parents in Martinique on 15 June 1788 and taken by his father, also Peter Dillon, to County Meath, Ireland, as a small child.
A big man: As a youth he served in the navy. He arrived in Fiji from India [...]

1813: Fiji conflict over sandalwood; all the beachcomber Europeans were murdered, except Dillon, a Prussian named Martin Bushart, and a seaman, William Wilson

In 1813 the East India Company’s ship Hunter, voyaging from Calcutta to Sydney, called at the Fiji Islands.
Beach combers in paradise: They discovered that several Europeans were living on one of the group. Some had been shipwrecked; some had deserted from vessels; but they had become accustomed to the life and preferred it.
Paid to collect [...]

August 1, 1842 four English sandalwood ships from New Hebrides at Somosomo to seek Tongan woodcutters; report death of Waterhouse

The Journal of John Williams reported on August 1st, 1842;
Williams by canoe, in starlight, to buy yams: ‘ – Left home a little after midnight for Nasagalou in our canoe intending to purchase yams to set, and return by the next tide. Before I had got my trading finished a messenger came into the village [...]