Britton, Henry.
Loloma, or, Two years in cannibal-land : a
story of old Fiji / by Henry Britton. (Melbourne : Samuel Mullen, 1883)
Britton’s factual book on Fiji, Fiji in 1870
(item 52) was written as a result of the Melbourne journalist being sent to
the islands by The Argus newspaper. Loloma is the story of a
Fijian princess told from the point of view of a young sailor from Sydney who
is ship-wrecked on the island in the early nineteenth century. Britton takes
the opportunity of using much of the material he had gathered on the Fijians,
their legends, customs and beliefs. He was conscious as he writes in his
“Preface” that “The opportunity of acquiring information on these subjects is
fast slipping away with the older aboriginal inhabitants, and if not now
seized upon it will be gone forever.” Britton adds an Appendix, “The religion
of old Fiji.”
