The English Commissioner had offered a crumb of comfort to Thakombau by saying that the transfer of the kingdom to Great Britain was merely "a sort of hermit-crab formality, you know." "Yes," said poor Thakombau, "but with this difference--the crab moves into an unoccupied shell, but mine isn't." However, as far as I can make out from the books, the King was between the devil and the deep sea at the time, and hadn't much choice.

He owed the United States a large debt--a debt which he could pay if allowed time, but time was denied him.

He must pay up right away or the warships would be upon him.

To protect his people from this disaster he ceded his country to Britain, with a clause in the contract providing for the ultimate payment of the American debt.
In old times the Fijians were fierce fighters; they were very religious, and worshiped idols; the big chiefs were proud and haughty, and they were men of great style in many ways; all chiefs had several wives, the biggest chiefs sometimes had as many as fifty; when a chief was dead and ready for burial, four or five of his wives were strangled and put into the grave with him.

In 1804 twenty-seven British convicts escaped from Australia to Fiji, and brought guns and ammunition with them.