At Home in Fiji

Abstract

MISS GORDON CUMMING is a most indefatigable traveller, daunted by no hardships or discomforts, ready to push her way anywhere, and as happy and contented almost in a Fijian dwelling as if at home. She has travelled over most of the world, and being a most skilful draughtswoman, has, like Miss North, brought back with her a vast series of large coloured sketches of all the principal points of interest visited by her. Whilst however Miss North's fine and most instructive collection is executed in oils, the author of the present work sketches in water colours. Miss Gordon Cumming's drawings are very beautiful and, as all those who have been fortunate enough to see them can testify, extremely faithful representations of the scenes which they depict, and she has sketched some of the most interesting scenes existing, such as the hot springs and geysers of New Zealand, the ruined ancient cities of Ceylon, the summit of Adam's peak at sunrise, with the curious coloured edged shadow then cast by the mountain, and the ever-surging lava lakes of Kilauea in Hawaii. She went to Fiji as companion to Lady Gordon on the appointment of Sir Arthur Gordon as first governor of the islands in the beginning of 1875. She stayed there more than a year and a half, seeing a great deal of the people and constantly travelling in various parts of the group. The present book is a bright and pleasant account of what she saw and did. She made a large series of sketches, and seven of these, reproduced by the autotype process, illustrate the present work. Any one who knows Fiji will at once recognise the minute accuracy with which they represent the scenery of that beautiful group, though they are, of course, but feeble substitutes for the coloured originals.

At Home in Fiji.

By C. F. Gordon Cumming. In Two Volumes. With Map and Illustrations. Second Edition. (London: Blackwood and Sons, 1881.)