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ir Arthur Gordon, the colony’s first gov- he infant sugar industry did have po- transport ship arrived, 60,000 people had
come to serve as “coolies”. Of the new arriv-
S ernor, and fortunately for Fiji a decent T tential, but no-one to work the fields. als, some 85% were Hindus, 14% Muslims,
and the rest were mainly Christians and
man, was dead set against using natives to The planters were screaming for labor. Sikhs. Most of the migrants were men 20 to
work the fields. Not only did he take steps Gordon had a plan. Having previously 40 years of age from the poor, uneducated,
immediately to protect Fijians from being worked in Mauritius and Trinidad, he had agricultural castes. Life in India was never
exploited as a labor force, he also made it seen indentured Indian labor. He convinced easy, and economic conditions had pushed
illegal to sell native land. In addition, he the planters to bring over Indians as the them to accept the inducement offered by
set up a taxation system requiring Fijians answer to their needs. On 14 May 1879 the the British Empire. The Indian exodus was
to work their own land rather than that of a era of the Indian in Fiji began. On this day to forever change the face of Fijian history.
planter. the Leonidas arrived from Calcutta with
463 immigrants aboard. Between May 1879
and November 1916, when the final labor
