* The Lomaiviti archipelago in Fiji consists of seven main islands and a number of smaller ones. They cover a total area of 411 square kilometres
* The largest town is Levuka, which was Fiji’s first modern town and served as the capital from 1871 to 1877.
* The first known European sighting of the Lomaiviti Group was recorded in May 1789 by Captain William Bligh who was on his epic voyage in a lifeboat to Timor having been cast adrift by his crew in the Mutiny on the Bounty.
* He revisited the area in 1792 in the HMS Providence to complete his survey of the area.
* The islands of Koro, Batiki, and Gau were seized by the US Navy in 1867 as security for a long-standing debt owed to the American consul John Brown Williams by Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the Vunivalu (paramount chief) of Bau Island who claimed to be king of Fiji.
* This debt was one of the factors contributing to Cakobau’s decision to cede Fiji to the United Kingdom in 1874, just three years after achieving his decades-long dream of uniting Fiji’s myriad islands and tribes under his authority.
* Lomaiviti comprises one of the 14 provinces of Fiji, called Lomaiviti Province.
