Like many a contemporary cultural chauvinist, Herodotus reacted with shock to the foreign ways of Egypt, where, he found, nothing was done as it was in Greece. After 700 years tourists can still profitably read the observations of that Venetian trader when contemplating their own trips to China and the Far East. A British colony for nearly a century, Fiji became independent in 1970. Only about 105 of Fiji's islands are inhabited. Vegetation varies according to rainfall, with dense forests in the mountains, tropical savanna grasslands in the west, and dense vegetation in the east.
Mangrove trees dominate coastal areas.
Native Fijians, who were a minority in their own country at independence, are mainly of Melanesian stock.