The Lomaiviti archipelago of Fiji consists of seven main islands and a number of smaller ones. They cover a total area of 411 square kilometres (159 sq mi).
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 HMS Providence to complete his survey of the area.
The islands of Koro, Batiki and Gau were seized by the United States Navy in 1867 as security for a long-standing debt owed to the United States Consul John Brown Williams by Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the 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.
