English: "King Thakombau, 1876, and Autograph" Frontispiece. Photo by late Colonel Stewart, R.E. Cakobau is wearing a large barkcloth skirt, apparently from the size and design a solofua (normally a bedcover or blanket) from Lau. He rests his hands on his chief's staff or matakilagi. The autograph is "CakobauR" [Cakobau Rex], the title he adopted during the Viti Government of 1871-4. Some European settlers had first crowned him King of Bau in May 1867, but even they never recognised his sovereign power over themselves. Then in June 1871 he was proclaimed King of Fiji, this time by a small group of European associates, and over the protests of many of the European population. Though he finally achieved fairly wide acceptance of this status, his government was not a success and by September 1874, Cakobau was pleased to agree to cede Fiji to Britain. As he put it then, "If matters remain as they are, Fiji will become like a piece of driftwood on the sea, and be picked up by the first passer-by. The whites who have come to Fiji are a bad lot. They are mere stalkers on the beach. … Of one thing I am assured, that if we do not cede Fiji, the white stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their maws and swallow us."