LEVUKA

town on the east coast of Ovalau island, central Fiji, South Pacific, and capital of Lomaiviti Province at the western edge of the country's Eastern Division. Settled by a U.S. adventurer in 1822, the area was the centre of a cotton boom during the U.S. Civil War (186165), when world cotton supplies were disrupted. Levuka was chosen as the capital of Fiji in 1874, when the islands were annexed by Great Britain, but lost this distinction to Suva in 1882. It is now a tuna-fishing port for Japanese, South Korean, and Taiwanese fishermen. Pop. (1981 est.) 1,395.