the first europeans to settle among the fijians were shipwrecked sailors and runaway convicts from australian penal colonies. in 1804, the discovery of sandalwood on the southwestern coast of vanua levu led to an increase in the number and frequency of western trading ships visiting fiji. a sandalwood rush began in the first few years but it dried up when supplies dropped between 1810 and 1814. by 1820, the traders returned for "beche-de-mer" or sea cucumber. in the early 1820s, levuka was established as the first european-style town in fiji, on the island of ovalau.