his insistence on being allowed to retain his questionable title of "tui viti" proved unacceptable to the british government, which turned his offer down after four years of consideration in 1862. this followed a report from colonel w.j. smythe, who had come to the conclusion, after interviewing every paramount chief in fiji, that cakobau's title was self-assumed and by no means universally accepted by his fellow chiefs, and that he did not have the authority to cede the islands.