2005, Ratu Josateki Nawalowalo, Chairman of the Kadavu Provincial Council, announced major development plans to build roads throughout the island and to upgrade jetties, improving Kadavu's links with the mainland. He revealed that much of the finance would be provided by the government of Taiwan. History William Bligh was the first known European to sight Kadavu, which he discovered in 1792 on his second voyage to Fiji on . He was followed in 1799 by the United States vessel Ann & Hope, skippered by C. Bently en route from Australia. In 1827, French commander Dumont d'Urville nearly shipwrecked on the reef that now bears the vessel's name. The island later became home to beche-de-mer traders, as well as whalers from Sydney, Australia, and New England in the United States. Galoa Harbour became a regular port of call for vessels carrying mail between Sydney, San Francisco, and Auckland. Origin of the Kadavu People Most Kadavuans are not sure where their ancestors may have originated from. Some say that they never travelled from other places but were always present on the island. While some have various theories. However, a well-known linguist feels that the people of Kadavu may have come from the East, given the similarity of words with the southernmost part of the Lauan group of islands and the core belief that Kadavu's ancestors settled from the East, as opposed to the rest of Fiji where the movement was Westwards. It can also be seen that Kadavuans generally possess Polynesian attributes, which may further add to the belief. Yet, the notion is debatable as Kadavu and Lau never had any affiliation in the past, be it tribal or provincial. It has only been in the last decade or so that the two provinces coined the term "Yanu" (meaning island or islanders), to forge a relationship. However the term "Yanu" is also called between Lau, Lomaiviti and Yasawa groups. Origin was that these islands never had a previous relationship and in Suva, these islands (Yanuyanu, later shortened to Yanu) were called between the smaller islands compared to Vitilevu and Vanualevu. The most famous theory is that the Kadavu people came from different parts of Fiji through Beqa and crossed through Deuba village. Pride of Kadavu Kadavu Island is nicknamed "Bird land" and rightly so as it has a number of rare birds that are endemic to the island. These birds have survived