town on the east coast of Ovalau island, central Fiji, South Pacific, and capital of Lomaiviti province. Settled by a U.S. adventurer in 1822, the area was the centre of a cotton boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), 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 the centre of Fiji's tuna-processing industry, supplied mainly by Japanese, South Korean, and Taiwanese fishing boats. Pop. (2007) 4,290.