Here's a a couple of useful link that I found when I started with JNI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Native_Interface
http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/jni/spec/functions.html
concerning your problem you can use this
JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_ClassName_MethodName(JNIEnv *env, jobject obj, jstring javaString)
{
const char *nativeString = env->GetStringUTFChars(javaString, 0);
// use your string
env->ReleaseStringUTFChars(javaString, nativeString);
}