1854: Captain Frederick Howard – log of HMS ‘Herald’, in Levuka harbour for two months; read Articles of War to crew, hosts Cakobau with 10-gun salute

 29th September 1854, Levuka Harbour
AM
2.30 Observed the centre of Ovalau WNW. Hove to set spanker
4.0 Wore hove to. Centre of Ovalau NW by W
5.45 Filled
6.50 Wore
8.0 Bore up for entrance of reef, set courses and topgallant sails
9.30 Furled courses in topgallant sails standing through the Southern entrance to Levuka 10.0 Shortened sail and came to [...]

1854: August Unshelm lost at sea in hurricane: Weber take over

“August Unshelm, ran the German Hamburg house of Johann Cesar Godeffroy und Sohn based in Matafele, Unshelm was lost at sea in in a hurricane in the Fijian Archipelago. At his death, Theodor Weber, then a young man of twenty-seven, who had come to Samoa from the firm in Hamburg through its Valparaiso branch [...]

1854: August Unshelm arrives in Apia, from Valparaiso

“About the year 1854 there arrived in Apia, from Valparaiso, Chili, one August Unshelm, representing the great Hamburg house of Johann Cesar Godeffroy und Sohn. Unshelm, a man of ability and tact, commenced trading in Matafele, Apia in 1855, and in a few years he had instituted there a successful business in trade and oil, [...]

1854: Seru Cakobau takes title of Vunivalu “Tui Viti”, takes up Christianity

1854 Tanoa dies: Seru Cakobau assumed the title of Vunivalu and styles himself as Tui Viti, and on a Sunday, April 30, Cakobau became a christian and the death drum ‘Rogorogo i valu’ was beaten to herald his first church service.