To follow the night sky theme, on home front, Matariki (Pleiades) has risen, and my small contribution to the stars, the sun and the moon this year, was to plant some old fashioned hollyhock seeds. They are flat seeds, like little plates; I planted these a week ago, and watered, covered them with transparent container which once had supermarket kumera in it) . The little hollyhocks have have sprouted already and I find it refreshes me to go and gaze at these little seeds, as they grow. First, the plate splits into two; and a pure white root points into the air; by the next day it has curved down, into the earth, and develops a fur of tiny rootlets. By the third day the rootlet has fixed itself into the earth, and then it lifts the seed plate into the air; and two crumpled green plate-shaped leaves split out of the plate, until the two sides of the plate are just a discarded attachment which cling to the one leaf, and by the fourth day, drop off; and the two circular leaves grow toward the sun.
Not sure what this has to do with Levuka. But things grow from small beginings. These hollyhock seeds may grow more than two meters tall, I hope. This site is like that. A small seed.
I am so pleased to hear from you. I understand you have a case to argue; and you feel I have made a wrong turn in my interpretation? if so, please can you explain. Also - do you have any dated family events you would would like to add to the Levuka Timeline? Your family history would add depth; its intended as a community project.
Levuka

I just stumbled on to this site this afternoon and wotta delight to read stories pre and post Deed of Cession. I’d love to hear and know more. I’m a descendant of one of the signatories and am sharing with my family a picture posted of our ancestor.

Thank you and this has certainly sparked my interest to research more into the history of all signatories and their direct descendants.

Vinaka
Sauca

Thanks again for your interest. I read your local story, and I was impressed your clear style.

I will email you separately to talk about your ftuture stories.

Some general comments:

It appears your editor has decided your readers have a high interest in Levuka! That’s good news. I flew Air Pacific, when I visited Levuka. I was interested to notice that staff of Air Pac spoke to me in Fijian, but to other in English - as if they presumed I was Fijian. Alas, I don’t speak the language, yet.

So, my genes must look a little bit Fijian. But, in Australia, people guess I come from Japanese or Chinese heritage. That’s of interest, as new DNA-mapping research shows a general genetic- flow to the Pacific from South China, to the Indonesian islands in the Mollucca area, then, some mixing with inland upland, plus coastal Melanesian genes from, PNG, then a gene-flow to Santa Cruz, and, from there a dispersion to Pacific ocean islands.

I would have certainly used a Family History centre if it was available in Levuka. Like many others, I would also willingly act a a volunteer for such a center, and to gather and publish grave records.

You probably know “family history’ forms one of the most-searched topics on the internet. My own small, Levuka family history site, for example has had almost 10,000 access-hits since it started it about four months ago. The interest comes from all over the world. A fair volume appears to come from India, with people seeking family history related to indentured labour.

The volume tends to spike mid-week - in “sets’ of topics -; ‘measles’, ‘cotton’, ’slave trade’ - which suggests - perhaps , use by students at school, or universities, for set-topics.

I also find surges of access occur when another site references a story; for example - lots of hits on ‘Tonga canoe history’ since a Tonga Association in New Zealand reposted a Tonga history item with a link, to Levuka.wordpress.com.

On Levuka.wordpress.com I aim not present my own opinions, but to abstract from referenced sources.

On the islands, gene-sets multiplied in isolated islands and evolved into nations and cultures. The question of how and when the mixing occured - deliberate sea-journey, shipwrecks, warfare, slave trading - occupies this blog.

Anecdotally, the idea of genetic flow from China, via Indonesia, and PNG, seems to have attracted some support, before the gene-maps were created. For example John G Paton in his “The True Story of Thirty Years Among South Seas, Cannibals” undated, but around 1862, (a book I will abstract soon, for this site) - said, then it was common knowledge that those on Tanna came from a Melanesia culture and language, and people on the nearby island, of Aniwa were of a Malaysian culture and spoke Malay.

He also records a terrible story of how one boatload of sandwood cutters deliberately infected and killed one third of the population of Tanna, with measles. I will post that soon, as the site gets a lot of hits with queries about disease and epidemics in Pacific history.

I also observe records show many western-shipwrecks in the Pacific from 1600, so all sorts of genes may have added to the mix. The site also gets a heap of hits from people searching for information on ships, by name and date. So I see a lot of interest in sailing-ships and canoe history.

Another book I plan to abstract soon, has proposed the idea of a cultural and language connection between the Molluca island of Ambon and the New Zealand Maori. (Julius Tahija, Horizon, Beyond, 1995), He wrote the book after he retired as chair of Caltex Pacific. Julius Tahija was Melanesian-Indonesian, raised in Surabaya. In the second World War he spent time in Sulawesi, Ambon and Ternate. He married a pakeha-Australian; defected from the Dutch army to the Indonesian nationalist cause; and - talk of cultural mixing! - they named their first son Sjakon, the Sanskrit name of a 17th Century Ambonese freedom-fighter called Captain Jonker.

Thanks for the link. Talk to you again soon.

Levuka