1872 The Cutter Agnes: An extraordinary story of the lawless Queensland slave-trade and how a Queensland member of Parliament with a sugar plantations bought slaves from pacific pirates

A story of the Queensland slave-trade and how a Queensland member of Parliament with a sugar plantation bought slaves from pacific pirates’ how men and women were trapped and sold.

1875: Louis Armstrong a hotelkeeper in Levuka, at the Royal Hotel after bankruptcy in Melbourne

Louis ARMSTRONG was reported born Fiji before 1850, mother Tahitian or Fijian and unknown, ARMSTRONG father also unknown. Friday 5 May 1871 The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1956) reported Louis Armstrong, of Viti Levu, Fiji, publican, at present a prisoner for debt in Her Majesty’s Gaol, Melbourne. Causes of insolvency – Inability to [...]

1881: C. Hedemann offered Conrad Machens employment at Levuka, Fiji; German trade expands

This item is translated from a German item on Wikipaedia, sourced from a book and exhibition about Machens and Gerrman trade in the Pacific. Conrad Machens, born 3 May 1856 in Ahrbergen, was a German South Seas buyer. Machens was a seventh or eighth child of farmer Johann Conrad Machens (1806-1877) and second wife Therese Magdalene Machen (1818-1906), in [...]

1858: Pacific women worth 10 to 50 pigs

href=”http://balmainhistory.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/german-admiral-carl-von-coerper-with-samoan-chiefs-daughter.jpg”> But worth incalculably more if they were of a chief’s family; with slaves of their own, land, and rights. “White murders were generally caused by unpaid “theft” of Islander women, by White men reported British Naval Commander Acland in 1885 “had long discussions with  everybody in the group employing native labour… finding it “extremely [...]

1886 Levuka a peaceable and orderly community; recollections of David Whippy

“Contrary to Suva, which is entirely the growth of the last five years, Levuka possesses some claims to antiquity, and has a history of its own, the first settlement by whites here dating back nearly 50 years. The first settlers on Ovalau were, however, a very rough lot, being composed mostly of runaway sailors from [...]

1870: 2,150, 400lb bales of cotton exported from Levuka, value l0d. to 3 shillings lb

“Cotton is the principal (export) and nearly the only item. 2150 bales left Levuka – with the exception of a few – for Sydney, during the year. 400 pound bales: Reckoning the bales as weighing ‘each 400 lbs. and varying in price from l0d. to 3s. per lb., and the last 150 bales at 4s., [...]

1760: Bau chief Nailatikau seized Ulu-ni-vuaka, expelled the Butoni; rise of Bau rapid partly to the advantages gained from the first use of firearms

Sea warriors/fishermen of yavusa Nabou of Lasakau, who trace their roots to Delailasakau Naitasiri and the Nakauvadra foothills, were brought to Bau from Beqa by the Vunivalu Ratu Banuve. Levuka and Butoni people exit Bau: This was after the banishment of the Levuka and Butoni people from Bau around the 1760’s. About 1760, the Bau [...]

1808: Peter Dillon – 6ft 4in red-haired Irish Catholic, arrived in Fiji from India on a vessel trading for sandalwood

“Peter Dillon (1788-1847), adventurer, (and entreprenuer) was born (by his own account) of Irish parents in Martinique on 15 June 1788 and taken by his father, also Peter Dillon, to County Meath, Ireland, as a small child. A big man: As a youth he served in the navy. He arrived in Fiji from India in [...]

1869: Suez Canal aided European influence in Pacific: new era of European influence: journey from Asia to Europe reduced by 6,500 km

The Suez Canal was constructed between 1859 and 1869 by French and Egyptians interests with a cost of about 100 million dollars.  It removed the need to go around Africa to get the Asia and the Pacific, The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought forward a new era of European influence in Pacific [...]

1865: Birth of BLAKELOCK James Thursfield -1865

Birth, BLAKELOCK James Thursfield -1865 – parents Thomas and Elizabeth BLAKELOCK Fiji Births/baptisms registered at British Consul, prior to 1870. This reference comes from Christine Liava’a, member of the NZ Genealogical Society and founder of the Pacific Islands Interests group. She says: ” All of these, plus others from 1870 – 1873 are registered in [...]