1842: US Naval survey at Levuka: Charles Wilkes survey of Fiji Islands between May and August

Charles Wilkes was an extraordinary individual; an astronomer-captain, with evidence of exceptional organising ability. By the age of 30, he was in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments (forerunner both of the Naval Oceanographic Office and of the Naval Observatory) America. During that cruise, Wilkes briefly commanded Franklin’s tender Waterwitch before being detached from Franklin on 3 March 1823 to command the American merchant ship Ocain on her way back to Boston, where he arrived on 15 October. From there, he reported to Washington for duty in conjunction with the court-martial of Capt. Stewart, his former commanding officer in Franklin.
Lieutenant age 25: On 28 April 1827, Wilkes was promoted to lieutenant. Apparently at home awaiting orders between 1826 and 1830, Lt. Wilkes requested surveying duty in March of 1827 but withdrew his application in July 1828 in favor of one for duty with a proposed exploring expedition. Late that fall, he received orders to New York where he set about the task of procuring the necessary instruments for that expedition.
In April 1830, Lt. Wilkes resumed sea duty. Assigned to Boston, he made a cruise in her to the Mediterranean. On 15 November, he transferred to Fairfield in which ship he served until May 1831 at which time he was detached and ordered home to await orders. Late in the spring of 1832, Wilkes returned to active duty as a member of the team which surveyed Narragansett Bay.
Head of Depot of Charts and Instruments, age 31: In February 1833, he received orders to duty in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments (forerunner both of the Naval Oceano-graphic Office and of the Naval Observatory). In August of 1836, Wilkes briefly took leave of that post when he sailed to Europe to acquire additional equipment for the exploring expedition. He returned to the Depot of Charts and Instruments after that trip.

Age 35 joins astronomy department of the exploring expedition: March 1837, Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson requested Wilkes to take a position in the astronomy department of the exploring expedition.

Age 36, command of South Seas Exploring Expedition : That fall, he participated in an oceanographic survey of the Carolina coast. The following spring, Wilkes learned that he had been chosen to command the South Seas Exploring Expedition. President Van Buren approved his appointment on 20 April, and Wilkes assumed command of Vincennes at Norfolk on 7 July. He received his final orders on 11 August and set sail in Vincennes in company with Peacock, Porpoise, Sea Gull, Flying Fish, and Relief—on the 18th. After stops at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Tierra del Fuego located at the southern tip of South America, Wilkes took his expedition on its first cruise through Antarctic waters in February and March of 1839. He returned to Tierra del Fuego and then later headed through the south seas to Sydney, Australia, where he arrived on 29 November. On the day after Christmas, he embarked upon his second voyage to the Antarctic.
In January 1840, he sighted the actual land mass which constitutes Antarctica, though it took later explorations to vindicate his assertions that the continent existed.
Age 38, in spring 1840 in the South Pacific: By late spring 1840, the expedition moved north again and began the exploration of the islands of the South Pacific. After surveying the Fiji Islands between May and August, the expedition departed those islands, bound for Hawaii on 11 August. The Hawaiian survey, conducted between 24 September 1840 and 5 April 1841, centered upon a study of the volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Wilkes completed his work in Hawaii in April 1841 and set sail on the 5th for the west coast. After surveys of parts of the coast of the Pacific Northwest during the summer of 1841, he brought his expedition into San Francisco on 14 August. Its arrival back in the United States, however, signaled no end to the work of the expedition. On 1 November, it put to sea once again, this time for a voyage to the western Pacific. During that cruise, Wilkes visited Manila in the Philippines, the British colony at Singapore, and Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa. Wilkes and his command concluded the expedition upon arrival at New York on 10 June 1842.
Publishes reports: During that period, he supervised the publication of the results of that exploration in a series of Narratives under the auspices of the Navy. He also received two promotions during that time to commander in 1843 and to captain in 1855.
Outbreak of the Civil War: The only break in this duty came in the second half of 1858 when the Secretary of the Navy sent Wilkes on a special mission to evaluate the potential for naval use of the natural resources primarily iron, coal, and timber of North Carolina’s Deep River region. The outbreak of the Civil War, however, brought an interruption to his scientific work.
Commissioned to destroy the Norfolk Navy Yard: On 19 April, he was detached from his duty with the expedition publication program in order to help destroy the Norfolk Navy Yard before Union forces abandoned it to the Confederacy. In May, Capt. Wilkes received orders to take command of the steam-powered frigate San Jacinto. He arrived on board his new command on 27 August, at Monrovia, Liberia, just before she set sail to return to the United States.
Wilkes caught in war with Great Britain: During the voyage home, he took her to the West Indies in search of the Southern commerce raider, CSS Sumter, under the command of Capt. Raphael Semmes later commanding officer of the famous Confederate cruiser CSS Alabama. During that mission, his ship stopped at Cienfuegos, Cuba, for coal, and Wilkes learned that the South’s commissioners to England and France, James Mason and John Slidell, had escaped from Charleston on board the fast coastal packet Theodora and were then in Havana awaiting transportation to Europe. San Jacinto quickly headed for Havana, hoping to catch Theodora when she embarked upon her return trip but arrived a day late. He learned, however, that Mason and Slidell were still in Cuba and planned to board the British mail packet Trent at St. Thomas for the voyage to Europe. Thereupon, he concocted a plan to intercept Trent in Old Bahama Channel, some 230 miles east of Havana, and capture the two Confederate diplomats. On 8 November, the British ship steamed into sight, and Wilkes coerced her into stopping with two shots across her bow. A boarding party seized Mason and Slidell and their secretaries and then allowed the neutral ship to continue her voyage.
San Jacinto then headed home with her prisoners.
Dubious legality of Wilkes’ action: Upon his arrival in Boston, Wilkes was loudly acclaimed for his action, but soon the clouds of war with Great Britain over the incident began to darken the horizon. Ultimately, the dubious legality of Wilkes’ action and the threat of war with Britain and France brought a complete disavowal of Wilkes’ act by the Federal Government and the release of the prisoners.
On 30 November, Capt. Wilkes was detached from San Jacinto and ordered to duty with the Board of Naval Examiners.
Commodore age 60: That assignment lasted until the following summer. He commanded the James River Flotilla briefly in July and August of 1862 and received his promotion to commodore at that time. On 29 August, Wilkes left that post and took over the Potomac River Flotilla. That assignment proved to be of short duration. On 8 September, he received orders to command the West India Squadron. Promoted to acting rear admiral, Wilkes directed the West India Squandron—primarily concerned with hunting down Southern commerce raiders and blockade runners—until the summer of 1863. On 1 June, he was detached from the squadron and, on the 30th, set sail from Havana for the United States in Roanoke.
Wilkes’ court-martial early in 1864: Conflicts with the Navy Department, probably stemming from his treatment during the Trent affair negotiations, culminated in Wilkes’ court-martial early in 1864 over the publication of a letter he wrote to Gideon Welles castigating the Secretary for statements made against Wilkes in his annual report.

Acting Rear Admiral, age 62: On 26 April 1864, Acting Rear Admiral Wilkes was found guilty by court-martial of disobediance of orders, insubordination, and other specifications and was sentenced to receive a public reprimand and suspension from the service for three years. President Lincoln reduced the term of suspension to one year, at the conclusion of which Wilkes retired from the Navy.
Age 64 rear admiral on the retired list : On 6 August 1866, he was promoted to rear admiral on the retired list and, for the remainder of his life, worked for the completion of publication of the results of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. He also took time out to do some writing, including an autobiography.
Death age 75: On 8 February 1877, Rear Admiral Wilkes died at Washington, D.C. Initially interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, his body was moved to Arlington National Cemetery in August 1909.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/441.htm

1868: three-way fight for control of Fiji by Britain, America, and Australia; Thakombau crowned king, Melbourne-based Polynesian Company offers to pay Cakobau’s debt; but on 10th October, 1874, a deed of cession to Britain, was executed at Levuka

Trollope, Anthony reported in 1875 the Sir Hercules Robinson view of Fijian affairs which lead up to the signing of the deed. It appeared a three-way fight for control of Fiji by Britain, America, and Australia. A group of 10,000 Melbourne investors formed the Polynesian Company, and offered to pay Cakobau’s debt in exchange for a large piece of Fiji, and a banking monopoly and tax-free status. Trollope said “For twelve years, various struggles were made to carry on a native government on European plans and with European officers.

In 1865, Cakobau elected president, constitution drafted: With American advice, “Thakombau, who had hitherto been only the first of the native chieftains, was elected president, and a constitution was formed similar to that which had been adopted under American auspices in the Sandwich Islands. (Hawaii) At this time, Thakombau’s chief minister was an American.

1868: But reliance on the United States did not last long, and in 1868 Thakombau was crowned king. There was, however, still that debt of £9000, and a clearly expressed determination on the part of the United States that the money must be forthcoming. As we know, our brethren in America are very urgent in the collection of such debts”.

The Polynesian Company offers to pay Cakobau’s debt: Then a company was formed in Melbourne, called the Polynesian Company, to whom a charter was given conferring vast rights, on condition that the £9000 should be paid. The company was to have;

– a monopoly of banking;

– freedom from taxation; and

– 200,000 acres of land.

But English paid the money, the Polynesia Co faded: “The Americans got their money, and the Polynesian Company entered in upon a small fraction of their land”.

In 1871, Thakombau, who had already been declared king, was proclaimed a constitutional sovereign, and a parliament, consisting of twenty-five members, was elected—a parliament consisting of white men. The first thing, of course—I believe I may say the on thing—the parliament did was to get into debt. Establishments and expenditure were sanctioned amounting to double the revenue which could be collected.

Civil wars break out: “The bickerings of the Europeans were incessant. Civil wars broke out among the natives, which had to be put down by a British man-of-war.

Fiji risks descent into mere nest of robbers: “Fresh offers of cession were made; and, in the meantime, King Thakombau was at his wit’s ends, and the British fortune-hunters were in terrible lack of security for their ventures.

Fortunes to be made if capital secured: “Money was borrowed at almost whatever rate of interest might be demanded. The one thing wanted was government. Cotton could be grown, and sugar, and fortunes might be made, if only some real government were possible—some security that property would be protected by law.

“Poor King Thakombau” “A Fijian parliament with poor King Thakombau at its head and self-appointed English ministers could do nothing but get into debt. Some strong staff on which the little place might lean with safety was necessary to its existence. If England would not take it, Fiji must become a mere nest of robbers, and a curse to that side of the world—especially a curse to our Australasian colonies, which are comparatively near to it.

Acceptance of the islands became a duty, and almost a necessity: “The nest of robbers and the curse might have been endured by England, were it not that it would have been a British nest. The men who were practically declaring that they were willing enough to carry on their operations honestly, under the laws, if laws were provided for them, but that, lacking laws, they must live lawlessly, were Englishmen. No minister at home would send out a man-of-war and take every Briton out of Fiji. Thus the acceptance of the islands became a duty, and almost a necessity. After repeated offers we appointed two commissioners to inquire as to the terms of cession. The terms first offered were, of course, such as could not be accepted”.

Pensions were demanded. Money was demanded. “Stipulations as to land were demanded. It was natural enough that King Thakombau should be instigated by his white ministers to ask for much, and that Englishmen living so far away from home should think that much might be got. A great power, taking on itself the burden of ruling these islands at the other side of the world, could submit to no bargaining.

Sir Hercules Robinson and the deed: “In July, 1874, our governor at New South Wales, Sir Hercules Robinson, was desired to go over to the islands and take possession of them, if the chiefs and men in authority there would unite in giving them up trustfully to British dominion. He arrived at Levuka on the 23rd of September, and on the 10th October, 1874, a deed of cession was executed at Levuka by all the chiefs, and by Sir Hercules, under which, without any terms, the islands were ceded to British rule”.
Trollope, Anthony. The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury. Berkeley: University of California Press, The articles, which bear Trollope’s signature, can be found on page five every Saturday from July 3, 1875, through November 13, 1875. [1978,c1941] 1978. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1d5nb0hv/

1875: writer, Anthony Trollope – “Levuka has been the white man’s capital in Fiji”; merchants and the missionaries compelled colonial control

 English writer, postal commissior, Anthony Trollop gives an English view of Fiji in 1875, after visiting Consul Hector Robinson, who quotes Cakobau as he explained his tactic in ceding to Britain..

October 1874: Trollope reported the British flag was hoisted, “with the usual formalities,” by Sir Hercules Robinson, in Fiji. Anthony Trollope, in The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury In 1875 reported on his  round the world trip  reported on events in Fiji, from Sydney, but did not visit. He had been to Fiji in 1871.  Trollope appears to have visited Sir Hercules Robinson, the governor of NSW, in Sydney.

Sir Hercules Robinson had taken control of Fiji in 1874: Trollope wrote “In October, 1874—just one year ago when this letter will reach England—Great Britain was strengthened or burdened, as the case may be, by the possession of a new colony. On the 10th of that month, the British flag was hoisted, “with the usual formalities,” by Sir Hercules Robinson, in Fiji.  Sir Hercules was and is the governor of New South Wales, and had been commissioned by the Home Government to complete the arrangement, if such completion might be possible; and this he did successfully”.

 “Levuka has been the white man’s capital in Fiji”; “In 1835 a few white traders, Englishmen and Americans, probably mixed, first came to Fiji in quest of fortune, and established themselves in a place called Levuka, in one of the smaller islands. From that time to this, Levuka has been the white man’s capital in Fiji; and two years later, missionaries settled themselves among the islands.

Joint desire to make money and to proselytise:  “Such have been the commencements of almost all modern colonisation. There has been the joint desire to make money and to proselytise—with the English as with the Spaniards. Now and again the love of freedom, and the desire to find new homes in which a man might say his prayers as he pleased, have driven wanderers forth and have created new countries; but the merchants and the missionaries have been the great discoverers of the world. It was they who by their joint action forced us to colonise New Zealand, and it is they who have now together compelled the Colonial Office to send a great governor to Fiji”.

Trollope’s view of Cakobau: “The name of Thakombau—here spelt as it is pronounced—will probably be familiar to most of your readers. He was born in 1804, and is still living, and in 1852 succeeded his father as chief of the largest of the Fijian tribes. But he was not then King of Fiji. A few years before the latter date there had appeared among the islands a stranger chief, a Tongan, named Maafu, who succeeded in establishing himself in the eastern or Windward Islands, as a rival to Thakombau.

Trollope dismisses Cak0bau as an ignorant savage: “But it is with Thakombau that we English have chiefly dealt, and whose co-operation with Englishmen has caused Fiji to be this day an English colony. Two years after his father’s death he became a Christian—as far as Christianity was possible to him—and renounced cannibalism. He and his wife were baptised, and he seems, at any rate, to have been convinced that there could be neither peace nor prosperity for his people unless they could be made secure, if not by British rule, at any rate by British protection.

 Cakobau sends warclub to Queen Victoria: “The other day, when the cession of the country was completed, he sent over, as a present to our Queen, his war-club, which had ever been to him the symbol of his authority.

Cakobau’s ‘melancholy conviction’: “There is much in the character of the man which recommends itself to us, though he was a cannibal and a heathen, and though now, in his old age, his Christianity is not very intelligible to himself. He seems ever to have trusted the honesty and power of the British nation, and to have mingled with that trust a melancholy conviction that his own people could of themselves do nothing; and yet the Englishmen he had seen had not always been good specimens of their nationality.

What Cakobau said to Robinson: “Of one thing I am certain,” he said to Sir Hercules Robinson, when they were negotiating the cession: “if we do not cede Fiji, the white stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their mouths and swallow us.” And again he said, “Fijians are of unstable character. A white man who wishes to get anything from a Fijian, if he does not succeed to-day, will try again to-morrow, till the Fijian is wearied out and gives in.” He had learned that the weaker must give way to the stronger, and had perceived that it was better to abandon himself and his country at once to the justice of English rule than to be squeezed out of existence by the rapacity of individuals”.

Maafu v Cakobau: In the early days of chieftainship, various troubles came upon him. Maafu, his rival from Tonga, was strong against him, stirring up rebellion in the islands and separating the people. And then there were misfortunes with the Americans.

1849: In 1849 the house of the American consul was burned down, and compensation was claimed for that.

1853: In 1853, Levuka was burned, and, among other things, the houses and property of certain Americans were destroyed, for which further compensation was demanded.

 1855: In 1855, an American officer came to assess this property, and demanded a payment of £9000 ($45,000). This seems to have been the beginning of Thakombau’s pecuniary troubles. There was no means within his power of paying any such sum! If only England would take the islands and pay the money, things might at any rate be quiet!

1858:  In 1858, the first offer of cession was made. Fiji should belong to England, if England would pay those hard American creditors.

1859: A deed of cession was sent to England in 1859, the British consul resident at Fiji taking it to London. The British residents in the islands were of course quite as anxious for the arrangement as Thakombau could be.

1862: But at that time the British adult residents were only 166 in number, and in 1862 the offer was refused by us. The injury that 166 persons at the other side of the globe could do was not sufficient to induce us to accept the new burden” .

Trollope, Anthony. The Tireless Traveler: Twenty Letters to the Liverpool Mercury. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  [1978,c1941] 1978. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1d5nb0hv/

October 1874: Chiefs sign Deed of Cession of Fiji to Great Britain

One original of the Deed of Cession was retained in Fiji, and until the late thirties of the present century was in the archives of the Colonial Government. Full text below.

1892: Alexander Pritchard, trader in Samoa, defrauds wine merchants Fallon of Albury, NSW, Australia.

Alexander Pritchard – son of George Prichard and the brother of William Prichard – was a European trader living in Samoa. Alexander Pritchard defrauded the wine wholesaler Edward Patrick Fallon of Albury, NSW, Australia, reported Professor Dirk HR Spennemann of Charles Sturt University, Albury NSW

Sandalwood English evolves as island trading language

“Sandalwood English” evolved during the sandal wood and beche-de-mer trades in Vanuatu. The Pacific labor trade came under a lot of public criticism because of several reported incidents of murder and abduction or “blackbirding”

1870s: Anglican Minister of Levuka refuses to join Klu Klux Knan

William E. Floyd, “the Apostle of the Anglican Communion to the Western Pacific” and was “pioneer priest to the scattered English people of Polynesia from town of Levuka, on the shores of a pretty little bay, stands his great memorial, the Church of the Holy Redeemer, one of the most beautiful consecrated buildings in the South Seas in its setting of green lawns, hibiscus, frangipani and waving palms, with the everlasting green of the steep volcanic hills as a background and a low rock wall in front, reminiscent of the stone fences of old Ireland, his birthplace”.

Goldminer turned Minister: William Floyd was born in County Wexford, was educated at Beaufield Collegiate School, Enniscorthy, and went to Australia, where his people settled at Emerald Hill. He was ordained by Bishop Perry, of Melbourne, and, after a successful ministry in the goldfields, left for the romantic kingdom of Cakabau, overlord of Fiji, in 1868. He first settled as a cotton-grower at Dreketi River until on November 15, 1870, he landed in the old capital, Levuka.

Threatened with the charge of high treason: His second difficulty arose with regard to his relationship to the de facto Government of the day. His refusal to be present officially on the dais with King Cakabau at his proclamation brought him into conflict with the peculiarly unsatisfactory authority. On the other hand, the establishment of a “Ku Klux Klan” by the white settlers, intended to protect their rights (but really to oppose any form of government that curtailed their unbridled licence)–an organisation of which some thrilling tales are told–failed to secure his support.

Refused to omit the name of Queen Victoria: He was threatened with the charge of high treason by the then Prime Minister because he refused to omit the name of Queen Victoria and place that of King Cakabau in the State Prayers. “Few know what I had to suffer in these days,” he says.

“So literally without scrip or purse, without the support of any leader’s advice, he had to establish the Church in a country whose native population was already Christianised and whose white settlers were struggling to maintain the footing they had with great difficulty won. . . . In later days he loved to tell how Sunday by Sunday he prayed for Victoria in the land of Cakabau. Every pressure that could be put on him was in vain, and when once the English flag flew in Fiji the Church of England parson of Levuka alone had to make no change in his customs.”* [* From the panegyric at the Memorial Service.]
Levuka Days of a Parson in Polynesia, By C. W. Whonsbon-Aston, London: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1937.