The Solomon Islands and Their Natives Part 29

In July, 1788, Lieutenant Shortland, when returning to England from Port Jackson in convoy of a fleet of transports, made the Solomon Group near Cape Sydney on the south coast of St. Christoval. He skirted the south side of the group until he arrived at Bougainville Straits, and received the impression that he was coasting along an apparently continuous tract of land, to which he gave the name of New Georgia. Pa.s.sing through Bougainville Straits, which, in ignorance of the discoveries of the French navigator, he named after himself, Lieutenant Shortland continued on his voyage. The names of the numerous headlands[370] on the south side of the Solomon Group, bear witness in the present chart to the accurate observations of the English navigator: and from him Mount Lammas, the highest peak of Guadalcanar, received its name. Like Bougainville and Surville, Shortland was not acquainted with the nature of his discoveries.[371]

[370] Capes Philip, Henslow, Hunter, Satisfaction, etc.

[371] Shortland communicated with the natives of Simbo. An account of this voyage is given in the "Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay:" London, 1789.

It now remained for the geographers to avail themselves of the materials placed at their disposal by the voyages of the French and English navigators. M. Buache in a "Memoir on the Existence and Situation of Solomon's Islands,"[372] which was presented to the French Academy of Sciences in 1781, deals with the discoveries of Carteret, Bougainville, and Surville. The steps by which he arrived at the conclusion that the groups of islands discovered by these navigators were not only one and the same group, but that they were the long-lost Isles of Salomon of Mendana, afford an instructive instance of how a patient and laborious investigator, endowed with that gift of discrimination which M. Buache employed with such laudable impartiality, may ultimately attain the truth he seeks, invested though it be in clouds of mystery and contradiction. Groping along through a maze of conflicting statements, to which both navigators and geographers had in equal share contributed, M. Buache finally emerged into the light of day, when he a.s.serted in his memoir that between the extreme point of New Guinea as fixed by Bougainville and the position of Santa Cruz as determined by Carteret, there was a s.p.a.ce of 12 degrees of longitude, in which the Islands of Solomon ought to be found. In this s.p.a.ce, as he proceeded to show, lay the large group discovered by Bougainville and Surville which, he with confidence a.s.serted, would prove to be none other than the long-lost islands of the Solomon Group.

[372] This memoir is given by Fleurieu in the appendix of his work.

But such a view of the character of the recent French discoveries in these seas was received by English geographers with that spirit of partiality from which the cause of geographical science has so frequently suffered. Mr. Dalrymple in his "Historical Collection of Voyages," published in 1770, before he had become acquainted with the discoveries of Carteret, Bougainville, and Surville, stated his conviction that there was no room to doubt that what Mendana called Salomon Islands in 1567, Dampier afterwards named New Britain in 1700.

In the introduction to the narrative of his second voyage round the world, when he followed up Bougainville's exploration of the Australia del Espiritu Santo of Quiros,[373] Captain Cook supported this view. The arguments, however, of M. Buache had no weight with Mr. Dalrymple, who in 1790 re-stated his opinion that the Solomon Islands of the Spaniards and the New Britain of Dampier were one and the same, and he referred to the discoveries of Bougainville and Surville as showing no similitude in form to the Solomon Islands of the old maps.[374]

[373] This group, which had been previously named by Bougainville, L'Archipel des grandes Cyclades, was designated The New Hebrides by Cook, a name which it retains on the present charts.

[374] "Nautical Memoirs of Alexander Dalrymple."

But in the minds of French geographers there was little doubt as to the correctness of the views of M. Buache. Amongst the detailed geographical instructions given by Louis XVI. in 1785 to La Perouse, when he was setting out on his ill-fated expedition, was one which directed the attention of this ill.u.s.trious navigator to the examination of the numerous islands of the Solomon Group, and especially to those which lay between Guadalcanar and Malaita.[375] It was considered almost indubitable, as M. Fleurieu informs us, that the intended exploration by La Perouse of this archipelago would convert probability into certainty.

But when in the vicinity of the islands he was never destined to behold, La Perouse experienced that mysterious fate which has excited sympathy throughout the civilised world. On the reef-girt sh.o.r.es of Vanicoro his ships were wrecked, and the French commander and his men were never seen again by any Europeans. As Carlyle wrote, ... "The brave navigator goes, and returns not; the seekers search far seas for him in vain, ... . and only some mournful mysterious shadow of him hovers long in all heads and hearts."[376]

[375] "Voyage de la Perouse," redige par M. L. A. Milet-Mureau; London, 1799.

[376] Carlyle's "French Revolution," ch. V., p. 37.

The ominous silence that had fallen over the doings of the absent expedition, on account of the non-arrival of the long expected dispatches, must have been, in a double sense, a cause of disappointment to M. Fleurieu, who had hoped to demonstrate the correctness of the views of the French geographers by the results of the explorations of La Perouse. It was with the object of showing that the New Georgia of Shortland was one and the same with the Terre des Arsacides of Surville and the Choiseul of Bougainville, and that the French and English navigators had independently of each other discovered the lost Solomon Group, that M. Fleurieu published in Paris in 1790 his "Decouvertes des Francois en 1768 et 1769 dans le sud-est de la Nouvelle Guinee."[377]

"The desire of restoring to the French nation its own discoveries, which an emulous and jealous neighbour has endeavoured to appropriate to herself, induced us," thus the author wrote in his preface to his work, "to connect in one view, all those that we have made towards the south-east of New Guinea; and particularly to prove, that the great land, which Shortland imagined he discovered in 1788, and to which he gave the name of New Georgia, is not a new land, but the southern coast of the Archipelago of the Arsacides, the famous Islands of Solomon, one part of which was discovered after two centuries by M. de Bougainville in 1768, and another more considerable by M. de Surville in 1769." I need not refer to the detailed arguments of this learned geographical writer. Under his arguments, Surville's appellation of Terre des Arsacides and Shortland's of New Georgia,[378] finally gave place to the original t.i.tle given by the Spanish navigator. "It was the work of M. de Fleurieu," thus writes Krusenstern,[379] the Russian voyager and hydrographer, "that removed once and for all any doubt that might have been held about the ident.i.ty of the discoveries of Bougainville, Surville, and Shortland, with the Solomon Islands." Another ill.u.s.trious navigator, Dumont D'Urville,[380] thus alludes to the successful labours of his countrymen, ... "Le laborieux Buache et l'habile Fleurieu travaillerent tour a tour a etablir cette ident.i.te qui, depuis, est devenue un fait acquis a la science geographique; les iles relevees par Surville et par Bougainville sont reellement l'archipel Salomon de Mindana." Thus the lost archipelago was found, not so much by the fortuitous course of the navigator as by the patient investigations of the geographer in his study. The result is intrinsically of little importance to the world at large; but, as an example of the success of a laborious yet discriminate research, it may afford encouragement to all who endeavour to add something to the sum of knowledge.

[377] English translation published in London in 1791.

[378] The designation of New Georgia has been retained in the modern charts for that portion of the group which is known as Rubiana.

[379] "Recueil de Memoires Hydrographiques," St. Petersburgh, 1824.

Part I., p. 157.

[380] "Histoire Generale des Voyages," Paris, 1859; p. 228.

I will now refer briefly to the voyagers who subsequently visited this group, after its ident.i.ty had become established. In May 1790, Lieutenant Ball,[381] in the "Supply," when on his voyage to England from Port Jackson _via_ Batavia, made the eastern extremity of the Solomon Islands. He sailed along the north side of the group until opposite the middle of Malaita, when he headed more to the eastward and clear of the land. He correctly surmised that he was sailing along the New Georgia of Shortland, but on the opposite side of it: though he looked upon the islands of Santa Anna, Santa Catalina, and Ulaua as his own discoveries, and he named them respectively Sirius's Island, Ma.s.sey's Island, and Smith's Island. In December 1791, Captain Bowen of the ship "Albemarle," during his voyage from Port Jackson to Bombay, sailed along the coast of New Georgia, and reported that he had seen the floating wreck of one of the vessels of La Perouse; but this report was discredited by Captain Dillon in the narrative of his search after the missing expedition.[382] In 1792, Captain Manning,[383] of the Honourable East India Company's Service, during his voyage from Port Jackson to Batavia in the ship "Pitt," made the south coast of the Solomon Group off Cape Sidney, which was the headland first sighted by Lieutenant Shortland. Sailing westward, he imagined St. Christoval and Guadalcanar were continuous, and he thus delineates their coasts in his track-chart much as Shortland did. The Russell Islands he named Macaulay's Archipelago, a name which ought to be retained as a compliment to their discoverer. He then pa.s.sed between Rubiana and Isabel, naming the high land of the latter island Keate's Mountains.

Pa.s.sing through the strait between Choiseul and Isabel, which bears his name, Captain Manning proceeded northward on his voyage.

[381] _Vide_ "An Historical Journal," &c., by Capt. John Hunter.

London, 1793; pp. 417-419.

[382] "Voyage in search of La Perouse's Expedition." London, 1829.

[383] "Chart of the track and discoveries of the ship 'Pitt,' Capt.

Edward Manning, on the western coast of the Solomon Islands in 1792."

At this time, a French expedition, under Admiral Dentrecasteaux, was cruising in the same part of the Pacific with the object of ascertaining the fate of La Perouse. Amongst the instructions embodied in a "Memoire du Roi," which were given to the French admiral, was the following one referring to the Solomon Islands: . . "Qu'il s'occupe a detailler cet archipel, dont il est d'autant plus interessant d'acquerir une connoissance parfaite, qu'on peut avec raison le regarder comme une decouverte des Francois, puisqu'il etoit reste ignore et inconnu pendant les deux siecles qui s'etoient ecoules depuis que les Espagnols en avoient fait la premiere decouverte."[384] In July 1792, when on his way from New Caledonia to Carteret Harbour in New Ireland, in prosecution of his search for the missing expedition, Dentrecasteaux made the Eddystone Rock which had been thus named by Shortland, and pa.s.sing by Treasury Island, he skirted the west coast of Bougainville and Bouka. In May of the following year, when on the pa.s.sage from Santa Cruz to the Louisiade Archipelago, the expedition sailed along the south coast of the Solomon Islands as far as Rubiana. Pa.s.sing between St. Christoval and Guadalcanar, Dentrecasteaux sailed close to the island of Contrariete and communicated with the natives. Whilst one of his ships lay off the north-west part of St. Christoval, the natives of Gulf Island (Ugi) discharged a flight of arrows from their canoes and wounded one of the crew. It is satisfactory to learn that her commander contented himself with firing a musket and discharging a rocket at them without effect, and that no other retaliatory measures were taken to intercept them in their flight. Turning back on his course, the French admiral was almost tempted to explore the group of islands between Guadalcanar and Malaita, to which the work of Fleurieu had directed his attention, and had he done so, he would have cleared up the confusion with which the vague description of Figueroa has surrounded these islands; but his instructions and the object of his voyage led him along the south coast of Guadalcanar on his way to the Louisiade Archipelago.

[384] "Voyage de Dentrecasteaux," redige par M. de Rossel. Paris, 1808; tom. i., p. x.x.xiii.

To the voyagers who visited this group during the first half of the present century, I can only briefly allude. The Solomon Islands were seldom visited during the early portion of it, except, perhaps, by occasional trading-ships whose experiences have rarely been made known, a loss which may not be a subject for our regret. However, in March, 1834, there sailed from New York the clipper "Margaret Oakley," bound on a trading and exploring voyage in the South Pacific.[385] She was commanded by Captain Morrell, who was accompanied by a young American, named Jacobs, to whom we are indebted for a very singular narrative of the cruise, which, for private reasons, was not published till 1844.

Into the extremely questionable proceedings of Captain Morrell,[386] in his dealings with the natives during his sojournings in the Western Pacific, I need not here enter. It will be sufficient for me to remark that they had better have been buried in the oblivion which is most fitting for such deeds of heartless cruelty. Mr. Jacobs, in his attempt to describe the discoveries of the voyage with which we are more particularly concerned, exercises an amusing freedom in dealing with the explorations of the famous early navigators in this region. Instead of adding to our knowledge of these seas, by his presumption, he has thrown discredit on the whole of his narrative; and it is only by the insertion in his account of a rude sketch-map of New Guinea and the islands south-east of it that he has rescued his narrative from utter confusion.

There we see, that by Bidera he means New Britain; by Emeno, New Ireland; Bougainville is honoured by the retention of his name for the large island which he discovered; whilst the other large land-ma.s.ses of the Solomon Group would have had their ident.i.ties hopelessly lost in the narrative under the appellations of Baropee, Soterimba, and Cambendo, had it not been for the rude map attached. References to dates are systematically avoided by Mr. Jacobs; however, it would appear that probably, in 1835 or 1836, they extended their cruise to the islands of the Solomon Group. Coasting along the west side of Bougainville Island, they sailed through the straits of that name, and skirting the north coasts of Choiseul (Baropee) and Isabel (Soterimba), they turned Cape Prieto and steered S. by E. Sailing by a singular rock like a ship under sail (the Two Tree Islet of the chart), their course lay through beautiful verdant islands; and then pa.s.sing a volcanic island with steam issuing from the crater on its summit (the Sesarga of the Spaniards and the Savo of the present day), the lofty lands of Cambendo (Guadalcanar) appeared in view. Coasting westward, along the north side of Guadalcanar, they were visited by Tarlaro, the King(?) of Cambendo, who was accompanied by a great number of natives. On the following day, they visited a large village, where they were friendly received; and shortly afterwards they left the group, steering southward and pa.s.sing Rennell Island.

[385] "Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Pacific Ocean." By T. J. Jacobs. New York, 1844.

[386] When Dumont D'Urville was in London, shortly before he started on his last voyage, he was asked his opinion of Morrell with reference to his cruises in the high southern lat.i.tudes. His reply was that he was already acquainted with him as "un fabricateur du contes." ("Voyage au Pole Sud." 1837-1840. Introduction, p. lxvii.)

In November, 1838, Dumont D'Urville,[387] the French navigator, sighted the Solomon Group, in his pa.s.sage westward from Santa Cruz. Coasting along the north side of St. Christoval and the south side of Malaita, he recognised in Surville's Terre des Arsacides the Malaita of the Spaniards. He then set himself to work to clear up the difficulty with reference to the position of the islands named by the Spaniards, Galera, Florida, Buena Vista, Sesarga, &c., islands which had never been since explored, but he ultimately contented himself with viewing these islands from off the north coast of Buena Vista. After endeavouring imperfectly to identify them with the description of their first discoverers, he anch.o.r.ed in Thousand Ships Bay, which was originally discovered by Gallego and Ortega; and he named his anchorage Astrolabe Harbour, after one of his ships. From the circ.u.mstance that the natives, who came off to the ships, made use of such expressions as "veri gout," "captain,"

"manoa" (man of war), D'Urville concluded that they had recently been visited by other voyagers.[388] Leaving Thousand Ships Bay, he sailed along the south coast of Isabel, and pa.s.sing through Manning Strait, he skirted the north side of Choiseul and Bougainville Islands and then left the group.

[387] "Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Oceanie." 1837-40. Paris, 1841.

[388] According to his narrative, Jacobs, in the "Margaret Oakley,"

anch.o.r.ed in the vicinity of Thousand Ships Bay, two or three years (?) before the visit of D'Urville.

Dumont D'Urville was the last of the French navigators to whom the re-discovery and exploration of the Solomon Islands are in the main due.

A singular fatality seems to have attended the careers of nearly all the French commanders who visited these seas. With the exception of Bougainville, who lived to superintend, in 1804, the fitting out of the flotilla, at Boulogne, for the invasion of England, all died during the voyage or shortly after their return. Surville was drowned on his arrival at Peru. La Perouse met with his untimely fate at Vanikoro, and neither of the two commanders of the expedition that was sent in search of him survived the voyage; Dentrecasteaux died from scurvy off New Britain, and Huon Kermadec died before the ships left New Caledonia.

Lastly, D'Urville was killed in a railway accident at Paris, whilst engaged in the completion of the narrative of his expedition.

In July, 1840, Captain Sir Edward Belcher,[389] whilst on his voyage to New Ireland, in H.M.S. "Sulphur," made the south coast of Guadalcanar; but after looking in vain for an anchorage, he continued his course. In 1844, Capt. Andrew Cheyne, in the trading-schooner "Naiad," visited Simbo Island and the neighbouring islands. We are indebted to him for much information concerning this part of the group.[390] About 1847, Monsignor Epalle, a French Roman Catholic Bishop, was landed, with eighteen priests, on the island of Isabel, for the purpose of founding a mission. On first landing, the bishop strayed from the rest of the party and received his death-blow at the hands of the natives, who are supposed to have been tempted by his dress and ornaments. In April of 1847, three French missionaries, living at Makira, were murdered by the hill-tribes of St. Christoval; and in March of the following year, M.

Dutaillis,[391] in command of the French corvette "L'Ariane," anch.o.r.ed at Makira, and sent an expedition into the interior by which the villages of the murderers were destroyed and many of the natives killed and wounded.

[389] "Narrative of a Voyage round the World in H.M.S. 'Sulphur:'"

vol. II., p. 70.

[390] "A Description of Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean."

London, 1852.

[391] "Annales Hydrographiques;" tome I. 1848-49. "Last Cruise of the 'Wanderer,'" by John Webster, p. 73.

In September, 1851, the ill-fated yacht "Wanderer,"[392] with her owner, Mr. Benjamin Boyd, on board, visited the Solomon Group. Cruising along the south coast of St. Christoval, the yacht put into Makira, where she lay at anchor nearly three weeks. Friendly intercourse was established with the inhabitants and frequent shooting excursions were made into the interior. Mr. Boyd thought so highly of the advantages of Makira and its harbour, that he intended to return there with the intention of entering into a treaty with the princ.i.p.al natives of the locality for the purpose of acquiring it for future commercial purposes. However, the careers, both of the yacht and of its owner, were drawing to a close. From Makira, they proceeded to Guadalcanar. Leaving his vessel anch.o.r.ed in Wanderer Bay, as it has since been named, Mr. Boyd landed with his gun, accompanied by a native of Panapa. Neither of them were ever seen again; and they appear to have met with their deaths at the hands of the natives soon after landing. A great number of the natives attacked the yacht, but they were repulsed by the crew of the "Wanderer" with grape-shot and musketry. An ineffectual search was made for Mr. Boyd and his companion: and before the yacht left the locality, round and grape-shot were poured into the villages, canoes and houses were burned, and probably a large number of natives were killed and injured. The "Wanderer" now left the group; and in the following month she was totally lost on the bar of Port Macquarie on the Australian coast.

[392] "Last Cruise of the 'Wanderer.'" By John Webster.

In 1854, there were rumours in Sydney, that Mr. Boyd was still alive and that his initials had been seen carved on trees in Guadalcanar. A skull, which had been bought from a chief by the captain of a trading-ship as that of Mr. Boyd, proved, on examination, to belong to a Papuan.

However, in December of this year, Captain Denham, in H.M.S. "Herald,"

visited the scene of the tragedy; and after making inquiry into the matter, he came to the opinion that the unfortunate owner of the "Wanderer" had been killed directly after he landed, and that the various stories current respecting his being alive were inventions of the natives.

I now bring to a close this short sketch of the history of the Solomon Group since its ident.i.ty was established by the French geographers towards the end of the last century. During the last thirty years there has been greatly increased intercourse with the natives of these islands; the Melanesian Mission has firmly established itself; numerous traders have resided in the more friendly districts; and the visits of men-of-war and trading-ships have been very frequent. But this increased intercourse with the outer world of savage peoples, who can with difficulty distinguish between a stranger and a foe, has been accompanied, as we might naturally have expected, by many tragic episodes, some of which we can deplore, most of which we can only reflect upon with mingled feelings of shame and regret. The reprisals on the part of men-of-war have not been always satisfactory in their results; and the effect of the labour-traffic has been to undermine the confidence which the missionary and well-intentioned trader have been long endeavouring to create. The quiet heroism of the members of the Melanesian Mission, under circ.u.mstances often the most dispiriting and insecure, it would ill become me to praise. It will be sufficient, however, to remark that it has been the only redeeming feature in the intercourse of the white man with these islanders during the last twenty-five years.

GEOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

NOTE I.