SUWARROW ISLAND. BRITAIN'S LATEST ANNEXATION. AN INTERESTING HISTORY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 369, 18 May 1889, Page 6

SUWARROW ISLAND. BRITAIN'S LATEST ANNEXATION. AN INTERESTING HISTORY.

A few days ago ne published a cable message from Sydney stating that; news had arrived from Samoa by the steamer \ Lubeck that H.M.s. Rapid, a few weeks, ago while en route from Auckland; and Suva (Fiji) to Apia to relieve! fi.M.a. Calliope, had before making direct for the Navigators Group called at the coral ntoll known us Smvari'ow Island and" hoisted the British flag upon it, thus annexing it foimally to the British Crown. Tho probable reason for the annexation was fchab the English Government had been informed, through tho Admiralty, of the value of the locality a& a coaling station and safe anchorage for 11. M. ships in Pacific waters, and also of its proximity to the proposed new cable route from New Zealand and Kandavu (Fiji) to Vancouver Island, on the western coast of British Colombia. It is said that for some time past tho French Government had been cons.dering the advisability of quietly annexing or purchasing the little group from its present owners, to be utilised as a naval, coaling, and Pacific trading station, and the knowledge of this may possibly have hastened the action of (ireat Britain in proclaiming her supremacy over Suwarrow. For some sixteen years past the place has been known to the outside world solely through the fact of the well-known Auckland firm of Messrs Henderson and Macfarlane having the head station of their Island trading establishments upon the principal islet of Suwarrow, which they had found uninhabited, and occupied it ; and now that the island may very , likely become a locality of some importance, a sketch of its past history, or what little is known of it, will no doubt prove interesting to New Zealanders. Like many other soli- j tary coral - belted islets in the Pacific, Suwarrow has been the scene of | uiany an exciting episode in the old " beachcombing '* days, and the temporary home of more than one shipwrecked trading vessel's crew, forced to live a sort of romantic but uncomfortable Robinson Crusoe life until taken off by some welcome island craft.

DESCRIPITIOX OF THE ISLAND. Suwarrow, or SouworofF, as it is more correctly spelt— is a coral atoll of the form usually met with throughout the Pacific, a surrounding reef enclosing a lagoon, with a number of small islands elevated only a few feet above the level of the sea. It is situated in latitude 13.13 south and longitude 163.31 west, about 500 miles due east of the Samoan Group, lying in the direction of the Marquesas. The whole encircling reef is about fifty miles in circumference, the lagoon being some ten miles in length by seven wide. The reef has an average width of half-a-mile from the outer coral breakwater to the still water of the lagoon, and is completely coveied at high water, leaving only the few islands lying along its course aod in the lagoon above the surface of the ocean. The islands are about six in number, and are of very smail size, comprising only about six hundred acres in all. The lai-gest one, Suwarrow, generally known to traders visiting the place as Home Island, is situated close to the one entrance in the reef at the north - eastern corner of the atoll. It is about 240 acres in extent, of cblong form, with considerable tropical vegetation, but situated not more than fifteen feet above the sea at its nighestpart. The principal other island is Motuto, on the southwest or lee side of the reef, and is about the came size as Home Island. The other islets aro very small, and of very slight elevation above the sea level. They were mostly bare of vegetation when first discovered, but have since been industriously planted with cocoanuts. The harbour at Suwarrow con&ists,of the lagoon encircled by the reef and islands, and is a particularly safe and commodious one. The only entrance through the reef is a good one, situated on the N.E. or weather side, and is divided by two rooks, 200 yards apart, into three channels, having a depth of five fathoms of water at the lowest tide with a level bottom and no concealed dangers. The navigator can sail right into a secure anchorage, and also beat out safely with a fair wind half-way round the compass. A safe anchorage with very suitable bottom is found in fourteen fathoms of water close under the lee side of Home Island, with in the vicinity anchorage of varying depth from three to thirty fathoms, offering accommodation for all the ships in the Pacific to ride in safety in all weathers. The fact of Suwarrow possessing such an excellent harbour no doubt influenced the British Government strongly in their decision to annex the atoll. A quantity of tall timber was standing o_n Motuto and Home Island on their first discovery, and the soil of both was fairly rich and well adapted for cultivation. The products of Suwarrow were and are small, being confined to beche-de mer or sea-slug, for which Chinese epicures evince such a marked taste, and pearl - shell. Some thousands of cocoanut trees were planted on the islands by the owning firm, and some of them are said to be bearing. Beche-de-mer, of very good quality, is still obtained in large quantities in the vicinity of the reef, but the pearl-shell, which was formerly so abundant, is now very scarce and can only be obtained at great, depths. There are still, however, a number of pearl shell diver 3 at Suwarrow pursuing their vocation. Formerly the shoal waters of the lagoon abounded in the shell, of the largest size and finest lustre, but the deposit appears to have been worked out. and now Penryhn Island, some hundreds of miles to the northward, is the j principal pearl-diving locality. One important fact in favour of the adoption of Suwarrow as a depot ot any sort is that it lies far out of the ordinary track of hurricanes, and has noc been visited by a storm of any j magnitude within the memory of those established on it. The climate is a genial and enjoyable one. When the place was first discovered io wai uninhabited, and remained unpeopled, save by wandering beche-de-mer gatherers and pearl - phell fishers, or temporarily by castaways, until Messrs Henderson and Macfarlane first established themselves upon it through their agent Sterndale, well known thi'oughoutJ the Pacific in those days.' However,' the islands appear to. » i h.ave been inhabited | thickly by a native Polynesian pouulation i some two or three centuries ago, for in many localities on ' Home Island and Motuto human bones have been found' in numbers on the soil being dug up,, and foundations of old native houses have also been found beneath the surface. , The disappearance of the race from the atoll was probably owing to their wholesale emigration in canoes, likeso many other South Sea populations, in search of some, fresh arid more favoured island home " at the gateways of the day." At the present day not much change is j discernible in the appearance of the main,! island'^ excepting that on Home Island a nutabdrof stores and other buildings! in- j

eluding a dwelling-house, etc., have been erected 1 in connection with the trading station, and that a considerable portion of the rank vegetation of the land has given place' to cocoanut trees, ono of the staple, -sources of island wealth. ' One disadvantage of tne place is that there is no fresh water to be found on the islands except a small quantity of brackish fluid to be obtained by digging. Consequently those making their homo there have to depend on their tanks for a supply of the indispensable fluid. However, as showers are frequent and copious, no" inconvenience is to be apprehended on this score by the inhabitants. Fish of an excellent quality nnd easily caught teem in the waters of the lagobn.

DISCOVERY OF SUWARROW. Regarding the disco\ery and history of Suwarrow, the first we hear of the little group dates back no further than 1814. The " honour " of discovering it must be accorded to a Russian navigator, a naval lieutenant named LazarefV, who was in command of the ship Souworofl, a vessel belonging to the Russian American Company. In a Pacific cruise the Souworoff sighted the atoll on September 27, 1814, and her commander found the approach indicated by large flocks of birds. He landed and ascertained the only inhabitants to be birds, crabs and rats, with Ino sign of human beings. He named the inland Souworoff after his ship, and from this the usual name Suwarrow — being the manner in which the Russian cognomen is pronounced — is corrupted. From this visit of Lieutenant La/areff until within the last twenty years nothing definite is known of the history of Suwai row, or of its ephemeral population. However, during the palmy day* of Pacific "beachcombing " it is pretty certain that at times numbers of migratory traders and collectors of the much-prized beche-de mer and valuable pearl shell rendezvoused on its sheltered shores and moored their little crafts in the placid waters of the lagoon ; and tales are still told amongst the older "identities " of the Pacific floating population, of murders and many dark deeds committed there. Indeed, if the coral strands of Suwarrow could but speak, they would no doubt unfold many a startling tale of the scenes enacted on their glittering surface, and of the Bacchic orange-rum inspired revels of the wandering " pakehaMaori" roysterers of the Sunny South I Seas. Strange episodes, as enthralling a^ those which are told of old buccaneering days on the cays of the Bahamas or the "Spanish Wain," are still related of many a lonely outpost iolet of the Pacific, and Suwarrow has some queer tales interwoven with its past. However, these have ceased, for the most part, in the wide southern ocean, and those ostracised of society who in days not so very long ago made all "look blue" in localities innocent of the missionary or other plagues of civilisation have either, in despair at the encroaching Western tide, quitted this vale of tears, or betaken themselves to fresh fields and pastures new in quest of congenial adventure for their versatile natures. An interesting incident connected with Suwarrow, which happened not long before the settlement upon it by Messrs Henderson and Macfarlane, brings the atoll again into the light of authentic history. In 1873 a Captain Chave and a Kanaka were discovered castaway on the island, having lived there a Robinson Crusoe life for twenty months. They were rescued by a trading schooner and taken to Honolulu.

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY About the end of the year 1874, a gentleman turned up in Auckland who had, he said, an intimate acquaintance with the Suwarrow grouplet, and offered himself as agent to the well-known local firm of Messrs Henderson and Macfarlane, inducing them to extend their Island trade by taking possession of Suwarrow and establishing upon it their head-quarters. He was Mr Handley Bathurst Sterndale, well-known formerly in this port and in most of the South Sea groups, where he had been knocking about in various capacities for years. Messrs Henderson and Macfarlane tell in with his proposals and they despatched early in 1875 a vessel, the wellk'nown brigantine EyiiO, Captain Millar, to Suwarrow with trade, stores, and material of all kinds for establishing trading - stations. Among the rest of the Ryno's miscellaneous freight were several formidable pieces of ordnance, three iron-cast ship's cannon, which were afterwards mounted in a sort of fort, as if, for action. On arriving at Suwarrow, Mr Sterndale found one inhabitant on the island, a Chinaman who had come from Samoa in a cutter called the Satellite to procure pearl &hell, and who had " squatted " temporarily on the sand-bank opposite Home Island. Mr Sterndale immediately gave him notice to quit, informing him he was an unlawful trespasser on the territory of Her Britannic Majesty, etc. etc., and gave him a certain time to " vamoose the ranch." The unfortunate Celestial, doubtless overawed by the formidable appearance of Mr Sterndale's " war-cruiser," lost no time in "scooting,"' stood not upon the order of his going, but went — back to Samoa. The agent thereupon "annexed" the "No Man's Land, 5 ' and established a tiading station, soon setting trading operations in full swing. One of his principal acts of establishment was the erection of an intensely warlike fort of concrete, earth and barricading overlooking the anchoiage, in which he mounted the three ships' guns from the Ryno — presumably to defendhisislandhome from the attacks of the "pirates of the Pacific." Perhaps Bully Hayes exploits ( were fresh in his mind at the time. At any rate great offensive and defensive prepara- j tidns were made, a powder magazine J erected, gun carriages manufactured, etc. Nothing further was heard of the affairs on the island till the Ryno returned at the end of 1876 to Auckland, bringing up Sterndale, against whom a charge of attempted murder at Suwarrow was laid by Captain Thomas Fernandez, now of Auckland, who was then in charge of Henderson and Macfarlane's schooner Kreimhilda, but the local R-.M. came to the conclusion that he had no jurisdiction to issue writs for! the punishment of offences committed at 'Suwarrow Island, which was under no constituted general Government, and accordingly nothing further was done in the ma^tei*. Mr Sterndale died in San Francisco several years ago. Slince this rather exciting episode matters hav,e gone on rather quietly at Suwarrow, tracing operations being carried on by Henderson and Macfarlane with Home Islajnd as their head-station for Christmas , Island, Penryhn, and other islands. They still carry on the business, and have sunk a great amount of money in the trade, particularly on Suwarrow, Here they have erected a lighthouse, constiucted a large brick reservoir, capable of holding some s,'OCt) gallons of rain-water, built an extensive coral wharf at the ship-anchorage, andj in other ways spent considerable capital on the island and in extending their trade. At present there are only an agent (Capt. Burr) and a few Kanakas stationed at Homo Island, in charge of the station. The historicguns lie dismantled under the cocoanuts, but the erstwhile " fort " still stands to remind chance visitors of the time when Su war row was a proud and independent "kihgdom.'V *' '

In itself Suwarrow, as. far as exteno and productiveness is concerned, is of little importance, but its excellent harbour and its geographical position should make its acquisition one of value to the British Crown. With the only good port between Tahiti and Samoa, far superior in fact to that of Apia, its proximity to the proposed new Austra-lasian-Vancouver cable route, being the only British, possession between theFijis and the Canadian Coast on the line of the cable, and from its probable value as a coaling station for H.M. ships, it may likely dovelop in the near future into a position of considerable strategic and commercial importance.—" Auckland Star," May 15.