The Australian Frontier in New Guinea 1870–1885 9780231892032

Citation preview

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW Edited by the FACULTY O F P O L I T I C A L SCIENCE O F COLUMBIA U N I V E R S I T Y

NUMBEB 562

THE AUSTRALIAN FRONTIER IN NEW GUINEA, 1870-1885 BT

DONALD CRAIGIE GORDON

The Australian Frontier in New Guinea 1870-1885

BY D O N A L D C R A I G I E G O R D O N , PH.D. Department of History, University of Maryland

NEW

YOBK

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY I95I

PRESS

COPYRIGHT, 1051 BT Columbia Univbbsitt

Pbhb

PRINTED I N T B E UNITED STATES OF AMEBICA

Published in Great Britain, Canada, and India by Geoftbiy

Cumbeblk»

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS London, Toronto, and Bombay

To NORMA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THE author's appreciation is due to several people who have assisted him in the preparation of this work. First of all, he is deeply indebted to Professor Robert L. Schuyler, of the Department of History of Columbia University, for his valuable time, counsel, and editorial supervision of the manuscript. Without his encouragement this book would not have been brought to completion in its present form. Professor John J. Brebner, also of the Department of History, Columbia University, made a number of most helpful suggestions as to the arrangement of the material. The librarians of the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress, and particularly those in the Government Publications Division of the latter, were most helpful in assembling much of the material necessary for this study. The author's gratitude goes also to Dr. Henry C. Slatoff of New York City for his invaluable encouragement; and lastly to his wife, whose patient care and assistance at all stages in the development of the work has been absolutely indispensable.

7

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

7

INTRODUCTION

13

CHAPTER I Discovery and First Settlement Efforts

19

C H A P T E R II Settlement Activity Near New Guinea; Further Exploration

43

C H A P T E R III The Missionaries Open the New Guinea Frontier

56

CHAPTER IV The Growth of Australian Awareness of the Pacific

74

CHAPTER V Growing Australian Interests in New Guinea

97

CHAPTER VI British Attitude Toward Imperialism

128

CHAPTER VII British Reaction and the Imperial Government's Decision

151

CHAPTER VIII The Sydney Conference

174 C H A P T E R IX

Lord Derby's Renewed Proposal

198

CHAPTER X The Australians Accept; Germany in the Pacific

222

CHAPTER XI The Protectorate Established

245

EPILOGUE

271

AND C O N C L U S I O N

BIBLIOGRAPHY

285

INDEX

293

9

" . . . the whole history of our Colonies showed that they had been originally acquired by the voluntary and spontaneous action of Captains, Government officers, travellers, and commercial adventurers, necessarily without the knowledge of the British Government, by whom they were afterwards accepted and taken over " LORD

CARNARVON

British Colonial Secretary, 1874-1878

11

INTRODUCTION GREAT empires have come into being because men in positions of influence have seen gains to be won by policies of imperial expansion. The nature of such gains has been diverse. For some men, the economic rewards of markets and raw materials have been important; for others, imperial expansion has been primarily a solution of the problems of finding further areas for profitable investment, or a method of resolving tensions of economic conflict existing in the home state. F o r yet others, the advantages of imperial growth were those which related to humanitarian satisfactions; or to prestige, that cheap defense of nations; or perhaps more frequently, to security against possible dangers of future war. The present work is devoted to the description of the causes of the annexation to the British Empire of that eastern portion of the great island of New Guinea called Papua. This annexation took place in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, but while the annexed area became a possession of the British Crown, it was not primarily from Britain that the impetus for its annexation came. Rather was it the British colonies in Australia who initiated the agitation for the annexation and who pleaded the cause of that annexation with the members of the Imperial Cabinet in London. The principal reason for this agitation on the part of the Australian colonies was their fear that unless British power was planted firmly in Papua, that area would be annexed by some other great European state, who would then be placed in a position from which it could seriously threaten the security of the Australian continent. As the Australians saw it when they demanded the annexation of Papua by Britain, they were fighting for the future security of the Australian people. From the Australian point of view, these demands and urgings did not meet with success, for the area which they had wanted was eventually divided between Britain and Germany. 13

14

INTRODUCTION

The southern coastline, the region most important for Australian security, had indeed been taken by Britain, but the Australians were keenly disappointed that the desired area was to be shared with another state, and there was considerable criticism in Australia of what was widely considered the dilatory policy of the British Cabinet, and of the purported indifference to important issues of Australian security which prevailed in London. The Australian demand for annexation of Papua came to a head in the decade of the 1880's. This was the period during which many historians have seen a sweeping revival of European imperialism after the general indifference to it which was characteristic of the middle decades of the century. Anti-imperialist feeling was widespread and powerful in Great Britain for several decades, but in the seventies there came the turning of the tide. In his famous speech at the Crystal Palace in 1872, Disraeli attacked the Liberal Party for its indifference to the British Empire, and in the next few years gave implementation to his conversion to imperialism—for he too had shared the general anti-imperialist outlook of the mid-century—by his negotiations for the purchase by the British Government of shares of the ownership of the Suez Canal, and by his demands at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 for the island of Cyprus in order to aid in the protection of the Canal. The revival of imperialism was not a British phenomenon alone. In France, Jules Ferry was leading in the resurgence of French imperialism, and in the 1880's Bismarck was to launch Germany on a program of imperial expansion. When the Australian leaders sought the annexation of Papua, they were at least in step with the times. But the Australian demand for Papua came to a head at a time when, in spite of this general trend, the government of Great Britain was entrusted to the Liberal Party headed by William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone and most of the senior members of the Cabinet were staunch believers in the anti-imperialist doctrines that were passing out of fashion.

INTRODUCTION

15

Gladstone, indeed, had made anti-imperialism one of the great issues of the election campaign of 1880 which had returned the Liberals to power, and he and the other leaders of the party in power were as steadfastly anti-imperialist as any group in England. It is one of the ironies of the history of the British Empire that it w a s this anti-imperialist party leadership which controlled the British Government when Britain intervened in Egypt, which had to struggle with embroilments and difficulties in South Africa, and which eventually found itself in conflict with Bismarck's Germany over colonial matters both in A f r i c a and the South Pacific. T h e fact that the anti-imperialist Cabinet of Gladstone was not able to halt or even to secure effective control over the expansion of empire suggests not only the strength of the revival of imperialism, but also the nature of some of the forces working for that revival. One of the facts most apparent in the agitation over the question of the annexation of Papua was that the British Empire was not a monolithic unit, but was even at this date a heterogeneous collection of various political units in differing stages of development, attached to the British Crown not only by legal ties but also by forces of sentiment which the Imperial Government could not lightly disregard. A w a y in the outposts of empire there were leaders in the life of various colonies who were representatives of two interests: their own colonial interests, and the interests of the empire. T h e reconciliation of these two interests was frequently a difficult task. However much, for instance, the Gladstone Cabinet might be opposed to further British annexations in the Pacific or anywhere else in the world, that Cabinet could not afford either for its standing with the British electorate or for the sake of the perpetuity of the imperial ties, to be completely indifferent to the views of the governments of the Australasian colonies about the future of British power in the Pacific. A s long as there was in Britain any substantial desire for the maintenance of empire, then the British government of the day had to give some consideration to colonial aspirations.

l6

INTRODUCTION

To a considerable degree, then, the men in the colonies and out on the frontiers of the empire had a voice in the calling of the tune of imperial policy, holding their loyalty to the empire as a hostage in an effort to make the Imperial Government conform to their wishes. The Australians in the Pacific, growing more conscious of their oceanic position and more aware of their future as a nation, but lacking power of their own to act on behalf of what they considered to be their destiny, sought to force the hand of Britain to do for them what they could not do for themselves. Their minimum objective was to secure British annexation of Papua; their maximum, to get British annexation of all unannexed islands in the South Pacific. All of this was in the interest of Australian security in the Pacific. The Australians did not secure more than a portion of their minimum demand, however, for if Britain was not free to ignore colonial demands, neither was she free to do all that the Australians desired, for she was limited by the practicalities of the Imperial budget and by the rivalry of other European states for colonial possession. This was particularly true of the Gladstone Cabinet upon which the Australians forced the issue of Papua. Torn between the demands of the Australians, and the fear of arousing German hostility which might be especially embarrassing in view of Britain's vulnerable position in Egypt, the Gladstone Ministry neither satisfied the Australians, nor did it prevent the impression from developing in Berlin that Britain was hypocritical when members of the British government said they did not look with disfavor upon Germany's colonial aspirations. By a succession of events that seem to have left at least some members of the British Cabinet somewhat bewildered, Britain found herself in a colonial rivalry with Germany, and adding remote and distant parts of the globe to the empire. To some degree, this rivalry developed over the question of the annexation of Papua. The demands of the Australians and the sudden emergence of Germany as an imperial power both made their substantial contributions to the scrap-

INTRODUCTION

17

ping of the anti-imperialist ideas of the Liberal Party and to the launching of the race for colonial possessions. The pages that follow are devoted to the story of the development of the Australian interest in Papua, which they felt to be their northern frontier, and to the efforts of the Australians to obtain Papua for the British Crown in order that it might add to the security of the Australian colonies. The events recounted are at once part of the story of the growth of the Australian colonies to a national unity, and part of the history of the British Empire as a whole. At the same time, they constitute an incident which may shed some light upon the forces contributing to the revival of imperialism in the late nineteenth century. This study was undertaken during the war years when there was no opportunity to use sources other than those available in the United States. The lack of Australian press opinion will be particularly apparent in the course of the story, but it is hoped that sufficient material has been garnered to warrant its telling.

CHAPTER I DISCOVERY AND FIRST SETTLEMENT EFFORTS W H E N Europeans first came to know anything about the existence of the island of New Guinea, those states outstanding in the pioneering of European trade and associated settlements in the areas of the Indian Ocean and Indonesia were concerned primarily with the creation of great commercial empires. Access to and control of the rich Eastern sources of supply of the rare and exotic products so much in demand in Europe were the basic considerations in the early development of European empires in the East. During most of the period of the rise and fall of these empires in competition with each other, the riches of the region were easily exploitable and available in sufficient amounts to make unattractive the opening of more remote and inaccessible parts of the area. The island of New Guinea was just such a remote part, and therefore any efforts at its commercial exploitation were postponed for generations after its discovery. A quick glance at the map of the area to the southeast of the Asiatic continent reveals that New Guinea occupies a unique position in those island-studded waters. It is like a vast bird hovering over the continent of Australia and therefore part of the Australian continental area, and it is also at the end of the sweep of the islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Indeed, it might well be part of that rich chain of islands, and yet it shared with them none of their wealth, luxury or advanced culture. It was natural, therefore, that as the tide of conquest and exploitation by European states flowed through the islands, it came to a halt before the generally inhospitable shores of New Guinea. Thus it was that New Guinea remained in isolation for generations following its first discovery in the sixteenth century.

But early voyages about New Guinea's coast following its discovery were to locate on the map an island area greater than 19

20

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

that of Cuba, the Philippines, and Japan with the exception of Sakhalin, combined. A n d then toward the close of the eighteenth century, out of the trade rivalry of the British and the Dutch in the Indies, the first British efforts were made toward the development of the productive possibilities of the island. It is with these early maritime explorations which delineated New Guinea's place on the map, and with the somewhat later attempts at the commercial development of New Guinea, that we shall deal in this chapter, for the story of these activities indicates the existence of some reasonable continuity of interest in the island despite its remoteness. It is important to note, however, that the unknown land of N e w Guinea did not really begin to emerge from obscurity until new motives led men of later generations to become interested in it. These new and varied motives did not replace, but rather supplemented, the older motives of commercial exploitation, but it was not until they were brought into play that New Guinea became for the first time a center of lively political interest, and was eventually completely absorbed into the empires of European states. But this w a s to happen after long years in which N e w Guinea remained in isolation fitly expressed by a modern American poet: It fell from Asia: severed from the East: It was the last Unknown. Only the fringe Was nervous to the touch of voyagers. 1 If the figure of the bird be still followed, then the bird of N e w Guinea sticks his beak out toward the island group called the Moluccas, sometimes known at the time when the first tide of European penetration was coming to the area as the Spice Islands. T o many in Europe, the Spice Islands were fabulous islands of desire, for a monopoly of their trade would bring wealth aplenty to the coffers of those lucky enough to hold such monopoly. T h e Portuguese were the first to establish their 1 Karl Shapiro, " New Guinea", V-Letter,

New York, 1944, p. 10.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

21

political power in the area, and the first to touch on the New Guinea coast. When the squadron of Vasco da Gama dropped anchor off the port of Calicut in May, 1498, the Portuguese had taken the greatest stride yet made toward those rich islands, and what they had splendidly started they quickly continued. Under the leadership of the great Albuquerque and others, the Portuguese moved to the east. They reached Ceylon in 1507, and took control of the Straits of Malacca in 1 5 1 1 . This narrow waterway between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra was the strategic center of Portuguese power in the Indies and gave them control of the passageway to the further east. And the Spice Islands were in that further east. After the occupation of Malacca Strait, Albuquerque despatched a squadron of three vessels under the command of Antonio d'Abreu and Francisco Serrao, to explore the Moluccas. It was perhaps on this voyage that Europeans first caught sight of New Guinea, 2 but if they did, they did not consider it enough of an achievement to make it definitely known. Serrao was shipwrecked on the voyage, but did reach the Moluccan island of Ternate. He was so impressed with what he saw there that the letters which he wrote to his friend Magellan were of assistance in helping the latter to persuade the Spaniards to send out the vessels on the voyage that made the first circumnavigation of the globe. 3 The voyage of D'Abreu and Serrao also paved the way for Portuguese entrance into the island group, for they set up a trading post on Ternate in 1 5 1 2 . Since there is some uncertainty as to whether D'Abreu and Serrao ever saw New Guinea, the credit for that more clearly belongs to another Portuguese navigator, Don Jorge de Meneses. In 1526 that gentleman was on a trip from Malacca to take charge of the station at Ternate. He forsook the usual route to the south of Borneo and sailed to the north of that 2 Coutts Trotter, " New Guinea " , Proceedings of the Royal Society (N. S . ) London, 1884, V I , 196. 3 R. B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire, I I I , 420-

Geographical

New York, 1925,

22

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

4

island. Faulty navigation or bad weather carried him off his course, and he came to anchor somewhere off the northern coast of New Guinea.8 The land he saw was occupied by natives whom the Malays reputedly called Papuans, a name coming from the Malayan term for woolly hair.8 But the Portuguese control of Indonesian trade was speedily challenged. Despite Papal and other efforts to keep the peace between the Iberian states, the uncertain geography and the more uncertain measurement of longitude made any effort at the demarcation of the limits of the two powers in the islands futile, and Spain was determined to assert her claim to a share of the rich trade of the Moluccas. Spanish claims to the trade of the east were based upon the uncertain drawing of the line of demarcation in the east and upon the voyage of Magellan, whose famous circumnavigation of the globe opened the east to Spanish power. Magellan's second in command, Del Cano, brought the Victoria, the only surviving ship of Magellan's fleet, back to Spain carrying gold and ginger from Mindinao and spice from Tidore in the Moluccas. On the basis of this voyage, Charles V insisted upon Spanish claims in the Moluccas. A conference in 1524 between Spain and Portugal failed to settle the issue and left the two nations at swords' points over the control of the islands. The Spaniards made determined efforts to make their claim good by seizing actual control. In 1525 an expedition of six ships under the command of Juan Garcia Jofre de Loaysa sailed to the Indies for this purpose. Garcia de Loaysa and Del Cano, who was also with the expedition, died en route and the voyage generally failed, but 120 survivors did manage to fortify themselves on the island of Tidore. 4 Clement Markham, " Progress of Discovery on the Coasts of N e w Guinea", Supplementary PaPers, Royal Geographical Society, London, 1886, I, 268. 5 Trotter, op. cit., p. 196. 6 Markham, op. cit., p. 268.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

23

These survivors were rescued from their island fortress by the voyage of A l v a r o de Saavedra. Saavedra was despatched from the western coast of Mexico by Cortez, under orders from Charles V . Saavedra's ships reached Tidore and carried off the men, but efforts to return to Mexico by recrossing the Pacific failed, and the Portuguese permitted them to return to Spain by sailing to the west. 7 Before this, however, in the course of their attempted recrossing of the Pacific, they coasted along the northern shore of New Guinea and gave it the name of " Isla de O r o ". 8 In 1529, in the Treaty of Zaragosa, Charles V renounced his " rights " to the Spice Islands for 350,000 ducats. 9 From the date of this treaty until the conquest of Portugal by Philip II, Spanish interests in the East were to be confined largely to the Philippines. There were t w o more voyages to the west from Mexico, however, which deserve notice. Under orders from Cortez, Hernando de Grijalva y Alvarado sailed for Peru from Mexico with reinforcements to assist Pizarro in the suppression of the Inca revolt in 1536. After landing his troops, he sailed westward from the port of Payta. He reached the eastern waters of the Pacific, but with his crew in a state of mutiny because of his refusal to cross the line and sail into Portuguese waters to reach the Moluccas. Grijalva was killed by the crew, and the ship was wrecked on the north coast of New Guinea, where the survivors were held by the natives. Eventually they were ransomed by Antonio del Galvano, the Portuguese commander in the Moluccas, and returned to Spain. Another voyage from Mexico was that of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. He sailed from the west coast of Mexico in 1542, and in February of the following year took possession of the island of Mindinao for Charles V . Villalobos sent one of his ships, the San Juan, back to Mexico under the command of 7 William L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon, New York, 1939, pp. 17-19. 8 Antonio Galvano, The Discoveries London, 1862, pp. 176-177. 9 Schurz, op. cit., p. 20.

of the World, Hakluyt Society ed.,

24

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Ynigo Ortiz de Retes in May, 1545. Ortiz de Retes sailed for a distance along the coast of New Guinea, and called the land he saw New Guinea because the appearance of the natives reminded him of the natives whom he had formerly seen on the Guinea coast. 10 By the middle of the sixteenth century, then, there had been a number of contacts with the northern coast of New Guinea, beginning with the possible contact of D'Abreu in 1511, and including the visits of Meneses, of Saavedra, and of the survivors of the mutinous crew of Grijalva, and of Ortiz de Retes. In addition to these, it is quite possible that there were others, knowledge of whose visits was kept secret for fear that it might come to the ears of foreigners and incite them to competition in the region. The greatest achievement of the Spaniards in New Guinea waters was the discovery of Torres Strait, the sea passage between New Guinea and Australia. In 1567 the voyage of Alvaro de Mendana of Spain had led to the discovery of the Solomon Islands, which Mendana described as being near New Guinea. Sailing with Mendana on this voyage was the man who was destined to be the last of the great navigators flying the golden banner of Spain, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Some thirty-five years after Mendana's discovery of the Solomons, Quiros sailed from Callao in Peru on a grand search for the great southern continent. After wearying weeks of sailing the Pacific, Quiros lighted upon the islands of the New Hebrides group, and landed on the island of Espiritu Santu, which he held to be part of the great land he was seeking. Fired by the glories of his achievement and ardent in the championship of Catholic Christianity, Quiros' inflamed imagination saw in the island and in the roughened seamen of his ships the site and material for a new and splendid outpost of Christendom in the Pacific. With all the pomp and circumstance at his command, Quiros claimed the land for the Faith and Spain. A site was lOMarkham, op. cit., p. 269.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

25

measured out for a city, and from among the rakish members of the crews an imposing array of courtly and knightly officers were appointed for the governing of this Pacific New Jerusalem. But these conquests of cloudcuckooland imaginings were blown asunder by a swift storm that separated his ships. His vessel was carried from its moorings and was not seen again by the crews of the other ships, and command of the expedition devolved upon Don Diego de Prado y Tovar, and upon his navigator, Torres. Torres sailed his vessels to the eastern tip of New Guinea, surveyed the waters of what is now Milne Bay, and then, having failed to beat his way along the northern coast of New Guinea, sailed to the South, and during the period from July to September of 1606, carried for the first time a European vessel through that waterway separating New Guinea from Australia which is now appropriately known as Torres Strait. The news of Torres' discovery was not published to the world for many years. His reports were buried in the archives of Manila, to be disinterred only when the British captured that city in 1762, and published some years later by the famous English geographer Alexander Dalrymple. 11 Torres and his associates were not the only Europeans to sail in the waters lying between Australia and New Guinea in 1606. Indeed, the Spaniards missed by a comparatively few days an encounter with the Dutch vessel Duyjken, under the command of Willem Jansz, which was nosing its way along the southern coast of New Guinea, but did not penetrate to Torres Strait. Willem Jansz and the Duyjken were engaged in carrying forward Dutch power in the Indonesian area. The remarkable growth of national consciousness, commercial activity and naval power that marked the Dutch struggle for independence had widened their horizons, and, after the Spanish absorption 1 1 H . N. Stevens, New Light on the Discovery of Australia, Hakluyt Society, London, 1930, brought to light the heretofore unpublished account of this voyage by Prado. Despite the fact that Prado was nominally in command, the credit for the navigational feat belongs to Torres.

26

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

of Portugal in 1580, had made the penetration of the Iberian nations' trading area in the East a national duty as well as a highly profitable enterprise. T h e route around the Cape of Good Hope was well known to Dutch seamen, for many of them had served on the Portuguese ships that sailed to the East. A n d Dutchmen like H u y g e n van Linschoten, who had lived for years in Goa, and Cornelius de Houtman, who had resided at Lisbon, were important sources of information about Portuguese wealth in the East. W i t h the information which they imparted to their countrymen, added to the widely-held impression of quick riches to be had in the East, the Dutch were not long in getting their first eastern fleet under way. The fleet sailed in 1595, and the lack of success of this initial venture did not dull Dutch ardour or appetite. By 1598 some twentytwo Dutch vessels had sailed for the East, with varying fortunes, but with sufficient return out of the total effort to make the prize of Eastern trade still worth pursuing. In defiance of Papal grants and Iberian power, the line of Dutch trading posts in the Indonesian Archipelago was strung further along to the east, and closer to the Spice Islands. Naval victories over the Spaniards and the Portuguese aided the development of their power in the Indies greatly. Spanish and Portuguese power in the Indies was on the decline and received a mortal blow with the Dutch capture of Malacca in 1640. Indeed, the rising power of the English was more to be feared by the Dutch than the weakening hold of the Spaniards and Portuguese. T h e Dutch were in search of trade. In their case, there was none of the religious activity and zeal for Christian conversion that formed such a large and colorful part of Spanish and Portuguese conquest and settlement. It was in pursuit of trade that Willem Jansz in the Duyjken travelled in 1606 between N e w Guinea and Australia, and won the distinction of being the first European discoverer of Australia. But the portion of the Australian coast that Jansz saw was desolate and seemed to offer no commercial advantages. Jansz further encountered trouble in the waters lying between N e w Guinea and Australia,

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

27

which were dotted with islands and shoals, and so decided to reverse his course. Thus it was that he left to Torres the distinction of being the discoverer of the narrow waterway which separates New Guinea from Australia. 12 Other Dutch voyages in the waters adjacent to New Guinea were those of Captains Schouten and LeMaire in 1617, and of the vessels Pera and Arnhem in 1623. Schouten and LeMaire sailed from Holland in 1615 on a voyage to the South Pacific. They avoided the passage through the Straits of Magellan, and instead passed between Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island out into the Pacific in search of the reputed great southern continent which some geographers of the day believed to exist in the South Pacific. Eventually they sailed along the northern coast of New Guinea, and the name of the Schouten Islands at the entrance to Great Geelvink Bay in northwestern New Guinea is commemorative of their passage. 13 The other voyage of the Dutch, made in the Pera and Arnhem under the command of Jan Carstensz and Willem Joosten van Colster, touched on the southwest coast of New Guinea in 1623. These captains regarded the waters lying between Australia and New Guinea as a great gulf, indicating that somewhere at the head of this supposed gulf, Australia and New Guinea were connected. By 1624, the Dutch were familiar enough with the waters to the southwest of New Guinea to make a trading treaty with the chiefs of A r u and Ki, two islands in that area. And by 1636, their activities had extended, though evidently in a desultory fashion, to the mainland in a region called by the Dutch Onin. In that year one of their captains, one Gerrit Pool, was killed there by the natives. 12 Stevens (ibid.) casts doubt upon the reality of Dutch seaman's right to be regarded as a pioneer in waters and the first European to sight Australia is as good. Cambridge History oj the British Empire,

J a n s z ' voyage, but the the navigation of these still generally regarded V I I , 37-38.

13 Markham, op. cit., p. 270. 14 J. E. Heeres, The Part Borne Australia, London, 1899, p. 6.

by the Dutch

in the Discovery

of

28

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Dutch were familiar with much of the western coastal areas of Australia and New Guinea. The route from the Cape of Good Hope to the Indies brought them to the coast of western Australia and then carried them along that coast to the north. In this northern area, Melville Island and some of the contiguous coast-line had been observed, and further to the east in the waters between New Guinea and Australia, some of the northern coast of Australia and some of the southern coast of New Guinea had been surveyed. However, knowledge of the northern coast of New Guinea was less exact, and although on that coast Geelvink Bay and the Schouten Islands had been discovered, and New Ireland and New Britain had been surveyed, the latter two large islands were erroneously considered to be part of New Guinea. Further, the Dutch had not rediscovered what Torres had found, that Australia and New Guinea were separate and distinct rather than a single land. The greatest of the Dutch navigators in the Pacific, Al>el Tasman, did not do much to dissipate the ignorance concerning the New Guinea coastline. In his great voyage of 1642 he sailed around Australia without once coming in sight of the continent, discovered Tasmania and New Zealand, and sailed up to the Tonga and F i j i Islands. On his return voyage to the Indies he sailed northwest from the F i j i Islands and along the shore of New Britain, but overlooked the strait between New Britain and New Guinea which Dampier afterwards found. He then moved along the north shore of New Guinea, but to the north of the Schouten Islands, so that he overlooked Geelvink Bay. On his second voyage, in 1644, he sailed down the southern shore of New Guinea, but like his predecessors in that area he turned into the Gulf of Carpenteria before sailing through the Torres Strait. 18 In 1663 and 1678, there were further explorations of the southwest coastline by a Captain Vinck in the first case and 15 J. E. Heeres, Abel Janssoon

Tasman, The Hague, 1898, pp. 112-117.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

29

Captain K e y t s in the second, and in 1705, somewhat piqued by the voyage of Dampier, another Dutch captain, Weyland, made a survey of the northwest coast of the island as far as the entrance to Geelvink Bay. 1 4 But on the whole, Dutch interest in New Guinea was intermittent and halfhearted. T h e pioneer British seaman in New Guinea waters was the buccaneer William Dampier. Man-of-war's-man, buccaneer, pirate and explorer, Dampier carried on the hearty tradition of the Elizabethan seamen. Blessed with a keen eye for observation, a facility for diary keeping and a marked capacity for survival, he attracted the attention of the Admiralty in London. H i s offer to make a voyage in search of spices and other tropical products in the New Holland (Australia) and New Guinea waters was accepted, and he was given command of H M S Roebuck. T h e voyage of the Roebuck along the western coast of Australia in 1699-1700, and from there to the waters lying between Timor and New Britain, led to his naming of the latter island and to his discovery of the passage between New Britain and New Guinea which now bears his name. The voyage brought no profitable return, and did little to encourage British interest in either New Guinea or Australia. There was a good deal of the scientist in Dampier, however, and he kept a good account of the flora and fauna he encountered on his voyage. 1 7 The revelation of the possible riches of the Australian continent did not come until the great voyages of Captain Cook in the Pacific. In the years between Dampier and Cook, probably the most important name in the exploration of the New Guinea area was that of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. During the great French seaman's circumnavigation of the globe in 1767, he discovered the Samoan Islands, paid a visit to the New Hebrides, and made a difficult passage through the group of islands running out from the eastern tip of New Guinea. These islands he called the Louisiades. He also sailed through the 16 Trotter, op. cit., pp. 198-200. 17 G. A. Wood, The Discovery of Australia, London, 1922, p. 329.

30

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

strait separating New Britain and N e w Ireland, unaware that this passage had been discovered a short while before by the English Captain Carteret. T h e existence of the fertile eastern coast of Australia remained unknown until the voyage of Cook. After his famous landing at Botany Bay in 1770 on his first voyage, Cook headed his ship, the Endeavour, to the north. He sailed up the east coast of Australia along the passage inside the Great Barrier Reef. Passing the northern tip of the continent, he sailed to the west, and made the first passage of Torres Strait since Torres just about the time that Dalrymple's researches were bringing Torres' achievement of 1606 to light after having been locked in the obscurity of the Manila achives. W i t h the rediscovery of this route, Torres Strait w a s to be frequently used by seamen. In 1792, Captain Bligh of Bounty mutiny fame passed through the Strait on a voyage in which he was carrying bread-fruit from Tahiti to the W e s t Indies. Bligh landed on one of the islands in the Strait and claimed all the land he had seen on his passage through the Strait for the British Crown. A t about the same time, Captains Bampton and A l t in the service of the English East India Company visited several islands in the Strait. T h e y were in search of a possible waterway which, they thought, might flow from the great southern Gulf of Papua right through N e w Guinea. In the course of this futile voyage they claimed the annexation of Darnley Island and some other islands in Torres Strait, and some of the neighboring New Guinea coastline as well. But neither these sporadic voyages along the southern coast of N e w Guinea nor the beginnings of British settlement in Australia in 1788 brought about the first British effort at the assessment and exploitation of the possible riches of

New

Guinea. Those efforts originated rather in the long rivalry between British and Dutch in the Indonesian area. T h o u g h the Dutch had replaced Portuguese power in the Indies with their own, the English East India Company had also spread its trad-

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

31

18

ing posts along the line of the Archipelago. The ruthless competitive spirit of the age, and the better established position of the Dutch left the English in a most insecure position, however, and the English efforts were more and more concentrated on India. But the English did not accept the Dutch monopoly in Indonesia with good grace. They retained a rather unsatisfactory trading post at Bencoolen on the southern coast of Java, where their presence and willingness to purchase spices from the natives provided some modification of the general rigor of the Dutch spice monopoly.18 The efforts of the Dutch to monopolize the spice trade, and the spasmodic efforts of the English to build up a non-Dutch source of supply drove both states further and further along the sweep of the Archipelago, with one group intent on finding spice supplies and the other intent upon destroying any potential supplies. This movement of competition to the east brought the two states into rivalry in the Bandas on Borneo,20 and then turned the eyes of some even further east to the unknown land of New Guinea. A persistent advocate of the extension of British influence in the eastern part of the Archipelago was Alexander Dalrymple, famous hydrographer of the eighteenth century. One of his ambitions was the establishment of a British station in the neighborhood of Borneo. He hoped that such a port would be a place of resort and trade for the junks which plied in and out among the islands, that it would extend British access to the spice trade, and that it would promote British trade with China 18 There were three English trading stations on Sumatra, stations at Bantam and Jacatra on Java, at Banjermassin in Borneo, and at Macassar and Banda in the Spice Islands by 1615. H. B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China, Cambridge, Mass., 1926, I, 7. 19 Bernard H. M. Vlekke, Nusantara: A History Archipelago, Cambridge, Mass., 1944, p. 192. 20 Sir William Foster, England's Chap. X X V I .

Quest of Eastern

of the East

Indian

Trade, London, 1933,

32

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

and other parts of Asia. 2 1 In pursuance of this ambition, Dalrymple obtained cession of the island of Balambangan off the northern coast of Borneo, but the station established there came to an abrupt end in 1 7 7 4 under an attack from the natives. A t about the time of the failure of the Borneo attempt, the efforts of the E a s t India Company were turned to N e w Guinea, and the springboard of the effort w a s Balambangan. In A u g u s t of 1774, there came to the E a s t India Company's station at Balambangan an embassy from the heir-apparent to the Sultanate of Mindinao. Included in the membership of the embassy w a s one Ishmael T u a n H a d j e e , a Moslem familiar with the trade of the Indies w h o had been employed by the Dutch, and w h o claimed to have made a v o y a g e to the western portion of the N e w Guinea coast. H e asserted that he had positive knowledge of the g r o w t h of nutmegs in N e w Guinea. Since the East India Company w a s interested in

finding

any reliable non-

Dutch source of the genuine nutmeg, the attention of the officials at the station w a s aroused. A M r . Herbert, chief of the station, entrusted to T h o m a s Forrest, a seaman then at Balambangan, the task of ascertaining the truth or falsity of H a d j e e ' s assertions. T h e latter agreed to accompany Forrest as a guide for the venture. In order to escape the vigilance of the Dutch, it w a s decided to use a small vessel for the voyage. T h e ship obtained was a small " Sooloo boat or prow "

22

of ten tons, with a keel length

of twenty-five feet and an over-all length of forty feet. Forrest called it the Tartar

Galley. T h e crew for the expedition w a s

made up of native sailors, M a l a y s and Lascars, with the exception of Forrest, t w o other Europeans, and H a d j e e . T h e company embarked in November of 1 7 7 4 on a v o y a g e which had, of necessity, to be conducted with a w a r y eye open for the Dutch authorities. T h e Dutch allowed the g r o w t h of 21 A l e x a n d e r Dalrymple, A Plan for Extending the Commerce Kingdom and of the East India Company, London, 1769. PP- 7-16.

of this

22 Thomas Forrest, A Voyage to New Guinea, London, 1786, p. 8-11.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

33

clove only at Amboina and of nutmeg only on Banda. T h e y sought to check the native trade in these spices for fear of smuggling, and so a license had to be procured by the natives for each voyage which they undertook. T h e existence of the Dutch policing somewhat tempered the early enthusiasm of H a d j e e for the voyage. T h e Tartar Galley touched at Batchian, for H a d j e e claimed to be a relative of the Sultan of that island. During the stay there, Forrest detected an increasing reluctance of H a d j e e to g o any further with the enterprise and something of a conspiracy between Hadjee and the officials to prevent the continuation of the expedition. Forrest persuaded H a d j e e to continue with him, at least as far as the island of " W a y g i o u " , but he was made somewhat uneasy by the insistence of the Sultan on sending two of his officers to accompany the voyage to N e w Guinea and to lend their " assistance ". Forrest was able to continue to avail himself of the services of Hadjee, however, for when the vessel came to " W a y g i o u " there was sufficient of a storm to justify Forrest's insistence that any effort to land Hadjee and the officers there would be dangerous, and thus they continued to N e w Guinea. O n January 27, 1774, the Tartar Galley reached Dorey, a native village at the western entrance of Geelvink Bay with which Hadjee said he w a s familiar. A station was established there, from which they might reconnoitre the land. Forrest soon found that he was not the only trader in the region. T h e Chinese carried on a good deal of trade with the natives of the area, bringing them iron tools, chopping knives, axes, china beads, plates and basins, etc., and carrying away missory bark, ambergris, trepang, tortoise shells, pearls and birds of paradise. These Chinese traders were licensed by the Dutch, but were trusted by them not to trade in the forbidden spices. T h e Chinese vessels carried Dutch passes and flew the Dutch flag. Further evidence of the trade of the region appeared when some of the native villagers of the area offered Forrest some slaves, who had been obtained from the land across the bay and further to the east.

34

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Neither trade goods nor slaves were Forrest's concern, however. H e set up a shed on land, and around it cleared a small patch where he planted mustard seed which he had brought with him to test the suitability of the area for that product. But the greatest effort was spent on the search for the nutmeg. On February 15 he located a nutmeg tree on nearby Manaswary Island. Hadjee asserted that the tree was of the long variety, not the round or Banda variety. Soon, however, they had collected some one hundred plants of what H a d j e e swore was the genuine nutmeg, and with that Forrest had to be content. There had evidently been no previous demand for the nutmeg in that area, for the natives placed no value on it, and infinitely preferred to search for coconuts, plantain and breadfruit. W i t h the hundred plants stowed a w a y in baskets, Forrest sailed for Balambangan on February 18, 1775. H i s preparations for departure were evidently a signal for the disappearance of the natives, for the villagers just vanished into the jungle, and Forrest surmised that they were fearful of being kidnapped by him and sold into slavery. Unfortunately, the possibility of anything further resulting from this first English effort at the development of N e w Guinea was destroyed by the extinction of the trading station at Balambangan. 23 But Forrest inevitably carried with him impressions of the remote land which he had visited. F r o m his contacts with Abdul Wahead, a slave trader whom he had encountered, he was led to believe that this trade in human beings was active in many New Guinea areas. Forrest knew that for the natives of the Dorey area, life was very evidently none too secure. These villagers lived in terror of raids from the inland mountain tribes, whom they called the Haraforas. The boats of the villagers were maintained in constant readiness so that they might be available for flight to sea whenever the alarm w a s given that the mountain tribes were in the neighborhood. Nevertheless, Forrest noted that fearful as the tribesmen were 23 Ibid., pp. 2-115.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

35

of the Haraforas, some of them offered to go into their area if given goods to trade. Alert to the possibilities of gold being discovered, Forrest had observed that none of the natives wore gold ornaments, but some of them had assured him that there was gold in the hills behind the village. W h e n Forrest questioned the natives about the country near Dorey, he received the impression that the land both to the east and to the west was not very fruitful. It should be noted here that when they were asked about the western land of Wonin or Onin, the natives mentioned a gulf that went far into the land. This was probably a reference to the great indentation subsequently named McCluer's Inlet. T h e surveying of this inlet and its naming are among the results of the second effort of British seamen and traders to explore and develop the commercial possibilities of N e w Guinea. T h e two chief personalities of this second effort were John Hayes and John McCluer, both of the Bombay Marine, the naval force of the East India Company. John Hayes, born in 1767 in Cumberland, England, had joined the East India Company's naval service in 1781, with the support and patronage of Sir Henry Fletcher, a director of the Company. 24 Hayes served with distinction in the naval forces, taking part in the war against the alliance of the French and Tippoo Sahib. In this fighting he received his first taste of real action at the age of fifteen. W h e n the war was over, Hayes returned to duties at Calcutta with the rank of First Lieutenant. There he met John McCluer who was slightly his superior in rank, but who soon became a fast friend of the young Hayes. It was from McCluer that Hayes first received the idea of a New Guinea voyage and settlement. 25 McCluer, who had done a good deal of surveying work for the Company along the coasts of India, had recently returned from a survey of a portion of the coast of New Guinea. The 24 Ida Marriott, Commodore 25 Ibid., pp. 8-9.

John Hayes,

London, 1912, p. 5.

36

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

reasons for this voyage were somewhat odd. Some ten years before, the ship Antelope of the East India Company, under the command of Captain Henry Wilson, had been wrecked on the Pelew Islands. The company of the wrecked ship found the natives most friendly. With native assistance they constructed a schooner capable of carrying them back to India, and on the eve of their departure, Captain Wilson persuaded the ruler of the islands, Abba Thulle, to allow one of his sons to accompany him back to England. Prince Lee Boo made the trip, but died in England in 1784, shortly after his arrival there.28 The Company eventually got around to notifying Abba Thulle of the death of his son. McCluer was assigned to the task, accompanied by one Wedgeborough, who had been a member of the wrecked Antelope company. After discharging this melancholy mission, McCluer was instructed to take the Panther and the Endeavour, vessels under his command, and to make a survey of the southwestern coast of New Guinea, to see whether there was any navigable passage northeast of the Aru Islands which might be used by the Company's ships in time of war or in bad weather. McCluer sailed in August, 1790, and reached the Pelew Islands in the following January. The islands and the life of the islanders so entranced McCluer that he stayed there for six months before starting to discharge the second part of his instructions. He surveyed the region of the gulf named after him from July to December of 1 7 9 1 . It was on his return to India after this survey that McCluer formed the friendship with John Hayes, and told him of New Guinea and of his impressions of the richness and fertility of the land he had seen there. McCluer was convinced that he had come across specimens of the much sought afted Banda nutmeg. Hayes and McCluer sought commercial support for a voyage and possible settlement in New Guinea. While negotiations were under way for the venture, McCluer undertook another voyage to the Pelew Islands and when there resigned his com26 C. R. Low, History of the Indian Navy, London, 1877, p. 192.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

37

mand, announcing his resolution of spending the rest of his life with the islanders. H e told his astonished companions that he had undertaken this resolve in the hope of " enlightening the minds of the noble islanders ". 2T His erstwhile shipmates insisted upon leaving a six-oared rowboat with him, anticipating that events might make it useful. Meanwhile, back in Calcutta, Hayes had obtained promises of assistance for a New Guinea venture from a group of private merchants, Messrs. Udney, Frushard and Laprimaudaye. 28 T w o other promoters, Captain Thomas Court and a Mr. Robertson, were to lend their talents to the enterprise and accompany the voyage. T h e voyage got underway from Calcutta on February 6, 1793. It is probable that the officers of the East India Company, usually jealous of the monopolies of the company in the eastern seas, knew of the enterprise but thought there was nothing in it likely to endanger the position of the Company, for they let it sail without hindrance. 29 The first port of call was Timor, and after leaving that island bad weather and the southeast trade winds prevented the two ships from sailing toward McCluer's Inlet. Hayes then resolved to make the formidable trip around Australia and to approach New Guinea from the east rather than from the west. He was able to get the other officers of the vessels to accept this in an officers' council. The great sweep down the west coast of Australia and then along the south of the great island continent was accomplished successfully, Hayes revealing himself during the voyage as a great seaman. O n April 25, 1793, the island of Tasmania was sighted, and there Hayes entered and explored some of the reaches of the Derwent River. The French explorer, D'Entrecasteaux, had been up the same river just a short time before, but Hayes sailed up it further than had the Frenchman. Tas27 Ibid., p. 198.

28 Marriott, op. cit., pp. 9-11. 2 9 Ibid., p. 11-14.

38

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

mania afforded water and an opportunity for refitting the ships from further voyaging. During the stay, Robertson, the supercargo, was suspected by Hayes of stirring up trouble among the crew, and Hayes placed him in irons. 30 The two ships left Tasmania on the next leg of the voyage on June 9, and about three weeks later arrived in New Caledonia. From there they fell in with the southeast trade winds which had once been a barrier to their progress. Hayes took his vessels through the reefs and islands of the Louisiade Archipelago, and from there reached the southeastern tip of New Guinea. Dissatisfied with that course, he swung back through the Louisiades, and then turned again to sail along the northern coast of New Guinea. Eventually in September he brought the Duke of Clarence and Duchess to anchor at Dorey, the site of Forrest's work some eighteen years before. The latter stages of the voyage were accomplished with great difficulty, for the crews were shattered by scurvy. On the Duke oj Clarence, there were only two men capable of doing a full stretch of duty, and on the Duchess there were only six. Hayes renamed Dorey Harbor " Restoration B a y " . He found about fifteen hundred natives in the vicinity, who displayed no evidence of hostility. Searching parties were sent ashore to seek out the products of the area. Some spices and nutmegs were discovered, but the nutmegs were not of the desired Banda species. The prospects of the area, however, were not unfavorable, and the ships and men needed rest and care, so Hayes decided to form a settlement. In order to note the beginning of a new life for the region, he named the area New Albion. The construction of a stockade was commenced, and it was completed on October 25 and christened Coronation Fort, in honor of the anniversary of the coronation of George I I I . Hayes issued a proclamation taking possession of practically the whole of the northern coastline of New Guinea for Britain. 31 30 Ibid., pp. 16-45.

31 Ibid., p. 95.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

39

Coronation Fort became the center of considerable planting and prospecting. The natives were treated in a kindly manner and large numbers of them, some five hundred or more, were recruited for work in planting and tending. A large plantation of missory trees and nutmeg trees were set out near the fort, and expeditions struck out into the surrounding regions in search of the natural products which might be of value. Dyewoods and roots were found, and a wide variety of timber was discovered, including black walnut, ebony, teak, and iron wood.82 A survey of the Duke of Clarence and the Duchess led to the latter being condemned as unseaworthy. Left with only one ship, it was decided that Hayes was to take the vessel, with a cargo of spices, to India to obtain aid for the settlement. Captain Court, and two other officers, with twelve of the European seamen and eleven of the Lascars, were to remain at Dorey. Toward the end of December, the Duke of Clarence started on the return voyage to India. The voyage was a slow one, with stops in the Moluccas and other ports en route. Hayes reached Batavia in June, and found the Bengal Squadron of the British fleet at anchor there. Commodore Mitchell of the squadron ordered Hayes to suspend his voyage to India and to proceed to Canton. Mitchell was returning to India himself, however, and he took with him some of the spices and other products obtained at Dorey, together with messages from Hayes for the merchants in Calcutta who were backing him. Hayes had submitted samples of the spices to a botanist accompanying the squadron and had received from him fairly favorable reports as to their value. Hayes reached Canton, though not without incident, having an exciting moment or two in eluding a pursuing French privateer. The New Guinea products which he still had with him brought a fairly good price on the Canton market. And at Macao near Canton, Hayes met, by an extraordinary coinci32 Ibid., p. 99.

40

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

dence, his old partner in the New Guinea enterprise, John McCluer. McCluer had settled down to life in the Pelew Islands with considerable zest, and had married a native woman. After about fifteen months, however, he had become restless and had undertaken a voyage to Macao and Canton, a trip of some sixteen hundred miles. The trip was made in the open boat left him by the Panther crew, and it was made without instrument or chart.33 It was his intention to purchase a larger and more useful boat at Canton. On the occasion of their meeting, Hayes asked McCluer to sail to Restoration Bay with foodstuffs and other supplies which the colonists needed. McCluer agreed, purchased the barque Venus, and in it sailed for Manila and from there back to the Pelew Islands to pick up his native wife and family and some natives to form a crew. He then sailed for New Guinea where he found the Restoration Bay settlement in bad condition. The fortunes of the enterprise had declined rapidly after the departure of Hayes. The productivity of the plantation near the fort had decreased, the rainy season had made life miserable for the men, the climate had grown less healthy and some of the company had died. The irritations and difficulties of the settlement had led to trouble with the natives. On top of these problems, there was the long delay in the assistance that Hayes was to send from India. The arrival of McCluer was the first intimation received by the people at Restoration Bay that they had not been forgotten. With several members of the settlement dead, and with all of the survivors ill, McCluer decided upon the abandonment of the settlement, and made a survey of the hulk of the Duchess to see if it could be made fit for sea. Convinced that such a course was possible, McCluer sailed to Bouro in search of supplies. He purchased these out of his own pocket and carried them back to Restoration Bay. With his visit and the supplies which he brought, and with the prospect of leaving 33 Low, op. cit, p. 198.

DISCOVERY

AND

FIRST

SETTLEMENT

EFFORTS

41

the settlement before them, the men were in sufficient spirits to continue on their own, and McCluer sailed from Restoration Bay in March of 1795, never to be heard of again. A f t e r two months of work on the rehabilitation of the Duchess, the men of the settlement received further assistance. T h e Duke of Clarence arrived, this time under the command of a Captain Risdon. But while he brought help, he also brought news that their return to India had been rendered more difficult by the outbreak of war with the Dutch. W a r with the Dutch, however, brought assistance from the island foes of the Dutch. Restoration Bay received an unexpected visit from the Prince of Tidore, one Nooko or Noekoe, foe of the Dutch and claimant to the throne of Ternate. Nooko invited the Englishmen to visit his headquarters at Wauroo, and there to obtain an abundance of spices. The invitation was accepted, and the Duke of Clarence, together with the somewhat rehabilitated Duchess, sailed from Restoration B a y in the middle of June, 1795, after the settlement there had existed for twenty-one months. After a six months' stay at Wauroo, the Duke continued its voyage to India, but without the Duchess, which had again been declared unseaworthy. Members of the latter ship's company were eventually picked up by another English vessel and were returned to Calcutta. W h e n Hayes was ordered to make his voyage to Canton, he had sent dispatches to his backers in Calcutta by Commodore Mitchell. These dispatches were eventually presented to the Governor-General in Council in Calcutta. The Governor-General, Sir John Shore, gave sympathetic consideration to Hayes' letters and to the idea of sending support to the settlement. 34 T h e venture of Forrest to the coast of New Guinea some twenty years before was recalled, and when Hayes returned from his trip to Canton he added his persuasion to that of the others. He described Restoration Bay as in the line of trade between Canton and the newly established settlement at Sydney, 34 Marriott, op. cit., pp. 151-2.

42

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

and asserted that it was easily reached from>Jndia. He urged, moreover, that the spices which he had obtained there were a warrant of the commercial potentialities of the settlement. But eventually the scales turned against the continuation of the New Guinea venture. 35 The quality of the products which Hayes had brought from New Guinea was not as assured as he had claimed it to be. The New Guinea plantation, if continued, was a great distance from India, and the expense of sustaining it in its opening phases would probably be great. Further, the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France did not encourage any new ventures in the Indonesian area. As the final outcome of all these deliberations, Hayes and his backers were told that the Company prohibited any further eastern settlement at that time. The refusal of the Company to support and sustain the Restoration Bay effort, and the unhappy plight of that settlement in its closing days, put an end to New Guinea activities by the British for many decades. Their attempts to enter more actively into the trade of the Indonesian Archipelago by using New Guinea as an entrepot and a source of supply had come to an unsuccessful conclusion. Settlements in northern Australia seemed to offer greater hope, and interest in New Guinea flagged. Yet though these efforts failed they are not without significance, for they represent the first substantial British interest in the island and its possibilities. 35 C. Brunsdon Fletcher, "Australia and the Pacific", Journal and ceedings, Royal Australian Historical Society, X X V I I I , 164-165.

Pro-

CHAPTER SETTLEMENT GUINEA:

II

ACTIVITY

FURTHER

NEAR

NEW

EXPLORATION

DESPITE the failure of the settlement at Restoration Bay, and the lack of any British effort at settlement on New Guinea for many years afterwards, British interest in the area did not disappear. Although almost a century was to elapse after the Restoration Bay disappointment before there was any other manifestation of direct British interest in New Guinea itself, British activities never ceased for long in the areas adjacent to the great island. Efforts were made toward the establishment of British settlements in Northern Australia in the hope that they might lead to British penetration into the trade of the Indonesian Archipelago, and further, there were marine surveys along the southern shores of New Guinea conducted for the purpose of making the passage through Torres Strait safer for the increased flow of traffic moving through it. The quarter of a century following the failure of the Restoration Bay settlement was not a propitious period for new colonial enterprises. W i t h the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars absorbing the energies of the great powers, what colonial enterprises there were were conquests of the previously made settlements of foreign nations rather than the beginning of completely new establishments. The triumph of British power in the Dutch Indies was an example of this. The engulfment of the Dutch Republic by the ever-widening area of French power, and the prospect of the Dutch Indies falling under the control of the French-dominated Netherlands government led the Prince of Orange, in exile in London, to instruct the governors of Dutch fortresses and stations in the Indies to surrender to the British. The Prince's order, reinforced by the powerful persuasion of British arms, opened the way for British power over the Indies. 1 Although with the conclusion of the shortlived 1 Cambridge Modern History,

Cambridge, 1934, IX, 750. 43

44

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Treaty of Amiens all of these temporary conquests, with the exception of Ceylon, were returned to the Dutch, the early renewal of the conflict brought the re-establishment of British power in Java and in other areas of the Indies. The then Governor-General of India, Lord Minto, was the leader of the campaigns against Java during this period. It was not his intention, nor that of the Directors of the British East India Company, to seek the annexation of the Indonesian areas to the British Empire. 2 Minto's instructions called simply for the elimination of Dutch power from Java; he was then to restore the native rule.3 After the defeat of the Franco-Dutch forces, however, this commendable program of self-denial decreed by London seemed to be overburdened with difficulties. Lord Minto expressed the fear that the withdrawal of his forces after the defeat of the Dutch would leave the latter completely at the mercy of their former subjects, a circumstance likely to give rise to most unpleasant consequences. He asserted that there were only three courses of action open to him. One was to deliver Java back to the natives, but only after evacuating all of the Europeans. Another was to restore the rule of the but recently conquered Dutch. The third was to establish British rule on the island. Lord Minto resolutely and courageously decided upon the third course. No one applauded the decision more than a young man of the Governor-General's entourage named Stamford Raffles. Whatever may have been the virtues or vices of this redoubtable empire builder, there can be no doubting his wholesouled ambition for the extension of British power in Southeast Asia. Since he had made himself familiar with the area and proficient in its languages, he was installed in conquered Java as administrator with the rank of Lieutenant-Governor. But Stamford Raffles' hopes for British dominion in the Indonesian area collapsed with the restoration of Dutch rule 2 Bernard H. M. Vlekke, Nusantara, Cambridge, Mass., 1944, p. 238; Lady Minto, Lord Minto in India, London, 1880, p. 308. 3 Bethune Cook, Sir Stamford

Raffles,

London, 1918, p. 39.

SETTLEMENT

ACTIVITY

NEAR

NEW

GUINEA

45

after the Napoleonic Wars. It was not the intention of the British Government to leave the Dutch incapable of governing and defending the L o w Countries, and in pursuit of the policy of establishing a strong Netherlands as well as in fulfillment of the pledges made to the Prince of Orange during the course of the war, the Dutch colonies in the East Indies were restored to the K i n g d o m of the Netherlands. Raffles was relegated to the governorship of the backwater port of Bencoolen in Sumatra. But his restless ambition did not allow him to stay there in inactivity. H i s various efforts to lever an opening for the British in the area came to success in the establishment in 1819 of what was to be the great port of Singapore. Raffles was not the only person who was restless about the restoration of Dutch power in the Indies. During the period of British rule and for a few years thereafter, British merchants had secured a firm control on the trade of the Indonesian area. They had control of the seas and they had the goods to sell. In 1819, for instance, 171 ships entered the port of Batavia, and of these, 62 were British, 50 American and 43 Dutch. 4 T h e restoration of Dutch power would put an end to much of that prosperous trade, and the British would once more be on the outside trying to find an entrance into the area of the Dutch monopoly. A n d it came about much as anticipated. In an effort to restore their monopoly, the Dutch established preferential duties for their shipping and goods, and the years 1825-30 saw a sharp increase in the volume of Dutch goods imported into Indonesia and a decline in the volume of British trade in the area. 5 Complaints were soon registered in London. George Canning stated that in 1816 and 1817, when he was president of the Board of Control of the East India Company, he heard many complaints about the " grasping disposition" of the Dutch in the Indies and of their efforts to extinguish British trade there. 6 Despite the protection of a trade treaty of 1825, 4 J. S. Furnivall, Netherlands 5 Ibid.,

India, Cambridge, 1939, p. 94.

pp. 94-105.

6Hansard, Commons, New Series, vol. X I , June 17, 1824, p. 1444.

46

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

the Dutch restrictions hurt British trade. Singapore did give the British some access to the trade of the Archipelago, but Singapore was too far to the west to provide any entrance into the trade of the eastern portion of Indonesia. It was for this reason that a project gradually took shape for the establishment of a trading station that could give British merchants access to that market. Such a station might have been planted in New Guinea, but the voyages of Captain Philip King along the northern coast of Australia in 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 2 2 were supposed to have revealed a more hospitable area there than had been hitherto thought to exist. Captain King had reported with considerable enthusiasm the existence of a number of rivers and harbors, 7 and it may be that it was his enthusiastic reports of these allegedly promising conditions that prevented consideration being given to another effort at New Guinea settlement. The project of opening a center for trade with the eastern area of Indonesia seems to have originated mainly with one Captain William Barnes, who had been in the East India Company's naval service and was reputedly familiar with the trade conditions in the Archipelago. 8 In a letter to Undersecretary for the Colonies Horton, dated September 15, 1823, and in an interview about the same time, Barnes proposed a settlement in northern Australia. In these efforts to obtain the interest of the government in the project, Barnes had the support of a group of merchants engaged in the trade of the Indonesian area who called themselves the East India Trade Committee, 9 and it was from the offices of one of the member firms, Messrs. Palmer, 7 A. Grenfell Price, The History and Problems Australia, Adelaide, 1930, pp. 2-3.

of the Northern

Territory,

8 Dora Howard, " The English Activities on the North Coast of Australia in the First Half of the Nineteenth C e n t u r y P r o c e e d i n g s of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, Adelaide, 1933, P- 719 Historical

Records

of Australia,

Series III, vol. V, p. 737.

SETTLEMENT

ACTIVITY

NEAR

NEW

GUINEA

\"J

Wilson, and Co., 1 0 that Barnes carried on his correspondence with the Colonial Office. H e advanced the argument that unless the British made a speedy entrance into the trade of the eastern part of the Archipelago, established a center for that trade and consolidated themselves in that center, the Dutch would forestall them and exclude them from it completely. T h e basis of the trade that Barnes wished to encourage in the region lay in the exploitation of the " beche de mer " or trepang, a sea slug abundant there and much prized as a delicacy by the Chinese. These were found along the shores of the eastern portion of the Archipelago, as well as along the coasts of New Guinea and Australia. Their preparation for the market required that they be boiled, dried in the sun, and then dried further over a fire to enable them to acquire a slightly smoked flavor. T h e Malays were active in this trade, and the British saw an opportunity to edge in and create a market for their goods. Essential for the creation of that trade was the establishment of a trading center where the Malays might bring the trepang for drying, and where they might enter into trade for the British goods. Barnes asserted that in addition to the trepang trade, there would be opportunities for trade in sandalwood, tortoise-shell, and mother-of-pearl. The arguments advanced by Barnes were reinforced by the group of firms, now nineteen in number, which were supporting the project of a Northern Australian settlement. 11 O n December 13, 1823, the firms sent a memorandum to Lord Bathurst, the Colonial Secretary, supporting Barnes' proposals and advancing a wider range of arguments in support of the project. Not only were the advantages in trade cited, but the merchants stated that they were of the opinion that the coast of Northern Australia in the region of the Coburg Peninsula offered possibilities for the growth of cotton and tobacco. A n d in addition 10 Howard, op. cit., p. 75. 11 Among these firms was that of Babington and Macaulay. The Macaulay of the partnership, of course, was Zachary Macaulay, prominent in the " Clapham sect" and father of the famous historian.

48

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

to these gains which might be secured by settlement there, a port in the northern area would be most strategically located in case of war with the Dutch. Unless the British were foresighted, they asserted, the Dutch would place an establishment there first, with consequent threat to British trade in eastern seas. The memorandum quoted Captain King to the effect that the climate was good, that water was available, and that Malays in search of trepang frequented the region. 12 The Colonial Office accepted the idea with comparative alacrity. Consultations with the Admiralty indicated also that the officers of that department believed that settlement on the northern coast of Australia ought not to be long delayed, lest the Dutch get there first. John Barrow of the Admiralty wrote to Under-Secretary Horton of the Colonial Office that in view of the memorial of the merchants and conversation with Captain Philip King, who was familiar with the area of the intended settlement, such settlement should not be deferred. Barrow insisted, however, that the projected settlement should not be regarded as in any way a substitute for the establishment at Singapore. 13 By the close of 1824 a settlement had been started at Melville Island by an expedition under the command of Captain John Bremer of the Royal Navy. The enforced pioneers of the settlement were a group of convicts and soldiers. U p to this time, Great Britain had made no effort to establish any claim to the western half of Australia, but in order to include within British claims the site of the new Melville Island establishment, the boundaries of the British claims to the Australian continent were extended from the 135th to the 129th meridian. 14 12 H. R. A., op. cit., pp.

742-747.

13 Ibid., pp. 7S1-3, Barrow to Horton, Jan. 22, 1824. The efforts at settlement in northern Australia were only one of a number started about the same time in various other sections of the Australian continent designed to check any foreign settlement by means of a belt of colonies around the coast. C. H. B. E., op. ext., VII, Part I, 207. 14 C. H. B. E., op. cit., VII, Part 1, 126.

SETTLEMENT

ACTIVITY

NEAR

NEW

GUINEA

49

F e w of the bright prospects held out for such a venture as that on Melville Island by its advocates in London actually materialized. T h e climate turned out to be most unhealthy, there were great difficulties in getting an adequate supply of water, and many of the members of the convict and military contingents succumbed to sickness. T h e Malays, on w h o m so many hopes had been founded, failed to put in their expected appearance. 1 5 T h e colony needed constant support from outside, support which had to come largely from N e w South Wales. B u t the prevailing winds prevented contact with the principal source of aid and succor for many months of the year, and so the Melville Island effort was finally abandoned. T h e energies of the backers were subsequently transferred to Port Raffles on the Australian mainland, but the record there was unfortunately much the same as at Port Melville. T h e establishment of English settlements in northern A u s tralia provoked a Dutch reaction, and for the third time the rivalry between these t w o nations produced results affecting N e w Guinea. Evidently fearful of further British incursions into a trade area they regarded as peculiarly their own, the Dutch established in 1828 their first settlement on N e w Guinea at Triton B a y on the western end of the island. 18 According to one of the leading Netherlands authorities on the history of the E a s t Indies, almost nothing was known of the interior of N e w Guinea by the Dutch at the time of their settlement at Triton Bay. " T h e only thing one did know was that robbery and head hunting were the order of the day and that no authority was acknowledged but that of the strongest ". 1 T T h e settlement at Triton B a y proved to be too costly in human life to be long maintained, and w a s abandoned a few years after its establish1 5 H . R. A., Ser. I, vol. X I I , pp. 226-7; H. R. A., S e r . I l l , vol. V , pp. 799-808. 16 E. S. DeKlerck, History 1938, II, 15317 Ibid., p. 464-

of the Netherlands

East Indies,

Rotterdam,

50

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

ment. But another military post had been established in the southwestern portion of the island, and in 1828 the Dutch also took formal possession of the southern coast of New Guinea from 1320 45' E to 141 0 E. 18 Thus the first effectual claim of political power on New Guinea was made by the Dutch, not because of the attraction of the island itself, but rather in fear of British settlement eventually reaching there and turning the island into a base for trade and a source of supply for the spices and other exotic products which the Dutch had for so many years sought to hold in monopolistic control. Despite the failure of the Melville Island and Raffles Bay settlements, rivalry with Holland and the hopes for trade kept alive the project of a British settlement in Northern Australia. In the late 1830's another settlement effort was eagerly advocated by an East Indian merchant, George Windsor Earl. One of Earl's works, The Eastern Seas, published in 1837, had as an appendix Earl's summary of the advantages he saw arising from another effort at settlement. He argued that growing Dutch restrictions and increasing American competition were likely to exclude British trade from the eastern portion of the Indonesian Archipelago altogether. He asserted that the usefulness of Singapore had declined since the death of Raffles and that the general political instability of the Malayan area and the piracy rampant there made trade difficult. The solution of these problems, he asserted, was the establishment of a trading center in the eastern portion of the Malay Archipelago, and this center should be established in Northern Australia. " An European settlement on the north coast of Australia . . . would become the commercial emporium of this part of the Archipelago ". 1 9 Earl elaborated on his idea by sketching what he considered would be the trade pattern which would center in such an establishment. British manufactures would be exchanged in New South Wales for wool, and those manufac18 Markham, op. cit., p. 275. 19 George Windsor Earl, The Eastern Seas, London, 1837, p. 435.

SETTLEMENT

ACTIVITY

NEAR

NEW

GUINEA

51

tures would then be traded in the North Australian settlement for trepang and shell that could then purchase tea on the C a n tonese market. Further, cotton, coffee, and pepper could be grown in the northern region. L a n d was cheap and labor could be obtained from the great abundance of that commodity which existed in China. Such a settlement would, furthermore, be a refuge for mariners shipwrecked in the passage of the waters between Australia and N e w Guinea. 20 Earl's suggestion received the support of prominent merchants, of the newly formed Royal Geographical Society, and of some important officers of the Admiralty and Colonial Office. Sir John Barrow of the Admiralty once again in 1838 lent his support to a settlement in Northern Australia just as he had for the previous efforts made in 1824. Earl sailed with the expedition organized for the establishment of the new settlement. T h i s expedition, like the one which had been formed for the establishment of the Melville Island settlement, was under the command of Captain Bremer. T h e settlement was eventually established at P o r t Essington

in

1838, and its story from the time of its founding w a s a melancholy one. It w a s located seven hundred miles from T o r r e s Strait, too far from the trade routes to be of any u s e ; the Malays failed to avail themselves of it in their trepang

fishing;

and the soil and climate were unfavorable. O n one of its v o y ages, H M S

Rattlesnake,

a surveying

vessel,

visited

Port

Essington in November of 1848, and its assistant surgeon, Thomas Huxley, registered a most unfavorable opinion of the place. H e doubted whether there was a healthy man on the station, and the only good word that he had for the place w a s that it managed to grow some good fruit. 2 1 T h e station w a s abandoned in 1849, but Earl claimed that it had been instrumental in the opening of British trade with western

New

20 IHd., pp. 421-460. 21 Thomas H . Huxley, Diary of the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake, edited

by Julian Huxley, London, 1935, pp. 147-8.

52

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Guinea.22 It is true that Earl and one or two other merchants had done a little trading to the eastern islands of the Archipelago from Port Essington, but certainly not enough to sustain even the feeble life of that settlement. These efforts at settlement in Northern Australia bear only indirectly upon the opening of New Guinea, but they do reveal a continuity of British interest in the New Guinea region. And they have further relevance because, although New Guinea was too far away from India and too conjectural an area to arouse much interest in Calcutta, it was next door to Australia, and the history of the Northern Australian settlements presaged the opening of New Guinea from Australia rather than from India or Singapore. Another evidence of the continuity of British interest in the general region of New Guinea is found in the surveying voyages sent out by the Admiralty for the sounding of the waters and the measurement of the coastline of the island. The growth of the Australasian British settlements made the sea communications between those colonies and Britain of ever-increasing importance to the British Government and especially to the Admiralty. One of the available lines of communication was through Torres Strait, and the waters adjacent to the strait also needed to be surveyed for the sake of seamen making the voyage from Australia to China. Because of the urgency of these needs, the Admiralty sent out a number of surveying voyages during the nineteenth century, which ranged along the New Guinea coast, but gave special attention to the Papuan area of that coastline. One of these voyages was that of H M S Fly under Captain Blackwood. The Fly travelled up and down the southeastern coast of New Guinea from 1842 to 1846.23 It surveyed the central and northeastern parts of Torres Strait, explored about 150 miles of the coast of New Guinea to the 22 George W i n d s o r

Earl,

Tropical

Settlement

in Northern

Australia,

London, 1846, p. 68. 2 3 Joseph B. Jukes, Narrative 1842-46, London, 1847.

of the Surveying

Voyage

of HMS

Fly

SETTLEMENT

ACTIVITY

NEAR

NEW

GUINEA

53

north and east of Torres Strait, and also made a survey of the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef. T h e survey work of the Fly was continued by H M S Rattlesnake under Captain Owen Stanley. 24 T h e Rattlesnake sailed from England in December, 1846, and started its surveys from Sydney in April, 1848. The vessel explored, among other things, the Great Barrier Reef, and it was the first to chart the islands and reefs of the Louisiade Archipelago. This survey started at the eastern point of that chain of islands, proceeded along the group and then along the southeastern coast of N e w Guinea to Redscar Point. From there an investigation was made of the islands in Torres Strait, and then followed a retracing of their route along parts of the coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade Islands that had been covered by the vessel in its voyage from east to west. These efforts were assisted by the presence of the cutter H M S Bramble under Lieutenant Yule. Y o u n g Thomas Huxley, on board the Rattlesnake in the capacity of assistant surgeon, was impatient with Captain Stanley for what he considered was the Captain's excessive caution in making contact with the islands and their inhabitants. On his first sighting of New Guinea, Huxley recorded in his diary, There lies before us a grand continent—shut out from intercourse with the civilized world, more completely than China, and as rich if not richer in things rare and strange. The wide and noble rivers open wide their mouths inviting us to enter. All that is required is coolness, judgment, perserverance, to reap a rich harvest of knowledge and perhaps of more material profit. I beg pardon, that is not all that is required; a little risk is also needful. Investigators might get as many kicks as half-pence, and human life is so precious that investigators had better not investigate." 26 24 J o h n M a c g i l l i v r a y , Narrative of the Voyage L o n d o n , 1852; H u x l e y , op. cit., pp. 147-148. 25 H u x l e y , op. cit., p. 212.

of HMS

Rattlesnake,

54

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Whether or not Captain Stanley's caution was justified, the fact remained that neither Huxley nor MacGillivray, the ship's naturalist, got much of an opportunity for contact with New Guinea. MacGillivray and Huxley were not the only naturalist investigators who were disappointed with their contacts with New Guinea in that decade. It was during that period that Alfred Russel Wallace reached New Guinea in the coursc of his extensive researches in the Malay Archipelago. Wallace had been at work in the Archipelago since 1854, 26 and during the early years of his work he cherished the hope of being able to reach New Guinea. Even at Macassar, Ternate and Amboyna, " whence a considerable trade is carried on with the northwestern coasts and adjacent islands " , he could learn little about New Guinea. 27 Wallace was finally taken to New Guinea by a Dutch trader, and he landed at Dorey, which had been described by the Dutch as the most favorable place, in April of 1858. On the island of Mansinam, at which he had stopped on his way, Wallace encountered two German missionaries who had been working there for two years. They were in all likelihood connected with the Utrecht Missionary Society, which established a station in Geelvinck Bay in the year 1885. 2 8 During the three months of his stay at Dorey, however, he was the only European resident on the New Guinea mainland. 29 Due to an injury to his ankle that crippled him for many weeks, and to the various illnesses that incapacitated his native assistants, Wallace had relatively little success in the collection of specimens of New Guinea wild life. He left Dorey toward the end of July, deeply disappointed in the results of his New 26 Alfred R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago,

New York, 1869.

27 Alfred R. Wallace, " Notes on a Voyage to New Guinea", of Royal Geographical Society, 1860, XXX, 172. 28 Maximilian Krieger, Neu-Guinea, Berlin, 1899, p. 7. 29 Wallace, Malay Archipelago, op. cit., p. 501.

Journal

SETTLEMENT

ACTIVITY

NEAR

NEW

GUINEA

55

Guinea stay. " This long-thought-of and much-desired voyage to New Guinea had realized none of my expectations." 30 It was the surveying work of Captain John Moresby in H M S Basilisk in the decade of the 1870's, however, that attracted the most comment in Britain. These surveys were coincident with the opening of the work of the London Missionary Society on the coast of Papua, and the two events did much to arouse interest in New Guinea, both in Australia and Britain. They must, however, await a later telling. In spite of the various surveys, and the tentative efforts at penetrating into the interior of New Guinea, the comment made by the naturalist J. B. Jukes, attached to H M S Fly during the voyages along the southern coast of the island in the period of the 1840's, was still applicable in 1870, and on the eve of the establishment of the first mission station in western New Guinea and the consequent revelation of some of the mysteries of the island. I know of no part of the world, the exploration of which is so flattering to the imagination, so likely to be fruitful in interesting results, whether to the naturalist, the ethnologist, or the geographer, and altogether so well calculated to gratify the enlightened curiosity of an adventurous explorer, as the interior of New Guinea. New Guinea! The very mention of being taken into the interior of New Guinea sounds like being allowed to visit some of the enchanted regions of the Arabian Nights, so dim an atmosphere of obscurity rests at present on the wonders it probably conceals.31 30 Ibid., p. 514. 31 Jukes, op. cit., I, 291.

CHAPTER THE

III

MISSIONARIES OPEN T H E GUINEA

NEW

FRONTIER

THE word frontier has different meanings in different parts of the world. In Europe, where the nations crowd and jostle one another on a small and overcrowded continent, the frontier is essentially the political boundary separating one state from another. But in the United States, Canada, or Australia, the word frontier has a meaning formed by the story of the expansion of the peoples of those lands into the interiors of their great continental areas. In their history, the frontier was a zone marking the border between settlement and wilderness, between the land that had actually been occupied, and that which was yet to be taken. Sometimes this frontier coincided with the politically determined frontier, sometimes it lagged behind the political frontier, and sometimes it ran ahead and overlapped it. But these frontiers marking the expansion of a people and their power into unknown lands were not found in continental areas only. They were also on the seas. T h e frontier of Elizabethan and Jacobean England was on the great oceans, and when the settlements were made at Jamestown and Plymouth they were but a new aspect of the old advancing frontier which had pushed across the sea. In the subsequent history of American life, the tools of expansion were the covered wagon and the flintlock and rifle; in the subsequent development of British expansion, the covered wagon was the sailing ship and the rifles the guns sticking blunt snouts through the ports. In the story of the moving frontier, whether that frontier was on land or sea, sovereignty frequently lagged behind, often reluctantly following along in reply to the demands of the pioneers or spurred by the fear of seeing someone else reap where the seed had been sown. If the frontier frequently outpaced the advance of sovereignty, it was due at least in part to the fact that in both American and British history the frontier 56

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

57

was pushed forward often not as the result of the activities of the state, but frequently as the cumulative result of the work of individuals; individuals who, in search of better opportunities for themselves or for some cause they held dear, dared the unknown, penetrating up some river valley, crossing some mountain range, trudging over some great plain, or crossing some dangerous sea. In the extension of the frontier of European life into the Pacific, Christian missionaries played a prominent part. Frequently, the coming of the missionaries was the first real indication that many natives saw of the new ways of life that were so to change their traditional pattern of living. Behind the missionary came the trader, and behind them both the state. But it was the missionary who made the first real penetration of eastern New Guinea. U p to the time of the arrival of the missionaries, the frontier of British influence had ebbed and flowed in neighboring waters and nearby lands, but never had made a lasting establishment on New Guinea itself. Missionary activity in the Papuan area of New Guinea was initiated by the London Missionary Society. 1 T h e Society had been established in the late eighteenth century in the wake of the evangelical fervor of the Wesleyan movement. More directly, the Society's founders were stimulated by the work of William Carey in Bengal. The new Society was interdenominational at first, its membership embracing clergy and laymen of the established church, and of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Independent churches. As more and more of these denominations founded their own missionary societies, however, the London Society came increasingly to be the missionary organization of the Independent or Congregationalist church. 2 The first field of mission work opened by the new Society 1 Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History New York, 1943, V, 240. 2 Richard Lovett, History 1899, I, 2-35.

of the Expansion

of the London

Missionary

of Society,

Christianity, London,

58

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

1797. 3

was in Tahiti in This was, through the voyages of Cook and others, probably the best known of the South Sea Islands. The South Seas were chosen as the first field of activity because it was believed that the climate there would be less trying on the mission pioneers, that food would be more easily obtained, and that the languages would present fewer difficulties than might be found in other areas. However, despite the high hopes of an early garnering of the convert harvest entertained by the first group of missionaries, twenty years or more were to elapse before they made their first conversion. In the meantime their own group had been sadly diminished by death or defection and there were few of the original band left to rejoice at the first fruits of the labor. The second group of missionaries sent out by the Society never reached the field in Tahiti. They sailed in the period of the Napoleonic Wars, their ship was seized by a French naval vessel, and the mission group was carried down to South America. Eventually they returned to England, but few of them had stomach for another try at reaching the South Seas. Despite the long years of fruitless labor in Tahiti, the failure of the second expedition to reach its destination, and the isolation of the pioneer group in Tahiti because of the wars, the London Society persisted in its efforts. Soon its workers were extending their activities in .the South Seas from Tahiti to other islands in that chain called the Society Group, and to other island groups such as the Hervey Islands, the Friendly Islands, and the Loyalty Islands. By the middle of the nineteenth century the London Missionary Society was one of the most solidly established mission organizations working in the South Pacific area. The establishment of French control in the Loyalty Islands group, however, had made the position of the London Society's people there a rather uneasy one, for the French officials lent their support to the new Catholic missions to the general discomfort of the Protestant workers. T h e London Society had, 2 Ibid., p. 134.

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

59

therefore, been seeking a new field of activity to which it could transfer some of its efforts previously expended in the L o y a l t y group. F o r some time N e w Guinea had been considered as the new field,4 but the actual decision to open that field was not made until 1870. D r . Mullens, the Foreign Secretary of the Society, had recommended the transfer of some Loyalty Island missionaries to a station on one of the northern islands of the N e w Hebrides, but the visit of the Reverend John Jones, on furlough in England from his station in the Loyalty Islands, opened other possibilities. Jones told Dr. Mullens of a conversation he had had with a Captain Banner of the island schooner Blue

Belle.

Captain

Banner worked among the islands of

T o r r e s Strait and told Jones of the need for missionary w o r k there, o f f e r i n g to place his vessel and his knowledge of the islands at the disposal of the Society if it should ever decide to open a field there. D r . Mullens embraced the idea with enthusiasm, and the outlines of the plan for opening the new

fields

with the assistance of natives from the Loyalty Islands were drafted then and there.® T h e task of opening the new field w a s entrusted by the Society to Samuel MacFarlane, w h o for some time had been stationed on Lifu, the largest island in the Loyalty

group.

M a c F a r l a n e asked for volunteers from among the native pastors and students of the L i f u mission to g o with him and help in the new w o r k , and from among those w h o volunteered four pastors of the native churches and four students of the seminary were chosen to be members of the pioneer band. 8 MacFarlane w a s to have another companion in his new endeavor. A . W . M u r r a y , a missionary of the London Society in the Samoan 4 Latourette, op. cit., pp. 240-241. 5 J o s e p h K i n g , W. G. Lawes of Savage Island and Neiv Guinea, London,

1909. PP- 48-SO. 6 Samuel MacFarlane, Among the Cannibals of New Guinea, Philadelphia,

(no date), p. 13. MacFarlane states that of the eight volunteers who were accepted all were the sons of cannibals and two had been cannibals themselves.

60

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

archipelago since 1835, had been transferred from Samoa to the Loyalty Islands, and arrived there just in time for MacFarlane to persuade him to accompany the group to New Guinea and Torres Strait.7 It had been planned at first to use the vessel of the Presbyterian missions in the South Seas, the John Knox, but as the party grew in size with the acceptance of more volunteers, it was necessary to make other arrangements, and eventually an engagement was made with the master of a ninety-ton trading vessel, the Surprise. The captain of the John Knox was to go along with the party, however, for it was anticipated that his knowledge of the islands in Torres Strait would be of use. The Surprise left Lifu with the mission party aboard on May 3 1 , 1871. The agreement with the captain of the vessel allowed him to make a three week stop-over en route at New Caledonia for business purposes, and thus it was not until June 29 that New Guinea was sighted. On the mid-afternoon of July 1, the Surprise anchored off Darnley Island in Torres Strait. Darnley Island had been selected as the starting point of the new mission field because it was the only island of which MacFarlane and Murray felt they had any reliable information.8 Darnley Island had a generally unsavory reputation among those familiar with the region of the Strait. One of the anchorages of the island was called Treachery Bay, and the natives of the island were described in the sailing directions of the day as treacherous and savage. It would appear that they achieved much of that reputation after having quarrelled with some white sailors of a passing ship who had washed their clothes in the only pool of drinkable water the island possessed. The population of the island, which had at one time been about five or six 7 A. W. Murray, Forty Years' Guinea, New York, 1876, p. 447.

Mission

Work

in Polynesia

and

N'eiv

8 Ibid., p. 448. MacFarlane's work already cited does not agree with Murray's about the dates of the voyage, but as MacFarlane's account is confused on these details, while Murray is generally most careful about all of his facts, it has seemed wise to select the latter as authority here.

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

6l

hundred, had declined in the years shortly before the coming of the missionaries until it was little more than one hundred and twenty. 9 As indicated, the mission to New Guinea was planned to begin on the islands of Torres Strait, and MacFarlane and Murray soon got to work making contact with the natives. This was not always easy, for many of the previous contacts of the natives with whites had had unpleasant results. The missionaries usually made first contact with the natives by rowing to the shore and holding out to them the usual collection of trade goods such as beads, pieces of red cloth and other things to attract the eyes of the natives. Once ashore, there was a variety of wonders with which they held the natives' attention and attracted their admiration, such as the opening and closing of an umbrella, the passing about of a ticking watch, and wonder of wonders, the removal of shoes and display of feet. Having won the natives' willingness to see and hear them again, the missionaries' visits were repeated, and after two or three of them, some of the natives were invited to visit the ship and were given a good meal. Gradually the purpose of the visitation would be explained to them, and their consent won to the stationing of native teachers among them. In addition, promises were usually exchanged that the teachers would be cared for and protected and that the white men would return soon for further display of prowess. 10 In this manner two native teachers were placed on Darnley Island, though Murray remarks that it was not done without difficulty. 11 From Darnley Island, Murray and MacFarlane proceeded to nearby Warrior Island where they were fortunate enough to meet Captain Banner, whose words had had much to do with bringing the missionaries to the area. They had expected that they might be able to reach him there. Captain 9 Ibid., p. 450-451. Murray ascribes this decline in the native population to contact with whites of " abandoned character ". 10 MacFarlane, op. cit., pp. 31-36. 11 Ibid., pp. 450-451-

62

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Banner told them that Dauan Island would be a good station for some teachers. Since the waters were not surveyed beyond Warrior Island, the captain of the Surprise refused to take them further, and the missionaries placed their native charges on Dauan Island from open boats. Four teachers were left there, two for Dauan and two for the nearby Saibai Island. Captain Banner promised that he would keep a watchful eye on them.12 Murray and MacFarlane then sailed eastward toward the mouth of the Fly River. On their journey there they encountered two of the teachers whom they had left a short while before on Dauan Island. They had fled from the island in terror with their wives, and were very much afraid that the other two couples had been killed by the natives of the island. There was a bitter and graphic tale of a night of terror on the island. Huddled on the flood of their hut in prayer, they could hear in the distance the shouts and screams of the natives and angry voices raised in argument, argument which they never doubted involved their own fate. With the coming of the morning they had managed to steal to their boat and away from the island, but they feared for the lives of their companions. MacFarlane immediately hastened to Dauan, and found the remaining teachers alive and well. The trouble had been due to the pillaging of the village by the crew of a passing vessel, and the natives had been aflame with the desire for revenge upon the whites or anyone connected with them. That the lives of the teachers had not been taken was due to the arguments and resistance put forward by the elder of the village who had given his word to MacFarlane that the teachers left there would be safe. He had managed to keep his word. Two others volunteered to take the place of those who had fled and who had no desire for further stay on Dauan. 13 12 Ibid., p. 454. 13 The policy of placing native teachers among the native villagers in N e w Guinea was criticized by Captain Moresby. H e felt that many of the teachers had an initial welcome simply because of the stock of trade goods

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

63

MacFarlane and Murray established the headquarters of the new mission field at Somerset near Cape Y o r k in Australia. W h e n MacFarlane felt that the task of opening the new field had been completed, he went to England on a furlough and left the field in Murray's charge. Gradually the number of villages with native teachers increased, first on the islands of the Strait near the New Guinea mainland and then on the mainland itself. Additional teachers came from the Hervey Islands and Samoa, constituting the first contact that most of the villagers had had with any aspect of white civilization. Murray was quick to take advantage for the Society of the fine harbor at Port Moresby discovered by Captain Moresby. H e opened a station with a native teacher there in November of 1873. 1 4 This new station became the center of the mission activity on the mainland when Reverend W . G. Lawes and Mrs. Lawes were transferred there by the Society in 1874. Lawes was a veteran of ten years in the South Pacific Mission field, years which he had served at Savage Island. 15 In 1872 he had gone to England on a furlough and on the voyage home had travelled with MacFarlane, w h o informed him of the new field being opened in New Guinea. While in England, L a w e s was asked by the Society to g o to N e w Guinea. H e was to spend the remainder of his active life there. Mr. and Mrs. Lawes were not the only additions to the Papuan mission area in 1874. MacFarlane's visit to England had been fruitful in other ways, for his stories of the work in the field and the possibilities opening there led a Miss Baxter w h i c h they had with them, and he observed that when this stock ran out and the teachers' supplies of provisions became depleted m a k i n g them dependent upon the natives for food, w e l c o m e ended and " painful scenes accordingly took place". In one or t w o instances he w a s able t o rescue the teachers from these painful scenes, and later was to write that he felt that missionary zeal occasionally outran prudence, and t o urge that teachers be placed only where they could be assured of a more constant support. Capt. John Moresby, R. N., Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, London, 1876, pp. 34-35.

14 King, op. cit., p. 64. 15 Ibid., p. 45.

64

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

of Dundee, Scotland, to present to the London Society the small steamer Ellangowan, of eighty-six tons, for the use of the new station. 16 While the Ellangowan was used chiefly for visiting the teachers scattered among the islands of the Strait and the mainland villages, it was to be an important aid in the exploration of much of the unknown coastline and in the opening of some of the interior by the ascent of unknown rivers. It was in the Ellangowan that the first penetration of any depth was made into the interior of Papua. In the days of the opening of the new mission, a teacher had been placed in the village of Katau, at the mouth of a small river of the same name on the western shore of the Gulf of Papua. From Katau the mission activity had spread west along the coast some sixteen miles further to the village of Boigu, and on a visit there MacFarlane heard from the natives of a great river that flowed into the Gulf some four miles to the west. MacFarlane, working for the expansion of the mission field and always on the lookout for areas of activity with a healthier climate than that on the coast, resolved to ascend the stream. In August, 1875, he sailed in the Ellangowan from Somerset, accompanied on the trip by Octavius C. Stone, F R G S . They found the mouth of the stream and entered it on September 1. The Ellangowan pushed up the river for some distance, until the stream was only ten yards wide. MacFarlane decided to discard the native name of the stream, MaiKassa, and he renamed it the Baxter, in honor of the donor of the Ellangowan.11 A few months later in the same year, MacFarlane and some companions made a much deeper penetration into the interior. The Ellangowan was used again for an ascent of the F l y River, 16 MacFarlane, op. cit., pp. 57-58. 17 Octavius Stone, " Discovery of the Mai-Kassa or Baxter River, N e w Guinea", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, X X (1875-76), 94-103; MacFarlane, Among the Cannibals, etc. (op. cit.), pp. 66-67; Luigi M. D'Albertis, New Guinea: What I did and what I saw, Boston, 1881, II, 1-2.

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

65

the largest river in New Guinea. In addition to MacFarlane, the party consisted of the Queensland Government's Police Magistrate on Thursday Island, H. M. Chester, and Luigi Maria D'Albertis, a young Italian naturalist who had been working and exploring in New Guinea for a number of years. 18 The trip started from the Cape York base on November 29, 1875, and on December 6, the Ellangowan pushed its bow into the waters of the Fly. MacFarlane picked up a couple of picturesque native characters at one of the villages en route to act as translators in case of encounters with native tribes up-river. One of these, a village head man by the name of Maino, boasted to the whites that he had killed and beheaded thirty-three men with his knife made of bamboo, and he took a grisly satisfaction in demonstrating his technique with that weapon.19 The party sailed more than 150 miles up the river, reaching the farthest point on the trip on December 14 at an island in the stream, which they named Ellangowan Island. On the following day, the head of the launch was turned downstream for the return trip. The ascent of the river had been uneventful. MacFarlane, on the qui vive for likely spots for the establishment of new mission stations, had seen none; the banks of the river seemed to have no populated villages, and the party on the Ellangowan had received a rather poor impression of the country through which they passed. The downstream trip, however, was not without incident. Despite the seemingly unpopulated nature of the country, they found when the propellor shaft of the launch cracked and they were hauled up for repairs, that the stream suddenly became dotted with canoes filled with warlike natives. A number of them seemed to be making concerted efforts to surround the vessel, and were only dispersed when some sticks of dynamite were thrown into the water near the canoes. Despite this incident, the trip was 18 For a full account of D'Albertis' activities in New Guinea, see his New Guinea: What I did and what I saw, mentioned above. 19 D'Albertis, op. cit., p. 17.

66

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

completed successfully and without loss of life either to the natives or to the members of the Ellangowan group. 20 D'Albertis had his interest fired by this first journey up the great river and made two other trips, penetrating on the second some five hundred miles upstream. 21 But the failure of the first trip to reveal any heavily populated areas up the stream, and the fear that the country along the river was generally unhealthy led the missionaries to feel that their activities should be confined to the villages along the seacoast, at least for the present. In 1877 the mission work on the Papuan coast was greatly strengthened by the coming to the field of the man who was to be the dominating personality there for many years. James Chalmers came there for a period of great mission work and exploration that was to end with his death at the hands of natives in 1901. Chalmers was born in Scotland in 1841. A t the age of fifteen he was led to the choice of a missionary career after hearing a letter from a missionary read at a church gathering, and from that time on he prepared himself for the mission field. His first assignment by the London Society was to the Hervey Islands in 1867.22 A s early as 1869 he showed interest in a prospective New Guinea mission, and asked for a transfer there so that he might help in the opening of that mission.23 He was not among those asked to go, but tells of his interest in New Guinea: . . . Then came 1871, when the directors of the London Missionary Society decided on extending their South Pacific field of operations to the great island of New Guinea, and Messrs. Murray and MacFarlane were asked to charter a 20Ibid., pp. 17-43; Samuel MacFarlane, "Ascent of the Fly R i v e r " , Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, London (1875-76), X X , 253-266. 21 D'Albertis, op. cit., pp. 45-34322 Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement 1901-11, pp. 343-345. 23 Cuthbert Lennox, James Chalmers of New Guinea, London, 1902, p. 28.

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

67

vessel, take a few teachers and proceed to that great land. In the Hervey Group the excitement was great, as we felt we might take part in that work . . . . . . . My dear old friend and fellow co-worker, the Reverend Dr. Gill, had arranged to go home on his first furlough in 1872, and we decided in committee to ask him to take a number of teachers in charge, and with Mr. Murray place them on the mainland of New Guinea.2,4 In 1872, Chalmers w a s offered a chance to g o to N e w Guinea b y the Directors of the Society, but his colleagues in the H e r v e y Group insisted that he w a s essential to the w o r k there, and he declined with a good deal of regret. 2 5 In 1877 he w a s able to accept another opportunity, however. H e sailed for Sydney, and f r o m there reached Somerset, met MacFarlane, and sailed for N e w Guinea on October 2. Chalmers joined L a w e s at P o r t Moresby, and f r o m then on the t w o men were to w o r k in collaboration for many years. Chalmers* instructions from the Society were that he w a s to open contact w i t h the natives and station teachers on the eastern tip of N e w Guinea and in the adjacent islands. 28 H e immediately undertook a survey of the islands near the South Cape, and of the coast f r o m the Cape westward towards P o r t Moresby. W o r k i n g in cooperation with MacFarlane,

whose

activities were being carried on in a slightly different area, Chalmers was the first white man to visit ninety of the 105 villages with which contact was made at this time. 27 B y the time that Chalmers felt that his instructions to open the area to the east had been carried out, he had made a complete survey of the coast from the China Strait to Hall Sound, the most thorough survey that had yet been made of that region. B u t 24 J a m e s Chalmers, Pioneer Life and Work in New Guinea, London, 1895, p. 21.

25 Lennox, op. cit., p. 28. 26 Ibid., p. 33.

27 Lovett, op. cit., I, 454.

68

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Chalmers was too much of the Livingstone stamp of missionary to be content with even these achievements in exploration. In 1879, he made a voyage lasting two months along the coast from Port Moresby to Bald Head, and had the honor of naming a great number of geographical features for the first time. The Coombes River, Ingham Hills, Annie River, Treachery Point, Orokolo Bay, the Sir Arthur Gordon Range, Mt. Chester, Mt. Gill, Mt. Alexander, Mt. Charlton were all features of New Guinea that were named on this trip. 28 Chalmers also recorded coming across the Purari River, the second largest river in N e w Guinea, a stream navigable by steam launch for a distance of some 120 miles. In addition, a number of heretofore uncharted reefs were found on this trip. Chalmers did not confine his efforts to the coast. H e made a number of attempts to penetrate into the interior of the country on foot or on horseback. H e was particularly active in this work in 1880, making a number of trips into the country in the hinterland of Port Moresby. H i s colleague of the Port Moresby station w a s able to write home at this time of Chalmers' activity, " the English flag has travelled farthest inland in the hands of the missionary ". 2 9 A f t e r a few years of work in the N e w Guinea field, Chalmers was more familiar with the coastal area to the east of the Gulf of Papua than any other man. H e seems also to have built up an extraordinary knowledge of and influence with the natives. H e travelled about among them unarmed, and was probably the best known figure on the coast. T h e natives could not cope with the name Chalmers, and transformed it into Tamate, and it was by that term that he was known to large numbers of the savages. 30 28 Lennox, op. cil., p. 47. 29 Ibid., p. 71. 3 0 T h e natives were not the only people to refer to Chalmers as Tamate. H e w a s widely k n o w n in mission circles by that name. Robert Louis Stevenson k n e w him affectionately by that name ( c f . The Letters of Robert Louis Stez'cnson, ed. Sidney Colvin, N e w York, 1899, II, 253).

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

69

W h i l e Chalmers did the bulk of the work in opening up the new mission stations and in developing contact with the native villages, Lawes stayed mainly in Port Moresby, supervising the general conduct of the mission. H e had charge of the so-called Malayan branch of the N e w Guinea field, a coastal region extending from Redscar B a y to China Strait. 3 1 Much of his time was devoted to the translation of Scripture and of other works into the Motuan tongue, the language of the Port Moresby area. It was Lawes w h o reduced Motuan to writing and printed the first sheet in that tongue on an amateur press from type he cut himself. T h e first two books in this tongue were reading lessons and an epitome of Old and N e w Testament history and some hymns. In all, Lawes wrote or translated into Motu selections from Scripture to make a book of 240 pages, a hymn book of 204 hymns, a catechism, a geography and an arithmetic book, an English-Motu dictionary and a grammar of

157

pages. 32 It was Chalmers and L a w e s who were the first white men to learn what the climatic and health conditions along the Papuan coast were really like, often at the cost of the health and sometimes of the life of their families. One thing they learned was that the coast was a food importing area. Accustomed as they were to the natural plenty of the Pacific islands, they found it at first rather difficult to realize that they were living in a foodimporting region. T h e Port Moresby area produced little to eat, and judging from the conditions of the natives, nothing to Chalmers' freedom of movement among the natives was criticized by some. C. A. W . Monckton, who worked among the natives for many years as a magistrate, called Chalmers a " man of particularly forceful character w h o was inclined to take unnecessary risks." (C. A. W . Monckton, S o m e Experiences of a New Guinea Resident Magistrate, London, 1921, p. 2 3 7 ) . This comment was certainly justifiable in view of the fact that Chalmers met his end at the hands of cannibals. 31 King, op.

p. 122.

32 Ibid., pp. 74 and 292.

70

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

wear. The natives near New Guinea traded with some of their fellows down the coast, purchasing the sago available in other areas by the sale of pottery cooking utensils that they made from the clays available near Port Moresby. The natives made annual voyages down the coast in pursuit of this trade, and Chalmers accompanied the Port Moresby fleet of native crafts on one of these expeditions. T h e London Missionary Society membership was drawn overwhelmingly from the English middle class. Founded as a non-sectarian organization, and eventually coming under the control of the Congregationalists, it had generally only rather limited contact with the ruling groups of nineteenth century English society. The establishment of the London Society's stations in Torres Strait and in New Guinea was not likely to attract as much attention in influential circles of British life as if the enterprise had been undertaken by the missionary establishment of the Church of England, for instance. Lawes and Chalmers were men known to hundreds of thousands of people in both England and Australia, and on periodic visits to Britain, they both addressed huge audiences, telling of the work and achievements of the missionary enterprise in New Guinea. But the audiences were drawn mainly from the ranks of the lower middle class of English life. 33 It was during the period when Lawes and Chalmers were working on the coast of New Guinea, and were contributing so much to the slowly accumulating knowledge of the great island, that the question of British annexation of the island came to the fore. The story of the development of the annexation issue is the main subject of this work, and its fuller telling will be found in the chapters to come, but it might not be amiss here to make some reference to the attitude of the missionaries on the annexation issue. I n general, the influence of the London Missionary Society was cast on the scales against annexation, chiefly on the ground 33 C. Gordon Brown, "Missions and Cultural Diffusion", The Journal of Sociology, Chicago, November, 1944. P- 2 1 5-

American

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

Jl

that the various projects for British annexation of New Guinea put forward from time to time gave insufficient consideration to the welfare of the natives of the island. O n one occasion when the question of the annexation had been raised in a paper read at the Royal Colonial Institute, Dr. Joseph Mullens, the Foreign Secretary of the Society, and the officer most familiar with its overseas work, stated his opposition to the annexation on the ground that native welfare would suffer. H e also believed that New Guinea offered no real opportunities for white settlement because of the unsuitability of the climate. 34 About the same time, the Chronicle of the Society, the official publication of the organization, was also expressing opposition. 81 Neither Chalmers nor Lawes, the men most familiar with New Guinea, were advocates of annexation, yet both seemed to have had some wish that Britain might annex the portion of the island in which they worked. Lawes kept to himself knowledge of the existence of some possibilities of gold mining near Port Moresby, for fear of a rush of lawless miners to the territory and consequent disputes between white miners and natives, disputes most likely to result in disaster for the natives. 88 A n d after the annexation had become an accomplished fact, Lawes stated that never by word or deed had he done anything to bring it about. 87 O n the other hand, Chalmers, in a speech on N e w Guinea delivered before the Royal Geographical Society in 1887, said that while the L. M. S. representatives had never taken any part in annexationist demands, as individuals " its agents in New Guinea have all along wished to see something done in this direction " and had hoped that the influence of Britain might be supreme on the island. 88 34 Proceedings

of the Royal Colonial Institute,

35 The Chronicle

0} the London Missionary

1874-75, V I , 144-145.

Society,

1875, p. 250.

36 King, op. cit., pp. 157-162. 37 R i c h a r d Lovett, James Chalmers, 38 Proceedings

N e w Y o r k ( n o d a t e ) , pp. 260-261.

of the R. C. /., 1886-87, X V I I I , 102.

72

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Not all the missionary influence, however, was neutral to the idea of annexation. T h e Reverend W y a t t Gill, who had worked for some years in the Hervey Islands and had escorted one of the early groups of native teachers to N e w Guinea from those islands, 39 was an early advocate of British attention to the island. O n January 28, 1873, he wrote to the Hon. George Alfred Lloyd, Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales, urging that British and colonial authorities keep a w a r y eye on New Guinea. Gill was careful to state that he wrote as an individual and not as a representative of the London Society. He pointed out that New Guinea was nearer to the continent of Australia than was Tasmania, and that while the latter was separated from the continent by a deep sea strait, N e w Guinea was in some ways linked to the mainland by the reefs and islands. A naval base established by a foreign power anywhere in the southeastern area would be a constant threat to the security of Australia. Gill urged that N e w Guinea be opened further by missionary and commercial enterprise, and that during the period of this opening, everything short of war be done to keep foreign powers, especially Germany, from getting a toehold on the island. 40 T h e influence of the missionaries of the N e w Guinea area, however, is not measured so much by their words as by their simple presence on the island, as pioneers of the influence of western European civilization which, after lapping so long at the shores of New Guinea, was now beginning to penetrate into the interior of the island. T h e cause they consciously represented was that of the Christian faith, but they carried more than that with them to N e w Guinea. Bearers of the good tidings of the faith, they bore with them also all the potentialities for good and ill that contact with European civilization held in store for the natives of the island. T h e commencement of the missionary activity was an adventure for the mission39 M u r r a y , op. cit., pp. 466-67. 40 K i n g , op. cit., pp. 158-59. Cf. a l s o Proceedings cal Society, 1875-76, X X , 354.

of the Royal

Geographi-

MISSIONARIES

OPEN

NEW

GUINEA

FRONTIER

73

aries, but it was the beginning of an even greater adventure for the natives. For the missionary was carrying forward the work to which he had dedicated his life, but the native was willynilly forced to make great adjustments in the patterns of life that had been his and his fathers for countless ages. The natives began their great adventure under the good aegis of the missionaries, but the missionaries were the frontiersmen of forces they could not control. By their work they contributed to the increase of interest in New Guinea in distant lands, and such interest was not confined to the godly.

CHAPTER IV THE GROWTH OF AUSTRALIAN AWARENESS OF THE PACIFIC UP to the time of the beginning of settlement in Australia, British interests in the Pacific had not come into any real focus. T h e y had remained largely sporadic and exploratory: no definite trade or strategic policy had been developed and followed. T h e extension of British trade in Indonesian-Chinese waters was the only definite trade policy pursued; for the rest of the vast Pacific, it was only the stimulus of occasional war that turned British interest in that direction. T h e first English voyage into the Pacific was that of Francis Drake in the expansive Elizabethan age, carrying English seapower into the waters that heretofore had been secure for the Spaniards. In the early eighteenth century it was again war, the W a r of the Spanish Succession, that brought British seamen into the Pacific once more, sailing as privateers along the western coast of South America. T h a t the British imagination was stirred by these contacts with the Pacific is suggested by the fact that the great trading company organized in 1 7 1 0 and given a monopoly of British trade along the west coast of South America, among other areas, w a s called the South Sea Company. The " South Sea Bubble " exploded, however, without the Company ever having sent a vessel to the Pacific. It is indicative of the general lack of knowledge of the Pacific in England about this time that in 1726 Swift was able to wreck Lemuel Gulliver deep in the inland heart of South Australia, and later send him sailing blithely through N e w South Wales on one of his voyages. Following the close of the Seven Years' W a r , the great voyages of Cook in the latter third of the eighteenth century dissipated much of the general ignorance about the Pacific and did much to fix Pacific geography with some exactitude. It was the first of these voyages that in 1770 revealed the possibilities of 74

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

75

settlement along the eastern coast of Australia. The loss of the American colonies created a need for a new site for the transportation of British convicts from the crowded prison hulks, and the first Australian settlements were established in New South Wales in 1788. From that time, British interest had a definite focus, and British power had a pivotal point in the Pacific. The interests of the new settlement, however, were not allowed precedence over certain established British interests which, while not centering in the Pacific area, did impinge upon it. New South Wales lay within the area of the monopoly of the British East India Company, and no British trader could send goods to the new settlement without running afoul of the monopoly and risking seizure by John Company's vessels. 1 The instructions given to Captain Arthur Phillip, the commander of the first fleet to sail for Australia and the first governor of the new colony, required him to exercise due vigilance to see that no vessels were constructed in New South Wales that would be capable of seafaring voyages which might trespass upon the trade routes reserved for the Company. 2 Phillip's instruction also defined his area of authority as governor of the new settlement. His power was not confined to the new colony itself, but extended to all of the adjacent islands within the latitudes of i o ° 37' S and 43 0 39' S. 3 Britain did not lay claim to all of the Australian continent, but only as far as the 135th meridian of west longitude. Phillip's commission cannot be described as a modest assertion of British power, however, for this claim included just about half of the continent of Australia and " all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean ". These early extensive oceanic claims, however, were not built upon The history of the Australian colonies came to be primarily a story of continental exploration and expansion rather than the story of the creation of a great island domain. 1 H. R. A., Sydney, 1914, et seq., Series 1, vol. V I I , p. 823. 2 H. R. A., Series I, vol. I, p. 11. 3 C. H. B. E., vol. V I I , Part 1, p. 325, ftnote.

AUSTRALIAN

j6

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

T h e only areas east of New South Wales in which there was any early political interest were Norfolk Island and New Zealand. Norfolk Island, lying some eight hundred miles east of Australia between N e w Caledonia and New Zealand, was annexed in 1788, at the time of the settlement at Port Jackson. For some time a small penal settlement was maintained on the island. T h i s settlement was terminated in 1814, but was reestablished some eleven years later as a place of exile for the incorrigibles of the New South Wales penal institutions. It continued to be the melancholy Devil's Island of the Australian penal settlements until the ending of the transportation of criminals in the 1840's. 4 Interest in New Zealand was just about as intermittent. T h e Governors of New South Wales had certain supervisory powers over activities there, 8 and in general maintained a reasonably watchful eye on the two islands, but it was not until 1840 that New Zealand was annexed to the British Empire. T h e history of early Australia is certainly not to be found in these sporadic manifestations of interest in the islands of the Pacific, but rather in the exploration and development of the continent. A f t e r the mountain barrier to the west of the initial settlements had been broken through, the exploration of the continent got well under way, and following the explorers came the squatters and miners. Despite the rather natural concentration on continental development, however, there were some early non-political contacts with the Pacific islands other than Norfolk Island and N e w Zealand. These contacts were naturally of a limited and cursory nature. Many of the early ventures of English mission societies, such as that of the London Missionary Society, used Sydney as a sort of jumping off point for their Pacific island enterprises, and they turned to the settlement there as a base of supplies. Other emissaries from Sydney were of a less desirable nature. F r o m there a number of convicts escaped to 4 Ibid.,

p. 327.

5 Ibid.,

pp. 327-328.

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

77

the islands. Whalers operating in the South Pacific also touched at the islands frequently for the replenishing of water supplies, for refitting, and occasionally to " r e c r u i t " natives from the islands to fill out the rosters of depleted crews. W i t h these contacts there sprang up a rudimentary trade, frequently in either firearms or liquor, and with these goods in trade, many of the early contacts with the natives were of a most demoralizing nature. Soon a pattern of behavior became apparent which was to stain the history of great areas of the South Pacific. There began a long and melancholy story of the seizure of natives by whites, of cruelty and maltreatment, of many forms of exploitation, and in return, the efforts of the natives at retaliation, with the natives not unnaturally trying to wreak their vengeance on any white who came along. T h e contact between white and native was marked by the definite growth of lawlessness, and there early arose the problem of policing the islands and the whites who moved among them. In 1817, the British Parliament passed an act decreeing that offenses committed by British subjects in the islands of the South Pacific were to be dealt with as if they had been committed on the high seas. In further development of this sort of legislation, the British Government decided to make use of the judicial establishments that had been set up in Australia, and acts of 1824 and 1829 empowered the Supreme Courts of N e w South Wales and the newer settlement of V a n Dieman's Land to take cognizance of all offenses committed by British subjects in the Indian or Pacific oceans. 8 N o t all of the offenses against the natives committed among the islands were the work of British subjects, however, and even if the legislation of the British Parliament had brought Britishers under control—which it didn't—citizens of other nations were still without regulation. Natives seeking vengeance for their wrongs were not likely to possess sufficient legal punctilio to inquire into the vexed question of nationality before harpooning the ambushed white. T h e South Pacific, despite 6 Queensland Legislative Assembly, Votes and Proceedings, " Report of the Western Pacific Royal Commission ", p. 945.

1884,

II,

78

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

the law, continued in many w a y s to be a paradise for evildoers. T h e extension of British rule to N e w Zealand in 1840, and the French annexation of N e w Caledonia in 1853, did something to limit the areas of lawlessness, but the oceans were wide and unappropriated islands were many. But this oceanic and insular activity was peripheral to the growth of the Australian colonies. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the people of Australia were laying the foundations for the later development of a national consciousness. Even while the settlers were still thinking of themselves as transplanted Britons, the process of closing the entire area of the Australian continent to foreign settlement was going forward. That Britons at home and in Australia were determined to rule the entire continent was indicated clearly by the scattering of settlements around the long coastline against the possibility of foreign states establishing a beachhead anywhere. Penal stations were established along the coast north of Sydney at Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay, Norfolk Island was reoccupied after a lapse of years, and as noted in a previous chapter, settlements were established on the northern coast with one eye on the Dutch moves in that area. A l o n g the southern coast, settlements were established in the Port Phillip Bay area, from which grew the later colony of Victoria, and about the same general time, settlements were opened toward the central portion of the south coast from which was later formed the colony of South Australia. In 1829, a settlement was inaugurated on the Swan River in southwestern Australia. The whole continent was being staked out. In the exclusion of foreign settlement from the continent, the beginnings are to be seen of a national consciousness which would eventually extend to the entire continent. W i t h the line of British settlements ringing the coast, and with the advance of the line of the frontier further into the great interior of the continent, a vast imperial domain was slowly shaping for British power in the Pacific, and the imagi-

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

79

nations of Britons in Australia stirred to the possibilities of greatness in the future. One of the early indications of the growth of pride in their life and land which was shown by the people of Australia was the demand for the cessation of the transportation of British criminals to the colonies. This demand came chiefly from the people who had come as free immigrants to Australia, and who, having made their home there, were anxious to wipe out the stigma of convictism from the land, and to make life for free labor more attractive by removing the competition of convict labor from the labor market. The demand for the ending of transportation was not universal, for many employers desired the continuation of the convict labor supply, but with the growing number of free immigrants and the increasing demand for greater freedom of government for the colonists, it was more and more clearly realised that there was a fundamental incompatibility between the existence of penal settlements and institutions and the granting of free governmental institutions. The people of the colonies had to choose, and the choice generally was for free institutions and the abolition of transportation. This decision was aided and abetted by many in Britain. Transportation had long been opposed there on humanitarian grounds, and in 1838 a Select Parliamentary Committee recommended the abolition of transportation. This abolition was put into effect for the eastern portion of the Australian mainland two years later. The period of the debate on this issue and the subsequent abolition of transportation is also the period of the extension of political liberties to the Australian people. B y 1830, the British Government had granted to the colonists freedom of the press, trial by jury, and the creation of a legislative council of local citizens to advise the colonial governor, and two years after the ending of transportation, institutions of representative government were established in New South Wales. The year 1 8 5 1 is a turning point in the history of Australia, for in that year gold was discovered in southeastern Australia,

8o

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

and the tempo of colonial development became greatly accelerated. In the decade of 1 8 5 1 - 6 1 , £124,000,000 worth of gold was mined and the population of the colonies increased from 450,000 to 1,168,000. The immigration of hundreds of thousands of persons to Australia, and the necessity of meeting the needs of the gold fields, greatly improved both external and internal communications and transport. The first railroads in Australia were constructed in the decade of the 1850's, and at the same time there was much discussion of a trans-Pacific steamship line running to Panama to connect with the transIsthmian railroad. Despite the difficulties of the squatters in maintaining anything like an adequate labor force for pastoral activities against the attraction exerted by the gold fields, the basic export of the colonies, the wool clip, continued to grow in value during the gold rush decade. The rapid economic development of the period was closely paralleled by political advances. The growing stature of two offshoots of the original colony of New South Wales was recognized when Victoria, in the southeastern corner of the continent, was separated from New South Wales in 1 8 5 1 and given a separate status, and when Queensland, to the north of New South Wales, attained similar separation in 1859. New South Wales and the two newer colonies the British system of responsible parliamentary government was also established in the decade of the 1850's. This meant that the policy-making power of the government of the colonies in domestic matters was to be in the hands of a cabinet of ministers responsible to a popularly elected legislative body. With all these stimulating developments in the life of the people of Australia, it is not to be wondered at that some of them with senses more attuned to possibilities of the future saw a great destiny for Australia as the center of a southern Pacific empire. Henry Parkes, of New South Wales, who was to play such a monumental part in the creation of federation among the Australian colonies themselves, gave voice to this feeling

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

8l

when he spoke at the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1858 of the prospect of Australia and New Zealand connecting themselves with the islands of the Pacific, " which were destined to yield to the waves of European civilization ever rolling in upon their shores ". T Nor was Parkes alone in this. One of the outstanding personalities of New South Wales was the Presbyterian clergyman, Rev. J. D. Lang, for many years the virtual leader of the intellectual life of the colony and certainly one of its most important figures. In 1852, the second edition of his Historical Account of New South Wales, first published in 1837, expressed the author's opinion that if Australia were united under one rule and given its freedom, New Zealand would join Australia, New Guinea would be occupied, and one by one the islands of the Pacific would be colonized and eventually annexed.8 If there was interest aroused in some quarters about the great future offered by the Pacific to the people of Australia and New Zealand, there was even more intense concern with the security of Australia from the threats offered by the coming of non-British peoples into the Pacific areas and into the islands adjacent to Australia. The more active colonial policy followed by France during the Second Empire led to the annexation of New Caledonia in 1853, some ten years after the first French Catholic missionaries had set up their mission stations on that island. This placed a foreign power some eight hundred miles from the city of Brisbane, the capital of the colony of Queensland. Norfolk Island had been annexed to New South Wales at the founding of Australian settlement for reasons of security, and that was further from Sydney than this new French possession from Brisbane. With Britain in alliance with France against Russia in the Crimean War, there was no real chance of getting France out of her new possession, and there arose a fear 7 C. H. B. E„ V I I , Part I, 3438 ]. D. Lang, A Historical Account of New South Wales, London, 1852,

II,

S63.

82

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

in the colonies that France might some day be able to use her new base against the security of the trade of the colonies or against the colonial coastline itself.9 Further, not only was New Caledonia in French hands, but France put it to the use most likely to be offensive to Australian opinion. New Caledonia was turned into a penal colony, and Australians who had just emerged victorious from the long struggle with Great Britain to put an end to penal transportation were in no mood to relish the creation of a French penal colony on what they were beginning to regard as their own doorstep. 10 Between the years 1864 and 1880, more than 120,000 convicts were transported to New Caledonia from France. 1 1 T o a people who in their isolation in the South Pacific were coming to look upon that vast area as more or less their birthright and who were just opening their minds to the prospect of a great future which they believed might await them, the intrusion of French power came as a shrewd blow, and a blow made the more offensive by the penal settlement established by France. The sense of security of the Australians was shaken, and comfortable assurance had to give way to calculation and effort if the bright future in the Pacific were to be attained. It was in this context that the first positive indication of Australian interest in New Guinea was given in June of 1867. The march of settlement up the coast of Queensland, the growth of the pearl fisheries in the waters of northern Queensland and Torres Strait, and the opening of a Queensland government station and settlement at Somerset near Cape Y o r k which was to serve as a coaling station, a refuge for shipwrecked seamen and a base for pearling luggers operating in the area, all indicated that there might be a future worth watching in the northern regions. In Sydney a private group of business men formed an association called the New Guinea Company. The pur9 C. H. B. E., VII, Part 1, 34410 Stephen H. Roberts, History of French Colonial London, 1929, II, 511. 11 C.H. B. E., VII, Part 1, 344-

Policy—1870-1925,

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

83

pose of the Company was to explore N e w Guinea with a view to ascertaining its possibilities as a field for commercial and colonial enterprise. Since the enterprise had connotations of imperial expansion about it, the promoters applied to the Government of N e w South W a l e s for financial aid. Their representations stated that N e w Guinea was reputed to be rich in a variety of natural resources, and yet was almost completely unexplored; that the development of the wealth of N e w Guinea would add greatly to the wealth of Australia; and that with the growing importance of Torres Strait as a sea route the possession of New Guinea became of increasing strategic importance to Australia. T h e Colonial Government did not feel itself in a position to give aid to the contemplated venture, but did pass the prospectus of the promoters along to the Colonial Office of the British Government. T h e reception of the project there was chilling. In a despatch of September 14, 1867, the Duke of Buckingham, Colonial Secretary, not only refused to give any countenance or support to the project, but said further that those who embarked on it could not look to the Imperial Government either for aid or assistance, or for any confirmation of titles to land they might acquire by purchase or other means in New Guinea. T h e project died. 12 The next scheme for the commercial exploitation of N e w Guinea was conceived by bolder spirits, who were not likely to be deterred by the frowns of the Colonial Office nor by any other obstacles which might appear in their path. In 1871-2 a a group of some seventy young men in Sydney banded together in the formation of the N e w Guinea Prospecting Association. A s the title indicates, their primary purpose was a voyage to N e w Guinea in search of gold. A story noised about by sailors of a vessel in N e w Guinea waters of gold having been seen in native pottery, had excited their imaginations. 13 Other possi12 N e w South W a l e s Legislative Assembly, Votes and Proceedings, 76, II, 45-46; British Sessional Papers, 1876, vol. 54, C. 1566, p. 27.

1875-

1 3 W . W y a t t Gill, " T h r e e V i s i t s t o N e w Guinea", P r o c e e d i n g s of Royal Geographic Society, 1873-74, X V I I I , 46.

the

84

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

bilities for gain through trade with the natives, or through purchase of land, were not overlooked, but it was chiefly a sort of filibustering expedition in search of quick riches. The expedition was organized with recklessness and abandon. As they were short of capital for the venture, cheapness was the chief desideratum in the purchase of a vessel, and the promoters acquired an old American-built brig, the Maria, of some 167 tons. The Maria may have been a very sturdy vessel in her youth, but years of knocking about the oceans of the world had strained her timbers and destroyed much of her sea-worthiness. At the time of her purchase by the adventurers she was employed in carrying coal from the New South Wales mining center of Newcastle down to Sydney. In their anxiety to get away, the members of the expedition were in a mood to accept any vessel that was offered, and further, the Maria was cheap. With the companions of the voyage crowded on board, the Maria sailed from Sydney on January 25, 1872. The ship and company had some difficulty in clearing the customs because of the fear of the customs officials that the vessel was overloaded with passengers, but after some dickering and negotiating that obstacle was overcome. Then it developed that the captain, with a discretion becoming his experience, had resigned from the post, and the Maria was left without a commander. In hot haste he was replaced by the Chief Officer, a Mr. Stratman, without any real inquiry into the qualifications of the latter to hold a position of command, and the voyage at last got underway, with a ship's company of sixtysix of the adventurers of the Association, three ship's officers, a doctor, a storekeeper and four seamen. The adventurers were to help with the manning of the vessel. Once out of Sydney Harbor, the vessel encountered only a slight breeze, and for three days the Maria sailed slowly to the north. Then even that slight measure of fortune left it and the vessel ran into contrary winds and then into a dead calm. Eventually, about February 4, some favorable winds of good

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

85

velocity were encountered, and the Maria sped on its way. These winds stayed with it for about nine days and only about two more days of good sailing would have carried the company to New Guinea shores. But on February 13, the wind shifted to the northwest and the weather began to freshen up considerably, and in the worsening sea the Maria began to break up. Some of the masts came down, and several members of the company had curiosity enough to see just how rotten they were. A knife pushed into them, they found, could be thrust right up to the hilt in the wood without any difficulty. Soon some of the bulwarks of the vessel were swept away in the mounting seas and the monsoon wind. The gale continued until the 15th, but the ship's company had managed to make a few repairs, and rig some new rigging for the sails. The next day, however, the tempestuous waters carried away the tiller and the rudder head of the ship, and from then on she had to be steered with a rigged block and tackle. After five days of this sea turmoil, some of the members of the expedition were not unnaturally willing to let the gold of New Guinea await a more propitious moment, and a number of them approached the captain with the suggestion that he head the ship for the nearest port. The captain polled the members of the expedition, and the decision was rendered to get into one of the Queensland ports. On the 20th and 21st, the weather had moderated considerably, but the decision to head for port was adhered to, and by February 25th the Maria was in the region of the Great Barrier Reef, that long strip of jagged coral that skirts the coast of Queensland twenty miles off shore for the length of a thousand miles. The Reef was altogether too much for the captain, and the next day the Maria ran on the rocks. With a swiftness that does credit to his sense of self-preservation if not to his courage and sense of duty, the captain unshipped the whaleboat, took with him most of the ablebodied seamen, and told the unhappy adventurers that he was going in search of assistance.

86

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

On the now rapidly disintegrating vessel, the chief officer left in command was trying desperately to supervise the building of rafts before the ship foundered and sank beneath them, but he was so excited and distraught that to most of the adventurers, only too willing to be of all assistance possible, the barked commands that he gave were well-nigh unintelligible, and it was a case of every man for himself. Two rafts of a sort were eventually lashed and nailed together, and then plunged into the sea. Thirteen of the company managed to get aboard one, and twelve on the other. The remainder took to the two remaining boats. Instead of staying with the rafts to give them what support and aid they could, those in the boats pulled briskly away, leaving those on the rafts to their fate. The Maria had foundered close enough to the shore for all to have been saved had there been a little intelligence displayed, but intelligence would have been a novel element in this voyage. The rafts could not, of course, direct themselves, and they drifted about completely at the mercy of wind and water. On the second night out the larger raft capsized, and one of its small band was lost. This was to happen on two subsequent occasions with the same toll of life. But for those who were not drowned there were other fates in store. The strain proved too much for some, and three of the company eventually went mad. After three days and nights, the larger raft reached the Queensland shore where some eight of the survivors were cared for by the aborigines who found them, and were eventually rescued by vessels under the command of Captain John Moresby, R. N. Some of the others were not as fortunate as those on the larger raft. The fleeing captain and two of his boat's crew reached the coast, but encountered unfriendly natives and were killed. Of the smaller raft's complement, the bodies of eight of the original twelve were found by members of the crew of Moresby's ship, the Basilisk, on the Queensland shore. They

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

87

natives. 14

too had been killed by the Many members of the venture were never heard from again. A marine board of inquiry meeting in Brisbane reached the not unnatural conclusion that the captain of the Maria was quite unfit for the post he held. 15 The fate of this expedition certainly pointed to the need for further knowledge of the shores of New Guinea and its adjacent waters. And to Captain Moresby, engaged in surveying voyages along the coast of New Guinea at the time, the Maria expedition was one more proof among many " that Australian instinct points to the possession of this great island ". 18 Shortly after the failure of this venture, and during the time when Moresby was pursuing his surveys of the New Guinea coast, British policy in the Pacific embarked upon a new course. Previous policy in the Pacific had been to annex only such territory as was available or acceptable for purposes of white colonization, and to leave strictly alone such territory as was heavily inhabited by natives or too inhospitable in climate for permanent white settlement. In 1874 that policy was abandoned momentarily, and the Fiji Islands were annexed. The Fiji group consists of some two hundred islands, only two of which are of any considerable size. They are about fifteen hundred miles distant from Sydney and a thousand miles from New Zealand. A native chief had been recognized by the powers as king of the islands, but in 1858 some difficulties with the United States Government led the reigning chief, Thakombau, to offer to cede the islands and their sovereignty to the British Crown. The offer had few attractions, and a special investigator sent out by the Colonial Office recom14 T h e story of the voyage of the Maria is told by one of the members of the expedition in the Nautical Magazine, London, September, October, November, 1872, and January, 1873. Captain Moresby, in his Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, London, 1876, tells of the rescue of some of the survivors (pp. 38-48). 15 Nautical Magazine, London, July, 1872, p. 633. 16 Moresby, op. cit., p. 48.

88

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

mended its rejection. The investigator's report was strengthened by the urging of the then Governor of New South Wales, who feared that annexation, which might lead to a rush of white settlers, would precipitate a war of races. But white settlers went to the Fijis, annexation or no. The settlers included British, American and Germans, who turned their attention to the growing of plantation crops, including cotton, for which there was a ready market during the period of the American Civil War. The native Fijians, however, were not amenable to the discipline of the plantation system, and as a consequence the planters began the importation of native laborers from the New Hebrides. Thus it was that the question of annexation of Fiji became involved with the labor question. In all of the history of the contacts between white and dark races in the Pacific, there are few more dolorous pages than those which tell of the recruiting of native labor from the Pacific Islands, and of the conditions under which the labor worked in the plantation systems of the Fiji Islands and the Australian colony of Queensland. This recruiting had a great many antecedents, for there had never been an ample supply of labor at any time during the opening of the Pacific areas. In Australia, the practice of assigning convicts to work for the squatters had been one attempt at a solution of the problem of the scarcity of labor; and in the Fiji Islands, in the early days of plantation settlement there, natives who defaulted on their tax payments had been assigned to plantation labor, and in addition, some of the island chiefs sold their subjects into plantation serfdom. 17 But these devices had not been particularly successful, and moreover in Australia the ending of penal transportation brought the exploitation of convicts to a halt. The planters both in Fiji and Australia then turned to the use of native labor, obtained from the scattered islands of the ocean. 17 Stephen Roberts, Population 208.

Problems

of the Pacific, London, 1927, p.

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

89

The use of this labor for other purposes had been an established thing long before there was any real plantation agriculture in the Pacific regions. Whaling vessels operating among the islands had recruited labor in the early portion of the century to fill depleted crews. And in the decade of the i84o's, this island or Kanaka labor, as it was beginning to be called, was used in New South Wales for the shepherding of increasing flocks of sheep. T h e experiment was not a successful one, however, for the native boys showed no aptitude for the work. 18 With the growth of cotton cultivation both in Fiji and Queensland, the need for labor capable of working in tropical climates became most acute, and it was not long before there came into use a number of small ships to voyage to island groups such as the New Hebrides, there to obtain natives for work on the plantations of Fiji and Queensland. The first native labor was introduced into Queensland by the recruiting ship Don Juan, which arrived in Brisbane in August, 1863, with a cargo of eighty Kanakas. They were easily disposed of among the plantations, and by 1868 there were approximately a thousand of the native laborers scattered among the Queensland sugar farms. 19 The first groups of the island laborers were introduced into Fiji in 1864, and it was not long before there was a brisk market for these natives in both Queensland and Fiji. 2 0 18 Myra Willard, History 1923. PP- 14-15-

of the White Australia

Policy,

Melbourne,

19 H. T. Easterby, The Queensland Sugar Industry, Brisbane, 1933, p. 6. 20 The native laborer employed on the Queensland plantations worked as an indentured servant. He was usually hired for a three year period, and during the years of his employment received wages of about £6 per year, which was just about double the amount which similar labor received in Fiji. In addition, the laborer received his maintenance, which was estimated to cost the plantation owner about £21 per year. The cost of employing such labor also included the original payment to the " recruiter" for bringing the labor from the islands to the Queensland ports. A recruiter could usually get about £12 per head for labor which it had generally cost him about £3 to recruit or kidnap. Despite the frequent inefficiency of Polynesian

go

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

Soon after the development of the labor traffic, ugly rumours of the methods and practices of those who sought out the laborers in their island homes began to filter into the ports of Australia. It was in its very nature a traffic which attracted to it the riff-raff and scum of the ports, and the methods used to induce the Polynesians to abandon their homes and come to work on plantations in strange and distant lands had few points of difference from outright kidnapping or from the practices of the old slavers of the African coast. Even under the best of conditions, and run by the noblest of men, the traffic would have produced conditions under which it would have been almost impossible to prevent the natives from being grossly deceived. T o most of the Polynesian islanders the idea of sustained labor was unknown, and the concept of selling their labor and services for a period of three years would have been certainly most difficult to grasp even with the best of interpreters to aid them. But when the recruiting boats came with no interpreters, and when there were men who believed that holding up three fingers was an adequate means of conveying to the natives the three year period for which their services were desired, injustice was implicit. And it was only the more decent practitioners of the recruiting trade who bothered to hold up three fingers. T o the more notorious men of the trade, all that was superfluous nonsense, and their idea of recruiting labor consisted simply of going in and kidnapping it. In the naive curiosity of the natives they had at first a potent ally. T h e vessel anchoring near the shore of a native island was almost certain to attract a number of canoes, and sooner or later a sufficient number of the natives could be enticed on to the vessel, then down into the hold, and with the hatches battened down over an unhappy cargo, the vessel would sail away. If the natives were not to be lured on board by any of the usual labor, it was considerably cheaper to the planter than white labor, which generally got £40 plus maintenance. Such maintenance, moreover, had to be considerably better than that which sufficed for the Polynesian. Ibid., pp. 6 & 128.

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

9I

devices and attractions of a few cheap trade goods dangled before their eyes, then there was always the more direct method of simply staving in their canoes, hauling the floundering passengers aboard the recruiting ships and stowing them in the hold. With the ship crowded with its unwilling cargo, officers and crew were sitting on a barrel of explosive. Fearful of rebellion, nerves taut with the anxiety of the voyage, they would frequently meet any spark or symptom of resistance from below decks with the most violent repression. Narrow hatchways were opened and gunfire poured into the holds. On some occasions, fights among the natives themselves would entail a toll of death, for frequently crowded together in the same holds would be natives from tribes with longstanding records of enmity and violence between them, and they would carry their feud with them into the servitude that held them both. It was not long before the missionaries scattered among the islands began to make protests against the iniquities of the trade which was doing so much to destroy the achievements of their work. The Reverend Joseph Mullens, Secretary of the London Missionary Society, on April 6, 1869, wrote to Lord Granville, then Colonial Secretary, The evil is one of no mean magnitude, and so eager have been the promoters of this new form of slavery to get advantage over others, that the very existence of several of the South Seas missions is imperilled by their proceedings.21 Mullens begged the Colonial Secretary that in some way the natives be taken under the protection of law, and they be given strong and sufficient safeguards against their kidnappers. Out on the islands themselves, the missionaries sought the assistance of the Royal Navy against the traffic. For example, the Reverend James McNair, missionary on the island of Eromanga in the New Hebrides, which was the scene of a great 21 British Sessional Papers, 1868-69, XLIII, " Correspondence relating to Importation of South Seas Islanders into Queensland ", pp. 37-38.

92

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

deal of the early labor trade, wrote to Commodore Lambert of the Australasian station of the N a v y , I shall look to you . . . to see that these poor natives be rescued . . . and safely returned to their native land, from which they have been so basely and so foully snatched by some of the lowest and most degraded of our countrymen. 22 The natives of the islands naturally took what reprisals they could against the whites who were despoiling them. In one of these reprisal efforts the widely known Bishop Patteson of the Anglican missions in the South Pacific was killed on one of the islands of the Santa C r u z group in 1871. T h e death of this wellknown churchman was rightly associated in both Australia and Great Britain with the evils of the labor traffic, and led to a general demand for legislation that would mitigate the evils of the trade. In 1872, the Imperial Parliament passed the first Pacific Islanders Protection Act. T h i s act made necessary a license from the Governor of one of the Australian colonies or from a British consular official for all vessels engaged in the labor trade, and further, it empowered the Supreme Courts of the Australasian colonies to punish any British subject who enlisted or decoyed a native against his will. 23 T h e traffic was not, however, of a nature to be easily amenable to such controls. T h e demand for labor in Queensland and elsewhere increased, and with the drying up of the New Hebrides as the principal source of the supply of labor, the recruiters extended their activities to more and more islands. Further, firearms were coming into the trade, for many of the natives were now going back to their homes after serving their three years' indenture, and very frequently a rifle was all they had in the way of goods to show for their labor. In other cases, recruiters would enlist the services of natives to help trap their fellows, and the barter for this delicate service would frequently be 22 Ibid., p. 20. 23Queensland Legislative Assembly, V. & P., 1884, II, "Report of the Western Pacific Royal Commission ", 946.

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

THE

PACIFIC

93

firearms. T h e British Government forbade the use of firearms as trade goods, but there were still a great many other nationalities in the business upon whom no such limitations had been placed. T h e missionaries, the bitterest foes of the labor traffic, were also among the most ardent proponents of the annexation of F i j i , for they saw in annexation some opportunity to bring the trade under effective control. 24 But there were other interests of a secular nature also still working for F i j i ' s annexation. Dr. L a n g in New South Wales petitioned that Colony to annex the islands on the plea that since they had been within the scope of Captain Arthur Phillip's commission as first governor of the Colony, the Colony would simply be reasserting an established claim. Further, an intercolonial conference meeting in Melbourne in 1870 passed a resolution in favor of British annexation of F i j i . T h e essence of the problem presented by F i j i , and later by other areas of the Pacific, was that white colonization or exploitation had outrun the power of the law. W i t h all kinds of opportunities for profitable development of the natural resources of the region and for exploitation of the native peoples, the islands beyond the law attracted unto themselves men who were frequently the scum of the oceans. T h e activities of such men tended to bring into danger and disrepute all orderly colonization or development, and made more dangerous the life of the missionary and of the peaceful and decent trader. T h e efforts to control such disreputable characters through legislation like the Pacific Islanders Protection Act of 1872 were obviously insufficient as long as such preventive and controlling measures were limited in their application to British subjects only. A n d indeed, the difficulties of enforcement failed to keep even these under control. T o all of this, the only adequate answer seemed to be annexation, the extension of British sovereignty so that 24 K . L. P. Martin, Missionaries

1924. P- 77-

and Annexation

in the Pacific,

London,

94

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

law could catch up with exploitation, and so that all peoples might be brought under the rule of law. It was those who lived just behind what we might call the frontier areas beyond the law, who called most loudly for the extension of law by annexation. T h e problem of F i j i was much more apparent to the peoples of Australia and N e w Zealand than it was likely to be to the people of Great Britain. In a discussion of the problem of the control of such areas impinging upon the borders of the Empire, the Sydney Morning Herald, on February 22, 1871, commented, The spread of the Colonial Empire involves one inevitable consequence—that beyond the limits of the Government of the Queen there will be regions touching closely upon them which present the spectacle of an English population without law. A t the Cape of Good Hope there seems to be a territory of this kind, and resulting from it no very remote probability of collision between the population and those beyond it. We have the Fijis as another example of colonies beyond the limits of British Government. The population, and interests connected with them, are rising into an importance so great that it is impossible they can long dispense with regular law. England has shown an indisposition to extend her colonial jurisdiction, and thus the people are left in circumstances which expose the subjects of the Crown to great danger, and even the maintenance of order to great risks. 26 W h e n the white settlers of F i j i formed their own government, N e w South Wales protested against the possibility of its recognition by the British Government, and urged annexation. T h e Earl of Kimberley, Colonial Secretary, replied that N e w South Wales might annex the islands if she wished, and if she would take the responsibility, but that Great Britain had little real interest in the area. " . . . it is principally on account of the Australian colonies that the affairs of the F i j i Islands are a 25 British Sessional Papers, 1871, X L V I I I , "Correspondence respecting South Sea Islanders", C. 399, p. 195.

AUSTRALIAN

AWARENESS

OF

matter of concern to this c o u n t r y . "

26

THE

PACIFIC

But the Colony

95

had

neither money nor troops for such annexation. Matters in the Islands g r e w more confused, and with the labor traffic evils reinforcing the demand for annexation, Kimberley decided in 1873 to make full enquiry into the matter. H e wrote, Her Majesty's Government are not only far from desiring any increase of British territory, but they would regard the extension of British sovereignty to F i j i as a measure which could in no case be adopted unless it were proved to be the only means of escape from evils for which this country might justly be held to be bound to provide an adequate remedy. 27 T h e naval officers w h o made the enquiry could see no reasonable alternative to British annexation, and British sovereignty w a s reluctantly proclaimed over F i j i in October of 1874. In

1875, a second Pacific Islanders Protection A c t

was

passed. T h i s act empowered the Government to exercise jurisdiction over British subjects w h o lived on Pacific islands not under the British C r o w n nor under the control of any civilized power. T h e r e w a s further established, for the purpose of enforcing the acts of 1872 and 1875, an officer called the H i g h Commissioner of the W e s t e r n Pacific, which job was combined with the post of Governor of F i j i . S i r A r t h u r Gordon w a s the first Governor of the F i j i Islands and the first H i g h C o m missioner of the W e s t e r n Pacific. T h e annexation of F i j i marked an intensification in imperialist rivalries in the Pacific area. T h e s e rivalries centered primarily around significant island groups such as the Samoan Islands, and, to a lesser degree, the H a w a i i a n Islands. Since the 1850's, there had been substantial German trading interests in the South Pacific, represented chiefly by the H a m b u r g

firm

of

Godeffroy. British annexation of the F i j i s l e d to a fear in Berlin of the loss of trading opportunities for these German interests, 26 C. H. B. E., VII, Part 1, 352. 27 Ibid.

96

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

and Berlin moved to give support to the German traders. Bismarck negotiated a series of trade treaties with some of the independent islands of the Pacific, such as the Tongan Treaty of 1876, and the Samoan Treaty of 1879, by which Germany obtained the promise of equal trade rights with other nations. In addition, Germany also secured a string of coaling stations extending from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to New Britain. In 1878, one year before the German Samoan treaty mentioned above, the United States secured a treaty of amity, extraterritoriality, and quasi-protection over certain of the Samoan Islands, and shortly after the German treaty, the British also secured a treaty granting them equal rights with other nations. In the Hawaiian Islands, lying much closer to continental United States, American trade and missionary interests had long been dominant, and in 1875 the United States Senate ratified a treaty giving the United States privileges in the islands which definitely made them an American sphere of influence. Succeeding administrations, following this treaty, continued a policy towards Hawaii which indicated that annexation was anticipated, though it was not to be hurried. It was in this atmosphere of increasing imperialist rivalry in the Pacific that the question of the annexation of Papua was brought to the fore.

CHAPTER V GROWING AUSTRALIAN INTEREST IN NEW GUINEA BEFORE the question of the annexation of the F i j i Islands had been settled, the issue of the annexation of the eastern portion of New Guinea had come to the fore. Interest in New Guinea was created, especially in the Australian colonies, by a number of new factors which were at work in the early 1870's. One of these, the establishment and development of the stations of the London Missionary Society in the islands of Torres Strait and on N e w Guinea itself, has already been commented upon, but it was not the missionaries alone who drew attention to N e w Guinea. The commercial and economic development of the Australian colonies had greatly expanded the flow of shipping around the seacoast of the continent, and an increasing amount of this traffic began to move through Torres Strait. Australian trade was overwhelmingly oriented toward Britain, and the development of the Torres passage provided what many hoped would be a better connection between Australia's eastern coastal towns and Britain. Furthermore, while the French settlements in New Caledonia might have provided eastern Australia with neighbors that were not altogether wanted, some thought nevertheless that the development of N e w Caledonia would also increase the flow of traffic through Torres Strait. In response to these needs, Governor George Bowen of Queensland sent out a number of exploratory expeditions seeking a site for a settlement near Torres Strait, and in 1862 a Queensland government station was established on Cape Y o r k , the northernmost tip of eastern Australia. Bowen said that this establishment was necessary because of the increasing volume of commerce of the region and he felt that the station " could not fail to extend the influence and prestige of Great Britain over the 97

98

AUSTRALIAN

FRONTIER

IN

NEW

GUINEA

1

Indian Archipelago " . The station was designed to give police surveillance to the Torres Strait waters, and to be of assistance to shipping passing through the Strait. In 1873, ^ e importance of Torres Strait as a maritime route was emphasized by the establishment of the first regular mail service route through the Strait. This was a steamship service connecting the eastern cities of Australia with Britain. It received a subsidy of £20,000 a year from the Queensland Government.2 With the establishment of this service, the Cape York station was moved to Thursday Island, one of the islands in Torres Strait, so that it might be located more directly near the line of commercial traffic. Another factor that called attention to the importance of Torres Strait and the adjacent lands was the development of the pearling industry there. The first pearling lugger started operation in Torres Strait waters in 1868 and the number of these little vessels increased with the passage of the years, until around 1881 there were something like 190 of them operating in the Strait. 3 Most of these pearling luggers operated out of Queensland ports and their operations naturally stimulated the interest of many Queenslanders in the northern waters. This increasing flow of commerce and the activities of the pearlers led to another voyage of survey of the still comparatively unknown waters and coastline of southeastern New Guinea. Under Admiralty orders, H M S Basilisk, commanded by Captain John Moresby, left Sydney on January 15, 1 8 7 1 , on the first of a series of survey voyages along the southeastern coast of New Guinea that did much to fix the details of that coastline on the map with precision. Moresby's surveys were under way at the time of the ill-fated Maria expedition, and 1 Sir George F. Bowen, Thirty 1889, I, 221.

Years of Colonial

Government,

London,

2 Queensland Parliamentary Debates, 1877, XXII, 266-275. 3 Queensland Legislative Assembly, V.