Decisión judicial sobre la sucesión solicitada

The advent of traders and missionaries, well

supplied with goods from the Western world, marked the 121

end of beachcomber predominance. Some stayed in remoter areas of the large island groups, while others moved to less frequented places. Matthew Hunkin and Henry Gibbons in Samoa tided over the period between beachcombing and village trading by becoming missionary

122

assistants, but few could emulate them. Whippy and

119

Transactions of the Missionary Society (London, 1804) , I, 24-6.

120

John Hunt, ’The Private Journal of John Hunt* , l4 June 1847j typescript in ML; John Hunt, Memoir of the

Reverend William Cross Wesleyan Missionary to the Friendly and Feejee Islands (London, 1846), 97 j G.C. Henderson, ed., The Journal of Thomas Williams Missionary in Fiji 1840-1853 (Sydney, 1931)> II, 4^5•

121

Symptomatic of the beachcombers’ rapid decline in influence was the collapse of the ’sailor religions’ in Samoa. The superior goods and equipment that the missionaries brought with them outclassed the

beachcombers immediately. 122

R.P. Gilson, Samoa 1830-1900: The Politics of a Multi-cultural Community (Melbourne, 1970), 142; A.W. Murray, op. cit., 173-6.

Cary in Levuka, and the foreigners who had followed Kamehameha I to Oahu in 1804, had already moved out of

the beachcomber milieu and were capable of, and willing

to become, members of beach communities. No

beachcomber had the means to prevent the islanders from turning to the missionaries and traders for explanations of the outside world and for the supply of the

increasing number of Western goods that had by now been assimilated into their culture.

During the beachcombers' period of influence and usefulness, however, a tenable and easy relationship was established between themselves and the islanders. The killing of foreigners was usually due to

differences or misunderstandings about concepts of behaviour, which had not yet been linked to doctrines

of race. To quote two instances among several, all but

Cary of the 0 eno crew were massacred when they

disputed the right of the visiting Ono chief and his 123

people to appropriate their property, ■ while

Rutherford* s companion in New Zealand was killed because the chief's mother had died after eating potatoes

pealed with the companion's knife, which had been 124

previously used by a slave. Generally, however, the

Europeans were hospitably and generously treated. Their idiosyncracies and ignorance were tolerated, while their skills and property were duly respected.

123

[william Cary], op. c i t ., l4-l8. 124

Insignificant in terms of numbers, the Europeans were forced to adapt many aspects of their conduct if they were to survive and succeed. To the islanders, secure in their own cultural assumptions, foreigners1 deviations from their norms of behaviour were a

reflection of their oddity and often stupidity. Given these premises the theory of Europe’s 'Fatal Impact’, in the persons of the beachcombers and later arrivals,

125

on the islanders is hard to substantiate. European guns and personnel were used for Polynesian and

Micronesian goals, while traders in b£che-de-mer, sandalwood and other island products found themselves dependent on the islanders to collect a cargo. Thus sandalwood traders in Fiji could not avoid involvement

-j ^

in the military aggrandizement of the chief of Bua. Similarly, the widespread fears of the bad influence

that beachcombers could and did exert, totally ignored the independence of action and decision which all

chiefs could exercise. It cannot be denied that grog selling and drinking, prostitution and underhand

practices characterized the behaviour of a number of beachcombers, but the chiefs had some control over it,

if they wished. In 1845 the foreigners at Viwa: 'became so uproarious and dangerous that the chiefs commanded some of the natives to tie them, which was done, and they were kept in that situation till they

125

Alan Moorehead, The Fatal Impact: an account of the invasion of the South Pacific 1767-1840 (London, 1966), 78-95.

126

127

became sober'. William Stevenson, ex-convict from New South Wales, became so alcoholic that Kamehameha I

n p O

deprived him of his still.

Further, there is at least one recorded case of the islanders corrupting Europeans. In 1811 the captain of a Northwest coast vessel in Honolulu harbour found that:

The natives surrounded the ship in great numbers with hundreds of canoes, offering us

their goods, in the shape of eatables and the rude manufactures of the island, in exchange for merchandize; but as they had also brought intoxicating liquors in gourds, some of the crew got drunk; the Captain was, consequently, obliged to suspend the trade, and forbade any one to traffic with the Islanders except

through the first mate.129

Whether addicted to alcohol or not, the

beachcombers were largely instrumental in the early processes of acculturation. Once Magellan had entered the Pacific, the advance of the West was inevitable. The beachcombers made no conscious attempt to change

island life, but their refusal to countenance cannibalism and ritual killing, their unpunished violation of the tapu system and the superiority of

their skills and property helped to accustom the

islanders to the demands and behaviour of more stable European groups, who came later.

127

j_Mrs M. Wallisj , Life in Feejee or Five Years among the cannibals (Boston, 1851), 107•

128

Archibald Campbell, op. cit., 146. 129

Gabriel Franchere , A Voyage to the North West Coast of America (Chicago, 195^)> 38.

Beachcombers who became completely absorbed into an island culture had a minimal, influence on their hosts, although Diaper, Charles Pickering and the many men like them, who were well-integrated into island life, still retained some skills and knowledge that the islanders could imitate. Outstanding beachcombers

like Young, Whippy and Robarts acted with responsibility towards their adopted people, introduced new ideas and skills among them, and explained many aspects of the incoming civilization. Few people visiting the islands at the time recognized the worth of such men, but

Turnbull, in Hawaii in 1803 was an exception. He wrote of their ’good conduct and character' and then

continued:

Fortunately, however, for these enterprising people, [the Hawaiians], they have now

resident among them several Europeans and Anglo-Americans, men of ability and knowledge;

such as Mr. Young, Mr. Davis, Captain Stewart, etc. etc. For twelve or fourteen years

before our visit, these gentlemen employed themselves successfully in instructing the natives...in many useful arts.130

The beachcombers’ role was not peculiar to the Pacific. Among the Red Indians in America, the

Aborigines in Australia and even among certain African tribes, during the early stages of Western penetration in each area, individual Europeans were assimilated and became mediators and interpreters between the cultures

John Turnbull, op. cit., 236. 130

131

involved. Before the pressures of Western

penetration became inescapable beachcombers and islanders created a. similar pattern in the Pacific.

The equilibrium, however, was not permanent. With the

arrival of more Europeans, still strongly rooted in their own culture and with greater claims to make on the islanders, the balance of power and interest was

to swing inevitably into their hands. But to the

beachcombers’ credit was the establishment of

egalitarian race relations and the islanders’ growing

understanding of Western habits and methods, which were to help them cope to a certain extent with the surge of missionaries, teachers, consuls and naval personnel who followed, demanding religious, economic, social and political change.

131

A.I. H a l l o w e l l , op. cit., pass i m ; George Catlin,

Episodes from Life among the I n d i a n s , edited by M.C.

Ross (N o r m a n , Oklahoma, 1959) , 1 1 9 5 John Morgan, The

Life and Adventures of William Buckley (Tasmania,

1852), p a s s i m ; 0. M a n n o n i , Prospero and C a l i b a n ,

CHAPTER III

Part I. Origins of the First Pacific Ports: island cultures non-urbanized - early Europeans did not change traditional patterns - later trades required island ports - forces determining location - limitation of beach communities to Polynesia and Fiji - factors which led to the establishment of Honolulu - Papeete - Kororareka - Levuka - Apia - human determinants -

movement of beachcombers into beach communities. Part 2. Honolulu, Papeete, Levuka and Apia: Early history of Honolulu - Levuka - Papeete - Apia - not

subsidiary to the Pacific peripheral ports - port town functions - locations had no significance in traditional cultures - islanders’ acceptance of them - growth of the port towns' hinterlands - appearance of subsidiary

ports - Avarua - Nuku'alofa - Lomaloma - Lahaina - mutual relationship between trade and population -

conclusions.

Part I. Origins of the First Pacific Ports

THE traditional cultures of the Pacific islands were essentially rural. There was no function for urban aggregations and indeed no economic structure which could sustain them. Most people were settled in household groups or hamlets along the beaches, in valleys leading to the sea, and in Melanesia in the more mountainous areas beyond. These settlement groups were focussed upon, but not crowded about, ceremonial

centres or the dwellings of leading persons. Despite their preference for dispersed rural living the

Polynesians and Micronesians, at least, were not socially isolated. They travelled within island groups, and

even beyond, as shown by the enclaves of' settlers from other islands.^

Large gatherings of people did occur under special circumstances. Threatened with war, the Fijians of Bua Bay built a fort to protect themselves and their newly acquired European goods from the depredations of envious neighbouring tribes, but it did not

2