CAPTAIN E.H.M. DAVIS, R.N.

-MAY - AUGUST, 1892

IN THE GILBERT, ELLICE AND MARSHALL ISLANDS

PREFACE

In 1970 Mrs Romilly, then Stenographer to the Assistant Resident Commissioner, discovered
some old files containing an early manuscript copy of the "The Proceedings of H.M.S.
'Royalist'". As a spare-time activity she began the task of transferring the materials to stencils.
So the 'Royalist' project was born. The work later continued in the hands of Mrs. Lamb and
Nei Katokarara Kiboboua.
Later in l972, Mr. Dick Turpin inherited the project. The stenciling was completed with the
help of his wife, Peggy, and Gladys Bristow, and necessary corrections were made. By late
1973 the work was ready for the printer to take over.

When the Turpins returned from leave in 1974 they found the project in a shambles. Some of
the already printed pages had been lost or damaged. A thorough search of the print shop
turned up much of the misplaced material, but quite a bit had simply vanished. So the work of
re-cutting the stencils for the missing pages had to begin. The new stencils went to the printer
and the end appeared in sight at last. Then a new cloud appeared on the horizon: the print
shop had run out of stocks of foolscap paper in white. It was a question of whether to go
ahead and reprint on white A4 paper or accept foolscap, but in pink! The hard decision was
made: it would be pink foolscap. But when the finished pages arrived from the printer they
were not only pink but in the smaller format A4 as well. Just a few days before the finished
work was due to go for binding, the unexpected occurred: paper almost white and almost
foolscap turned up in the Colony. So, once again stencils had to be re-cut, and new printing
organized. Thus the rather less than uniform appearance of the finished volume. Almost six
years of stenciling and re-stenciling, printing and re-printing have gone into it. It is a minor
monument to those who have persevered with the task and to the difficulties inherent is
publishing such a work from Tarawa.

In 1974, The Tungavalu Society gratefully accepted Mr. Turpin's suggestion that the 'Royalist'
should be published under the Society's imprint. It was a most generous offer, particularly
considering the amount of work that had already been done and the frustrations that had been
met. And it still wasn't over. The last batches of re-stenciling and printing and yet to be done,
the big job of collating by hand some 200 copies still lying ahead. Mr. and Mrs. Turpin carried
on until the job was completed, until early this year, fitting the work into their already heavy
schedule.

The 'Royalist' is a major work. The papers collected here give a rare and vivid picture of the
islands in the 1890's when there was little law and even less order. Captain Davis of H.M.S.
'Royalist' a ship of the Royal Navy's Australian Squadron was sent to the Gilberts to declare a
British Protectorate. It was one of the last acts of what has been termed 'British Imperialism'.
Davis did more than bring 'The Flag'. He settled disputes amongst traders of various
nationalities then operating in the Gilberts and between traders and islanders. He ended a civil
war on Tarawa. He met and talked with all manner of people. What he saw and heard he
recorded, and his observations are detailed and shrewd. This publication should provide
invaluable source of material for anyone engaged in a study of Gilbertese history. It is also to
be hoped that it will stimulate more people in the Gilberts to take an interest in their own
history.
The Tungavalu Society extends its grateful thanks to all those who had made this publication
possible: to Mrs. Romilly, to Nei Katokarara, to Gladys Bristow, to the Government Printery,
to the Tarawa Technical Institute (for help with the duplicating) and particularly to Mr. and
Mrs. Turpin whose dedication to the project and intimate knowledge of the Gilbert Islands
had made them the ideal people to bring the 'Royalist' project to fruition.
Greg Hayward
(Editor Banaan Tungavalu)
Tarawa, April, 1976

INTRODUCTION

The sixteen islands of the Gilberts, declared a Protectorate by Captain Davis, R. N. of H.M.S.
'Royalist' between 27th May and 17th June 1892 were discovered intermittently from perhaps
as early as l537 up to l826. The Ellice Islands were declared a Protectorate by Captain Gibson
R. N. of H.M.S. 'Curacao' between 9th and 16th October of the same year; Banaba (or Ocean
Island) was included within the Protectorate in 1900. In 1916 the Protectorate became the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and in the same year Fanning and Washington were
included in it together with the islands of the Tokelau or Union Group; Christmas Island was
included in 1919. The Tokelaus were detached in 1925; the Phoenix were added in 1937 and
the five islands of the Central and Southern Line Islands in l972. The Ellice Islands were
detached to become a separate colony in 1976.
The "Proceedings of H.M.S. 'Royalist'", reproduced here, described one of the closing acts of
the acquisitive phase of British Imperialism in the Pacific.
The story of European rivalry in the Pacific began even before it was first sighted by Balboa
in 1513 and since then Pacific History has been dominated by the European powers ascendant
in Europe at any particular time. Portuguese discoveries of the offshore Atlantic islands, the
rounding of Southern Africa in 1487 and Columbus's voyage to the Bahamas on behalf of
Spain in 1492 caused conflict between Portugal and Spain over the possessions of new lands
which the Pope tried to settle by a Bull issued in 1493 awarding all of those lands being newly
discovered east of a line one hundred leagues west of the Azores to Portugal and those lands
to the west to Spain. By the treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, the dividing line was moved to a
line running north and south three hundred and seventy leagues west the Cape Verde Islands.
The amended line awarded Brazil to Portugal, but most of the Americas and the Pacific to
Spain. Portugal claimed the East Indies but Spain took the Philippines in 1564. However, as
the determination of accurate longitude was impossible at this period and remained an inexact
science until Captain Cook's time and the introduction of the marine chronometer disputes
continue as each country tended to fix longitudes favourable to its own claims.
During the sixteenth century the history of European voyaging and discovery in the Pacific
remained predominantly Spanish with the Portuguese acquiring the East Indies at the Pacific's
western edge until superseded by the Dutch at the end of the century. There were a growing
number of voyages, the most of which were those of Magellan in 1520 to 1522 (the first
voyage around the world); Mendana's discovery of the Solomon Islands in 1576; Drake's
round the world voyage in 1577 to 1580 and Mendana's second voyage in which he
discovered the Marquesas and the islands of Santa Cruz.
By the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch had taken over much of the Portuguese East
Indies and thereafter continued the Portuguese policy of voyaging and discovery. It is possible
that undocumented Portuguese or other voyages to part of Australia had provided the basis for
some early maps of about the middle of the 16th century but the documented history of the
discovery of Australia was begun in 1605 - 1606 by the Dutch although this was followed
immediately by the passage of the strait between New Guinea and Australia by the Portuguese
Torres. Tasman discovered Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji and other groups between 1642 -
1643. Piecemeal and incomplete discoveries continued until the improvement in European
ships and navigation in the 18th century allowed the great discoveries and charting of the
Pacific of that period.
The ending of the Seven Year's War in 1763 left Britain predominant in the colonial and
maritime spheres, nevertheless the French were determined to take an equal share of any
European expansion in the Pacific and throughout the second part of the 18th century British
and French rivalry increased. Although this period is replete with famous names of voyagers -
Byron, Wallace, Cook, Bougainville, Perouse, d'Entrecasteaux - and proclamations of
sovereignty on behalf of the various European powers were made by ships' commanders from
time to time, no actual settlements or acquisitions were made until the British settlements in
Australia at Port Jackson Sydney in 1788. By the beginning of the 19th century, the main
island groups of the Pacific had been discovered and chartered by Europeans. It remained to
fill in the gaps and develop trade.
Disregarding the early European conquest on the edge of the Pacific - the American coast, the
East Indies and the Philippines - acquisition only began with the British in Australia in 1788,
followed in New Zealand in 1840; these in turn influenced Britain in later acquisitions as the
colonialists in Australia and New Zealand were anxious to monopolize Pacific Island trade for
themselves and pressed Britain to acquire islands and island groups to keep out the commerce
of rival European powers. European traders and missionaries of many nationalities were
establishing plantation, trade and religious interests throughout the Pacific which often led to
conflict which led in turn to request for help to the European countries from their nationals.
Crimes committed by or against Europeans led to actions by warships of their parent
countries. Attempts were made to control the recruitment of Pacific Islanders or labour and to
restrict the sale of guns. These factors among others built up pressure for the acquisition and
control of the various island groups by the European powers and after the American Civil War
by the United States of America. The French, disappointed at being forestalled by Britain in
New Zealand in l840, counted by acquiring the Society Islands and the Marquesas in 1842
and New Caledonia in 1853. Germany became very active especially in Samoa, in the groups
to the north of New Guinea and in the Marshall Islands. In 1874 Britain annexed Fiji; in 1884
Germany acquired New Britain, New Ireland and the Northeast Coast of New Guinea; in the
same year Britain under pressure from the Queensland colonialists declared a protectorate
over southeast New Guinea. In 1893 Britain declared a protectorate over part of the Solomon
Islands and acquired more of them by agreement with Germany in 1900. After a war with
Spain in 1898 the USA acquired Guam and the Philippines and after troubled in the Republic
of Hawaii the USA annexed Hawaii also. In 1899 the remaining Spanish possessions in the
Pacific - the Caroline, Palau and the Mariana Islands - were sold to Germany which also
annexed Western Samoa the same year leaving the USA to take over the Eastern Samoan
Islands.
After the annexation of Fiji in 1874 Britain was still faced by the problem of the control of
British subjects in the other island groups of the Pacific. To accomplish this, the Western
Pacific Order in Council was enacted in 1877. This applied to all islands in the Western
Pacific not within the jurisdiction of any civilized power and created the officers of High
Commissioner for the Western Pacific, Chief Judicial Commissioner and Deputy
Commissioners. It established the High Commissioner's Court. The Governor of Fiji was
appointed High Commissioner; the Chief Justice of Fiji was appointed the Chief Judicial
Commissioner and various persons, in the early years mainly officers of the Royal Navy, were
appointed Deputy Commissioners. This attempt to control British subjects was not very
successful and left unsolved the problem of the control of non-British subjects for their
punishment for crime against British subjects.
In 1886 the British and German Governments agreed to a division of the Western Pacific into
two spheres of influence - the Marshall Islands and Nauru came within the German's sphere -
the Gilberts, Ocean Island and the Ellice within the British. Germany immediately took over
the Marshall Islands but Britain took no action in the Gilberts which had by this time become
an area of intense rivalry between German, American and some Australian based trading
interests.
In 1890 the British High Commissioner for the Western Pacific based in Fiji recommended
the acquisition of the Gilberts by Britain, not only to forestall possible action by Germany
which in 1891 itself urge Britain to declare a Protectorate to forestall the USA, but also to
control the recruitment of labour, the sale of guns and liquor and to end the growing
turbulence within the group. In 1892 the British Government, realizing by now that failure to
declare a Protectorate would probably lead to acquisition by Germany, despite the 1886
agreement, or by America which was not a party to the agreement, ordered the Commander-
in-Chief, H. M. Ships, Australia, to send a warship to the Gilberts to declare a Protectorate.
Captain Davis, R. N. of H.M.S. 'Royalist' was sent to carry out this task.
In accordance with his instructions, Captain Davis talked with the old men of each island to
obtain their agreement to the declaration of the protectorate and to explain what it would
mean. After talks with the old men, he declared the Protectorate on all islands except on
Aranuka and Kuria which were included with Abemama and on Makin which was included
with Butaritari.
Captain Davis had been ordered to visit the Ellice Islands but not to declare a Protectorate
there. He reported that the 'Kings' of each island had asked for a Protectorate to be declared
and Captain Gibson R. N. of H.M.S. 'Curacao' was thereupon ordered to the Ellice Islands on
each of which he declared a Protectorate between the 9th and the 16th October.