|   micsem home   |   introduction   |   chuuk   |   kosrae   |   marshalls   |   palau   |   pohnpei   |   yap   |   sources   |

 border=
To search this page, press "CTRL + F" (find in page) and enter the information you'd like to locate. For a full list of sources, click here.


 border=

Anderson   Palau   (1885-1898)

Anderson deserted from the SMS "Albatross" in 1885. He worked on Palau as a trader for O'Keefe. He was still on the island at the visit of the SMS "Arcona" in 1898.


Sources:  Kramer 1917: vol 1, 155

 border=

H.D. Bayer   Palau, Ngatik   (1884-1885)

Captain H.D. Bayer and twelve of the crew of his ship "Bothwell Castle" of New South Wales were stranded on Ngatik in December 1884 when his ship was wrecked. Bayer and three others made Palau in an open boat in March 1885. The rest of the crew was taken off Ngatik prior to October 1885.


Sources:  FOCP 5199: memo on the visit of HMS Comus and Lily to Pellew Islands in 1881-1882

 border=

Madan Blanchard   Palau   (1783-1790)

Madan Blanchard was an Englishman who was stranded in Palau when the "Antelope" wrecked there in August 1783. When Captain Wilson and the rest of the crew left in November, Blanchard remained behind to serve as master of ordnance for Ibedul. He was made a chief and given two wives, a house and a plantation. He soon discarded European clothes and was tattooed. His character was questionable, however, and he soon out of favor. He was killed in 1790 before McCluer's arrival, either in a local war or as punishment for his misdeeds.


Sources:  Hockin 1803: 8-9, 13; Keate 1789; Maude 1968: 137-8.

 border=

John Brown   Palau   (1863-1865)

Brown was a European living in Manila who came to Palau as a passenger on the "Acis" in December 1863 with the intention of living there. At first he wanted to be brought back to Manila because the people did not want him ashore, but he decided to stay. He left Palau in March 1865.


Sources:  Cheyne 1866: Dec 1863 & Mar 1865

 border=

Andrew Cheyne   Palau, Pohnpei   (1842-1866)

Andrew Cheyne was an English trader who first came to Pohnpei in 1842 as captain of a trading vessel. Between 1842 and 1844 Cheyne visited Pohnpei four times spending nearly a total of 12 months on the islands. Cheyne was trading in shell and beche-de-mer on Pohnpei at this time. He also visited Palau to set up trade stations on that island. When he moved out of Pohnpei in 1844, Cheyne set up headquarters in Palau and made a brief trading visits to Yap. After surviving an attempt on his ship in Yap, Cheyne left Micronesia in 1846.

Cheyne returned again in 1859. He established headquarters in Palau and went into partnership first with Edward Woodin and then with Alfred Tetens. He acquired 10,000 acres of land and established sugar, coffee and tobacco plantations on Palau with the intentions of importing Chinese labor to cultivate his plantations. Meanwhile, he continued trading in beche-de-mer and shell. Cheyne's relationship with the Koror people deteriorated because of his insistence on trading with their rivals in Balbeldaop. Finally, on February 6, 1866, Cheyne was clubbed to death by some local people.


Sources:  Shineberg 1971: 20-4

 border=

Cromarty   Palau   (1873-1874)

Cromarty was an Englishman who arrived in Palau from Shanghai in 1873. He came with his employer and was living on Malakal with some Filipinos in 1874. He was described as "addicted to drinks".


Sources:  Hernsheim 1983: 14

 border=

Horatio Davis   Palau   (1832-1836)

Horatio Davis was on the crew of the whaleship "Mentor" which wrecked in Palau in May 1832. He and James Meader were kept on Palau as hostages along with one other men who later escaped, while Captain Bernard and the rest of the crew put out for the East Indies on a small boat. He was rescued by USS "Vincennes" in December 1836.


Sources:  Browning 1836

 border=

John Davy   Palau   (1834-1867)

John Davy, a native of Sussex, England, arrived in Palau in 1834 with the survivors of the brig "Dash".


Sources:  Stevens 1867: 16 Apr 1867; Shineberg 1971: 233; Browning 1836: 224

 border=

Robert Dodge   Palau   (1881)

Robert Dodge was Englishman who was living on Palau in January 1881 at the visit of HMS "Lily".


Sources:  Grove 1881

 border=

Eastway   Palau   (1854)

When Capt. Eastway's ship was wrecked in Palau about 1854, he asn his crew were stranded ashore for 16 months. They spent most of this time in Angaur.


Sources:  Nautical Magazine, 1856, 50

 border=

James Gibbons   Palau   (c1856-1883)

James Gibbons was the son of an Englishman and a West Indian woman from St. Kitts Island. He was brought up in England and served as a sailor on a naval ship before his shipped on a whaler. He was put off a whaling ship at Palau around 1856-1860 "after incurring the wrath of the ship's officers." Gibbons was adopted by Ibedul and married into his family. He lived for years on Palau. He had ten children, only one of whom survived--William, who married a half-caste daughter of a Palauan woman and a Captain Clark. Gibbons served as an advisor to Ibedul and was often used as an interpreter. He played a prominent part in negotiations with the British throughout this period.


Sources:  LeHunte 1883a: 41; Kramer 1917: vol 1, 136; Stevens 1867: 16 Apr 1869

 border=

Walter Green   Palau   (1881)

Green was an Englishman living on Palau in January 1881.


Sources:  Grove 1881

 border=

George Gren   Palau   (1881)

George Gren was an American living on Palau in January 1881.


Sources:  Grove 1881

 border=

Charles Henry Henderson   Yap, Palau   (1880-1884)

Henderson was an American citizen. At one time he was master of the schooner "Wrecker"


Sources:  Swanston 1885: 7 May 1884; LeHunte 1883: statement of McGuinness

 border=

Horace Holden   Palau, Tobi   (1832-1834)

Horace Holden was an American. He and Benjamin Nute were among 11 survivors of the wreck of the whaleship "Mentor" off Palau in May 1832. The survivors were captured, robbed and beaten by Palauans at first, but were then treated in a more kindly way by them. In November, with the help of Palauans, eight of the Americans left in two boats to make Ternate. They washed up on Tobi, were captured by the people, and were kept on the island for about two years. During this time all of the men except Captain Edward Barnard and a man by the name of Rollins, besdies Holden and Nute, died there. Holden and Nute were picked up by the "Britannia" in November 1834.


Sources:  Holden 1836; Lyman 1902; Martin 1980

 border=

Amos Holsen Holt   Yap, Palau   (1878-1882)

Holt was a German by birth, although sometimes known as a Dane. He was a naturalized American citizen. He arrived on Yap from Singapore aboard O'Keefe's trading brig "Queen" in 1878. For a time, as an employee of O'Keefe, he was sent to Palau to care for the trading station there, but then was brought back to Yap and put in charge of O'Keefe's trade station at Amun. In 1883 he charged British officials that O'Keefe had beaten him and defrauded him of his wages.


Sources:  LeHunte 1883a: statement of McGuinness; Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 Apr 1885

 border=

Peter Johnson   Palau   (1850?-1864?)

Peter Johnson was a Swedish sailor shipwrecked on Palau in 1855 or so when one of Woodin's ships sank on arrival. He lived on Palau, working for Woodin as a trader and factotum. He lived in Melekeok under the protection of Reklai whom he helped in fighting off Ibedul's forces. He served as a gunner, firing a swivel gun mounted on a canoe in these hostilities. Johnson left Palau with Woodin in 1861 for Manila, but he returned on "Lady Leigh" in January 1862 and resumed his life in Palau. He went to Yap in 1864 with Cheyne, and later on another trading cruise to Melanesia. He may have returned to Palau after this.


Sources:  Semper 1873: 7; Cheyne 1866: 1 Mar 1864; Stevens 1867: petition of Koror chiefs, 7 May 1861

 border=

John S. Kubary   Pohnpei, Palau, Yap, Nukuoro, Mortlocks, Chuuk, Jaluit   (1869-1896)

John S. Kubary was a native of Poland, but a naturalized British citizen. Since 1869 he travelled in the Pacific as a naturalist for Godeffroy Co. He lived in Samoa for six months at the end of 1869, then travelled to Marshalls on "Sofia" in April 1870. In August 1870, Kubary went to Yap, where he spent five months. In January 1871, he went to Palau, staying there for more than two years. In May 1873, he sailed on "Iserbrook" visiting Ulithi, Ngulu, Woleai, Nukuoro, and Mortlocks, arriving in Pohnpei in August 1873. He left Pohnpei a year later in August 1874 on "Alfred" which went aground and went down with many of his specimens. Kubary spent some weeks on Jaluit before sailing for New Zealand in December 1874. After spending some months in Europe during 1875, he sailed back to the Pacific. In late 1875, he stopped at Pohnpei, built a house and established a plantation.

In February 1877 he set out for the Mortlocks where he spent a few months--until the end of May. In May 1878, a year later he left for Chuuk and remained there until August 1879.

He returned to Pohnpei and married Anna Yellot. When the company crashed, Godeffroy & Sons released Kubary, who turned to his plantation. His plantation was destroyed by a typhoon in 1882 and he worked in Tokyo for a few months. He returned to Pohnpei, visited Palau again in early 1883 and remained in the western Carolines until 1885. In September 1885 Kubary went aboard "Albatross" to New Britain and New Guinea. He remained at work in Melanesia until 1892 when he went to Germany for a few months.

He returned to New Guinea and worked there until 1895 when he settled again in Pohnpei. He found that his plantation had been devastated in the uprising against the Spanish. In October 1896, a few months after his return, Kubary committed suicide on the grave of his only son. A daughter was sent to Singapore to be educated in a convent school and later became a nun.


Sources:  LeHunte 1883a: statement of Kubary; Spoehr 1963: 69-98; Paszkowski 1971

 border=

Miss Larnes   Palau   (1846)

Miss Larnes was a young English woman. She was left on Palau by "Starling" during its trading voyage to the New Hebrides. She arrived in May 1846 and was still on the island in October 1846.


Sources:  Log of schooner Starling, Micronesian Seminar; Meeking 1847

 border=

Evan Lewis   Jaluit, Palau, Yap, Pohnpei, Lamotrek   (c1870-1895)

Evan Lewis was a Welshman, born in 1855. In the 1870s he served as an engineer on a steam launch that operated in Samoa under Captain Heinburger. He lived on Jaluit for a while. Came to Palau on the brig "Susannah" to trade for Capelle & Co, along with David Martens, his partner. After a quarrel with Martens, Lewis came to Yap where he settled for a time. His first arrival in Yap must have been during the late 1870s. He also spent time on Palau as an agent for Capelle & Co. He arrived in Palau on "Susannah", perhaps as early as 1876 but certainly before 1880. He left for Pohnpei aboard the "Matilda" in 1880. He returned to Yap later that year and went almost directly to Lamotrek, where he served as resident trader from 1880 to 1883. Lewis married a Chamorro woman and had a large family by the time F. W. Christian met him in the early 1890s. Lewis was living in Yap, working in Ngingich, but doing trading runs to the outer islands now and then.

Lewis was described in a statement given aboard the British naval ship "Espiegle" in 1883: "Lewis is aged 28, medium height, light build, dark hair, good looking, has some education, knows navigation, well behaved but drinks."


Sources:  LeHunte 1883a: statement of Charles Ingalls; Young 1881: 20 Oct 1880; Christian 1967: 238

 border=

George Marsh   Palau   (1834-1835)

George Marsh, an American, was a survivor of the shipwreck of the brig "Dash" at Ngulu in 1834. He came to Palau in an open boat and lived there even after the other survivors sailed to Manila. Marsh was taken off Palau by the "Cabot" in February 1835.


Sources:  Ward 1967: vol 5, 443

 border=

August Martens (Mertens)   Palau, Mapia   (1875-1881)

August Martens was a German who came to Palau in 1875 on the brig "Susannah." He traded in Palau in partnership with Evan Lewis until about 1880. After this he went to Mapia as an agent for Capelle & Co. for a few months. Martens then worked as an agent for O'Keefe on Palau, but ran off to Manila in 1881. There he claims he was defrauded by O'Keefe, while O'Keefe charged Martens with cheating him out of a large amount of trade goods. There he died of fever sometime before August 1883.


Sources:  LeHunte 1883a: statement of O'Keefe

 border=

John McCluer   Palau   (1791-1795)

John McCluer, an Englishman, was a captain of the East India Co. ship "Panther" upon its visits to Palau in January 1791 and January 1793. When "Panther" left in February 1793, McCluer remained on Palau, surrendering command of the ship to his first officer.

He had a "considerable retinue, including 8 women to look after his island-born son."

After 15 months on Palau, McCluer left in an open boat for Macao. In 1795, he returned to Palau a third time to retrieve his family and personal effects, taking with him 6 or 8 women servants, and sailed off to Bombay and Bengal. In August 1795 he was lost at sea aboard the "Venus".


Sources:  Hockin 1803: 50-5; Delano 1817: 186-95; Maude 1968: 138

 border=

James Meader   Palau   (1832-1836)

James Meader was on the crew of the US whaleship "Mentor" which wrecked in Palau in May 1832. He was kept in Palau as hostage together with Horatio Davis and one other who later escaped , while Captain Bernard and others sailed to East Indies on a small boat. He was rescued by "Vincennes" in Dec 1836. Meader reportedly left behind a family when he returned to US.


Sources:  Browning 1836

 border=

James Simpson   Palau, Yap   (1863-1866?)

James Simpson was living on Palau in late 1863. He traded for Andrew Cheyne occasionally but also was an independent agent. He remained in Koror until Cheyne's murder in early 1866. He went to Yap soon after this with Davy and Gibbons, but does not seem to have ever returned to Palau.


Sources:  Stevens 1867

 border=

Stanford   Palau   (1843-1846?)

Stanford was left in Palau by Andrew Cheyne in July 1843 together with 13 lascars to oversee the curing beche-de-mer curing operations on the island. He was a gunner on the "Naiad." Stanford was dismissed by Cheyne in May 1844 on the latter's second visit to Palau. Stanford may have sailed with Cheyne to China. He returned to Palau in August 1845 and was working with five Filipinos for a Hong Kong company. Stanford was still on Palau in October 1846 at the visit to the "Oratava."


Sources:  Shineberg 1971: 322; Meeking 1847

 border=

Alfred Tetens   Yap, Palau   (1862-1867)

Alfred Tetens was a German sea captain from Hamburg. Andrew Cheyne met him in Manila and hired him to serve as a master of his ship "Acis". Tetens also served as a captain of another of Cheyne's vessels, the "Perseverancia" in 1862-1863. Tetens was homeported in Palau and spent most of his time there during this period. Tetens oversaw the cotton and tobacco plantations in Palau. In 1865, he went to work with Godeffroy & Son and was put in command of the brig "Vesta". He traded throughout the Carolines at this time visiting Palau frequently. In 1867 he left the Pacific to return to Hamburg.


Sources:  Tetens 1958

 border=

Charles Washington   Palau   (1802-1836?)

Charles Washington was an Englishman who deserted the naval vessel on which he was serving to avoid punishment. He was a seaman aboard HMS "Lyon" about 1800, and in Manila transferred to a naval tender that was sent to Palau to find some Spanish vessels collecting beche-de-mer. About 1802 he came to Palau, where he deserted the naval tender. He lived the rest of his life there. He was still living in Palau in 1832 when "Mentor" was wrecked. He used his influence with Reklai to save the lives of the crew and have their possessions restored. He had been on the island for 30 years then. He helped the USS "Vincennes" in 1836 as an interpreter. He was described as having "grown gray in savage life, and as thoroughly savage as any of the natives."


Sources:  Martin 1980: 12-13; Browning 1836: 262-263

 border=

Webster   Palau   (1874-1875)

Webster was an Englishman, a business partner of Cook with their headquarters in Singapore. He was living on Malakal in 1874 trading for his company. He had been injured by an axe-blow to the head in a fight with people of Babeldaop. He left with Hernsheim in July 1874. He died of "Laudanum poisoning" in 1875 after his return to Palau. O'Keefe inherited his business.


Sources:  Hernsheim 1983: 14-5, 28.

 border=

Fredrick Werner   Palau   (1881)

Fredrick Werner was an Englishman living on Palau in January 1881.


Sources:  Grove 1881

 border=

James Lord Wilkinson   Palau   (1861)

James Lord Wilkinson was an Englishman working for Cheyne and living on Palau in May 1861. He was in charge of the Malakal trading station. He witnessed the petition of the Koror chiefs to England.


Sources:  Stevens 1867: petition of Koror chiefs, 7 May 1861

 border=

Henry Wilson   Palau   (1783)

Captain Henry Wilson and the crew of the British East India Company ship "Antelope" was wrecked in Palau in August 10, 1783. Wilson and the English sailors--50 men in all--remained in Palau until November 12. During this time they assisted Ibedul in his wars against his traditional enemies. They left the island in a small schooner built from the wrecked.


Sources:  Keate 1789

 border=

Thomas Wyllie   Yap, Palau   (1882)

Thomas Wyllie was a British subject. He came to Yap in early 1882, at the age of 16, aboard a British bark "Fluellen". With him came a Spaniard by the name of Antonio. Wyllie remained in Yap 3 months before leaving for Palau.


Sources:  LeHunte 1883a: statement of Thomas Wyllie

 border=

George ?   Palau   (1807?-1832)

George was an Englishman living in Palau since about 1805-1810. He told Captain Barnard in 1832 that he had been living there for twenty-five years. George was attached to the chief of Koror and reputedly was called "King George" by the local people.


Sources:  Martin 1980: 16

 border=

Dick   Palau   (1822-1835?)

Dick was an Englishman who arrived in Palau about 1822 after deserting a ship "Creiton". He was still living in Palau at the visit of the USS "Vincennes" in November 1835. He is described as "but few removes from an idiot, but serves for an interpreter."


Sources:  Martin 1980; Browning 1836: 210

 border=

?   Palau   (1835)

An unnamed American boy was living in Palau at the time of "Cabot's" visit in February 1835.


Sources:  Ward 1967: vol 5, 445

 border=