SOLAR ECLIPSE, MAY a, 1883. 21 



27 iu 1868, was raising stock, pigs, poultry, and collecting fish for salting, and also planting cocoa- 

 nut trees for oil. About 1878 guano was exported from the island. 



The foregoing comprises the entire history of the island. I have api)lied by letter to every 

 persou who might be supposed to know anything of the early history of the island, even to the 

 secretaries of the missionary societies in Loudon and New York, without obtaining any informa- 

 tion of value. 1 addressed letters to various gentlemen who were familiar with the islands in 

 the South Pacific, asking for such information as they had on the history, the aboriginal popula- 

 tion, &c., of Caroline Island. Among the replies I have received is one from a gentleman resident 



on Earoonga, which is given below : 



"Raeotonga, September 21, 1883. 



" Sir : Your note to the Bishop of Tahiti has been forwarded to me by the Eeverend William 

 Wyatt Gill, of the London Missionary Society. I will give you with pleasure what I have heard 

 concerning Caroline Island, from good authorities — the Messrs. Brown Brothers, the former own- 

 ers of the island. Some years ago, I had a conversation with these gentlemen, and they told me 

 that in seeking for guano, they came upon a grave, which made them interested. They sought 

 farther and found others, numbering altogether fifty. In the graves they found stone axes, and 

 highly polished green stones, such as are used by the Maoris of New Zealand,, and spears of the 

 same description. The graves had a few stones placed around them. 



" Messrs. Brown & Brothers planted the cocoanut trees on the island. It must have been ten 

 or fifteen years afterward that the island was leased to Mr. Arundell of the firm of Houlder 

 Bros. & Co. Although I have been several months on Flint Island in the said company's employ, 

 I have never seen Caroline Island, but Mr. Arundell told me he had found axes, fancy stones, 

 etc., on the island. 



" Messrs. Brown & Brothers told me they thought the number of the inhabitants at the time 

 they took possession* could not have been over fifty or a hundred people. It seemed as if there 

 had been a storm or hurricane at some short period previous, which had desolated the place. The 

 occupation of the natives, if they had any, would be fishing or fighting, or anythiug they could 



possibly do in such a small island. 



• « « • * • # 



"J. MORTIMER SALMON." 



In a note from the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, he says that he does not believe the island had an 

 aboriginal population, which is in all likelihood the case. 



In a letter dated Auckland, New Zealand, August 6, 1883, Mr. Arundell, the present lessee of 

 the island, says: 



"I regret that I have not many facts in the history of the island to communicate to you. It 

 was taken possession of by Her Britannic Majesty on July 9, 1868, and the English flag hoisted by 

 Commodore (now Sir George) Nares in H. M. S. Reindeer. We became Crown tenants in 1872, 

 and have remained in possession ever since, carrying on guano operations there; and in 1881 I 

 took the affair up individually and apart from my firm, and commenced the planting of cocoanuts 

 there, as also on the neighboring Flint Island. I presume you took iihotographs of the island, but 

 if not, and they should be of any use or interest, I could send you some of the houses, scenery, etc., 

 which we took with our own camera a few years back. 



" There are some curious old marais, i. c, burying or sacrificial places. Probably my natives 

 did not show them to you. Of these I have phofeograijhs and plans, and should you care about 

 them, I would forward them also." 



• ••**♦ • * 



* This must have been between the years 1865-1872. — E. S. H. 



