14 A NATUBALIST'S WANDEBINGS 



the spot a call port for the repair and provisioning of 

 vessels voyaging between home and China, Australia, and 

 India. Without then taking up residence, he pi-oceeded to 

 England, but returned in 1827 with his wife and family of six 

 children, accompanied by twelve Englishmen, one Javanese, 

 and one Portuguese. On landing he was surprised to find 

 another Englishman, Mr. Alexander Hare, in possession of a 

 third part of the group. This gentleman had held a govern- 

 ment post in South Borneo during the English supremacy in 

 the Siinda Islands ; but having tried to assume the state of 

 an independent ruler, Avhich on the reinstalment of Dutch 

 authority, he found himself imable to hold", he retired here 

 with a large harem of various nationalities and numerous 

 slaves, whom he treated with great harshness. 



Mr. Eoss, having brought out his English apprentices on an 

 understanding that, as the whole atoll was his own, there 

 would be, in the development of its resources, sufficient 

 outlet for their energies, was much discouraged by the turn 

 affairs had assumed. Hare exhibited a very unfriendly spirit 

 towards the new-comers, so that, on Mr. Ross offering his 

 people a release from their agreement, all, except three (a 

 woman and two men), took the first opportunity of leaving in 

 one of H.M. gunboats which touched at the islands. Eoss 

 managed, however, to increase his party by seven or eight 

 persons from Java, and later on by additional Europeans, some 

 of them his own relatives. With a large number of Sundanese 

 coolies, hired in Batavia, he opened a trade in cocoanuts with 

 the Mauritius, with Madras, and with Bencoolen and various 

 other ports of the Archipelago. 



Possessed of a considerable fortune. Hare lived for some time 

 a lethargic life in mock regal style, in the midst of the con- 

 stant discord and jealousies of his retinue, and in hostility to 

 his neighbour. For the protection of what he considered an im- 

 portantly situated island, and of his own rights, Eoss solicited 

 the authorities in the Mauritius to take the group under their 

 protection — a responsibility they did not see it advisable to 

 assume. Hare, on the other hand, covertly instigated the 

 Dutch Government to claim possession, a suggestion which 

 the Batavian oflScials entertained only so far as to send a 

 gunboat to examine and report on the condition of the 



