14 



A NAWJtiAlIST'S WANDERINGS 



the spot tt call port for the repair and provision iiig of 

 vessels voyafifiiig iMjtween home and Chiua^ Australia, and 

 India. Without then taking np residence, he proceeded to 

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

 ehihlren, ac<ioinpanied by twelve Englishmen, one Javanese, 

 and one Portuguese, On landing ho was surprised to find 

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

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

 ment post in South Borneo during the English supremacy in 

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

 an independent ruler, which on the reinstalment of Dutch 

 authority, he found himself unable to hold, he retired here 

 with a large harem of various uationaUties and numerous 

 slaves, whom he treated with great harshness, 



Mr. RosSj having brougltt 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, wm much discouraged by the turn 

 afiairs had assumed. Hare exhibited a very unfriendly spirit 

 towards the new-comers, so that, on lilr. Eoss offering his 

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

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

 one of UM, gunboats which touched at the islands. Ross 

 managed, however, tf> 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 Bundanese 

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

 the Mauritius, with Mailnis, and with Beucoolen 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 mitlst of the con- 

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

 his neighbo^ir. For the protection of what he considered an im- 

 portantly situated island, and of his oivn rights, Ross solicit43d 

 the authorities in the Mantitius 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 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 



