ety27, if31i» he semCharlmroJarvk with twenty-one natives and 
two C hi nese m the )®km Mmsk*M t a ship chartered by the Andm 
'A' Guano Company. On March 4, ia his capadty as agent, he adver¬ 
tised in the- Honolulu press that die company would cbsue? ships 
® take fewD° feo® Jarvis to the United Staton About the same 
time he t%ed Ms eon-in-kw, Samuel Gardner Wilder, whoee heme 
was ia Gdiftxnk, to charter a ship to take guano direct few 
Jams m Mew York. He estimated that the voyage would jMd a 
net profit of $15,000. When the J$kt$ Mm&aSmatmd to Honolulu 
Dr. Judd sent Wilds a growing account of the guano aboard sad 
once again urged him to charter a ship fix New York.* 
Wilder accepted the offer. He signed a contract with Dr. Judd on 
July 3, and the nest day, accompanied by his wife, he left Honolulu 
in the chartered dipper ship WMto Smslkm. The vessel readied 
New York alter a passage of only 82 days from Jarvis by way of 
Cape Horn with 1,200 tons of guano aboard, the first large ship¬ 
ment of mid-Padac guano to arrive in tbit poet. Wilder sold Ms 
interest in the cargo for $10,000. In New York a contract was signed 
to import 100,000 additional tons from Jarvis tk*fc 
On November 29, 1838, Dr. Judd left Honolulu fix the guano 
isknds om board die JmpMm , a brig of 238 eons.® During the 
voyage Ik bad ample opportunity to savor the challenge and hard¬ 
ships of the guano trade. Both Baker and Howland are saadspit 
strips less than a mile in area and rising only about twenty fret 
above the high-tide mai3e. Jarvis, the largest Mstad of the three, has 
just over two square miles of land surface. The isknds ace amost 
barren of vegetation. The equatorial sun bats upon the bleached 
sand from a doudkss sky so fiercely that the frequent light showers 
in die area often split, so that no water Ms on die perched kiadt 
The isknds ate places of monotony and madness, where die fair 
weather is as unvarying as the trade winds, the guano diggers,, 
once the supply ship departed. Mu! no means of commuaicatiatt 
with the outside world, cm which they depended not only fix 
their food but also for the psedous drinking water brought ashore 
m hogsheads. Howknd, in particular, had the added discomfort of 
rats from a shipwreck. On Howknd k was not unusual fix die 
wotkess to kill duce thousand as ia & single day.* Whs® the 
JmspUm returned to Honolulu with a full cargo of guano, Dr. 
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Judd knew from dkea experience the meaning of a seorence whkh 
Ik had written some months before, cbmcterizing Irving cmttei 
on Jarvis as a compound of "Matt, dust; loneliness, and fe@db». w ® 
In characteristic puritan fashion. Dr. Judd resmiaal mAmmd, 
If anything, A* hardships ia the guano adventure stknukaed In 
to new enthusiasm, as puritans sometimes welcome a dKfSeok tank 
simply because its challenge offers them renewed opfortwsky m 
test their faith and resourcefulness. '*Yoa have your tmMn, I 
have mine,” he wrote in a vein of eacowgeiBeai so Ms wb«4w 
W ilder, "but k is a pleasure to overcome, to coiMjues” With 
buoyant enthusiasm he added, "All Honolulu is giran© easy.”* 
About this time the press reported that forty-eight sepaase dalms 
to the guano isknds had been filed wkh the United Stases Sues 
Department—a figure whkh ultimately rose to fifty-seven. Otsda 
Judd made regular bimonthly trips south for guano In the 
mainly to Jarvis and Howknd, and in the faH of 1839 tfe« American 
Guano Company sent a chemist to make msmmm tests of As 
guano deposits on Howknd. In HoodMu k mm reptxsHl that Am 
Judd family, and the Wilders also, were prospering from ixfar con¬ 
nection with the guano ttstfe. 1 ? 
In 1839 Dr. Judd made another trip south on the Jmpkmt, whkh 
left Honolulu on August 23. A week few he landed at Washington 
Island (4-43N, 160-24W) and tooltfrxmal |««w? on behttf of 
the American Guano Company. The JmfiMm readied Jarvis, when 
Wilder was in residence, on September 8, touched laker on flat 
19th, and reached nearby Howknd on Ottdacr 7. Twelve days 
kter, cm the voyage hamewKd, Dr. Judd, acoompaalel by M§ ai 
Charter, put in at Mayra (3-52N, 162-06W), a. JJ-j 
53 islets about 966 m&m dm »sfc of 
other isknds in the area, Palmyra m 
wkh l i tt le if any accessible guano. Nonetheless, cm Ossa#® 28 Ur, 
Judd cook formal poasession of the aaoO oa 
Guano C o m p any. TM. jMpks sstutoMd so Houoluht on die ksr 
dt ; of the mon th. Hass yem later a He^wauan found 
cm Palmyra an American flo|t sad a y> o r k e swis tt&B the 
signed by Dr. JvwM. 
Nodilng caa» of the daiws » Wm^pm md f teiaf*, Wmi ^ 
Mgtwt s*8 sow Mmk. Primym, defexdl ky a oval g@ens crssjp 
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