CHAPTER II
NATHANIEL
SAVORY AND THE FIRST COLONISTS
At
Bradford, near Salem, in the State of Massachusetts, at the close of the
eighteenth century lived a family of the name of Savory. The father was the
owner of a little property, w6rking hard and bringing up his children to work;
a typical New Englander of those days, an independent man pushing his own
interests among other independent men doing the same; not averse from his glass
of punch, and fond of having a neighbour in to share it with him and to discuss
the affairs of the community. No doubt, too, he fulfilled the duties of
religion and duly supported his chapel, but probably his wife fulfilled them
with the sincerer piety, and he was quite content that it should be so. They
had seven children, five sons, Robert, John, Eleazar, Nathaniel, and Benjamin;
and two daughters, Judith and Mercy. They held well together, married and
settled down, all with one exception within an easy radius of one another.
Judith became Mrs. Stickney; Mercy, Mrs. Thurlow. Eleazar was the last to take
to himself a wife, and in his days of prudent waiting was laughed at by his
brothers as a stiff old bachelor. When he did marry, he married money “and
that,” as an impertinent nephew, Wicom, the son of his brother John, said,
"was the secret of it." But Wicom's own father, as Wicom himself
testifies, never lost a chance of turning a dollar, and was the one amongst the
brothers who raised himself highest in the world.
The adventurer of the family was Nathaniel, and
it is Nathaniel who becomes the prominent figure in our history. He was born
July 31, 1794, and in 1814, when he was twenty years of age, went away to sea.
He does not seem to have had any quarrel with his family, and perhaps for a
time he communicated irregularly with them. He was certainly at the port of
Philadelphia in September 1817, for amongst his extant letters and papers is a
certificate of citizenship dated at that port on the 15th of that month, but a
reference to his having been at Salem, found in letter 16 of the home
correspondence, though on that occasion he never went home to see his father,
seems to put it beyond question that he never revisited his home; and
eventually his family ceased to hear any news of him, and almost gave up hopes
that he was still in the land of the living.
The certificate is as follows :
" Copy
No. 25 234 District and Port of Philadelphia.
" I, John Steel, collector of the District
of Philadelphia, do hereby certify
that Nathaniel Savory an American seaman
aged twenty three years or thereabouts, of the height of five feet six inches. Dark Complexion, black Hair, gray Eyes, has a small scar on
the upper lip, a natural reddish mark on his right wrist--Is a native of Essex
County in the state of Massachusetts has
this day produced to me proof, in the manner directed in the Act entitled 'An Act for the relief and protection of
American Seamen' and pursuant to the
said Act, I do hereby certify that the said NATHANIEL SAVORY is a citizen of the United States of
America.
“In witness whereof I
have hereunto set my hand and seal of office this fifteenth
day of September 1817."
This Nathaniel Savory, an American citizen--
but none the less under English auspices--was one of the founders of the first
colony, of which he subsequently became chief, on the Bonin Islands. It came
about in this way : Nathaniel Savory was serving in some capacity on an English
merchantman which in the year 1829 put in at Honolulu. What the occasion may
have been I do not know, but in firing a salute he had the misfortune to lose a
finger of his right hand. Having to undergo surgical treatment, his vessel left
him behind at the port of Oahu. Now, the fame of the Bonin Islands had reached
Hawaii, or the Sandwich Islands, as they were then called, and there were
already one or two of the chance residents in Oahu who were entertaining the
idea of going to these newly-discovered islands and trying their fortune there
as colonists. Savory, on his recovery, threw himself warmly into the project.
He had many acquaintances among the storekeepers in Honolulu, and many friends
among the captains of whalers and small trading vessels to the South Seas. From
all accounts, the islands were fruitful; fish and turtle abounded; the climate
was warm and genial; and the prospects of opening out some lucrative trade
seemed altogether promising. Plans took shape, the scheme being furthered in
every way by Mr. Richard Charlton, at that time British Consul in Honolulu; and
a schooner was fitted out which eventually set sail with Nathaniel and four
other white men on board in the month of May, 1830, and, having safely
traversed the intervening 3300 miles of open sea, arrived at its destination on
June 26, 1830.
Nathaniel's four associates leaving out of
account some twenty-five Hawaiian natives with some women were Aldin Chapin,
who also hailed from Massachusetts, John Millinchamp, Charles Johnson, a Dane,
and the fourth, Matteo Mazarro, who was the head of the party and reported to
have been a native of Genoa. Now, of these five, the only one whose claim to be
a British subject has never been questioned, though he may not have been an
Englishman, was John Millinchamp. But I think we must admit the claim of Matteo
Mazarro (and call him "Matthew") to have been a British subject too,
for he it was who with Millinchamp seems in the first instance to have
approached the British Consul and under him to have taken the direction of all
the arrangements of the expedition. In the year 1842 the affairs of the island
brought him again to Honolulu, and we have an interesting report dated December
27 of that year, written by the then British Consul, Mr. Alexander Simpson, in
which he makes special reference to Mazarro's visit, and gives us some valuable
information about the islands. “This small but interesting, and from its
situation, valuable group of islands," so the report runs, "lies in
latitude 27' north, longitude 146' east, within five hundred miles distance
from the city of Yedo in Japan. It appertains to Great Britain, having been
discovered by an English whaling vessel in 1825, and formally taken possession
of by Captain Beechey of H.M.S. Blossom in 1827. There were no aboriginal
inhabitants found on the islands nor any trace that such had existed.
“Their aggregate extent does not exceed two
hundred and fifty square miles; but their geographical position--so near Japan,
that mysterious empire, of which the trade will one day be of immense value--gives
them a peculiar importance and interest. The climate is excellent, the soil
rich and productive, and there is an admirable harbour well fitted for the port
of a commercial city.
"The first colonists of this eastern group
were two men of the names of Millinchamp and Mazarro who, having expressed to
Mr. Charlton, the British Consul at the Sandwich Islands, their wish to settle
on some uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, were by him recommended to go
to this group, of the discovery and taking possession of which he had been
recently informed. They sailed accordingly in 1830, took with them some
Sandwich Island natives as labourers, some live stock and seeds, and landing at
Port Lloyd, hoisted an English flag which had been given them by Mr. Charlton.
"The little settlement has been visited by
several whaling vessels since that period, and also by a vessel from the
British China Squadron. Mr. Millinchamp returned to England,[1]
and Mr. Mazarro, anxious to get additional settlers or labourers to join the
infant colony, the whole population of which only numbers about twenty, came to
the Sandwich Islands in the autumn of 1842 in an English whaling vessel. He
described the little settlement as flourishing, stated that he had hogs and
goats in abundance, and a few cattle; that he grew Indian corn and many
vegetables, and had all kinds of tropical fruits; that, in fact, he could
supply fresh provisions and vegetables to forty vessels annually.
"Mr. Mazarro who, in virtue of his first
arrival, receives the appellation of Governor, finds the task of governing even
this little colony no easy matter. He applied to me for assistance in this
task, and thankfully received the following document, which I drew up for his
assistance and moral support: 'I hereby certify that Mr. Matthew Mazarro was
one of the original leaders of the Expedition fitted up from this port, under
the protection of Richard Charlton Esq., Her Majesty's Consul, to colonize the
Bonin Islands; and I would intimate to the masters of all whaling vessels
touching at that group, that the said Mazarro is a sober and discreet man, and
recommend them to support him by all means in their power against the troublers
of the peace of that distant settlement, recommending also to the settlers to
receive Mr. Mazarro as their head, until some officer directly appointed by her
Britannic Majesty is placed over them.'
“ALEX SIMPSON.
“H.B.M.
Acting Consul for the Sandwich Islands."
It will be noted how in the above report Mr.
Simpson lays stress on the fact that the islands appertain to Great Britain,
and makes no mention of Nathaniel Savory or of the two other original settlers
who were not British subjects. This was hardly fair on Nathaniel, who from the
first, I believe, had thrown himself the most wholeheartedly into the
enterprise. He certainly stuck manfully to the islands when he got there,
leaving them only once on a trip to Manila, and died on his island an old man
in his eightieth year, on April 10, 1874.
We also notice in the report that "Mr.
Mazarro finds the task of governing even this little colony no easy
matter," and that Mr. Simpson calls on masters of whaling vessels putting
in at the islands "to support him by all means in their power against the
troublers of the peace of that distant settlement." Troubles it is certain
there were, and continued to be, rivalries, feuds and even bloodshed; and against
Mazarro himself, in spite of the testimonial he receives from Mr. Simpson,
there were some ugly charges, but, away from his islands, there was nothing to
prevent his giving his own coloured account of things to the British Consul at
Honolulu and presenting himself in a favourable light. Materially, however, the
colony was prospering, and opportunities of sale and barter were furnished
when, not unfrequently, whalers and other vessels came to visit it.
Mazarro died in 1848, five years after his
return from Honolulu, leaving a widow, who subsequently became the wife of
Nathaniel Savory, and the unsalaried governorship of a British colony to be
contested for between him and John Millinchamp.
NOTE TO
CHAPTER II
The
following is a copy of an odd list of sundries, with the prices he paid for
them in Mexican dollars, which Nathaniel Savory provided himself with on first
setting out for the Bonins. It is dated Honolulu, May 20, 1830 :
Two Madras
Gowns 7.00
30 yds.
White Long Cloth 30.00
77 yds.
Print 3.50
l
Tortoise-shell Comb 50
1 pr.
Scissors 50
1/2 doz.
Dog Knives and Forks, 3 Spoons 1.50
Red Thread 25
Sewing do. 87
Counterpane 4.00
Tea –kettle 3.00
Pr. Blue
Nankeen Trousers 2.00
1 Rasp 50
Two Tin Pots
75
One Lamp 25
3 doz. Fish
Hooks 37
l Gown
Piece 5.00
l Madras
Gown 3.50
2 pr. Blue
Nankeen Trousers 4.00
1
Candlestick and Lamp 1.00
1 Small
Catty Box Tea 1.50
