18th May 1898

WEDNESDAY

In the afternoon three of our Boats manned by Marines & Blue Jackets fully armed and carrying a 45 Machine Gun in the Bows of our heaviest Cutter with a plentiful supply of ammunition, Our Captain an officer in charge of each boat the English trader Mr Harvest and a missionary which had come on board during the forenoon from a village along the coast,  our purpose was to claim British Protectorate over the Island and if the natives offered an opposition we were to force a landing, No sooner had our boats put off from the ship when all the natives who were round the ship in their canoes, hurried off as fast as they could pelt after us, when we got close in land we found that all the men had ???? themselves up in a line along the beach to oppose us landing, but the captain pulled close in shore with a large palm leaf in his hand as a sign of friendship & peace and after a lot of palavering he landed but the other two boats was close alongside with their rifles at the ready with magazines charged ready to fire in case of any ??? at last all landed except a few hands to look after the boats and have the gun ready for action in case of treachery or a surprise, The Head Chief appearing on the scene he was conducted to a place alongside of the Captain, our party then formed up in an half circle formation with our backs to the boats, the natives were made to form up in a crowd exactly in front none were allowed to go either to the right or left of us, be- tween the two parties  a hole was dug, a bottle containing a copy of the proclamation was placed in the hole and buried a flag staff being erected on the same spot for the purpose of hoisting the Union Jack, on the hole being filled in a heap of stones was collected round the foot of the staff, when all was ready our Captain made a bit of a speech through the interpreter in which he told them that by hoisting the flag he had placed them under the protection of the Queen Victoria of England and that  all the War Canoes with Big Guns like us would punish anyone them molested them, and that he hoped they would always keep the flag flying, The Union Jack was then ran up, the Guard of Honour presenting arms and a salute of 21 Guns from fired from the ship, Santa Cruz Island was the declared annexed  and under British influence, The Captain then made a present of a large quantity of coloredCalica & Blue Suge the different chiefs who were highly delighted, the natives here as at other Islands are very much frightened with the firing of our guns, covering up their heas and some of them actually jumped overboard in the water and everytime a Gun was fired they would bob their heads under the water, which made everyone that saw them near- by split their side with laughter, during  the remainder of the day our ship was alivewith the natives, A big bug of a Chief came on board with a guard of natives they had come down from the hills, these seemed even a wilder and more uncouth looking than those from the coast,I can picture no more repulsive objects than were some of these men, let a copper coloured savage shave his head in parts, let him gather up such such of his crisp woolly hair as is not cut into long frizzly tails which will stand out like a fixed Bayonet, let  him dye some of these White and some scarlet as his fancy may direct, let him smear his face with soot, with scarlet and yellow streaks across it, his body be scaly like a fish from skin disease and yellow in parts from the wearing or carrying of Turmeric cloths put a thin grass mat round his loins and a large round shell plate upon his breast squeeze a dozen shell bangles upon the up-per part of his arm hang a tortoise shell ring from his nose and twenty in his ears, not forgetting to smear his big ugly mouth with the red juice of the Betel Nut, let him carry twenty or more thick arrows highly carved tipped with poisoned human bone, and painted red and white, with along Red Bow and some had a highly ornamented club and this was the sort of ruffian that swarmed upon the Quarter Deck of the Mohawk, there was canoes full of fine looking young savages which seemed to belong a to a different class altogether they took no part in trading , but was gorgeously arrayed in pearl Armlets and Tortoiseshell earrings and wearing elaborately fretted Mother of pearl plates fastened into their nose which partly hid the centre of their face, there was also on board white headed and loosely cropped old Villains, with countenance little short demonical in their ugliness but all seemed in a great state of excitement I managed to get a few arrows and a white Bow, there is something about the arrows which is more terrible than any of our latest firearm their colour and high ornamentations the smooth long points of human bone which is stuped in some deadly juice, so that the faintest scratch will produce madness & death, the horrible stories which was told about them and the dread of getting a scratch from them made us very careful about having any dealings with them at all but we found out there was no harm at all, after 48 hrs as the poison dies and that they only steep them in the juice just be-gore going to fight with one another nearby every one them carried a small grass bag hung round his loins, in which he kept his kiki (food) and small native made curios, which he bartered with, they wear very eager to buy if they saw anything in your hand that took their fancy, half a dozen of them would rush in great excitement so over come that then could hardly ever shout there faces being something awful to look upon, they were especially keen on our Great Coat Buttons which they tie in a bunch and hang them from their ears & nose, the name of the Head Chief of the Island was Misa, we had a great deal of trouble in chasing them out of the ship at sunset, as we had to do it without giving offence, but eventually we got them all out, we then scrubbed decks and they had left had left a rather peculiar dour behind them