Early Contacts With Other Cultures

Early contacts with other cultures
A Tuvaluan man in traditional costume drawn by Alfred Agate in 1841, during the United States
Exploring Expedition[10]
Tuvalu was first sighted by Europeans on 16 January 1568, during the voyage of Álvaro de
Mendaña from Spain, who sailed past Nui and charted it as Isla de Jesús (Spanish for "Island of
Jesus") because the previous day was the feast of the Holy Name. Mendaña made contact with
the islanders but was unable to land.[11][12] During Mendaña's second voyage across the Pacific he
passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which he named La Solitaria.[12][13]
Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764, during his circumnavigation
of the globe as captain of the Dolphin (1751).[14] He charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Keith
S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de
la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, thus solving what Europeans had called The Mystery of Gran
Cocal.[13][15] Mourelle's map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal ('The Great Coconut
Plantation'); however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain.[15] Longitude could only be
reckoned crudely at the time, as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th
century.
The next European to visit was Arent Schuyler de Peyster, of New York, captain of the armed
brigantine or privateer Rebecca, sailing under British colours,[16][17] which passed through the
southern Tuvaluan waters in May 1819; de Peyster sighted Nukufetau and Funafuti, which he
named Ellice's Island after an English politician, Edward Ellice, the Member of Parliament for
Coventry and the owner of the Rebecca's cargo.[15][18] The name Ellice was applied to all nine
islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay.[19]
In 1820, the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the Mirny.[15]
Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain of La Coquille, sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a
circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825).[13] A Dutch expedition (the frigate Maria
Reigersberg) found Nui on the morning of 14 June 1825, and named the main island (Fenua
Tapu) as Nederlandsch Eiland.[20]
Whalers began roving the Pacific, although they visited Tuvalu only infrequently because of the
difficulties of landing on the atolls. Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler
Independence II has been identified as the first whaler to hunt the waters around Tuvalu.[18] He
bartered coconuts from the people of Nukulaelae in November 1821, and also visited
Niulakita.[13] A shore camp was established on Sakalua islet of Nukufetau, where coal was used
to melt down the whale blubber.[21]
For less than a year between 1862 and 1863, Peruvian ships engaged in the so-called
"blackbirding" trade combed the smaller islands of Polynesia from Easter Island in the eastern
Pacific to Tuvalu and the southern atolls of the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), seeking recruits to
fill the extreme labour shortage in Peru.[22] While some islanders were voluntary recruits, the
"blackbirders" were notorious for enticing islanders on to ships with tricks, such as pretending to
be Christian missionaries, as well as kidnapping islanders at gunpoint. The Rev. A. W.
Murray,[23] the earliest European missionary in Tuvalu, reported that in 1863 about 170 people
were taken from Funafuti and about 250 were taken from Nukulaelae,[15] as there were fewer
than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae.[24][25]
Christianity came to Tuvalu in 1861 when Elekana, a deacon of a Congregational church in

Manihiki, Cook Islands, became caught in a storm and drifted for eight weeks before landing at
Nukulaelae on 10 May 1861.[15][26] Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at
Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society (LMS) school in Samoa, before
beginning his work in establishing the Church of Tuvalu.[15] In 1865, the Rev. A. W. Murray of
the LMS – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European
missionary, where he too proselytised among the inhabitants of Tuvalu. Protestantism was well
established by 1878, with preachers on each island.[15] In the later 19th and early 20th centuries
the ministers of what became the Church of Tuvalu (Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu) were
predominantly Samoans, who influenced the development of the Tuvaluan language and the
music of Tuvalu.[27]
The islands came into Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of the
Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate by Captain Gibson of HMS Curacoa, between
9 and 16 October 1892.[28]

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