Wednesday May 18th HMS Mohawk Australian Station Solomon Islands Cruise

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 Eng-
lish trader Mr Harvest and a missionary
which had come on board during the fore-
noon 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 allow-
ed 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 colored
Calica & Blue Suge the different chiefs who w
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 alive
with 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 car-
ry twenty or more thick arrows highly carved
tipped with poisoned human bone, and pain-
ted 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 gor-

geously arrayed in pearl Armlets and Tortoise
shell earrings and wearing elaborately fretted
Mother of pearl ?lates 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 &
dath, the horrible stories which was told
about them and the dread of getting a scratch
from them made us very careful about hav-
ing 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 near-

by every one them carried a small grass bag
hung round his loins, in which he kept his ki-
ki (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.

Tuesday May 17th 1898 HMS Mohawk

Sighted  Tinakula Island (Volcano) stopped
6 off Cape Invarion on the Island of Santa
Cruz of the Santa Cruz group these with

Tinakula (NASA picture linked from Wikipedia)

a lot more islands are called the Queen Charlotte
Group, our purpose being to annex them and all
the Islands round about,and pace them un-
der British Protection hoisting the British Flag
on each we lay off a village and sent a boat
in for the purpose of bringing off an English
man (Forrest?) which had great scope with the
natives, but they found out from a canoe when
near in shore that he did not live there, so
they took the oldest man out of the canoe and
let the others go, they brought him on board,
and turn him over to the Captain who took
him on the bridge and made him by signs
and gesture paint out in what direction
the trader lived after a little trouble they
managed to make him understand what
was wanted, we then proceeded a few
miles along the coast to the place of the
trader, Rosia Granville, stopped off there
the trader came on board and was with
the Captain three or four hours, he then went
on shore again and returned shortly after fully
equipped for a Sea Voyage having two na-

tives as body servants with him, his business was
to act as interpreter and to point out all the
largest villages on the Islands and the best
way of approaching them in fact a kind of a
pilot in every thing we proceeded further
along the coast till we came to Graciosa Bay
we went inside and anchored fro the night.
We had look outs stationed all round the ship
in case of surprise, as the natives so we was
warned might make a dash on us during
the night mistaking us for a Merchant-
man instead of a Man of War, the Natives
of these Islands are very much different to
the Solomon Islands, they are very finely
made, and of a dark copper colour through
there nose they wear a thick tortoise
shell ring about 1 2/2 inch in diameter in their
ears they have a collection of Tortoise and Sea Shell
rings,one had at least thirty of these rings
in his ears and must have weighed as much
as 1/2 ib the lobes of the ear were stretched to
an enormous size, I noticed that some of
them had got their ornaments tied round

their ears on account of their lobe having
been torn away, no doubt through a-
mount that he had got in them, there was
a great crowd of them collected about the ship
and after time they came alongside in their
canoes a very fine and neatly made grass
mat was their only article of clothing passed
round their loins then between the legs and
tucked n before and behind in the same man-
ner as the natives of the Florida Group, they
wore large shell rings around the upper arm
and some had a large shell breast plate with
some sort of design made out of tortoise
shell hung round their necks, but most
conspicuous of all was their large red Wooden
Bows and from a dozen to twenty long and
highly ornamented poisonous arrows, their
canoes were laden up fully with Native
produce and sheaves of theses arrows, which
are certainly the most terrible and deadly
weapons we came acroos, they are not
feathered  like those they use for archery
in England but are made of a simple

cane shaft four or five feet long and carved
with some care the designs upon them
being coloured with Red & white kind of
stain, the points are long and thin and of a
light brown colour the tips being made of human
bone, the canoes of these islands are not made
out of a single log as most of the islands in
the pacific are, but are partly built, they have
got the usual outrigger but in addition
they have a counterbalancing platform
on the other side on which they carry bun-
dles of arrows, Coca Nuts, Bread Fruit & other
native produce which they use for bar-
tering with, the way they handle the canoes
is something remarkable, there were several
of them upset in their eagerness to get along
side, but the owners swimming up to them
would in less than no time with a swing-
ing motion shake a good deal of the water
out, they would then jump in and commence
bailing out with the greatest ease, all their
trading stuff being fastened with coarse
native rope made from the fibre of Coca nuts,

A few of the natives were allowed on board at
a time , they started trading in Bows & Arrows
Shells, Yams, and different native trinkets
taking in return Coloured Calico, Sticks of
Tobacco, Pipes or any little thing that would
catch their eye, things that you would
throw away on the scrap heap at home,
Our tunic buttons and Cap ornaments
where in great demand, you could get
a Native Canoe Wife and all his family
if you would give a chief one of our Brass
Front Plates of our Helmet, on the whole
they were a very savage and ferocious
lot and could not be trusted.

Friday May 6th 1898 HMS Mohawk

May 6th Fri
At 5am we got up anchor and proceeded
to the Florida Islands a distance of 80 miles
We arrived in the afternoon and anchored
off the island of Gavatua here we was
surrounded by canoes trading in the same

Solomon Island warriors, armed with spears, aboard an ornamented war canoe (1895)
Linked from Wikipedia

manner, only some having parrots, some of
the natives here would ask for money, but we
found out that the missionaries had put
them up to ask for it, so that they could make
them presents of it instead of there native
produce. The natives seems very friendly some

(Florida islands also known as Nggela Islands)
(Gavatua presumed to be Gavutu)

speaking a few words of broken English their
only covering being a Tshafed Loin cloth wear-
ing bone rings in their ears and round their
arms & ankles their hair being being very long and Budy?
some having it nearly white which is cause by
it being plasticised with lime, which takes all
the colour out of it for a time, when the lime is
dry they brush it out with a rough kind of
brush made out of coconut fibre, the men
are the only ones that show themselves they
keep all their wifes & children in the bush
for which the island are very thick indeed
a walk in most part being impossible in
the thickest of the bush they build their
huts living in small numbers, shortly after
we arrived we were joined by a missionary
Schooner the Southern Cross being then
on a visit around the islands she anchor-
ed close alongside of us, the trading station
on Gavatua is owned by a couple of traders

Newman and Alison keeping 3 Schooners and having
several Niggers working for them, they came
on board and gave us a lot of information about
the Solomon Islands in General, on the Island
Admiralty has 1000 tons of coal stored
under the charge of the traders for the use
of the Men of war doing duty around the islands
that was mostly our reason for visiting this
island.

Source Wikipedia
The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands, a state in the southwest Pacific Ocean.

Gavutu is a small islet in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands, some 500 metres (550 yards) in length. It is one of the Nggela Islands.
Coordinates: 009°07′00″S 160°11′20″E

April 25th

We left Sydney in company with H.M.S Goldfinch
bound for the Solomon Islands and after a very
fine passage of 10 days we arrived at the island

of Guadolcanan of the longest islands of

the Solomon Group having run a distance

of 2000 miles we dropped anchor in Honiara
Bay on the night of 5th May our soundings

being very deep. On our arrival several canoes

containing natives came alongside to barter

with yams bananas in exchange for tobacco

& clay pipes, the mountains on this island

are very steep and come right down to the wa-

ters edge, they are between 7000 & 8000 feet

and covered to the summit with very

dense jungle

(Guadalcanal ? Guadalcanan?  definetly an n not an l written in the diary)
(Honiara is an modern day guess the word is difficult to read and looks like Hondirera Bay???