Lost Atolls Of The Pacific

The Mystery of Tuanaki and Victoria Islands

By Julian Hillas

ATLANTIS in the East; Lemuria in the West; continents as large and per haps even larger than the whole area of Europe disappeared without trace, leav ing behind no record beyond the rocky peaks of their highest mountain ranges.

Throughout history, like lesser satellites, numerous small Pacific Islands have been visited once or twice, and then lost forever in the dim twilight of travellers’ tales.

Among these may be counted the sunken atoll of Tuanaki, commonly sup posed to have existed some 300 miles south or south-west of Rarotonga in the Cook Group and to have consisted of three densely populated islets strung together on a connecting reef.

The first reference in print to Tuanaki is in the Rev. William Gill’s “Gems of the Coral Islands” which appeared in 1865.

Mention is made there to the arrival at Rarotonga in the year 1844 of a schooner from Rurutu which had been sent out under the direction of the Rev. G. Platt to search for an island known by report throughout the Group, but which had never been visited or definitely located by Europeans.

In the autobiography of the missionary Maretu —subsequently translated by Dr.

Wyatt Gill—is found an account of a fur ther attempt to reach the island, this time in a vessel belonging to John Williams, also, as far as can be made out from some confusion of dates, during 1844. The vessel in question called first at-Aitutaki and whilst there the Captain and Mr. Gill interviewed a native seaman named Toma who claimed to have seen Tuanaki while employed on board a whaling ship.

According to his account he had gone ashore there as one of a landing-party of seven, and after proceeding some distance inland came upon a house filled with men, amongst whom was the Ariki, or Chief.

Gifts of scissors, axes and head-dresses were presented by the visitors who, in exchange, received fowls, pigs, yams and bananas, which shows that although Tuanaki was only an atoll its soil must have been considerably better than the average. The ship remained six days, during which time Toma and his com panions stayed ashore as guests. He in formed Mr. Gill that the people were just like the Aitutakians in appearance, although their language and customs more closely resembled those of the Man gaians, who were in fact their nearest neighbours—it taking only a day and a night to reach that island.

After leaving Aitutaki, William’s vessel called at Mangaia and proceeding thence in the supposed direction of Tuanaki encountered such heavy weather that her boom and after mast were both broken, necessitating an immediate return to Rarotonga.

No further attempt seems to have been made to find the lost atoll, although it is on record that some time during the 40’s a trading vessel from Auckland used to visit an island of which the exact posi tion was kent secret, and w T hich subse quently disappeared.

But that Tuanaki formerly did exist appears fairly certain. To-day among the people of Rarotonga a particular reddish brown shade of hair is spoken of as the tu Tuanaki, rumour having it that this was the general colouring of that island, a belief to which substance is lent by the more southerly and temperate climate

Modern oceanic survey has moreover established the location of a shoal in lati tude 27.308, a distance of 360 miles from Rarotonga, a position in every way cor responding to the supposed site of Tuanaki. Writing in 1901, Lieut.-Colonel W. E. Gudgeon, then Resident Commis sioner at Rarotonga, believed that the island was in existence up to 70 years ago and disappeared as the result of a volcanic upheaval.

One can imagine the three islets, mere crumbs of land on a narrow riband of coral reef. Placid and uneventful days filled with small interests and cares —the perpetual motion of a self-contained life.

Maretu tells us that the Tuanakians knew nothing of warfare; they only knew how to dance and sing.

Perhaps it was night-time when the first tremor shook the atoll, sending the water in the lagoon surging ashore in angry waves among the palms. Strange marine fires may have lit the scene like great lamps burning in the ocean depths. ... A second tremor and the rending of the island’s coral foundations, followed by the rushing together of the waters. Darkness and the swirling cur rents; the shrill cries of women and children; and the hoarse gutteral shout

ing of men. And then dawn, pale and sickly, with heavy vapours, creeping across the eastern horizon: “Around, by lifting winds forgot, Resignedly beneath the sky The melancholy waters lie.” t hS Ct D °u r L a lP ? la i n ,?h .«**«*

S& tS

"north-east of Aitutaki in the Cook Groilp, and rumour held that it was rich in guano deposits. That these reports were considered authentic is evident from an inser-

tion which appeared in a Melbourne news paper in February, 1865. ‘‘WANTED. Single man to take charge of an island in the South Pacific. Apply B. B. Nichol son and Co., Ship Brokers, Elizabeth Street.” , . antwe?e e d Vo ? h t 1, a e d vSe m fn , ll rd « s re Tt ed a‘n he u a n P p P u°SeT “. . . he (Mr. Nicholson) said that he was going to Sandwich in the morning and would like me to go with him to see Captain Murphy of the barque Envoy

from Liverpool, to know \yhen he would be ready to start for the South Sea Islands.

“At 8 a.rn. we went and saw the barque, a fine new vessel of 500 tons. The Cap tain said he would be ready to sail on March 8. . . . Mr. Nicholson agreed to give me £l2 a month with all pro visions, tents, boat, and tools for prospect ing Victoria Island for guano. I was to find a man who could fix up the tents, row a boat, and cook. I soon found a sailor at £ 6 a month and on the following day we signed articles before the Shipping Master, I as Captain of Victoria Island and Woods as Mate.

“. . . The same evening we left (Aitutaki) to hunt for Victoria Island, which the Captain said was about 1000 miles distant. After a fortnight Captain Murphy said we were near the island and he sent a man aloft to look but. At day light next morning another man went aloft, but again no land was sighted.

Murp.hy said we were now within five miles and as we had strong trade-winds the barque was scudding along.

“About 9 a.m, the Captain and Mate took the sun and, working out the reck oning, declared that we had sailed right over the island. There were thousands of birds hovering around and most of us concluded that the island had gone down in that dreadful hurricane that had done so much damage in Aitutaki. However, we ploughed the ocean for 100 miles in all directions, but no land was to be seen, so we started for Malden Island where the barque was to load guano for Melbourne.

We arrived there correct. Captain Murphy was a splendid navigator—he could pick up an island if it was marked right on the chart. ...”

Old tales die hard and although Vic toria has never been definitely reported by a reliable authority, belief in its exist ence still lingers on, particularly among the inhabitants of Manihiki, who declare that as late as the 60’s their people used to rest at Victoria Island on the journeys between Manihiki and Malden. That this corresponds with the time when William Oliver was searching for the lost island is perhaps significant, insomuch as no mention after that date is again made to Victoria by the Manihikians. The presence of a large flock of gulls could very well be accounted for by shoal water—a shoal possibly quite recently formed by some marine subsidence.

Shrouded in conjecture, the histories of Tuanaki and Victoria add yet another link to the long chain of unsolved Pacific mys teries, watched over by the greatest enigma of all—those inscrutable stone faces forever glooming out across the waters from the barren hillsides of Easter Island.