Pages from the Past: The "King" Who Was a Failure
pp. 55-56 · Read in the full issue
Dulwich Hill, Sydney
Rockhampton—Brisbane—Townsville
Pages From The Past
By Eric Ramsden
The “King” Who Was a Failure OP all the strange adventurers, dreamers of dreams, who have traversed the bosom of the Pacific, none had a more ignominious end than Charles, Baron de Thierry, the self-styled “King of Nukuheva.”
A century ago, when British and French interests were striving for supremacy in the Pacific, de Thierry might easily have applied the spark that would have resulted in war. As it was, however, the British offered no opposition to the Anglo-Frenchman’s ambitious project for establishing himself as Sovereign Chief in the northern part of New Zealand, and the flame burned itself out. De Thierry ended his days as a teacher of the piano in the Colonial town of Auckland.
Why the Baron should have chosen Nukuheva, the second largest island in the Marquesas, (Eastern Polynesia) for his titular kingdom, is difficult to explain.
There is no evidence that he ever visited it again after 1835 when he called there on his way from South America to Tahiti in July of that year.
Definite evidence has come to light of late which establishes the date on which de Thierry entered into what was really one of the most extraordinary treaties ever concluded with a Polynesian people.
On July 22, 1835, in the presence of the leading chiefs, chieftainesses, and priests, de Thierry solemnly accepted the sovereignty of the island, and his flag was raised in the port of Anna Maria. The European witnesses were J. A. Phipps, master of the barque Active, of Salem, U.S.A. and one Major Edward Fergus, a member of the Baron’s suite.
A Mysterious Figure.
'p'ERGUS is a somewhat mysterious figure in Pacific history, and what his end was no one appears to know. He was with de Thierry during the latter’s lengthy stay in Tahiti, and not so long ago I came across a letter from him to the editor of the Sydney Herald dated September 15, 1835 —written within two months of the ceremony at Nukuheva.
The writer believed it to be a matter of interest to the Sydney Herald that the Baron de Thierry, then about to leave Tahiti to establish a government in New Zealand, had “declared his independence to the principal governments of Europe and the United States, requesting from the Kings of Great Britain and France ships of war and troops for the protection of his territories.”
“On his way to Otaheite the Baron was proclaimed King of the island of Nukuheva,” wrote Major Fergus (who, incidentally, had been promoted “Colonel” by the Baron), “and he is only waiting at this place (Papeete) the return of a ship which he has sent back to Panama for part of his suite, to proceed to New Zealand . . . .”
Two years later the Baron was still protesting that the natives of Nukuheva remained faithful to their allegiance. “For two years past my flag has been on that island,” he informed Governor Bourke on August 7, 1837, “and the four masters of ships who came by the Draco can attest that fact.”
The Baron In Tahiti.
T>UT the intervening period in Tahiti had been one of great difficulty for the Baron. The missionaries, naturally enough, looked upon him with considerable suspicion as an agent of the French.
Funds were low, and promises of help did not materialise.
To make matters worse d© Thierry was insulted by Captain Robert Fitzßoy, commander of the Beagle. Curiously enough, years after the Baron had settled in New Zealand and his colonizing plans had come to nought, Fitzßoy was appointed Governor of that Colony—one of the most unfortunate selections in its history.
From a perusal of certain important letters that have recently been made available, It is evident that Captain Fitz- Roy knew a good deal more concerning de Thierry’s antecedents than the Baron either anticipated or cared for. De Thierry considered the naval officer’s conduct highly unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and threatened him with the displeasure of the British Admiralty, If Fitzßoy had been a man with a little more humour he might well have laughed at the Baron’s feeble pretensions. After all, his plight in Tahiti was pathetic in the extreme.
However, nothing daunted, the “King of Nukuheva” eventually succeeded in obtaining a passage for his wife and young children to Sydney.
It is now apparent that the Baron was equally willing to play off either French or British Government against the other.
Obviously, as his letters prove, he had dealings with the French. When in Sydney in August, 1837, he told Bourke: “I come here . . . with no newly acquired dignity, if being king of a savage island can be called on© . . . An Englishman now claims the protection of your Excellency.”
I- is significant, however, that when Bishop Pompallier, a French subject, arrived in New Zealand later, he was directed to the Baron by the French authorities.
Whether Fergus accompanied de Thierry to Australia is uncertain. The probability is that funds were so low that he remained in Tahiti. It has been suggested that when his ambitious plan 53 Pacific Islands Monthly, January 22, 1 937
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Head Olfice 160 BROADWAY, SYDNEY. N.S.W. in New Zealand failed, the Baron sent him back to Tahiti to secure French support for his claim to the sovereignty of Nukuheva. It is true that Major Fergus was living in Papeete when the French were fighting the Tahitians in the 40’s: his name appears in newspaper accounts published in Sydney at that time. After that Fergus disappeared into obscurity.
Serious Crisis Averted
/~\N arrival in New Zealand, where he settled in the Hokianga district, de Thierry met with carefully organised opposition. James Busby, the British Resident, had banded together certain of the chiefs and obtained their signatures to a Declaration of Independence. That document was obtained by a real fear of de Thierry’s possible influence. The Baron based his claim in New Zealand upon lands allegedly purchased for a few axes from chiefs who were in England in 1820; but the Maoris disputed the claim. Tamati Waka Nene, one of the leading chiefs, permitted the Baron to occupy a fraction of the 40,000 acres he declared had been bought.
But de Thierry might well have precipitated a serious crisis.
Busby’s grip on the Maoris was insecure: there was every possibility of an outbreak between the forces of Waikato, a chief who had signed de Thierry’s deed, and chiefs who were loyal to Busby. Besides, the Resident believed, with justification, that if the Baron played his cards properly, France might come out into the open and support his claims with French cannons.
However, the Resident acted with caution, banded the majority of the chiefs against de Thierry, and covered him with ridicule —his most effective weapon under the circumstances.
“King” de Thierry was deserted by the artisans he had brought from Sydney, and in a short time Busby was able to declare: “The Baron has been deserted by all of his people save three or four, and has sunk to a very low level indeed, having nothing, they say, to purchase the most common necessities save rum.” A few months later the “King of Nukuheva” was selling rum by the gallon! When a missionary came to visit the de Thierry family he found the Baroness seated on a brandy cask.
STRANDED ON PITCAIRN. years the Baron struggled on, ineffectually, declaiming against his treatment and pressing his claims upon successive Governors. In the 50’s he visited California, and en route was stranded on Pitcairn Island for a short period. In his pocket was a tuning fork, and it is said that he put his time to good profit by teaching the islanders to sing.
De Thierry reached the American coast ahead of the vessel that had left him at Pitcairn—a faster ship having put in there soon after the other had departed.
De Thierry left descendants both Maori and Pakeha in New Zealand. Some years ago I met an old woman in Auckland, who called herself the Baroness Mary Jane de Thierry, an illiterate Irishwoman who, in earlier years, had followed the British troops as a washerwoman. The Baroness Mary Jane was the “King’s” daughter-in-law rightly enough, and lived the life of a semi-recluse in a little house not a stone’s throw from where de Thierry is buried in Grafton Gully.
The life of the Baron de Thierry is at last being written, and the events of a century ago will again live in the pages of Robin Hyde’s book. Madman or genius —who can say for certain what type of man de Thierry really was? An adventurer, yes, but a man of considerable culture and refinement, and a courageous one withal. Perhaps if he had arrived in the Pacific half a century earlier history might have been written differently.