168 Years Old—

But It's News

Newspapers and magazines do not usually publish news that is more than a couple of weeks old. But this month PIM publishes a story that tJJ 8 yearS old - and s,m It is the story of how a Spanish navigator, Captain Alejandro Malaspina, visited the Vavauarchipelago of onga in 1793 and too,< possession of it for the Spanish Crown during an official voyage to the Pacific lasting nearly five years .

Although two accounts of Malaspina’s voyage have been published in Spanish, this is the first time that the story of his visit to Tonga has been told in English. Pacific histonans have apparently been unaware that the visit ever took P lace • Sydney journalist Robert Langdon (pictured) who dug up the story at the Sydney Mitchell Library, says his discovery of it was the result of a sudden flash of inspiration .

“Several years ago,” he says, ’d read of Malaspina’s visit to

Sydney in a letter from Acting- Governor Grose to the British Colonial Secretary, which was published in the ‘Historical Records of Australia’.

“Then one day recently it occurred to me that if Malaspina had visited Sydney, he had probably also visited other places in the Pacific.

“Hieing to the Mitchell Library, I found the accounts of his voyage published in Spain in 1849 and 1885.

“Since I can read Spanish following several years in Spain and South America, I soon learned that Malaspina had visited Vavau and had actually taken possession of it.

“1 felt pretty sure that noth ing about this had ever been published in English, and a check through literature on Tonga and the Pacific con firmed this.”

Langdon, who is a frequent contributor to “PIM”, is the author of a history of Tahiti called “Island of Love”, which was published by Cassell in 1959 and issued as a paper back in 1960 by Ace Books.