Not A Happy Story
p. 55 · Read in the full issue
Like some other islands in the Pacific —notably Hawaii and Tahiti—New Caledonia might have been British. Captain James Cook discovered it in 1774, wasn't too impressed but named it so because the pine-clad ridges resembled Scotland.
A mixture of other explorers, traders, runaway seamen, escaped convicts from Australia, and missionaries came over the next 75 years. Both Britain and France were under pressure from business interests and mission groups to take the island and its outliers. For years the delicate situation in Europe and in the Pacific held them back, but finally France moved in 1853.
New Caledonia made a rather infamous name as a French penal colony over most of late 19th century. Some 40,000 French prisoners were brought out, often for political reasons, and some of the best people today are their descen dants. Besides watching the prisoners, the French spent considerable time sub duing the hostile Melanesians to the point where most of the native spirit was broken and, as happened elsewhere, the population declined amid disease and
disruption. It is not a happy colonial story, but few of them are.
JG.