The Treacherous Isles

The group of islands known as Ventiak was not visited by Europeans until 1799. Tasman passed to the east and north of them (1643) and Cook sailed right around them during his during great second voyage, 1772-75, between his two visits to New Zealand. It was left to Captain John Furnnell of the whaler Wiltshire, heading north east from Sydney towards Fiji, to make the first recorded European landfall at Taulala Bay on Miamalau Island. The Wiltshire seems to have been welcomed by the native population. On the third day, however, two of the crew disappeared and Furnnell was unable to decide whether they had deserted or, as some of their fellows maintained, had been killed and eaten. The natives continued to be cooperative and friendly but Furnnell now no longer trusted them. Fully provisioned, the Wiltshire sailed away on the third morning. He named the group the Treacherous Isles.

The Ventiakians reputation for duplicity grew during the early part of the nineteenth century as other whalers and traders experienced similar treatment to Furnnell. Fourteen crew of various vessels were unaccounted for over a period of twenty years. So feared did the islanders become that when the Methodist David McPhee set out to establish the first mission at Taulala in 1841 he was warned that he would be dealing with ‘the most dangerous people on God’s Good Earth’. He survived his early days without mishap, however, as did the Rev Henry Haughty who set up an Anglican mission on Tiavu Island in 1845. Rumours of treachery and cannibalism gradually subsided as the work of the missions took hold.

The islands were annexed by the British in 1862, mainly in order to ensure that the deep water harbour at Taulala did not fall into the hands of another maritime power, and the establishment of a small naval base and accompanying colonial administration did much to improve Ventiak’s reputation. Furnnell’s legacy was hard to shake off, however. Even into the 1880’s visitors to the interior of both Miamalau and Tiavu were warned to exercise extreme caution in dealing with the seemingly good-humoured and co-operative native population. Perhaps it was only when the legendary trader Jack George established his now famous hotel at Mialia in 1888 that Ventiak ceased to be a place to be avoided and established itself as one of the more idyllic and unspoiled Pacific Island destinations.