Account of a cruise in Melanesia, July 1881-September 1881

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File 6

Content Summary:

This manuscript may have been based on a journal, but it contains very few precise dates and it is essentially a retrospective account of Codrington's first visit to the islands of Melanesia since his cruise in 1875. There are references throughout the text to accompanying sketches and it may have been written with a publication or talk in mind. Codrington's main purpose was to visit schools and meet teachers and some of his former pupils. At the end of the manuscript he stated that he had visited 27 of the 40 schools that had been set up by the Melanesian Mission. For part of the cruise Codrington was accompanied by Bishop John Selwyn and Rev. John Palmer and, for one stretch, Rev. Richard Comins, who was based at Makira Island in the Solomon Islands. After leaving Norfolk Island on 12 July 1881, he sailed to Pentecost and Aurora (Maewo) islands in the New Hebrides, Mota and Vanua Lava in the Banks Islands, Santa Cruz, the Reef Islands, Ulawa Island, Guadalcanal, Santa Ysabel Island, Cockatoo Island, San Christoval (San Cristobal) Island, the Torres Islands and back to the Banks Islands, returning to Norfolk Island in mid-September. The manuscript refers to meetings with chiefs, teachers, deacons and Codrington's former students, the fluency of boys in Mota, languages, church services, baptisms, chapels, schools, houses, canoes, differences between the Santa Cruz people and other islanders, and earlier visits that Codrington had made to the islands. There is also a lengthy account of a meeting with officers of HMS Cormorant, the news of the murders of Lieut. James Bower and five seamen of HMS Sandfly on Nggela in 1880, and the involvement of Bishop Selwyn in the resolution of the dispute. (101pp)

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