Alexander Salmon, Jr
Encyclopedia
Alexander Ariipaea Vehiaitipare Salmon Jr. (1855–1914) was the English-Jewish-Tahitian co-owner of the Maison Brander plantations on Tahiti
and de facto ruler of Easter Island
from 1878 till its cession to Chile
in 1888.
of Tahiti, he fell in love with her twenty-year-old adoptive sister Oehau. For three days the queen abrogated the law forbidding a Tahitian to marry a foreigner, gave Princess Oehau the title ari‘i
Taimai, and they married.
Their daughter, Salmon's sister, Johanna Marau Ta‘aroa (1846–1934), married her uncle, the future King Pomare V
, and was de facto ruler as Queen Marau (1877–1880) until he abdicated to the French colonial government. Another daughter married the Scottish merchant John Brander.
Their son, Alexander Jr, known as "Pa‘ea" (Mangarevan for 'hobble'), inherited his father's business interests and became co-owner with Brander of the Maison Brander copra
and coconut oil
plantations in Tahiti, the Marquesas, and the Cooks
.
, who had acquired additional land and appointed his Rapanui
wife "Queen". This was the low point in the island's history; by 1872 its resident population had been reduced to 111.
In 1871 Alexander Jr had picked up rudimentary Rapanui from his hundreds of indentured Easter Island laborers at the Mahina
coconut plantation on Tahiti. In 1877 Queen Pōmare IV died, and Alexander's sister became regent. John Brander also died that year, and Dutrou-Bornier was assassinated. Alexander set off for Easter Island to manage the sheep station in around October 1878 with twenty Tahitian workers and an unknown number of Rapanui whose indentures had expired and ran the island for a decade. He introduced the coconut
, the first sizable tree on the island since its deforestation two centuries earlier, apart from some fruit trees at the SSCC
Catholic mission and Dutrou-Bornier's estate.
Salmon returned to Tahiti 1883–1884 for business. Upon his return to Easter Island he bought up all remaining land apart from the SSCC mission at Hanga Roa
. As owner of nearly all the island and sole source of employment, Salmon was de facto ruler.
As he was not a religious man, and a Jew, the priests did not like him, especially Hippolyte Roussel
, who had been forced to leave the island in 1871 due to conflict with Dutrou-Bornier but who visited again in 1879. Bishop Jaussen
in Tahiti appointed a Rapanui, Atamu te Kena, "king" to protect church interests from the Maison Brander, but Salmon ignored him and he never had any influence. However, Salmon was an honest man and sincerely interested in the welfare of the people, and the population started to recover. This was the era of the strong Tahitian influence on the Rapanui language and culture.
In addition to wool exports, Salmon developed a tourist industry. He encouraged the manufacture of Rapanui artworks, including imitation rongorongo
inscriptions, and helped sell them to passing ships for good prices as cultural artifacts, though he never claimed they were genuine. The artisans knew currency exchange rates and could deal with Europeans and Americans on their own terms.
Salmon served as the principal informant for the British and German archaeological expeditions to the island in 1882 and for the Americans in 1886, as guide, translator, and hotelier.
Cooke, surgeon of the USS Mohican
, which dropped anchor in December 1886, said,
The information Salmon provided, despite its ofter poor quality, is still among the most important of Easter Island's early historical period. He also sent three genuine rongorongo tablets to his niece's husband, Heinrich August Schlubach, the German consul of Valparaíso
, which are now kept in Vienna and Berlin.
Salmon sold the Brander Easter Island holdings to the Chilean government in January 2, 1888 and signed as a witness to the cession of the island. He returned to Tahiti in December of that year. He left for the remote Tuamotu Islands
after being arrested and put in prison for assault and battery. He collected the oral histories of the people of the Tuamotus. He moved to San Francisco in later life and was involved in a scheme to marry ex-Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, who he claimed he had been engaged to from birth. The plot was merely a heist to take Liliuokalani's money in order to pay his debt. He died in 1914.
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
and de facto ruler of Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
from 1878 till its cession to Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in 1888.
Family
Salmon's father, Alexander Salmon (Solomon, 1822–1866), was an English Jewish merchant. While secretary to Pōmare IVPomare IV
Pōmare IV, Queen of Tahiti , more properly Aimata Pōmare IV Vahine-o-Punuateraitua , was the queen of Tahiti between 1827 and 1877...
of Tahiti, he fell in love with her twenty-year-old adoptive sister Oehau. For three days the queen abrogated the law forbidding a Tahitian to marry a foreigner, gave Princess Oehau the title ari‘i
Ali'i
Alii is a word in the Polynesian language denoting chiefly status in ancient Hawaii and the Samoa Islands. A similar word with the same concept is found in other Polynesian societies. In the Cook Islands, an ariki is a high chief and the House of Ariki is a parliamentary house...
Taimai, and they married.
Their daughter, Salmon's sister, Johanna Marau Ta‘aroa (1846–1934), married her uncle, the future King Pomare V
Pomare V
Pōmare V, King of Tahiti was the last monarch of Tahiti, reigning from 1877 until his forced abdication in 1880. He was the son of Queen Pōmare IV. He was born as Teri'i Tari'a Te-rā-tane and became Heir Apparent and Crown Prince upon the death of his elder brother on 13 May 1855...
, and was de facto ruler as Queen Marau (1877–1880) until he abdicated to the French colonial government. Another daughter married the Scottish merchant John Brander.
Their son, Alexander Jr, known as "Pa‘ea" (Mangarevan for 'hobble'), inherited his father's business interests and became co-owner with Brander of the Maison Brander copra
Copra
Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...
and coconut oil
Coconut oil
Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of matured coconuts harvested from the coconut palm . Throughout the tropical world, it has provided the primary source of fat in the diets of millions of people for generations. It has various applications in food, medicine, and industry...
plantations in Tahiti, the Marquesas, and the Cooks
Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
.
Easter Island
The Maison Brander owned a large sheep ranch on Easter Island for exporting wool. The ranch was managed by the megalomaniacal convicted murderer Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-BornierJean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier
Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier was a French mariner who settled on Easter Island in 1868, purchased much of the island, removed many of the Rapanui and turned the island into a sheep ranch.- Early life :...
, who had acquired additional land and appointed his Rapanui
Rapanui
The Rapa Nui or Rapanui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the Rapa Nui people make up 60% of Easter Island's population, with some living also in mainland Chile...
wife "Queen". This was the low point in the island's history; by 1872 its resident population had been reduced to 111.
In 1871 Alexander Jr had picked up rudimentary Rapanui from his hundreds of indentured Easter Island laborers at the Mahina
Mahina, French Polynesia
Mahina is a commune in the suburbs of Papeete in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Mahina is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, themselves part of the Society Islands. Mahina is the 3rd largest city in...
coconut plantation on Tahiti. In 1877 Queen Pōmare IV died, and Alexander's sister became regent. John Brander also died that year, and Dutrou-Bornier was assassinated. Alexander set off for Easter Island to manage the sheep station in around October 1878 with twenty Tahitian workers and an unknown number of Rapanui whose indentures had expired and ran the island for a decade. He introduced the coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
, the first sizable tree on the island since its deforestation two centuries earlier, apart from some fruit trees at the SSCC
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is a Roman Catholic religious order of brothers, priests, and nuns...
Catholic mission and Dutrou-Bornier's estate.
Salmon returned to Tahiti 1883–1884 for business. Upon his return to Easter Island he bought up all remaining land apart from the SSCC mission at Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and capital of the Chilean province of Easter Island. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau....
. As owner of nearly all the island and sole source of employment, Salmon was de facto ruler.
As he was not a religious man, and a Jew, the priests did not like him, especially Hippolyte Roussel
Hippolyte Roussel
Hippolyte Roussel was a French priest and missionary to Polynesia, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.In 1854 he was sent to evangelize in the Tuamotus and Mangareva in the Gambier Islands...
, who had been forced to leave the island in 1871 due to conflict with Dutrou-Bornier but who visited again in 1879. Bishop Jaussen
Florentin-Étienne Jaussen
Monsignor Florentin-Étienne Jaussen was the first bishop of Tahiti and the man who brought the rongorongo script of Easter Island to the world's attention. In the 1860s Bishop Jaussen was responsible for ending the slave raids on Easter Island.Jaussen was born in Rocles, France...
in Tahiti appointed a Rapanui, Atamu te Kena, "king" to protect church interests from the Maison Brander, but Salmon ignored him and he never had any influence. However, Salmon was an honest man and sincerely interested in the welfare of the people, and the population started to recover. This was the era of the strong Tahitian influence on the Rapanui language and culture.
In addition to wool exports, Salmon developed a tourist industry. He encouraged the manufacture of Rapanui artworks, including imitation rongorongo
Rongorongo
Rongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that appears to be writing or proto-writing. It cannot be read despite numerous attempts at decipherment. Although some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information has been identified, not even...
inscriptions, and helped sell them to passing ships for good prices as cultural artifacts, though he never claimed they were genuine. The artisans knew currency exchange rates and could deal with Europeans and Americans on their own terms.
Salmon served as the principal informant for the British and German archaeological expeditions to the island in 1882 and for the Americans in 1886, as guide, translator, and hotelier.
Cooke, surgeon of the USS Mohican
USS Mohican (1883)
The second USS Mohican was a steam sloop of war in the United States Navy. She was named for the Mohican tribe.-Construction:Mohican was laid down by Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 4 September 1872, funded with the repair money allocated for the first ; launched 27 December 1883; sponsored by...
, which dropped anchor in December 1886, said,
The information Salmon provided, despite its ofter poor quality, is still among the most important of Easter Island's early historical period. He also sent three genuine rongorongo tablets to his niece's husband, Heinrich August Schlubach, the German consul of Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, which are now kept in Vienna and Berlin.
Salmon sold the Brander Easter Island holdings to the Chilean government in January 2, 1888 and signed as a witness to the cession of the island. He returned to Tahiti in December of that year. He left for the remote Tuamotu Islands
Tuamotus
The Tuamotus or the Tuamotu Archipelago are a chain of islands and atolls in French Polynesia. They form the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Western Europe...
after being arrested and put in prison for assault and battery. He collected the oral histories of the people of the Tuamotus. He moved to San Francisco in later life and was involved in a scheme to marry ex-Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, who he claimed he had been engaged to from birth. The plot was merely a heist to take Liliuokalani's money in order to pay his debt. He died in 1914.