His lordship’s frank assurance that these rights will be fully recognized and
respected by the British authorities is as gratifying as it was confidently
to be expected from the friendly sense of justice and regard for
international prerogatives which animates Her Majesty’s Government.
With regard to the conduct of Capt. Davis I have naturally felt averse to
giving to the correspondence on the subject a tone of mere complaint because
of his deportment. Many details have reached me, abundantly supported by
trustworthy testimony, which suggest that his language and conduct ill
reflect that temperate, impartial, and commendable exercise of authority,
which it must necessarily be the design of Her Majesty’s Government, to
observe in assuming this protectorate over the Gilbert Islanders.
It seems due, however, to Her Majesty’s Government to submit, in a friendly
spirit, for its information a report, which has recently reached me, showing
the arbitrary conduct and intemperate manners of Capt. Davis, and his
remarkable assumption of power and authority to condemn ex
parte and without a hearing a citizen of the United States for an
offense alleged to have been committed in one of the islands of the Gilbert
group half a year before the announcement of Her Majesty’s protectorate.
Feeling assured that Lord Rosebery shares my views that the manifestations of
authority under such a protectorate should claim cordial acquiescence and
command respect, as well by their intrinsic merits as by the high character
and dignified temperance of the agencies by which they are carried out, I
feel sure that his feelings of regret and chagrin in reading this graphic
statement of Capt. Davis’s unseemly profanity and overbearing demeanor will
be closely akin to those I myself experience; and that the same doubts will
arise in his lordship’s mind as in mine, touching the appropriateness of
such an instrumentality to fulfil the friendly assurances of recognition and
respect for American rights and interests in the Gilbert Islands, which his
lordship’s note so unhesitatingly gives.
[Inclosure in No. 988.]
Mr. Kustel to Mr.
Foster.
Butaritari, Gilbert Islands, July
11, 1892.
Dear Sir: I beg leave to inform you that I am
the master and owner of the American schooner “Fleur
de Lis,” also owner of two trading stations in the island of
Tarawa, of this group. Also that during the month of June, 1892, the
British flag was hoisted on Tarawa. Also that during the same month I
heard at the various islands touched at that the man-of-war Royalist, H. B. M. S., was looking for me. So
[Page 248]
arriving at Butaritari I
determined to await the coming of the Royalist.
On the arrival of the Royalist, July 7, I
received a note addressed to Mr. Albert Kustel, trader, of Tarawa,
schooner Fleur de Lis, asking me to come on board
the Royalist the following morning, July 8. When
about to start for the ship on the following morning, launch came
alongside and said captain wished to see me ashore at the Kings. I went
ashore and met the captain at the Kings with a few natives. He produced
a document which he read, accusing me of assaulting a native by pointing
a revolver at him in November, 1891, and that he the native, took the
revolver from my hand. The captain asked if that was true. I said yes,
excepting that the man had jerked the revolver from my pocket while I
was trying to make him fast with a handkerchief. He accepted that
amendment. Then read evidence of Peter Grant (a Swede) amounting to the
same thing. He then asked me in a very blasphemous manner what I meant
by such criminal conduct. I told him that there were extenuating
circumstances and wished to explain myself. He positively refused to
listen to any explanation. He said I should have tried that game in the
Salomons and I would have got my throat cut. He then condemned me
forthwith—said a trial was unnecessary. I managed to work in that I
pointed the revolver to prevent his interfering with my crew. He then
asked by what authority did I try to hold any native on board my vessel
as a seaman. I told him that my authority was their signatures on my
shipping articles. He replied: “Your articles were not worth a damn.”
Also adding that any king or chief could order any one off of my vessel,
articles or no articles. And that if I did anything to prevent their
leaving I was amenable to the law (English). He then accused me of
intimidating natives; of holding the king under my finger, through
giving him liquor; of creating all of the disturbance in Tarawa; that I
was brutal to my crew, and a bad character generally, and that I was
down here on the sufferance of these natives. I told him that his
informers were unreliable whites—Swedes and Germans, who hated an
American. I asked him why he did not inquire among the natives as to my
character. He said: “Damn your character. I don’t care a God damn for
your character.” I told him that he took no native evidence in
Tarawa—only whites: that I treated my crew kindly; that I had neither
struck nor permitted them to be struck on board my vessel. He said I had
“a damn good reason—that I was afraid of being thrown overboard.” I then
asked him to go on board my vessel and get my crew and question them; he
refused to do so. He then asked “What reparation are you going to make
to that native that you assaulted.” I then told him that the German
man-of-war Sperber had been through the group.
That the captain had called us (the whites) together and said that if
the King and chief did not do what was right that we should look out for
ourselves. That in the absence of any general laws we would have to
shift for ourselves. He (captain of Royalist)
said that counted for nothing; what did I intend or propose paying the
native? I spoke of the place not being under English rule at the time,
and I questioned his right to try an American. He said that he had a
right to try any case happening at any time. He said that if whites
didn’t like it to leave. The sooner they got out of the islands the
better it would suit him. I then offered $10. He got very insulting, and
I got up and said that I would let the case rest on its merits,
depending on my own country to help me out or to settle the difficulty.
I then wished him a very good morning. He shouted “sit down,” and read a
document which he said he intended sending to Washington. I then left.
During this entire interview I refrained from all swearing, and the
captain seemed to take especial pleasure in damning a master of an
American vessel as often as possible.
The next morning I received the following:
“H. M. S. Royalist,
“At Butaritari, July 7,
1892.
“Memo.—You, having this day declined to
make suitable reparation to Tabautin, the Tarawa native, whom by
your own admission you assaulted on Tarawa Island about
November, 1891, I shall request the commander-in-chief to
communicate with the United States Government on the
subject.
“Ed. H. M. Davis,
“Captain and one of the Deputy Commissioners of
the West Pacific.
“To Mr. Albert Kustel,
“Trader, Tarawa.”
At the time he was damning me I was A. J. Kustel, master of the American
schooner Fleur de Lis. I have been constantly
engaged as master of American vessels for the past fifteen years. It is
true that I own two trading stations on Tarawa, but I have never traded
nor sold personally, at either of these stations. I beg to leave to
offer the following as the defense that was refused to be heard by Capt.
Davis:
In November, 1891, the natives of the island of Tarawas were engaged in
civil war. There existed no law nor order amongst the natives. Threats
against the property
[Page 249]
and lives
of the white residents of the islands were freely made, and no outside
help was available. Therefore we were thrown entirely on our own
resources. I laid my schooner up, leaving my crew to look out for her,
it being the season of west or dangerous winds, and I stood in readiness
to assist the traders should an outbreak occur. P. Grant, a Swedish
trader, sent his wife and family to my station and soon followed
himself. I harbored them as long as they desired to stay. The native
referred to by Capt. Davis, had been residing in Butaritari till 1889,
when he fled to Tarawa to escape punishment for an offense committed
against A. Rick, United States commercial agent. He bore a bad
reputation, being quarrelsone and addicted to drink. In Tarawa he did
not improve, but tried to incite the natives against the whites. In
November he had prevented men that I had shipped from going on board the
Fleur de Lis. At the time I was on board and
went ashore, asking the king to send my men on board, which he refused
to do. I then took Peter Grant and began search for this native, and met
him on the road. He began to run. I ordered him to halt. On his not
stopping I pointed a revolver at him with the intention of frightening
him. He stopped when Peter Grant said “Make the scoundrel fast.” I put
the pistol in my side pocket and attempted to make him fast with a
handkerchief, when he dodged, jerked the pistol from my pocket, fired it
over my head and ran, and that was the last I saw either of my pistol or
the assaulted native. Value of pistol $18. I claim that this whole
affair is only worked up for the purpose of driving me, an American,
from the island. The captain informed me that he would arrange things so
that I could get no crew in the future for my vessel. I am the only
American of prominence or of property on this island. The Germans are
seeking to control it. The captain would listen to nothing that I had to
say. I was tried, found guilty, and sentenced before he ever saw me. All
of which is respectfully submitted.
(Care of Wightman Bros., 309 California street, San Francisco.)
Butaritari,
Island of Butaritari, Gilbert Islands,
ss:
Personally appeared before me Capt. A. J. Kustel, known to me, and
who affixed his signature to the foregoing in my presence, and who
upon being duly sworn says that he has read the foregoing statement
of what passed between himself and Capt. E. H. M. Davis, and that it
is true.
Butaritari, July 12,
1892.
A. Rick,
United States Commercial Agent.