Mr. Foster to Mr. White.

No. 988.]

Sir: I have read with much satisfaction your No. 846, of the 26th ultimo, reporting the acknowledgment made by Lord Rosebery of your communication relative to the conduct of Capt. Davis, of H. M. S. Royalist, at Butaritari, and to the recognition and protection of American interests and rights in the Gilbert islands.

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.

I am, etc.,

John W. Foster.
[Inclosure in No. 988.]

Mr. Kustel to Mr. Foster.

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.

A. J. Kustel.

(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.


A. Rick,
United States Commercial Agent.