Matupi

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View of the Blanche Bay with the island of Matupi during the German colonial era around 1910
Village on Matupi during the German colonial era around 1910

Matupi (also called Henderson Island ) was an island in the Blanche Bay in the northeast of the Gazelle Peninsula of the Bismarck Archipelago in the island republic of Papua New Guinea . Due to volcanic processes in the region, it became a peninsula in May 1937 .

Early European contacts

In July 1872, under Captain Simpson , HMS Blanche visited the waters around Matupi and anchored northwest of the island. In European nautical charts the basin was entered as "Simpson Harbor" and the bay surrounding Matupi as "Blanche Bay" (later Germanized to "Simpsonhafen" or "Blanchebai" or "Blanchebucht").

The Hamburg company JC Godeffroy & Sohn (later the German Trading and Plantation Company ( DHPG )) set up a European trader on the island in April 1873, but he could not hold on and fled to Amakada (Duke of York Group).

Matupi and the Blanche Bay as measured by SMS  Gazelle (August 1875)

In August 1875, the German research ship SMS  Gazelle entered Simpsonhafen, measured the coastlines, the anchorage, Matupi and the Greet Harbor to the east. That same month, Wesleyan missionary George Brown visited one of the island's counties. By the end of the year, several captains of trade came to Matupi accompanied by Brown, among them the Australian-British coaster Alexander Ferguson and the later Hamburg merchant Eduard Hernsheim . The Wesleyan Mission acquired property in the south in the last quarter of 1875 and stationed a clergyman from Fiji there.

At the northern tip of Matupis, Hernsheim & Co built their “Rolavio” station in 1877 and expanded it from 1879 to become the main station for copra export. In later years a second, larger trading post was added on the east coast, as well as an inn in the northwest for the hospitality of marines, which was also operated by Hernsheim & Co.

Between 1884 and 1899, Matupi was part of the protected area of ​​the New Guinea Company , and between 1899 and 1914 part of German New Guinea . As the traffic center of the Bismarck Archipelago , it formed the starting point for the colonization of the island area.

From 1881, coal deliveries were made by Matupi to ships of the Imperial Navy, from 1885 also to vehicles of the colonial administration of the eastern jurisdiction (protected area of ​​the New Guinea Company). Since September 1881 there was a stone quay on the east side of the island for this purpose. At the end of the 19th century, Matupi was the port of call for the mail steamer line from Singapore and Batavia .

Indigenous people and pre-colonial trade relations

In the early days of European trade, around 150-200 people lived in a total of three districts of Matupis. Indigenous trade relations only existed after Amakada; The main exports were fruit and earth fruits for the provision of whalers, as well as turtle shells for resale to merchant ships. Caused by contacts with European new settlers, Matupi gained importance among the indigenous population from 1880 and by 1888 recorded an immigration of around 900 residents of the Gazelle Peninsula . The main villages for 1886 are “Kurapun” in the west and “Raulai” in the east. The natural scientist Otto Finsch , who was a guest at Hernsheim & Co on Matupi in 1880/81 , described the islanders as "very clean" and with a "decidedly mercantile spirit".

Geographical changes due to volcanic activity

When the volcano "Mother" erupted in February 1878, the so-called "volcanic island" was formed northwest of Matupis. During the renewed activity of the "mother" in May 1937, both this island and Matupi were raised and the latter connected to the mainland by an also raised headland. According to oral reports from the indigenous population, the emergence of Matupi also goes back to an outbreak of the “mother” in the 19th century.

literature

  • Jakob Anderhandt: Eduard Hernsheim, the South Seas and a lot of money : biography in two volumes. MV Science, Münster 2012.
  • George Brown: Pioneer-Missionary and Explorer: a narrative of forty-eight years' residence and travel in Samoa, New Britain, New Ireland, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1908.
  • Eduard Hernsheim: “The sailing route from Sydney to the Blanche Bai and the Nusa fairway ...”. In: Annalen der Hydrographie , Jg. 1894, pp. 403-415.
  • Hydrographic Office of the Reichsmarinamt (ed.): The research trip of the SMS 'Gazelle' in the years 1874–1876 under the command of the Captain of the Sea Baron von Schleinitz . Part 1: The travelogue. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1889.
  • Richard Parkinson: Thirty Years in the South Seas: Country and people, customs and traditions in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands . Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1907.
  • Heinz Schütte: Colonial Control and Mission: Reflections on Social Transition in New Guinea . (Wiener Ethnohistorische Blätter, Supplement 9). Institute f. Ethnology, Vienna 1986.
  • Arthur Wichmann: Nova Guinea: Vol. II. History of the discovery of New Guinea 1828–1885 . Bookstore and printer EJ Brill, Leiden 1910.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Parkinson: Thirty Years in the South Seas: Country and People, Manners and Customs in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands . Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1907, p. 850.
  2. ↑ Richard Parkinson: Thirty Years in the South Seas: Country and People, Manners and Customs in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands . Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1907, p. 850 and The Australasian , September 20, 1873.
  3. ^ Hydrographic Office of the Reichsmarineamte (ed.): The research trip of the SMS 'Gazelle' in the years 1874–1876 under the command of the captain of the sea Freiherr von Schleinitz . Part 1: The travelogue. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1889. p. 239.
  4. ↑ Heinz Schütte: Colonial Control and Mission: Considerations on Social Transition in New Guinea . (Wiener Ethnohistorische Blätter, Supplement 9). Institute f. Völkerkunde, Vienna 1986, p. 29.
  5. ↑ Jakob Anderhandt: Eduard Hernsheim, the South Seas and a lot of money : biography in two volumes. MV-Wissenschaft, Münster 2012, here: Vol. 1, pp. 139 and 123.
  6. ↑ George Brown, Journal 1874–1876 , Nov. 17, 1875 (unpublished, Mitchell Library, Sydney, CY 2759).
  7. ↑ Jakob Anderhandt: Eduard Hernsheim, the South Seas and a lot of money : biography in two volumes. MV-Wissenschaft, Münster 2012, here: Vol. 1, pp. 202 and 285 f.
  8. ↑ Jakob Anderhandt: Eduard Hernsheim, the South Seas and a lot of money : biography in two volumes. MV-Wissenschaft, Münster 2012, here: Vol. 2, p. 418 f.
  9. ↑ Eduard Hernsheim: "The sailing route from Sydney to the Blanche-Bai and the Nusa-Fahrwasser ...". In: Annalen der Hydrographie , Jg. 1894, pp. 403-415, here: p. 410, and Hugo Zöller: As a journalist and researcher in Germany's great colonial era . Köhler & Amelang, Leipzig 1930, p. 286.
  10. ↑ Jakob Anderhandt: Eduard Hernsheim, the South Seas and a lot of money : biography in two volumes. MV-Wissenschaft, Münster 2012, here: Vol. 2, pp. 418, 421f. and 386.
  11. ↑ Lt. Zembsch to Bismarck, October 24, 1881, Foreign Office, Col. Dept. A III, RKA 2786 (unpublished, Federal Archives Berlin-Lichterfelde).
  12. ^ Hugo Zöller: German New Guinea and my ascent of the Finisterre Mountains . Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart a. a. 1891, p. 287 (passim).
  13. ↑ Jakob Anderhandt: Eduard Hernsheim, the South Seas and a lot of money : biography in two volumes. MV-Wissenschaft, Münster 2012, here: Vol. 2, p. 418.
  14. ↑ Hamburger Nachrichten , July 2, 1881 (evening edition).
  15. ^ Arthur Wichmann: Nova Guinea: Vol. II. History of the discovery of New Guinea 1828–1885 . Bookstore and printer EJ Brill, Leiden 1910, p. 250.
  16. ↑ See Pacific Islands Monthly , June 1937, pp. 9 f.
  17. ↑ George Brown: Pioneer-Missionary and Explorer: a narrative of forty-eight years' residence and travel in Samoa, New Britain, New Ireland, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1908, p. 93.

Coordinates: 4 ° 15 ′  S , 152 ° 11 ′  E