The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-05-12

When, some two and u half years ago, the
schooner LihohAo was sent on a voyage of dis
covery for guano, the adventure was looked on
and pronounced by almost every one here as a
8 humbug." She returned with about 100 tons
of an article which those who knew declared to
be guano, but others said was worthless dirt. We
published Com. Mervine's account of it and made
some severe structures on him, and subsequently
on Capt. Davis for asserting what they did not
know, that there was no guano on the islands
visited. We maintained that there ,cds guano
there and that time would reveal it, and the
course we took in the matter brought out the
ridicule if not censure of the Polynesian, while
most of the merchants agreed that this guano was
a humbug. The only one we remember of hav-
ing from the first pronounced it a good article,
was Capt. James Smith, who we are happy to
learn is now interested in the trade.
Well, time went on, and notwithstanding the
serious opposition which had been met by the
adverse Statements of the U. s. Naval officers re-
ferred to, and the ruinous loss it had had on their
stock, the American Guano Company of New
York went on with its arrangements for the ship
ment of guano at Jarvis Island. Still so little
faith was there in it, and SO disastrous was the
influence of Capt. Davis and Com. Mervine, who
declared that it was unsafe for a vessel to anchor
at that island, that no ship could be chartered at
San Francisco for the purpose of loading. We
remember well the efforts to obtain q vessel, as
we were then at that port. However. at last, a
young man, Mr.. Wilder, succeeded in obtaining
a ship to load on his own account, but this act of
the captain in chartering his ship, to load at a
port which Capt. Davis had declared unsafe, SO
T
moved by them. We instance this to show the
prejudices existing at that time against this trade.
The White S,cauoro's cargo reached New York
and found an immediate sale. and the gentleman
who had had the boldness and enterprise to start
the trade, received for his interest in the cargo
the handsome sum of Sl2 500, cash. From that
moment the reputation of the Jarvis Island Guano
was fixed, and the company found no difficulty in
making a sale of 100 900 tons at their own rate,
to be paid for as fast as it can be shipped off from
the island. The value of phosphate guano, of
the quality of that obtained at Jarvis Island, is
now established, as an.article of commerce, at
about $40 per ton, and the demand for it will
probably keep pace with the shipments. 1t is
this trade that now brings to our port every two
weeks, these fine eastern clippers, and which has
and Will prove q lasting dement, ID our commerce.
Since the reputation of the phosphate guano
has been established, and the sneers of doubters
silenced by the rapid sales of entire cargoes as
quick as landed in New York, various enterprises
have been set on foot, as our readers are well
aware. This trade is destined to become extern
sive, and Honolulu must be the center of its opera
tions. Already the subject is h becoming of promi-
nent Importance in the American papers, and
from two received by the last mail we quote.
first is from the Tribune, and the large num-
Der of islands claimed will surprise most of our
readers:
GuanO I.lnnds Discovered.
Correspondence Of the .Ae,c York Tribune.
WASHINGTON, March 5, 1853.
Noticing a few days since, that Clipperton Island
lad been proclaimed to the world as belonging to the
Emperor of France, and as this guano question has
,ecome one Of the first moment, il has occurred to me
t would not be uninteresting to your readers to know
f any, and how many guano islands in the Pacific
ocean or elsewhere have become the property of citi-
ems of the United States, and have been recognized
" the Government as pertaining to its territories
lnder the act Of Congress approved August Is, 1856.
The following is believed to be n correct list of said
stands, and their several ATTITUDES and longitudes,
il: