On the 15th May 1831 the barque Peru from Salem, Massachussetts arrived in the Fiji Islands to look for beche-de-mer, turtle shell, and other trade goods. The Captain, John H. Eagleston, wrote a log which is now in the Essex Institute Library in Salem.

Much of the log contains details of little interest to a historian. The entries for most days begin with a description of the weather and the strength and direction of the breeze. The process and results of the collection, preparation and loading of cargo are also described in detail.

Occasionally, though, Captain Eagleston described local events. Here’s one:

November 1832, Friday 2^nd Lowered boat & went on shore, found people all well but nothing to do, no fish coming in. The officer informed me that when the natives returned from the fight they brought up one man & one old woman which they had taken & killed. The next day after they returned the woman was cut up & cooked alongside of the trade house. The man was cooked at the kings house. They kept them 3 days probably to make them tender for eating they cut them up with bamboo sticks. I saw some of their bones scattered round the Beche de mer house.

The log has been microfilmed as part of the collection of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National University in Canberra. The microfilms are available at the Mitchell Library in Sydney, which is where I have been investigating them.

I have been slowly transcribing this log over the last few weeks, and when it’s done I’ll start on another one.

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I’ve been part of the 1st ProGen Study Group for nearly 18 months now. Each month we study a chapter or two of the book and do an assignment which is submitted to others in the group for review.

Assignment 16 was the toughest yet – we had to write a proof argument for some part of our family history where the answer required some deductive reasoning. I chose two cases from my own family and started writing each one. The Irish/Australian Eason case seemed too complex for a first attempt, so I chose the other one, on my Fijian Riley side.

Big mistake. You’ve probably already seen it. I didn’t. I’m in Australia, and the records I need are not. I have some, but I need more. So I don’t have enough evidence for the case I was trying to make, and it turned out not to be a ‘proof’ at all.

By the time I realised this I decided it was too late to go back and start again with the other one, so I kept going. My assignment got later and later, and I still didn’t have enough. I’ve almost finished transcribing a ship’s log from 1831-2 and I have two more to go. I’ve searched the Fiji Times from 1869 onwards, which is far too late to be relevant but I had to try!

I handed it in, so to speak, today – non-standard citations, unclear argument and all. I’m over it.

When the frustration has worn off some I’ll post my findings here.

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My name is Carole Gillian Riley. My father’s surname is also Riley, as is that of my five brothers and sisters. My Dad’s father was William (Bill) Riley, and his father was David Riley. David’s father was Mathew Riley. All of these Riley’s from Mathew down to my Dad’s generation were born in Fiji. It is Mathew’s father that is the tricky one.

The family story is that his name was George. What follows is an amalgam of the family stories that I have heard, mostly from my Dad.

He was probably Irish, and he came to Fiji from Australia. He was a Catholic lay preacher. He married a chief’s daughter of Verata, and had some land near the coast, some of which was given to the Catholic Church to build a mission. He was also given the island of Naigani and the couple lived there. Later, the family gave all but a few acres back to the Naigani people.

I have been to Naigani. The house where my great-grandfather lived is now the main bar and restaurant of a tourist resort. There is what looks like a garden bed out the front of the house that I was told is the grave of Mathew Riley.

Unfortunately the documentary evidence is fairly thin. Civil registration in Fiji began in 1874, although there are few registrations until a few years later. I have copies of the death registrations of William and David that state their parents’ names and I believe these to be reliable. David is stated as being the son of Mathew Riley and Maria Andrews.

So far the only other evidence I have of Mathew’s existence is a Land Claim Commission Report from the National Archives of Fiji (LCC 578) that states that his father was first given the land. His father is referred to as Na Bete Riley. Na Bete means ‘the teacher’ according to my Fijian-English dictionary. It also states that Mathew died in 1876, between the first and second reports on the land claim.

The given name of this first Riley is still a mystery, as is his place of origin. He may have been Irish, he may have been Catholic, he may have been an escaped convict from the Colony of New South Wales.

Here is a brief time line of the Rileys in Fiji that I can substantiate:

1860 David Riley born to Mathew Riley and Maria Andrews on Wakaya Island

1876 Mathew Riley died, buried on Naigani

1897 William Riley born on Naigani

1937 David Riley died in Levuka, buried at Naigani

1954 William Riley died in Suva.

It’s not much, is it? I’ll be working on this line and hope to be able to report some progress soon!

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• A visit to Fiji in 1832
  On the 15th May 1831 the barque Peru from Salem, Massachussetts arrived in the Fiji Islands to look for beche-de-mer, turtle shell, and other trade goods. The Captain, John H. Eagleston, wrote a log w...