Captain Delano was a mariner whose career embraced all the hazards and vicissitudes that could be encountered in that rugged and heroic era of endeavor. In Macao he fell in with Commodore John McClure of the English Navy, who was in command of an expedition setting out to explore a part of the South Seas, including the Pelew Islands, New Guinea, New Holland, and the Spice Islands. The Englishman took a fancy to this resourceful Yankee seaman and offered him the pay and station of a lieutenant. While the ship tarried at the Pelews, the chronic war against the rebels of Artingall had flared up again, and Captain Delano had this to say of Abba Thulle:
The king, according to his usual generosity, had sent word to the people of Artingall that he should be there in three days for war. Although I was a Christian and in the habit of assuming the Christian peoples to be superior to these pagans in the principles of virtue and benevolence, I could not refrain from remonstrating with the king. I told him that Christian nations considered it as within the acknowledged system of lawful and honorable warfare to use stratagems against enemies and to fall upon them whenever it was possible and take them by surprise. He replied that war was horrid enough when pursued in the most open and magnanimous manner, and that although he thought very highly of the English, still their principles in this respect did not obtain his approbation and he believed his own mode of warfare more politic as well as more just.
He said that if he were to destroy his enemies while they were asleep, others would have good reason to retaliate the same base conduct upon his subjects and thus multiply evils, whereas regular and open warfare might be the means of a speedy peace without barbarity. Should he subdue his rebellious subjects by strategy and surprise, they would hate both him and his measures and would never be faithful and happy although they might fear his power and unwillingly obey his laws.
Sentiments of this elevated character excited my admiration the more for this excellent pagan and made an impression upon my mind which time will never efface. Christians might learn of Abba Thulle a fair comment upon the best principles of their own religion.
Captain Henry Wilson of the Antelope was therefore not alone in his high estimate of the character of this island ruler. The English castaways, industriously framing and planking their trim little schooner, had many evidences of a sentiment both delicate and noble. For instance, the royal canoes came bringing many cocoanuts ready for planting. At the king’s desire they were set out to grow and form a wall of green around the cove where the camp stood. It was noticed that while covering each nut with earth, the king’s brothers murmured certain words. They were dedicatory, it was explained, meaning that there would be fruit for the captain and his friends whenever they should return to the island, and should other strangers be wrecked on this shore, they would thank the English for their refreshment.
The schooner was finished and launched without mishap and christened the Ooralong. The ship’s company had been almost four months on the island, and were all fit and strong and happy. The anchors, cables, and other fittings were placed on board, and it remained only to put in the stores and water-casks. Then it was that King Abba Thulle sent word to Captain Wilson that he wished to invest him with the order of the bone bracelet and to knight him as a chief of the highest rank. The ceremony was impressive, a great concourse of natives attending in profound silence, and when the bracelet was slipped on the wrist of Captain Wilson, the king told him that “the emblem should be rubbed bright every day and preserved as a testimony of the rank he held amongst them, that this mark of dignity must on every occasion be defended valiantly, nor suffered to be torn from his arm but with the loss of life.”
At last the schooner Ooralong, taut and seaworthy, swung at anchor with sails bent and everything ready for the voyage. To the pleasure and surprise of Captain Wilson, the king announced that he had resolved to send his second son, Lee Boo, to England if this was agreeable to the commander. Although his subjects respected his knowledge, explained Abba Thulle, he felt keenly his own insignificance at seeing the common English seamen exercise talents so far surpassing him. It was certain that his son would learn many things which might greatly benefit his people. And so this young prince of the Pelew Islands sailed on a marvelous voyage to lands unknown. In one of the farewell conversations, the king said to Captain Wilson:
I would wish you to inform Lee Boo of all things which he ought to know and to make him an Englishman. The distress of parting with my beloved son I have frequently considered. I am well aware that the distant countries he must pass through, differing much from his own, may expose him to dangers, as well as to diseases that are unknown to us here, in consequence of which he may die. I have prepared my thoughts to this. I know that death is to all men inevitable, and whether my son meets this event at Pelew or elsewhere is immaterial. I am satisfied, from what I have observed of the humanity of your character, that if he is sick you will be kind to him. And should that fate happen which your utmost care cannot prevent, let it not hinder you or your brother or your son or any of your countrymen from returning here. I shall receive you or any of your people in friendship and rejoice to see you again.
Abba Thulle promised to cherish and preserve a copper plate affixed to a tree near the cove, upon which was cut the following inscription:
The Honorable
English East India Company’s Ship
The ANTELOPE.
HENRY WILSON, Commander,
Was lost upon the reef north of this island
In the night between the 9th and 10th of
August;
Who here built a vessel,
And sailed from hence
The 12th day of November, 1783.