ABOUT 1804 TO 1814

The sandalwood rush

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What we know

  • Fragrant sandalwood from the Bua coast of Vanua Levu was cut and shipped to China in the early 1800s.
  • The wood was sold at Canton (Guangzhou), where foreign merchants traded from the waterfront “factories”.
  • The early trading boom rapidly depleted accessible sandalwood supplies.
  • Charles Savage, a shipwrecked sailor who arrived around 1808, fought for Bau with muskets and was killed in 1813.

The story

The early nineteenth-century sandalwood trade drew overseas ships to Vanua Levu. Local access to timber and labour was essential; merchants had to deal with people who already controlled the coast and its resources.

Iron tools, cloth, whale ivory and firearms entered exchanges. Accessible sandalwood supplies dwindled rapidly. The story of Charles Savage, a shipwrecked sailor who fought for Bau, belongs within this wider transformation: one foreign gunman alone does not explain Bau’s power.

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Sources

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