Moouga, H. I. N.
[Diary kept on Flint Island, Eastern Pacific] 1889-1891

MSS 996.4 M8259d

Biographical

H.I.N. Moouga was an overseer on Flint Island in the Southern Line Group. His diary suggested her was on Mangarevan descent and was foreman of a team of coconut plantation workers from French Polynesia and Niue, and a member of a party of guano diggers. He was first employed on Flint Island by J.T. Arundel & Co. of London.

The diary is written in a medley of Tahitian, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan and Austral Islands dialects. The mixture of languages in which the diary is written may have been the lingua franca of the multi-lingual community on Flint Island.

Contents

Diary dated April 14, 1889 - January 31, 1891. 2 volumes.
Gives a day-by-day account of life on the guano diggings at Flint Island, Eastern Pacific. It is one of the few first-hand accounts of the Pacific guano industry, and a rare example of written Tahitian of the late 19th century. Lists names of the workers, details daily weather conditions, land areas cleared, coconut palms planted, coconuts harvested, the difficult conditions under which the group worked, and the often difficult relationships between the workers themselves and between them and the Arundel family.