ISLAND CONSERVATION SOCIETY - Flora and fauna & famous Farquhars
28.09.2009
Sir Robert Farquhar never visited the spectacular atoll renamed in his honour in 1824. In the days before accurate charts existed it had been named for the Portuguese explorer Joao da Nova who commanded that nation’s third expedition to India in 1501 during which he encountered Farquhar Atoll in 1504. In 1730, Frenchman Chevalier de Pontevez, commander of the Lys saw the islands of Farquhar in June of that year, referring to them in his log as Juan de Nove.
In 1742 Captain Lazare Picault called in at islands he believed to be Juan de Nove atoll but it seems more likely he was actually at Aldabra. Astove has also been confused with Juan de Nove. Meanwhile, to further complicate matters, there is another island in the Mozambique Channel called Juan de Nove. To clear up the issue, Farquhar was officially re-named the year after Sir Robert left Mauritius and returned home at the end of a successful career.
Commander Stuart Farquhar did not give Farquhar its name but he did at least visit. In 1897 Stuart Farquhar (who had a keen interest in birds) visited Goëlettes. He wrote up his findings in the respected ornithological journal Ibis. He noted the sooties, noddies and boobies but his most exciting find was a small colony of roseate terns (dyanman roz) in one corner of the island. Visits to Farquhar by ornithologists have been so rare that it was more than 100 years before roseates terns were reported on Farquhar Atoll for a second time, this time by Island Conservation Society. Roseate terns are among the most endangered seabirds in the world and there are only a few breeding sites remaining in the western Indian Ocean.
Major William Farquhar should probably be heralded as the founder of Singapore, not Sir Stamford Raffles. Unlike Raffles, he was in tune with local politics, using his skills to help negotiate the 1819 treaty with local chieftains giving the British jurisdiction over Singapore. William Farquhar was left to manage the island while Raffles sailed over the horizon for four years. Raffles sent his ideas to Farquhar but made precious little contribution to the fact that Singapore became a thriving cosmopolitan town under Farquhar’s direction. When Raffles returned, he was furious to discover Farquhar had ignored his instructions to stamp out local vices in favour of turning a blind eye in order to keep well in with the natives. Raffles dismissed Farquhar, who at first refused to leave and later sued Raffles for tyrannical behaviour. All very interesting, but nothing to do with Seychelles?
I recently visited Singapore and went to the newly refurbished and thoroughly excellent Singapore National Museum. One room within the museum is dedicated to William Farquhar’s valuable contribution to natural history. Between 1819 and 1823 he commissioned 477 drawings by Chinese artists to produce outstanding works depicting local flora and fauna. He shipped the lot back to UK, but when they came up for sale in 1993, Singaporean philanthropist GK Goh purchased them, shipped them back to Singapore and donated them to the nation in 1996. The paintings are fascinating, many showing a compromise between the Western demand for precision and a more stylised Chinese treatment of the subject. But one stands out as being not of southeast Asian in origin. This shows, very clearly, a coco de mer tree and close up of a nut. How did the coco de mer come to be illustrated as an example of southeast Asian flora? Had a tree been planted in Singapore and produced nuts as early as this date when Seychelles had barely become a British colony? Or did William Farquhar call at Seychelles perhaps on his return to England? Or perhaps Robert Farquhar dropped him a line on the subject and stirred his imagination? I don’t know the answer, but if anyone can solve this mystery I would be very pleased to hear from them.
The Island Conservation Society promotes the conservation and restoration of island ecosystems.
By Adrian Skerrett