Norfolk Island Settlement
The Norfolk Island SettlementIsle of Norfolk Second Settlement
Excerpt from a prisoner on Norfolk Island about the food they had to undergo. He' called'Mortlock' and I think he could be John Frederick Mortlock, who was condemned to 21 years in transport for'shooting his uncles Rev E Mortlock'.... "I did it to scare him". However some of this period he was on Norfolk but sent back to VDL in 1846.
There was a piece of salted dung serving for supper, a disgusting, rough cornbread that tasted as if it was sawdust............the weakness this dieting entailed resulted in many deaths......for many month I never had anything like a full lunch and began to start living without food' The day-to-day heavy work and inadequate, monotone meals provided for prisoners on Norfolk Island must have affected their wellbeing.
The dysentery was the cause of many fatalities on Norfolk Island.
World of Norfolk's MuseumThe world of Norfolk's Museum: The Polynesian Settlement
Norfolk Island was first occupied by humans during the great Polish journey by boat. Their story can be described as one of the last great spreads of Gay Papiens, when this kind abandoned Africa, went through Asia, down the eastern coastline and shared the present Taiwan, with one section leading to Australia, the other to New Guinea and out into the Pacifica Ocean.
It is known as the Polyynesian Delta; the northernmost point is Hawaii, the east point is Easter Island and the southern point is New Zealand. The last area of migration is New Zealand and the date of the first settlement on the southern island was around 750 AD.
Polynesians were great sailors and soon colonized the northern island and the surrounding islands. You can now tell the history of Norfolk Island - the small settlement here was found and dug up in the end of the 1990'. From the first settlement in the UK in 1788 to the present time, many artifacts have been found on the surfaces and it was agreed that a panel of archeologists should investigate the possibility of sheltering.
The artifacts found set the date of settlement between 800 AD and 1450 AD. Several of the most enlightening examples found show that travellers may have been in other places, as about 26 small fragments of observidian (volcanic glass) were found in an area near Emily Bay and analyses of these fragments showed that 25 of them were from the Kermadec Islands (north-east of New Zealand) and a part from Mayer Island, located on the eastern shore of the North Island of New Zealand.
It was in 1999 that the residential area was found and dug up, and the artifacts found were sufficient to show that the Polynesians had been here for many years. We do not know how many people used to live here, how many journeys were made, what left the island, or if any of those were killed here because no graves were found.