The coconut palm is said to have more than a thousand uses. None perhaps is quite so bizarre as the suits of armour worn by the warriors of the Gilbert Islands, 16 coral atolls straddling the equator which today form part of the republic of Kiribati. The constantly warring islanders went into battle decked out in suits of coconut fibre, the same stiff stuff of doormats and brushes.
On these tiny islands, where warriors fought with wooden staves and spears studded with shark鈥檚 teeth, suits of braided coconut fibre did as good a job as a medieval knight鈥檚 chain mail and shining metal armour.
These three coconut corselets, decorated with hanks of human hair, protected a dynasty of kings on Apemama, an island that held onto its traditions and culture longer than almost any other in the Pacific. The corselets were given to poet and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson during his South Sea travels by Tembinoka, the last great island king. Today they are hidden away at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Advertisement
鈥淩OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON and party leave today by the schooner Equator for the Gilbert Islands. . . It is to be hoped that Mr Stevenson will not fall victim to native spears; but in his present state of bodily health, perhaps the temptation to kill him may not be very strong.鈥� This brief notice in the Honolulu Pacific Advertiser of 24 June 1889 raised a serious question about the wisdom of a trip to the Gilbert Islands. Stevenson, his lungs ravaged by TB, was embarking on his second Pacific cruise in search of better health and material for a book on the South Seas. He and his family were headed for a group of islands whose people were considered the most warlike in the Pacific. Not only that, but the kings of Apemama, an island where Stevenson was hoping to spend some months, had vigorously defended their realm against Europeans since the 1850s.
Gilbertese warriors fought with weapons peculiar to the islands. The low-lying coral atolls have few natural resources, so the people had to improvise weapons from whatever was to hand. One thing they weren鈥檛 short of was coconut palms. And like all people who live on tropical shores, they made use of every bit of the coconut tree. As well as eating the nuts and brewing toddy from the sap of young flower stalks, people built houses and boats with the wood. They thatched their homes with coconut leaves, lit them with coconut oil lamps, and used the shells for fuel. The Gilbertese had another use for coconut wood: they made their swords and spears from it. And they gave them a cutting edge with something else they had ready supplies of-sharks鈥� teeth.
To defend themselves against these gashing, slicing weapons, they turned again to the all-purpose coconut-this time to the tough fibres of the husk. People living in tropical coastal regions have always made use of these fibres-soaking the husks and pounding them to separate the fibres from the green outer coat, then twisting them into strands or weaving them into mats. In the 19th century, Britain and the US imported vast quantities of coconut fibre to stuff mattresses, make mats and brooms, and particularly to make ships鈥� cables that were strong, buoyant and resistant to seawater. The Gilbert islanders found another use for the fibres: twisted into heavyweight cording, they were ideal for armour.
Coconut armour is unique to the Gilberts and the neighbouring islands of Nauru and Ocean Island. The armour came in several styles. There were jackets and overalls made of strong but flexible netting, a sort of coconut chain mail which was plenty tough enough to deflect a blow from a sword. Some warriors wore sturdier, rigid corselets made by binding bundles of fibres together with twisted coconut cords. These could resist even a thrust from a spear. The high back protected the neck and head from missiles hurled by the enemy鈥檚 women and children. In 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition reported that the islanders thought so highly of their armour they believed it would even protect them from bullets.
Stevenson was particularly keen to stop at Apemama, not because of its bracing air but to visit Tembinoka. He was the 鈥渓ast tyrant鈥� and the only island chief who had not been killed or cowed into adopting European ways. 鈥淚n all other isles of the South Seas a white man may land with his chest, and set up house for a lifetime, if he choose,鈥� wrote Stevenson. 鈥淏ut Apemama is a close island, lying there in the sea with closed doors: the king himself like a vigilant officer, ready at the wicket to scrutinise and reject intrenching visitors.鈥�
Tembinoka鈥檚 family had risen to power in the time of his grandfather, Tenkuruti, who was born around 1791. Tenkuruti established Apemama as the centre of a miniature empire of atolls which included the neighbouring islands of Kuria and Aranuka. By 1850, his grandson Tembaiteke was king. By now, Europeans were everywhere in the Pacific, setting up trading posts, bringing missionaries, guns and gin. Hundreds of ships sailed about the islands-whalers, traders in search of beche-de-mer, and turtle shells. Trade in coconut oil had begun in earnest in the 1840s, changing later to trade in copra, the white flesh of the coconut from which the oil was extracted.
On top of this were traders in people-boats that went from island to island to recruit cheap labour. Tembaitake wanted nothing to do with these white men. He had the 34 resident whites on the islands killed, then strictly controlled all trade with outsiders. He banned imports of weapons and all alcohol, both gin and the home-brewed palm toddy. Missionaries and labour recruiters soon learned to stay away.
When Stevenson turned up at Apemama, Tembinoka was still much feared. There was only one white man on Apemama 鈥渁nd he on sufferance. . . and watching his conduct like a mouse living in a cat鈥檚 ear鈥�, wrote Stevenson. Somewhat surprisingly, Tembinoka agreed to allow the Stevensons to set up home for two months and when they were about to leave on the next leg of their journey, he gave them a strange gift to remember him by. 鈥淗e sent me a present of two corselets made in the island fashion of plaited fibre, heavy and strong. And the gift being gratefully received, he sent me on the return of his messengers, a third.鈥� All three were family heirlooms-suits of armour worn by Tembinoka鈥檚 warrior ancestors.
Unfortunately for Stevenson, coconut armour wasn鈥檛 proof against all killers. He didn鈥檛 in the end fall victim to native spears, but neither did he return from the South Seas. In December 1894, at the age of 44, Stevenson died of a brain haemorrhage at his home in Samoa.