Memorial tablet to Capt. Henry Wilson (d. 1810) in St Andrew's church, Colyton.
"Henry Wilson (1740–1810) was an English naval captain of the British East India Company, from Rotherhithe. He was in command of the British East India Company packet ship Antelope, when it shipwrecked off Ulong Island, near Koror Island in Palau in 1783, and the East Indiaman Warley at the Battle of Pulo Aura.
The context was the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War; normal routes from China westwards for British shipping were hampered by the Dutch East Indies. The Antelope had been returning from Macau by the "Eastern Passage", a route designed to avoid the south-west monsoon, but had strayed too far in the easterly direction.
On the north coast of New Guinea Wilson anchored in the vicinity of the Schouten Islands. After some dialogue over two days with Papuan inhabitants who came out to the ship, in which Wilson used vocabulary collected by Thomas Forrest at Dory Harbour, Wilson felt the numbers he faced were threatening. He used small arms to deter them, and the crew of the Antelope was attacked, an encounter in which the artist Arthur William Devis was injured. The wreck on Ulong followed.
Although Spain had claimed the islands previously, Wilson's crew made the first sustained contact, which was friendly. One of the crew of the Antelope knew Malay, allowing contact to be made with the ibedul on Koror, whom Wilson treated as a local king, somewhat misapprehending his status which was more like an elected official. While his men spent three months rebuilding the ship, Wilson entered an effective alliance with the ibedul in conflicts with Melekeok and others. One of the Antelope's guns proved decisive, shipped in a boat and discharged with powder alone.
Prince Lee Boo from Palau returned to England with Wilson and lived with his family in Rotherhithe. Unfortunately, after a few months he died of smallpox in 1784. Much interest in Palau followed. Wilson's collection of curiosities, that were exchanged with the ibedul and form the earliest known group of Palau artefacts, are held by the British Museum. George Keate wrote an account of Wilson's experiences in 1788, a book heavily influenced by the current conceptions concerning the "noble savage". The book became quite popular. "Between 1789 and 1850, more than 20 English and a dozen foreign-language editions were published in different countries." The East India Company turned attention from Mindanao as a possible outpost to the New Guinea archipelago, and John McCluer went from Bombay to Palau in 1790 as hydrographer.
Later Wilson was captain of the East Indiaman Warley for five voyages. He was captain in 1804 at the Battle of Pulo Aura when a fleet of East Indiamen under Nathaniel Dance fought and bluffed a French squadron. Wilson died on 10 May 1810 at his home in Colyton, Devon."
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The Pelew Islands are at the western extremity of the Caroline Archipelago in the Pacific, discovered in 1545 by Spain. Nowadays known as The Republic of Palau., east of the Phillipines and South of Japan.
The tablet is inscribed -
In full Assurance of the resurrection of the Dead;
near this place lieth the body of
CAPt HENRY WILSON,
Who commanded the Hon. East India Company's Packet, the Antelope,
when wrecked on the Pelew Islands in August 1783;
and was wonderfully preserved with the Ship's Company,
amongst Strangers in a Land, unfrequented and unknown.
He deaprted this life May 11th 1810; Aged 70 Years.
READER!
Reflect on thy Life and the Days which are past; and
thou wilt most assuredly see Cause to acknowledge that
THERE IS A GOD
Who governeth the Earth, and observeth the Actions and Ways of
MEN, and that THOU hast had frequent Occasions, wherein to declare with the
PATRIARCH JACOB,
"Surely the LORD is in this PLACE and I knew it not"
(Genesis XXVIII, verse XVI)