Nukulau played a role in the ceding of Fiji to the
British Crown in 1874. In 1846,
John Brown Williams, the
American consul, had purchased the island for a mere thirty dollars. He subsequently lived there, in the wooden two-story house he built, until 1849. On 4 July of that year, during American Independence Day celebrations, a store belonging to Williams was destroyed in a fire which started from a cannon burst, and his belongings that he had salvaged from the fire were subsequently looted by Fiji natives. A second fire in 1855 destroyed Williams' house. Williams held
Cakobau, the
Vunivalu (Paramount Chief) of Bau and self-proclaimed
Tui Viti (King of Fiji) responsible for the looting, and, supported by the
United States Navy in the
1855 Fiji expedition, demanded US$43,531 in compensation, to cover Williams' losses, valued at US$5000, and claims by other settlers. This was followed up by an
1858 Fiji expedition, in which hostages were seized. Cakobau's inability to pay the debt, coupled with fear of a U.S. invasion and annexation, led to a series of negotiations with the United Kingdom. After a failed attempt to establish a stable
constitutional monarchy under the effective tutelage of the
Australian
Polynesia Company, the negotiations culminated in a decision to cede the islands to the United Kingdom in 1874, ushering in almost a century of
British rule. Historians now believe that the U.S. compensation claim was greatly exaggerated and largely fabricated (see Robson, A.E,
Prelude to Empire, 2004, p. 84 (citing Calvert 1856 and Freemantle 1856)). The colourful history of Nukulau Island did not end with the advent of British rule. From 1879 to 1916, the island served as a quarantine centre for thousands of
Indian indentured labourers brought in by the British colonial rulers. After health checks, they were subsequently employed on Fiji's sugar plantations, or else repatriated to the
Indian subcontinent. The first human being born on Nukulau Island was Hamidan Bibi Khan, 18 October 1946. She migrated to England in the 1960s and died 8 February 2025. == Nukulau prison ==