Cocos

The Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, also called Cocos Islands , is a territory of Australia, located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island and approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka.

The territory consists of two atolls and 27 coral islands, of which two, West Island and Home Island, are inhabited with a total population of approximately 600.In 1609, Captain William Keeling was the first European to see the islands, while serving in the East India Company,but they remained uninhabited until the 19th century.

In 1814, a Scottish merchant seaman named Captain John Clunies-Ross stopped briefly at the islands on a trip to India, nailing up a Union Jack and planning to return and settle on the islands with his family in the future.

However, a wealthy Englishman named Alexan

der Hare had similar plans, and hired a captain – coincidentally, Clunies-Ross' brother – to bring him and a harem of forty Malay women to the islands, where he hoped to set up his own private residence. Hare had previously served as governor of Maluka, a colony in Borneo and found that "he could not confine himself to the tame life that prosy civilisation affords".

When Clunies-Ross returned two years later with his wife, children and mother-in-law, and found Hare already established on the island and living with a private harem, a feud grew instantly between the two men.[3] Clunies-Ross' eight sailors "began at once the invasion of the new kingdom to take possession of it, women and all".

A beautiful postcard and amazing Cocos Island stamps sent by a dear friend, Dennis

Thank you so much ^_^

Sent: 13 April 2015   Received: 6 May 2015   Travelled: 23 days