Palmerston Island: End of the "British Ariki"?

Almost lost in Polynesia's vast expanses are two very small but special islands whose inhabitants, at least in historical times, from birth have spoken either only English or a hybrid English-Polynesian idiom. Renowned is, of course, Pitcairn Island, whose remnant population to a large degree can still claim descent from the infamous eighteenth-century mutineers of HMS Bounty and their Tahitian companions. Nearly unknown to the world, on the other hand, is the fascinating story of Palmerston Island in the Cook archipelago.