Mount Lidgbird and Ball’s Pyramid commemorate the discovery of Lord Howe Island in 1788 by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, commander of the Supply, when Lieutenant King sailed in it to establish a settlement in Norfolk Island. Between that time and 1834 only whalers and an occasional schooner, visited this Pacific paradise, which had evidently never been inhabited. In 1834 three former sailors, with their Maori wives, settled at the head of Hunter Bay. They all left in 1841, but others succeeded  and the commencement of the palm-seed industry by Captain Armstrong in 1878 brought commercial property to the island. Originally printed in 1940, a fascinating history of Lord Howe Island – its discovery and early associations and illustrated with wonderful old black and white photographs, covering the years 1788 – 1888.