First sighted in 1615 by Richard Rowe, master of the
Thomas, the island was named on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company. In 1887 specimens of soil and rock were collected by the men of HMS
Egeria; the British naturalist John Murray analyzed the specimens and found that they were nearly pure phosphate of lime. In 1888 the island was annexed by Great Britain, and the first settlement was established at Flying Fish Cove by George Clunies-Ross of Cocos (Keeling) Islands. A 99-year lease, granted in 1891 to Clunies-Ross and Murray, to mine phosphate and cut timber was transferred six years later to the Christmas Island Phosphate Company, Ltd., which was largely owned by the former lessees. In 1900 Christmas Island was incorporated in the British crown colony of the Straits Settlements with its capital at Singapore. During World War II the island was occupied by the Japanese. In 1948 the governments of New Zealand and Australia acquired the i