LOL - these guys got a lot of sticks in the fire.

The Maison Brander owned a large sheep ranch on Easter Island for exporting wool. The ranch was managed by the power-hungry convicted murderer Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, who had acquired additional land and appointed his Rapanui wife "Queen". This was the low point in the island's history; by 1872 its resident population had been reduced to 111.

In 1871 Alexander Jr had picked up rudimentary Rapanui from his hundreds of indentured Easter Island labourers at the Mahina coconut plantation on Tahiti. In 1877 Queen Pōmare IV died, and Alexander's sister became regent. John Brander also died that year, and Dutrou-Bornier was assassinated. Alexander set off for Easter Island to manage the sheep station in around October 1878 with twenty Tahitian workers and an unknown number of Rapanui whose indentures had expired and ran the island for a decade. He introduced the coconut, the first sizeable tree on the island since its deforestation two centuries earlier, apart from some fruit trees at the SSCC Catholic mission and Dutrou-Bornier's estate.

Salmon returned to Tahiti in 1883–1884 for business. Upon his return to Easter Island he bought up all remaining land apart from the SSCC mission at Hanga Roa. As owner of nearly all the island and sole source of employment, Salmon was de facto ruler.

As he was not a religious man, and a Jew, the priests did not like him, especially Hippolyte Roussel, who had been forced to leave the island in 1871 due to conflict with Dutrou-Bornier but who visited again in 1879. Bishop Jaussen in Tahiti appointed a Rapanui, Atamu te Kena, "king" to protect church interests from the Maison Brander, but Salmon ignored him and he never had any influence. However, Salmon was an honest man and sincerely interested in the welfare of the people, and the population started to recover. This was the era of the strong Tahitian influence on the Rapanui language and culture.

Of course the Wikipedia article talks about this guy as some humanitarian... He has the magick ethnicity modifier that excuses him from colonialism.

Of course - I link to an archived version of the Wiki.