Ibedul Abba Thulle

Who is Ibedul Abba Thulle?

Abba Thulle, also transliterated Aba Thulle, held the paramount chiefly title of Ibedul, ruler of Koror, one of Palau's most powerful traditional states, during the late eighteenth century. He is remembered in the historical record chiefly through the wreck of the East India Company packet Antelope in August 1783, when Captain Henry Wilson and his crew ran aground on a reef near Palau. Abba Thulle received the stranded British sailors with hospitality, housing and feeding them for roughly three months while they built a new vessel from salvaged timber. During this period the British crew assisted Abba Thulle's forces in a conflict with a rival chiefdom, using firearms the Palauans had not previously encountered, which strengthened Koror's regional standing. When Wilson's ship was ready to sail, Abba Thulle made the significant decision to send his own son, Prince Lee Boo, to England aboard it, so the young prince could learn European customs and bring that understanding back to Palau. This encounter, recorded by Wilson's officers and published in George Keate's 1788 An Account of the Pelew Islands, became one of the earliest detailed European accounts of Palauan society, governance, and the traditional chiefly system, portraying Abba Thulle throughout as a shrewd, dignified, and hospitable ruler.

Sources: George Keate, An Account of the Pelew Islands (1788) · Prince Lee Boo, Wikipedia (accessed 2026)