Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

of speech. Captain Cook passed to the east of New Caledonia without observing the Loyalty group, but it was discovered soon afterwards, and Dumont D'Urville laid down the several islands in his chart. For many years after their discovery the natives had a bad repute as dangerous cannibals. Christianity was introduced into Mare by native teachers from Rarotonga and Samoa; missionaries were settled by the London Missionary Society at Mare in 1854, at Lifu in 1859, and at Uvea in 1865. Roman Catholic missionaries also arrived from New Caledonia, and in 1864 the French, considering the islands a dependency of that colony, formally instituted a commandant."

(Encyclo. Brit., vol. 15; Gill: Gems from the Coral Islands, 1871; Macfarlane: Story of the Lifu Mission, 1873.)

NEW CALEDONIA.

New Caledonia with an area of 6,000 square miles and a population of nearly 60,000, was discovered in 1774 by Captain Cook. One of the most beautiful and valuable islands in the South Pacific, has been rendered almost valueless, by its appropriation in 1853 by the French, and since used by that government as a convict settlement. It differs materially from the coral formations underlying many of the Pacific isles, springing evidently from the older geological periods. It is one confused mass of rocks, hills and mountains, corrugated with beautiful valleys and running streams. The hills and mountains are covered with forests of fine timber, while an abundant natural growth of nearly all of the tropical fruits, afford easy sustenance to the not over industrious natives. Noumea the

capital is in the southern portion, and has a fine harbor, that should be used for anything, but the wants of the scapegraces of France. Copper, nickle and cobalt are found in paying quantities, and very lately some important discoveries of gold have been made.

CHAPTER IV.

ISLANDS

T

The turf looks green where the breakers rolled;
O'er the whirlpool ripens the rind of gold;
The sea-snatched isle is the home of men,

And mountains exult where the wave hath been.

LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY.

MARSHALL ISLANDS.

HE Marshall Archipelago, consists of two nearly parallel chains of Atolls, from 100 to 300 miles apart, the west known as Ralik, the east as Radek chains. They are between 4 deg. 30 min. and 12 deg. N., and between 165 deg. 15 min. and 172 deg. 15 min. E., and run N. N. W. and S. S. E. discovered by Alonzo de Saavedra, in

They were

1529, who

observing the fine tatooing of the natives, (the first allusion to that practice in the Pacific,) called them Los Pintados.

Among modern voyagers, Wallis first visited them in 1767. Captains Marshall and Gilbert reached them in 1788, and Kotzebue in 1816, explored them more thoroughly. The east group contains fifteen or sixteen atolls, which range from two to fifty miles in circumference.

There is a curious tradition on the Liban island, of

the Darwinian fact, that the atoll, once formed the barrier reef of an island now sunk beneath the lagoon.

GILBERT ISLANDS.

The Gilbert Archipelago, discovered by Com. Byron in 1765, is geographically, a south continuation of the Marshalls, the channel separating them being about 150 miles wide.

Several of the islands have good anchorages inside of the lagoons, with entrances on the lee side. On some the lee or west reef is wanting, owing to the abrading force of the west storms. During these, large trees, are washed ashore, their roots containing pieces of fine basalt, of which implements are made. There is a larger proportion of land to submerged reef and lagoon than in the Marshalls; the land sometimes rising twenty feet above the sea, whereas in the Marshalls the average level of the reef rocks above the surface is less than one foot; but, though the supply of fresh water is great, in fact enough for the luxury of a bath, the soil, especially in the south, is much less productive; yet the population is very dense. The usually scattered houses are replaced by compact rows of roofs, shaded by the cocoa palm, and, each with its boat shed below, line the shore.

Their number may be set down at sixteen, lying on both sides of the equator between 3 deg. 20 min. N., and 2 deg. 40 min. S. latitude, and 172 deg. 30 min., and 177 deg. 15 min. E. longitudes, with a landed area of 800 square miles and a population of 25,000.

These atolls may contain a greater number of people than mentioned, as the population seems very dense.

This is accounted for by the small width of

the atolls, ranging from a few hundred yards wide only, in some places, to several miles in others, and the habit of the natives of flocking or swarming from one island to another, or to particular localities on one island. This occurs sometimes twice in a year, and arises from the fact that nature, in her products, is not always equally prolific; and the natives migrate from point to point, for the means of sustenance.

AS MARINERS.

The Marshall islanders are the best and most skillful navigators in the Pacific. Their voyages, sometimes of many months' duration, in great canoes, sailing with outriggers to windward, well provisioned and depending on the skies for fresh water, help to show how the Pacific was colonized. They have a sort of chart, mede, of small sticks tied together, representing the position of islands and the direction of the winds and currents. They have also wonderful weapons, the blades of which are edged with sharks' teeth, and a defensive armor of braided sennit, also peculiar to the islands. In hollowing out their canoes they use a large adze, made from the Tradacue gigas, formerly used in the Carolines, probably by the older builder race.

LANGUAGES OF MICRONESIA,

The languages of Micronesia, though gramatically alike, differ widely in their vocabularies. The religious myths are identifiable with the Polynesian; but a belief in the gods proper is overshadowed by a general deification of ancestors, who are supposed from time to time to occupy certain blocks of

« ZurückWeiter »