Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

—CHAPTER V.MICKONESIA.I.The Mariana or Lauroxe Islands.TIESE islands, j)olitically united to the Pliilif)pines for over twocenturies, are also associated with them in the histoiy of maritimeexploration. They were the first group met by Magellan in 15"31on his voyage round the globe, and ten days afterwards he hadreached the Philippine island of Cebu and the adjacent islet ofMactan, where he met his death. Later, when the Spaniards had permanentlyoccupied the Philippines and estabKshed the regular service of their galleons acrossthe Pacific, the island of Guam in the Marianas became the indispensable stationfor their mariners between Manilla and Acapulco on the Mexican coast ;and whenthe aborigines of the Marianas had almost entirely disappeared this group wasrepeopled by immigrants from the Philippines, bringing with them new plants,usages, and language.The name of the Ladrones, or "Robbers," given to these islands by Magellan,has fallen into abeyance, and, like the Philippines, they are indebted to flatteryfor their more usual designation conferred on them in ho"nour "of the SpanishQueen, Mariana of Austria, wife of Philip. After their discovery by Magellanthey vere explored chiefly by Anson, Byron, Wallis, and_ Freycinet.A space of about 1,200 miles going eastwards separates the most advanced landin the Philippines from' the first south-western island in the Mariana group, andthis space is everywhere almost entirely free from islets or reefs of any sort.Nothing but a few rocks, such as Parece Yela, are visible in the north as thearchipelago is approached from Japan, while some other lands announce theproximity of the Pelew Islands to mariners advancing from the south. Thus thechain of the Marianas is limited westwards by a perfectly open sea about 80,000square miles in extent, and in some places f;-om 1,200 to 1,-500 fathoms deep.Hence it is evident that this archipelago is in no way connected with the formationof the Philippines, but belongs to an independent geological system.The disposition of the chain shows at a glance an obvious analogy with thevolcanic ranges of the Kuriles and Aleutian Islands, describing as it does anarc of surprising regularity, as if traced with a compass with its fixed point restingon the north coast of Luzon.The Marianas also constitute a volcanic range, some