Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

—260 AUSTRALASIA.island of Koroer, south of Babelthuap, acquired a sort of suzerainty over tisneighbours. His successors, however, have lost much of their ascendancy, andmost of the other chiefs hold themselves as fidly his equals. These chiefs beardifferent titles, one of the most significant being tnad, or " death," meaning that thepotentate's mere glance is fatal to his subjects. But associated with him is a J;rci,a sort of military " mayor of the palace," often more powerful than the mad himself.Round him are grouped the rupalcs, or vassals, each with his suite of fierceretainers. "War, the essential occupation of this feudal system, is carried on withrelentless cruelty, the victors sparing neither women nor children. The chiefobject of the hostile raids is to obtain skulls ; for " the great Kalite," say the natives,"likes to eat men," and the heads are consequently laid at the feet of themagicians, his representatives on earth. But even during warfare the rights ofhospitality are still respected, and any fugitive who succeeds in penetrating tothe house of the hostile chief has nothing further to fear.To this intertribal strife is mainly due the moral and material decadence of theislanders, who are no longer the simple, kindly people described by "Wilson at theend of the last century. Even Miklukho-Maklai, with all his sj'mpathy forinferior races, speaks of them as false and rapacious. Since the arrival of theEuropeans the social conditions seem in other respects to have undergone acomplete change. The natives are more civilised, at least outwardlj' ; theyornament their dwellings with engravings and photographs ;they possess ironimplements, firearms, and even books ; many speak a little English or Spanish,while their mother tongue has been enriched by numerous European words,required to express the new ideas. The age of stone has passed away, or survivesonly in the local currency, which is of jasper or agate for the chiefs and nobles, ofstones of less value, glass or enamelled beads, for the lower classes.But with all thi, .he population continues to decrease, having fallen fromprobably fifty thousand at the end of the last century to little over twelvethousand at present.III.The Caroline Islands.The archipelago formerly known as the " New Philippines," and afterwardsnamed the Carolines in honour of Charles II. of Spain, is spread over a considerableexpanse. From the westernmost island of Ngoli to "Ualan in the extremeeast the distance in a straight line is no less than 1,800 miles, with a mean breadthof about 350 miles. Thus the Caroline Sea comprises an area of about 640,000square miles, where the total extent ofsome five hundred islets disposed in fortyeightclusters is estimated at no more than 500 square miles.The water, however,is very shallow, and several of the insular groups are enlarged by extensive reefs.The greatest depths occur at the western extremity of the archipelago, the'Challenger Trough" in the north, the "Nares Trough" in the south, with anintervening submarine bank connecting the Carolines with the Pelew group.The Carolines were discovered by the Portuguese in 1527, when Diogo da