Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

292 AUSTEALASIA,survivors, who, in case of the mother's death, were at once adopted into otherfamilies. In general the wife was much, respected, the men performing all thehard manual labour, and leaving to the women notliing hut the preparation offood and the weaving of sails and matting.Their religion was little more than a kind of spirit-worship, and the templeswere merely a square space between four stones, or under the shade of a rock orsome high tree. The influence of the priests was but slight compared to that ofthe chiefs, most of whom enjoyed absolute power. Hager speaks of a ruler who,having learnt the alphabet, beheaded all those whose progress was more rapid thanhis own. The social hierarchy is clearly defined. Under the iroiij, or royal class,from whom are selected the kings in the female line, come the nobles, the landowners,and last of all the j)oor, who may be deprived of the land they cultivatewithout compensation, and who are restricted to one wife. Amongst this proletariateclass were till recently recruited the labourers for the plantations in Samoa.But in the Marshall archipelago the population has so greatly fallen off thatscarcely sufficient hands now remain for the cultivation, oftheir own palm- groves.Even in the barren and relatively more populous Gilbert group the supply ofliving freights has been nearly exhausted.Since 1864 European traders have been settled in the Marshall Islands.Although mostly representing German houses, they have to compete with themissionaries, as well as with English, American, Hawaiian, New Zealand, andeven Chinese dealers.In order to secure their commercial preponderance againstthese rivals, they induced the German government to extend its "protection" tothe archipelago in 1885.To this protectorate were added the two little groupsof the Brown (Eniwetok) and Providence Islets, which, according to the conventionwith Spain, should rather have been included in the zone of the CarolineIslands.Jalitit has become the administrative centre of the German possessions, as ithad already been the commercial centre of the Carolines, the Gilbert and all othergroups in these waters. Plantations and factories have also been established inMilli, Namorek, Arhno, Majuro, Likieb, Ebon, and elsewhere. The religiousstations are chiefly under the direction of Hawaiian missionaries, who are muchdisliked by the traders. Conflicting interests have given rise to dissensions,which have in aU cases been settled by the protecting power in favour of theJaluit dealers.North of the Marshalls are scattered a few clusters, which should be regardedas belonging, if not to the same groups, at least to the same geographical zone.Such amongst others is Cornwallis or Gaspar Rico.The islets and reefs followingin the direction of Japan are separated by abysmal depths from the subiuuriuebank above which rise the Marshall atolls.In the Appendix will be found a table of all these archipelagoes, with theirrespective areas and populations.