Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

;328 AUSTEALASIA.and arrows, and other weapons, whicli vary considerably in the different islandsEnglish is everj'where the language of commercial intercourse.Notwithstanding the murder of many whites, afterwards served uj) at thepublic banquets, Loth Catholic and Protestant missionaries have penetrated intomany parts of the Melunesian Archipelagoes. A mission founded in San Cristobalhaving brought about a general massacre had to be removed to Woodlark Islandbut the priestswere driven from this place also, and have now taken refuge inRook Island, near Dampier Strait, at- the south-west extremity of New Ireland.The influence of the missionaries, more or less neutralised by that of unprincipledtraders and mariners, has hitherto been little felt. The Melanesians stillcontinue to worship their good and evil spirits, as well as the grand phenomena ofnature. They also venerate those animals that thej' fear, in one jilace the shark,in another the crocodile. Little care is taken of the sick, who, in most of the islands,are even abandoned to their fate when all hope of recovery is lost—they are takento the dead-house, a cocoanut is placed on their mat, and they are left to diealone.The political systems differ greatlj^ in the various insular groups. In theAdmiralty and Bismarck Archipelagoes the tribes have no chiefs, or rather thosebearing this title owe it to the foreign traders. Here no one pi'esumes to dictateto his neighbour; all the members of the community are equal, and deliberatewithout the control of superiors on the common interests. On the other hand thepower of the hereditary chiefs has been firmly established in most of the SolomonIslands. Although, as a rule, there are as many states as villages, some of themore powerful chiefs rule over whole clusters of islets and even over extensivetracts on the larger islands. Thus the " King " of Shortland in BougainvilleStrait holds sway over all the islanders in that channel, as well as over the neighboviringtribes in Bougainville and Choiseul. The more powerful dynasties aregenerally constituted by the rulers of the smaller islands, whoso inhabitants aremore restless and daring than the settled agricultural populations of the largeislands. The policy of the German Government is at present directed towardsconsolidating the power of the more influential chiefs, and gradually transformingthem to paid officials.There are no towns in German Melanesia. The " colony " of Port-Breton,founded in 1879 on the south coast of Tombara, in the most arid part of the island,has been completely abandoned by its French immigrants, to whom such goldenpromises had been held out, but who fonnd nothing but famine and sickness in" New France." Nothing remains of the settlement except a few sheds shelteringIsome merchandise from the weather.The political and commercial capital of the German Melanesian possessionsoccupies a perfectly central position between New Guinea and the BismarckArchipelago. The first station was Mioko, in the still waters stretching south ofYork Island (New Lauenburg) ; but this port was abandoned in consequence of thefetid odours emitted by the neighbouring shoals which are exposed at low water.Choice wiis then made of the thickly peopled island of Jlrifiipi, which lies farther