The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-04-08
! THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY. APRIL 8.

prehends a belt of thirty degrees north of the
equator between long. 1859 west and 1852 cast,
and extending to lat. 40 south. The principal
groups north of the equator are the Pelew, La
drone, Caroline, Radack, Marshall, Gilbert and
| Sandwic Islands. South of the Equator are the
Fcgee, Navigator, Friendly. Marquesas, Society,
| Gambler, Cooks and Austral Islands. New Zeal
and, New Hebrides and the groups west OF them
properly belong to Australasia French and
American authorities have sub-divided the above
| divisions into several smaller ones. Most of the
low islands are of coral formation, the more ele-
waited being Of volcanic. The number of islands
in Polynesia is supposed to be about 200, with q
surface of land not exceeding 80. 900 square miles.
The population is variously estimated by diff
ferent authorities, but most of them place it at
about l 900 600.
Since its discovery by Vasco de Balboa, IN
1913, the Pacific Ocean has been repeatedly ex-
plored by the national vessels of five different
powers, and successive navigators have made the
civilized world comparatively acquainted with the
more distinctive features of this vast expanse of
waters, covering as it does a large portion OF the
earth's surface. But the numerous islands which.
"Placed far amid the melancholy main"
here and there dot its surface-estimated to
amount to about seven hundred in number, ex-
elusive of the noble continent of New Holland,
and the larger islands of New Zealand, New Gale
donia, New ireland, &C., commonly designateda as
observation-disclosures imperfectly known and have
never been fully described. Consequently the
journals of intelligent shipmasters like that OF
Capt. Moore which we recently published, or the
communications of missionaries, are always re-
ceived gladly and perused with interest as coming
r IL .,I <r,n Danr1a
Equally to the philosopher and philanthropist
with the trader and the adventurous rover, does
the island world of the Pacific present a rich field
for enquiry and enterprise. There is something
in the very name of island, suggestive of retire
ment, isolation and solitude, which charms and
attracts, before we learn anything of the climate
or inhabitants. When to this is prefxed the
lame of Pacific, or the once talismanic title of
s'South-Sea," the interest is heightened and i'm
agination pictures an island paradise And in
deed, in no part of the world is the sublime and
the beautiful IN Nature oftener found united in
bold contrast and variety than in the isles OF the
Pacific. Here, vast mountains, crater-crowned,
belch forth rivers of molten lava, and pour
their desolating tides far and wide over the trem-
bling land ; there, mountain streams rush head
long in their course seward, leaping precipices
of a thousand feet; while the evergreen mantle of
a tropical growth covers all, TO the inaccessible
cliffs. Shady groves of spreading brcadfruit and
towering palms interspersed with broad-leafed
bananas, waving canes and perpetual blooming
flowers, with every tree that is pleasant to the
sight and good for 70, d, create in our broad Pa
ci6c many an island Eden. Charming landscapes
of bill and dale, of nesting valleys and spreading
plains, are met on every hand. Innumerable
placid lagoons. fringed with reefs of coral up
heayed by that wondrous insect.
"Tle mason Of God in the boundIess sea-"
attract the student Of Nature and, ever seen,
ever heard, the long unbroken swell of a thou
sand miles of ocean. increasingly filings itself
against the rocky shore. These are some of the
beauties and wonders Of Nature that greet the
traveller among the sunny isles of Polynesia. Add
to all these u tropical climate, but with an at
mosphere tempered to a delicious softness by the
sea, and a fertile soil-what more could Nature
do for man than she has done here?
With the Sandwich Islands as the apex Of a
great triangle, good stand point is obtained from
which to view the different groups of the island
world. We are at the extreme northern limit of
the angle, and looking out to the west and south
west we see the chart of the Pacific beautifully
dotted with groups and solitary islands. To the
southwest, at a distance of eighteen hundred To
two thousand miles, lie the various groups of
Micronesia, known as the Pelew, Kings Mill,
Mulgrave and Radack Islands. Many q. these
are mere strips of sand girded with coral reefs,
while others are quite extensive and covered with
vegetation, encircling beautiful lagoons, or land
locked harbors, connecting with the sea by navi-
gable passages. All the islands of this division
are quite low in their formation, seldom exceed
ing eighteen feet above the sea level. 4 thousand
miles beyond these, and beyond Polynesia, in the
same direction, lie the East India Islands Of Suma-
ira, Borneo, Java, Celebes. the Philippine and
Sooloo groups, inhabited by the Malay race. This
division is designated as MALAYSIA. Following the
segment of a circle to the south and east of Micro
nesia, We come to Australasia, comprising the
large island of New Guinea, the continent of New
Holland, and the numerousadjacent islands, with
New Britain, New Ireland, New Caledonia, and
the New Hebrides, Feegees, and Solomon groups
and New Zealand. The general absence of re-
cent volcanic phenomena, and the occurrence of
primary rocks, would seem to claim for this por-
ton of Oceanica a more ancient formation than
Polynesia. These groups are inhabited too. for
the most part, by a darker skinned and in many
respects a more savage race than those of eastern
Polynesia, while at the same time their language
is far superior in copiousness and expression to
the dialects of the latter, whom they also much
excel in their simple manufactures and the me-
chanic arts.
The interesting question arises-what is the
probable destiny of these different tribes and ma
tionalities of Polynesia, and what part are they
to play in the drama of the world Is progress? Or
will each and all of the petty native communities
which now Independently exist throughout the
Pacific isles, gradually dwindle and die out before
the glare of civilization? Ever since Pope wrote
those lines so often quoted Z" Lo, the poor in
DIAM the idea has been advanced and reiterated,
that the Caucasian race must supplant every
other with which it comes in contact, and to-day