Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-09-07
THE CAROLINEs.
The Pacific Islands About Which Ger
many and Spain are Contendine.


| As far as the Carolnes are concerned
/ says the London Sjatdord there IS not the
! slightest excuse to justify their annexation
! by Germany or any other power They
! were discovered by Spain, and for two hun
| dred years have indisputabIy been regarded
as the possessions of his Catholic Majesty.
! No other nation has at any time put in a
claim tor the islands, and though Spain has
not occupied the whole of them. she has
established a mission on zap. in the CEN
tral group, and has Invariably. when it
suited her purpose, exercised all the attri-
! buteS of sovereignty over the natives IN
deed, following her usual drastic ideas of
colonization, she has at different times de
nuded some of heislands of inhabitants in
order to concentrate her trade at the La
drones and Philippines. But this was
| merely for her own convenience The
right OF ownership has never been sur
rendered, and if Spain has not formerly
occupied the Carolines it is simply be
! cause Spain has of late years ceased to be a
! colonizing power, and because it is no easy
| matter to " occupy more than GOO islands
extending over more than 1000 miles of
| longitude.
The Caroline group lies north OF New
! Guinea, between the Philippines on the
east and the Kingsmills on the west, and
has always been regarded as de
! pendency of the Spanish possessions
! in the former archipelago The West
ern, Peiew, or Palau Islands have an
, area Of 316 square miles, and are almost
encircled by coral reef The Central
| Carolines consist of about furty-eight
groups and several hundred islands fhe
chief of which is zap The Eastern Caro-
| lines, sometimes known as the MuIgraye
| Archipelago comprise the Radick or Mar
! shall group and the Gilbert Islands, and on
| them, from various estimates, there must
| be over 100000 people. They were discoy-
| cred by the English navigators whose
names they bear, and, therefore, if mere
/ discovery entities any one to their owner
| ship, they belong to us. We have, how
| ever, never claimed them, nor any of the
numerous other oceanic islets on which our
mariners first cast eyes. Otherwise the
| English colonies in the Pacific, instead OF
consisting Of the Fills would number
several hundreds. The Spaniards. bv
whose enterprise this great archipelago
was first Brought 10 light have been al
! lowed the undisFuted mastery of the group
which Don Francisco LazOano named III
/ 1856 in honor of Charles H. OF Spain,
though as early as 1923 they were seen by
Alvaro de Saayedra, and in 1879 by our
| own Sir Francis Drake. Since that dat
| there have been no regular settlements
| them; but the remains of strange fOrtif
! tons on PuyHipet suggest colonist
! whom history has kept no record
The 81. James Gdzctte SAYS: The c.
! Islands are a remarkable group
| formations in the Northern Pacifc.
are, perhaps, of no great strategic imp,a,-
anCe, since they lie on The road to nowhere
/ in particular but, from the point of view of
] the arch@OlOgist, they are interesting in
/ the extreme. Certain Dutch navigators
/ who visited them nearly generation ago
I returned 10 Europe with wonderful stories
1 Concerning the gigantic ruins that had
! been discovered on some of the smaller
islets at the eastern end of the archipelago.
! but it was not until 1888 that anything ap
/ preaching to a systematic survey Of the
| group was undertaken. In that year her
| Majesty's ship Espiegle touched at many of
the Islands, and those officers who went
ashore found that the magnifcence of the
remains had not been exaggerated The
most imposing ruins are at Metalanim
harb0r, in Ponape, and at Chabrol harbor,
| IN kusale, and an idea of their grandeur
may be formed from the fact that some of
the stones of the buildings measure as
much as 30 feet long by 20 broad and 10
| thlck. They are ornamented with rude
sculptures, which bear family resem-
blance to the we'll known sculptures of
Easter Island, in the Southern Pacific; yet
/ Easter island and the Carolines are fully
| 5000 miles apart, and so far as discover
I
ton between them. The object and origin
OF the monuments are alike unknown. It
may be added that the Caroline group,
which was discovered by Spain in 1896,
has hitherto. even by German geographers,
| been regarded rs Spanish possession al
! though for years there have been no
Spanish residents on any of the islands.
/ The extent of the land surface of the group
is rather more than 800 square miles and
( the estimated pOpllatiOn is about 2yOOO
souls, all of whom are of the Malay race.