Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-14
MYSTERIES or The PACIFIC.
MASSIVE RUINS OF ANCIENT DATE ON
THE CAROLINE ISLANDS.
Colossal Figures as Reminders of Pre-
historic People-Paiaces With
Painted Walls.
From Casselrs Magazine. /

From Casselps Magazine.
The Caroline Islands, which are nov
recognized as belonging to Spain, though
the Germans tried to annex them few
years ago, form one of the largest archi
pelagos of the Pacific, covering sea area
of more than 1000 miles, and comprising
over 500 separate fragments of land
Some of these islets are mere rocks, many
are uninhabited, and few are very popu-
lous. Excepting those at the eastern end
of the chain, and the large island of Jap
at the western end, they have been rarely,
some of them never, visited by white men,
unless in the dubious form of bleach
combers" With the Mariannes, the Gill
bert and Marshall Islands, the Carolines
make up that section of the Pacific which
is known to geographers as Micronesia.
Kusaie, sometimes called Strong Island,
is about fifty miles in circumference is of
basaltic formation has large extent of
high ground and boasts of two excellent
harbors. The people are reputedly indus
trious and peaceable-for South Sea Is
landers-and they have King of their
own. They belong, to all appearance, TO
the Polynesian race, but travellers have de-
clared that they seem capable of higher
civilization than the average Polynesian,
1t is remarkable that the chiefs commu-
nicate by signs and speech not understood
by the common people.
This island is covered by massive ruins
of very ancient date. Early voyagers used
to suppose that these were the work of the
old Spanish buccaneers; but this has been
shown to be impossible, apart from the
signs Of much greater age. The ruins
bear, in many cases, the outlines of fortif-
cations. They are composed of stones,
eight and ten feet in length, squared upon
six sides. These stones are of different
geological character from any other stone
found on the island. Therefore, they must
have been imported, and some of the
blocks are even double the size above
stated. Stones of such dimensions were
beyond the powers of the Spanish bucca-
neers, either to convey by their vessels, or
to erect into buildings, with the manual
ldDOI lnO1 pOSSSoocO. lit
and erecting of these massive blocks re-
quired mechanical appliances of extraordi-
nary strength and ingenuity, and such APP
planes the Spaniards had not. The gem
eral plan of the buildings which can still
be traced reveals design of great intelli-
gence.
Ascension Island, now usually called
Ponape, is larger than Kusaie and is not
so hilly, although geologically of the same
formation. 1t has considerable area of
level ground reputed the most fertile in
the whole group, and it has numerous fine
streams, as well as three good harbors.
The inhabitants cluster around the shores,
having a superstitious dread of the in
terror, and they are said to number about
seven thousand. Unlike Kusaie, instead
of being under one king, the people are
divided under the rule of FIVE independent
chiefs.
On this island exist similar ruins to
those on Kusaie, but much larger. On
the shore of one creek, for instance, there
still remains massive wall three hundred
feet long and thirty-ive feet high. 1t is
built of huge basaltic blocks in the form of
prisms, and has a gateway opening on to
the creek, supported on enormous basaltic
columns. Passing through this gateway,
a large court is reached, inclosed by walls
thirty feet in hight, and all around the
inner court there is raised terrace eight
feet high and twelve feet wide. In shape
the court is square, and has evidently been
subdivided into three parts by low walls
running north and south. In the center
of each of these divisions there is closed
chamber fourteen feet square, built Of bas-
attic columns and rooted over. The outer
walls are twenty feet thick at the base and
eight feet at the top, and some of the
stones used in its composition are twenty
five feet in length and eight feet in cir
conference.
All the concentrated intelligence of all
the Caroline Islanders of to-day could not
devise method for moving and raising
such enormous masses; and all the ma
chinery at the command of the early
Spanish nayigators could not have man
aged one of them.
So much for the Carolines; and now, if
we traverse some few thousand miles of
ocean to the very eastern outskirts of
Polynesia, we shall find something even
more mysterious. 1t is the little island
called Easter Island, which is barely ten
miles long by four miles broad, which has
no trees, no running water, and very little
about it to attract settlers. 1t is one of
volcanic origin, and one of the extinct
craters is over a thousand feet high.
Yet this physically uninteresting island,
peopled by Polynesians Of the fair type,
such as are found in the Society Islands,
is the greatest mystery of the Pacific. 1t
is covered with remains of some prehis-
toric people of whom every record but that
preserved in stone seems to have vanished.
At the southwest end of this little
island there are to be found the ruins of
nearly hundred stone houses. but in reg
ular line and facing the sea. The walls of
these houses are feet thick and over ID
feet high, built of layers of fat stones and
lined inside with fiat slabs. Internally
the houses measure about 40 feet long by
Is feet wide, and they are rooted over with
slabs overlapping like tiles. The inside
walls are painted in three colors-red,
black and white-with figures of birds and
mystic beasts and faces, and geometrical
figures. In one of these houses was found
curious stone statue. s feet high and
weighing about four tons, which is now in
the British Museum.
The sea- cliffs near the ancient settlement
are carved into grotesque shapes not unlike
the paintings on the walls, and the coast
is marked with hundreds OF these strange
sculptures.
Again, on each headline of the island
there is an enormous stone platform, built
of hewn blocks of great size, fitted together
without cement. They are built on slop-
ing ground, presenting on the seward side
Wallace 20 or 80 feet high and 200 or
800 feet long, and on the lnndward side
wall of about 3 feet in hight, rising from
leveled terrace.
These platforms have evidently had to
do with the religious practices of the early
settlers, whoever they were, for upon all Of