The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-10-03
SOUTH PACIFIC WEALTH.
Ways in Which Natives Make a Living
Enormous Profits to the European
Sponges, Turtles and Pearls-The Fate of
EXplorers
Correspondents New York Times.

which the native races make living. He
also learns that the living they seek is most
inexpensive, and that from occupations
which enrich their white employers they
themselves are satisfied with very small
percentage of profit. Very little, indeed
contents their wants; they have no banks
in which to hoard their money; no stock
market wherein to speculate with it; the
climate of their favored residence demands
no clothing whatever and native ideas of
decency hardly any more. A neat and
permanent set of tattooing lasts all their
lives, and needs to be supplemented only
by breech-clout or kilt of "ti'' leaves,
to which luxury or foppishness may sug-
gest the strictly ornamental addition of an
ancient "plug" hat; their food grows on
trees, and asks to be plucked, and their
houses can be constructed Of a dozen sticks
and thatch of palm or banana leaves.
There is as little envy in my composition
as in that of most men, but if ever | should
renounce the advantages and pains of civil
lization [ should think myself in luck if
permitted to exchange positions with a
Fijian, Tahitian or Samoan. The last
mentioned, indeed, are at present under
the cloud of foreign interference in their
affairs, upon which every sentimentalist
and lover of simple, unspoiled barbaric
manners must cry pest, and to it drink
confusion The Samoans are the finest
people in the Pacific, and are quite capa-
Bile of managing their own affairs with
credit. But | did not set out to write
upon politics, but upon some of the means
of comfort in life and even wealth, which
these bountiful climes afford to their inhab-
itants and to those of the outside world
who trade with them.
AN UNKNOWN REGION.
Twenty years ago the innumerable islands
of the South Pacific were almost as little
known to Europe as those of the West
Indies were to the people of the sixteenth
century. With the exception of the Ha-
waiian, Society and Fijian groups, as |
we'll remember, the omniverous reading Of
my schoolboy days gave no information
whatever of the strange lands which L
puzzled over in my geography, and which
I know not how the idea struck me-
even then wondered if | should some day
visit. | recall the delight with which L
pored over Captain Cooks accounts of his
experiences in Tahiti-strange reading to-
day, when one hears everywhere in those
lovely islands the jabber of French, and
sees in full blow the fashions and vices of
Paris. Nobody would be more surprised
than Cook himself to see the present state
of things, symbolical, alas of the swift
approaching time when, throughout Ocean
lea, there shall be no more Otaheitans Gas
Cook called them) Samoans, FDians, or any
other pure native tribe, but mongrel race
of half and quarter breeds, whom the most
expert ethnologist would be quite unable
to classify.
Cook, indeed, fell at the hands of the
Hawaiians, and, as think, richly deserved
his fate, hard as it was. His taking off
suggests the evils which befell many others
who have tried to open up the Pacific to
trade and civilization. Balboa, who dis
covered the ocean and was the first white
man to sail upon its waters, was decapi-
tated under false charge of treason against
the King of Spain. He took possession
of the great sea, indeed, in the name of
the Pope. This, perhaps, was treason.
At any rate, picture in the Church OF
st. Francis, in a town Of Darien, shows in
f1amboyant wise the ceremony where Balboa
stands up to his waist in salt water, way
inc his sword in one hand and flag bear
ing St. Peters keys in the other. Magcl-
Ian, who first reached the Indies by a
western route, sailing through the straits
that still bear his name, fell by the sword
in common brawl AlOnzo de Saavedra,
who first attempted the passage of the
North Pacific from Manila to Mexico, and
was of the family of Cervantes, died on
the equator. He also discovered New
Guinea, and suggested canal through the
Isthmus of Panama, in attempting which
de Lesseps, in our own time, has again
illustrated the fatal effects of the Pacific
upon those who attempt to open its mys-
teries or facilitate its trade.
Likewise Alvaro de Mendana, who pro-
posed to colonize the Solomon Islands ESQ
named by him in the strange belief that
Solomon derived thence the gold where
with he adorned the Temple at Jerusalem) },
and now sleeps beneath the ruins of cyclo
pean palaces and walls which give some
color to his theory, and which it were well
worth the while Of antiquarians to explore
AM describe. Dampier, discoverer of New
Britain, died no man knoweth how, being
last seen in great poverty and neglect in
an obscure English town. So ended also
Admiral Quiros, concerning whose later
years there is but one brief record by a
Cardinal, who wrote that the adventurer,
casually met in a Seville wine shop, had
told him of certain cannibal practices
among the South Sea Islanders that had
much edited the prelate. Yet Quiros was
a doughty yoyager, rose to the quarter
deck from the forecastle, and had the
famous Torres for his lieutenant, after
whom were named the straits that separate
Australia from New Guinea La Perouse,
too, partook of fate as little known as
that of Sir John Franklin. Roggewein,
diseoverer of the Samoan Islands, was cast
into prison at Batavia, and, finally released
died in great misery. Dumont d'Urville,
too, having made himself famous as a dis
coverer in the Pacific, was burned to death
in railway train between Paris and Yer
sailles. Then there was Basa, discoverer
of the straits between Australia and Tas-
mania, to which, having daringly explored
them in an open boat, he gave his name
who, seized by Spaniards in Chill for some
overt act, was taken in chains to the silver
mines, where he ended his days miserably
WEALTH OF THE ISLANDS.
The chief industries of the leading groups
of the South Sea Islands are the collection
of copra, or dried cocoanut, beche de mer
pearl oysters and tortoise shell, fruit, &c
The wealth of these countries is simply
incalculable, but has been developed in
very small degree as yet, chiefly from the
ignorance of the world concerning then
resources. information regarding the