Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-01
PACIFIC A MODERN OCEAN.
At All Events 1t Is Very New to Men of
Caucasian Antecedents.

Caucasian Antecedents.
1t seems rather curious to recall the
fact that very little more than 100 years
ago the Pacific was regarded as a Span
lsh lake. That nation claimed it ON the
strength of Balboa's discovery in 1913
and insisted that it should be regarded
as mare clausum. This will bear COM
parison with the claim recently made
to like effect by the United States in
regard to the northern part of the same
ocean, called Behring sea.
When Sir Francis Drake circumnavi-
gated the globe his sailing across these
waters was seriously resented by Spain,
which demanded restitution to her of the
plumber which he took, but Queen Eliza
beth made naughty reply Not long
before the close of the last century the
Spanish crown again began to make
fuss because its monopoly of the Pacific
was infringed on. 1t ordered the COM
mandant of San Francisco to seize the
Columbia, the first vessel that carried
the American flag around Cape Horn.
In 1899 two Spanish men-of-war seized
several English fur traders on the north
west coast. and war was very nearly the
result.
1t is odd that the Spaniards, though
discoveries of new lands and waters,
were among the, poorest navigators of
their time. After coming upon the
Solomon islands they could not find
them again, and they were lost for $50
years. The water supply of their galleons
was not kept i'll casks. but in big earthen
jars. As it was impossible to provide
sufficient supply for six months voy-
age on board of a ship carrying 400 or
800 people, they always took to sea great
numbers Of mats Whenever it rained,
the mats were spread to catch the drops,
which were drained off into jars through
split bamboos The mortality from
scurvy on long trips was frightful.
Cortez, after the conquest of Mexico,
fitted out three small ships to sail to the
MoluccaS and REINFORCE the Spaniards
there. They We're scattered by tenn
pest, and two of them were lost. One Of
these is imagined to have been the strange
vessel which was wrecked on the rocks
of Hawaii at about the same time as
nearly as can be reckoned. According
to tradition, only the captain and his sis
ter were saved. The natives received
them kindly and gave them food. They
intermarried with the Hawaiians and be-
came the progenitors of certain well
known families of chiefs.
In early times the control of land on
the Hawaii"n Islands was held by the
ruling chiefs. who reserved what portions
they pleased for their own use and di-
vided the rest among the leading men
subject to them. The position of the
latter was analogous to that of the bar
ons of European feudalism. They fur
nished supplies to their sovereign and in
case of war were expected to take the
field with what fighting men their estates
could furnish. These barons held almost
despotic sway over their domains, appor-
tioning the territory which they con-
trolled among their followers, according
to the within of the moment or the de-
mands of the policy. Every time a new
chief came into power there was n fresh
distribution of lands. Thus the country
was always full of people who We're d =
possessed and homeless. Kamehameha
III overturned this system by granting
to his people bill of rights which ma lie
their tenure of the soil permanent
Washington Star.