The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-22
WHAT SPAIN STILL RETAINS.


1 one TO 100 square miles. Together they
aggregate 200 square miles. The pop
ulation now numbers only 10000 or less
and there is evidence that it was four
or five times as great a century ago.
Not more than two women in five bear
/ children and a family of three children
| is unusually large. The products are
! unirnporrant, except a tobacco Of SUI
/ perior quality produced in the largest
of the islands and on one OF the smaller
ones.
The Caroline islands form q vast cor
al archipelago, stretching over a band
Of 1000 miles long east and west and
300 broad. The number of islands and
islets is very great, but there are only
about 40 which are known to be inhab-
tied. The largest is Ponapoi, or AS
cension island, near the eastern extrem-
ity Of the group and nearly half way
from the Philippines to Hawaii. 1t Is
of a circular form, about Il miles in
diameter and has a population OF 5000.
Roulk, Trouk, or Hogolon island, near
the center of the group. is somewhat
smaller. but has about the same pop
ulation. The aggregate area of this
vast extent of islands is only 800 or 900
square miles and the total population
about 10000. The people are like the
Hawaiians in character. The climate
is one of the most delightful found on
the earth's surface.
The Carolines are separated from the
Marshall islands to the east and from
the Mariannes to the north by rela-
| lively narrow stretches of very deep
water. The Pelew islands lie on the
same submarine plateau as the Caro-
lines, and are associated with them
physically as they now are politically
The people of the Pelews are, however,
darker and belong to another race.
a T.ad
to the north of the western end of the
Caroline band. They are physically as
ISOLATED with the Japanese Islands, and
along the submarine plateau connect
ing them lies a series of small coral
isletS strung along a distance of 1900
miles, some of which are now in the
possession of Japan. Doubtless this
government would he glad to possess
at least the Mariannes of the tropical
archipelagoS. This group has Is islands
large enough to note They aggregate
about 440 square miles and have about
10000 inhabitants The 10 northern ISL
anGS are mountainous and mostly I'M
occupied. The five southern are gener-
ally low. The largest is GUAM, with
zoe square miles and 1000 inhabitants.
The total possessions of Spain out
side the peninsula. excluding a large
area on the Guinea coast also claimed
by France, but including the Philip
pines and Cuba, have an area of 49,
600 square miles and a population Of
about 100000 This is twice as large
IS the peninsula itself, but the popu-
lation is less than three-quarterS that
of Spain proper. Of the seven colon
izing European nations, Spain stands
sixth in area and fourth in population
of colonies Great Britain has nearly
as much colonial population as the rest.
Spain and France claim a large part of
the Sahara and so swell their colonial
area amazingly. Three-fifths of SPANS
colonial area is Saharan. With the
loss of the Philippines and Cuba, Spain
will sink to the last place in the series
and will have no more important COL
ony proper than Porto Rico. This is a
pathetic condition when compared with
her state when Pope Alexander vi
magnaminously divided between Por-
tugal and herself the unknown parts
of the earth, giving to Spain all the
American continent except little Of
Brazil. This was in 1893. Since then
Spain has come near making effective
the pope'S gift, only to lose again, grad
ually and hopelessly, about all she had
gained. The moral of the loss lies in
the proposition that a successful colon
ial policy must keep the prosperity of
the colony itself in the first line and
that of the mother country as second
and dependent on the first