The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-09

tain in having the cargo, consisting of
; thirty head of cattle, thirty-fve pigs
and thirty tons of cotton jettisoned,
saved the little craft from destruction.
Even with this precaution the life of
one man was lost by waves sweeping
the decks.
One of the many acts of heroism re-
ported is that of a woman who climb
ed one of the tall cocoanut trees and
dashed her baby to the branches, hang
ing to the body of the tree beneath
the little one as best she could. There
they remained for ten hours, suffering
great torture, until finally rescued.
Pearls Swept Away.
Thousands of tons of copra and
more than 200 tons of mother of pearl
shells are known to have been lost.
The pearl shells are valued at 81, 800
| per ton, and many valuable pearls
may be lost to the world forever, as
these were considered some of the best
pearl islands in the world.
Among the passengers on the Mari
posa to-day was G. W. Waterbury,
| formerly of Chicago, who was in that
portion of the storm which visited the
Island of Raiatea, one of the Leeward
Islands, located some distance to the
west of the Inflated Puamotu. Here
much damage was done, although no
lives were lost.
! A well built road, constructed by the
| French government, was demolished,
! bridges were carried away. buildings
overturned and shattered, and pieces
of big ships, old wreckage, and cocoa
nut trees were heaped high along the
coast line. Returning to Tahiti the
almost swamped by the high seas,
| and water spout came near to the
| DOdI at one place.
The Society Islands are in the middle
of the Pacific, more than 1000 miles
northeast of New Zealand, and some
3400 miles southwest of San Francisco.
| The islands consist of Tahiti, which
embraces 900 square miles, out of a to-
fol Of he tiyA
and number of smaller ones, the chief
being Raiatea and Eimeo.
The group is divided into two clus-
ters, called the Windward and the Lee
ward Islands, and stretches for about
200 miles In a northwest and southeast
direction. They are composed of vol
canic rocks, are mountainous and we'll
wooded, with belts of low fertile soil
along the shores. Coral reefs encircle
| the separate islands, and numerous
cascades foam down the mountain
sides. The scenery is magnificent, the
chief island being often called 1.-THE
Garden of the Pacific" The climate is
healthy.
Cocoanuts, oranges, vanilla and all
kinds of fruit are grown, as well as
some cotton and sugar. Besides these
things, mother-of-pearl (the most VAL
liable of alb, cocoanut fibre and ire
pang are exported. The imports (tis-
sues, flour, wine, live stock, sugar, cof-
fee, coal, timber and soap reached
nearly 100000 in 1890. The people Gull
/ tivate for their own sustenance the
bread-fruit, taro, yam, sweet potato
etc. There are several good harbors
behind the reefs. The most important
is Papeete the capital of the archipel-
ago, which stands on the northeast Of
| Tahiti, and has a cathedral, an arsenal
and a population Q8SD of 1924. The
population of all the islands together
though more than half are wholly I'M
inhabited, was HIS in 1889.
The people, a handsome race of the
Polynesian stock, are light-hearted, po-
lite and gay, but very immoral and un-
trustworthy. Before they became as
thoroughly Europeanized as they are
now, they were notorious for their
cruelty. The group was discovered by
the Spanish navigator De Quiros. He
gave the name of Society Islands in
honor of the Royal Society of London
on the occasion of his first visit. At
that time the population numbered
nearly a quarter of a million. In 1880
Tahiti was proclaimed full French
possession.