PELEW Islands, or Palaos, a cluster of islands, mostly small, in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, situated between the Philippine and the Caroline Islands, and chiefly between the seventh and eighth degrees of north latitude, and the 134th and 135th of east longitude. These islands are eighteen in number, and their names are, Oroolong, Emungs, Emilleguc, Artingal, Corooraa, and Pelelew. These islands were first visited by the Spaniards from the Philippines, and received from them the appellation of the Palaos Islands, from the tall palm trees with which they are covered, and which at a distance have the appearance of ships’ masts, as the term indicates. The largest of these islands is named Baubelthanap, and is about sixty miles in circumference; the smaller islands are to the south. The latter are well covered with trees of various kinds and sizes; some of them of the largest dimensions, and sufficient for forming a canoe capable of holding thirty persons. Amongst the variety of trees found here is the ebony, and a tree from which, when pierced by a gimblet, there exudes a thick white liquid of the consistence of cream. A species of tree also grows here, the sap of which blisters the skin. There is another singular tree, the branchingof which is not unlike our cherry-tree; but its leaves resemble the myrtle. It has no bark, having only an outward coat about the thickness of a card, darker than the inside, though equally close in texture. It has the colour of mahogany in the interior, and is so extremely hard that no tool can work it. The other trees are the cabbage-tree, and a tree the fruit of which resembles the almond; the ca-rimbola, [7:17:180]and the wild bread-fruit tree; the cocoa-nut tree, the fruit of which is one of the chief articles of subsistence; and the betel-nut tree, which is in great abundance. Plantains, bananas, oranges, lemons, and sugar-canes, abound; likewise the turmeric, which the natives use as a dye, and with which they stain their skins. On none of these islands, when they were visited by the English, was there any kind of grain, or any quadruped except some brownish-gray rats, which ran wild in the woods, and a few lean cats, which were seen in some of the houses, and had probably escaped to the shore from some wreck or drift-wood. The common domestic fowls, such as cocks and hens, abound in the woods, though they are not domesticated; and, previous to the arrival of the English, they were not used for food by the natives, who reared pigeons for this purpose. Along the shores fish in great variety are found, with many shell-fish, particularly the large Kima cockle, which they procure by diving, and which, like other barbarous nations, they eat raw. Many of the other birds are distinguished alike by the beauty of their plumage and the variety and melody of their notes. There were several small birds of very melodious notes, especially one whose notes resembled those of a flageolet, and which sings morning and evening.

These islands, when seen from the sea, appear of a rugged mountainous aspect, and covered with wood; the interior parts being mountainous, and the valleys extensive and beautiful, opening into prospects of picturesque beauty. A reef of coral surrounds the shore, which is about five or six leagues broad, and in no case less than three. The soil is in general rich, and produces luxuriant herbage, which, as there is no cattle to eat it, grows high, and is scorched and burned with the heat of the sun. The, climate, as in all tropical countries, is divided into the two seasons, the wet and the dry. There is nothing in these islands which deserves the name of a river; and the inhabitants derive their supplies of fresh water from small rivulets and ponds.

From the accounts given of these islands by Captain Wilson, commander of the Antelope packet, in the service of the East India Company, who was wrecked on them, and by other navigators, the inhabitants appear to have made but little progress in civilization. They are not, indeed, as they had been represented, irreclaimable savages, inhuman and barbarous, and feeding on human flesh; but, on the contrary, hospitable, friendly, and humane in their dispositions, though ignorant of the arts and manners of civilized life. They are, however, industrious, and every part of the island bears marks of cultivation. Yams and cocoa-nuts are the chief articles of subsistence, and to the rearing of these their attention was chiefly directed. They are a stout and well-made people, rather above the middle stature; and their complexions are not black, though of a deeper shade than the Indian copper-colour. They have long flowing hair, rather disposed to curl, which they form into one large loose coil round their heads. Some of the women, who have remarkably long hair, allow it to hang down their backs. The men go entirely naked; the women wear a slight covering of two little aprons, or rather thick fringes, one before and one behind, about ten inches deep and seven wide; these are made of the husks of the cocoa-nut, stripped into narrow slips, and dyed with different shades of yellow. Both men and women have the savage practice of tattooing, which operation takes place when both sexes arrive at maturity. One ear of the men is bored, and in the women both ears, and beads are worn in the perforated car by the men; but the women put some leaf through, or an ear-ring of tortoise-shell inlaid. They also perforate the cartilage between the nostrils in both sexes, through which they frequently put a little sprig or blossom of some plant or shrub that pleases their fancy.

Like most barbarous nations, both sexes are expert swimmers, and appear to be as perfectly at ease in the water as on land. In diving their skill is also remarkable; and the men, if they saw any thing at the bottom of the sea which attracted their attention, would instantly jump overboard and bring it up. They mix no salt nor any other seasoning in any thing they eat; and the milk of the cocoa-nut forms their usual beverage. They had no method of measuring time but by the height of the sun, though they had some knowledge of the stars, having names for several of them, which they pointed out to their English visitors. Their houses were of a rude construction. They were raised about three feet from the ground, and placed on large thick and oblong stones, as if cut from the quarry. Their fishing-tackle was, however, well manufactured. The hooks were made of tortoise-shell; and their twine, their cord, and all their fishing-nets, were well manufactured from the husks of the cocoa-nut. They form the mats on which they sleep, and which they throw over them when at rest, out of the plantain leaf. They use the plantain leaf at their meals instead of a plate; the shell of the cocoa-nut they polish very nicely, and it serves them as a cup to drink out of. Their best knives are made of a piece of mother-of-pearl oyster-shell. They make vessels of earthen ware, in which they boil their fish and yams; and their hatchets are made of the Kima cockle ground to a sharp edge. Their principal weapons are spears twelve feet long, made of bamboo, pointed with some hard wood, and darts and slings. They carry on a maritime warfare with each other in canoes, which they make from the trunk of a tree, with an outrigger, and furnished with lateen sails made of mattine.

The government of these islands is monarchical. The king has the supreme authority, and, though divested of all external decorations of royalty, he is honoured with every mark of personal distinction. The nobles approach him with the greatest respect; and his common subjects, whenever they pass him, or have occasion to address him, use every mark of the meanest servility, crouching towards the ground in his presence, or even before any place where he is supposed to be. The officer who approaches nearest to the king in power is his brother, who is generalissimo of all the forces. The king is always attended by a particular officer, who does not appear to possess any hereditary, but rather a delegated authority. He is first consulted in all public affairs, and has other marks of high dignity; but whether his office and character were religious or civil, the English could not exactly learn. Polygamy prevails in these islands, but in general the natives have not more than two wives, though the king had five, who lived in separate dwellings. They have little or no religion, and no outward observances that the English could perceive whilst they resided amongst them. The king became much attached to the English who were shipwrecked on these islands, and showed them great kindness. Indeed, so highly did he esteem Captain Wilson, that he intrusted his second son, Prince Lee Boo, to his care, to accompany him to England. This young prince was of the most amiable dispositions, anxiously desirous of knowledge, and capable of receiving it. He died of the small-pox, at Captain Wilson’s house in London, in 1784, at the age of about twenty years. In return for the kindness shown by Abba Thulle, the prince of Pelew, to the crew of the Antelope wrecked on the island of Oroolong in 1783, the East India Company sent him, in the year 1791, a present of four young cows in calf, two young bulls from Sebojee, and ten ewes and two rams of the Bengal breed, eight she-goats and two rams of the Surat breed, with sows, boars, geese, ducks, hens, and turtle-doves, besides European swords and hardware, arms, and ammunition. In 1791, the captain of the Panther, a Bombay cruizer, was so much pleased [7:17:181]with the manners of the natives, that he resigned his command, with a view of spending the remainder of his days amongst them. But he soon wearied of being amongst savages, and returned in his pinnace to Macao. Several Europeans have been in the habit of residing here for the purpose of collecting biche de mer, tortoise-shell, and shark fins, for the China market. The Jesuits of Manilla, in the Philippines, endeavoured, in 1696, to reduce these islands, and effected a landing in 1710. But those who landed were never more heard of; and the ship from which they disembarked, after waiting long for them in vain, was at length compelled to depart, and to leave them on the island. Long, between 134. 5. and 134. 40. E. Lat. between 6. 54. and 8. 12. N.