PALAU — BAYER AND HARRY-ROFEN 485 



whom arrangements for the expedition had been made months pre- 

 viously, issued the permits necessary for our travel and field work in 

 the islands. All was in readiness. We were in the Tropics again, and 

 our destination was almost in sight. 



It was an impatient group that awaited the next weekly flight of 

 the Transocean Airliner to Koror, but at last Thursday came and 

 we were at the air terminal in the Naval Air Station, Agana, early 

 that morning. A few moments after Miss Thelma Gorman, of Trust 

 Territory Headquarters, had bustled us and the other passengers 

 aboard the Albatross amphibian and breathed a sigh of relief, we were 

 airborne. 



The islands of Palau lie some 800 miles southwest of Guam, a flight 

 of about six hours, including stops at Ulithi Atoll and Yap. At 

 Ulithi, we touched down on the airstrip to discharge passengers, 

 where two years previously we ourselves had landed on our way to 

 Ifaluk, a tiny jewel in the sea that captured our hearts as could no 

 other spot. But that is another story, and we were back in the air 

 before we could reminisce about it. At Yap, the lagoon is the air- 

 strip and we made a water landing to discharge passengers, cargo, 

 and mail. Again, after a pause of only a few minutes, we were taking 

 off on the last leg of our journey halfway around the world. The 

 next land we would see would be Palau — first the great, hilly island 

 Babelthuap, then Koror with its settlement and the broad harbor on 

 which we would land. Reaching up toward us from the sea below, 

 were the jagged ridges of the islands we would come to know so well 

 (pi. 1, fig. 1). Amid sheets of spray we settled in the green water of 

 the lagoon and taxied up to the ramp that led the plane out of the 

 water. At last we were in Palau. 



THE PALAUS 



Although the Palau Islands were discovered in 1710 by Francisco 

 de Padilla and his pilot, Joseph Somera, on the galleon La Santisima 

 Trinidad (and may have been sighted earlier, perhaps by Diego de 

 Rocha in 1525-26 or Lope Martin in 1566), the first Europeans to 

 publish an extensive account of their visit were the crew of the 

 British East India Company's Antelope in command of Capt. Henry 

 Wilson. The keel of the luckless Antelope struck the coral rocks 

 of the barrier reefs near Aulong Island on the morning of August 10, 

 1783. Only one man was lost in the disaster, and the remainder of the 

 crew escaped safely to set up camp on Aulong. The castaways salvaged 

 every usable item from the wreck and, although the Antelope was a 

 total loss, were able to build another vessel large and seaworthy enough 

 to take them all safely to Macao. This vessel, the Oroolong, brought 

 700 Spanish dollars (about equivalent to the U. S. dollar of the 



