1919] \^'ILSON, THE BOXIN ISLANDS 101 



Nathaniel Savory died in 1874 and remained nominal head of the Bonin 

 Islanders until tlie day of his death. He left behind considerable corre- 

 spondence which ultimately was placed by his descendants in the hands of 

 Reverend Lionel B. Chohuondeley of St. Andrew's Mission, Tokyo, who 

 incorporated it in a book entitled History of the Bonin Islands^ which 

 he published in 1915. From this work it appears that during the period 

 of Savory's life many whaling ships touched at the Islands. One or two 

 piratical raids were made on them by ships from China commanded by 

 white men. Also that the colony was augmented by men from w^halers 

 and from the island of Guam, On tlie whole the settlers appear to have 

 lived together harmoniously and for this undoubtedly thanks are due to 

 the wise counsel of Nathaniel Savory. After the Japanese annexations this 

 mixed race of white and Kanaka became Japanese subjects. To-day 

 whaling ships are there no more; Japanese have settled there in num])ers, 

 all available land is under crops, chiefly sugar; the seas have been denuded 

 of their swarms of turtles and fish and altogether the struggle for existence 

 made as hard as in Jajxin proper. Some sixty or seventy English-speaking 

 descendants of the Bonin Islanders remain, A church, under the auspices 

 of the St. Andrew's Mission, has been built and one of the Bonin Islanders, 

 the Beverend Joseph Gonzales, is pastor. The younger generation of adults 

 have taken Japiinese wives and in a few years virtually all traces of this 

 interesting colony will have disappeared. 



Tlie Bonin Islands lie right within the warm Japan stream (Kuro-suwo) 

 and this accounts for the fact that the mean temperature is higher than that 

 of Hongkong which is five degrees farther south. As proof of tliis the 

 Cocoanut ripens its fruit in Bonin but does not in Hongkong. The winters 

 are warmer and tlie summer less hot than in Formosa and Hongkong. The 

 rainfall, according to the reports of the Central Meteorological Observatory 

 of Japan, averages about 1550 mm. only, which is less than that of Tokyo 

 in Japan, From the statistical tables available there does not appear to be 

 any marked wet or dry season. December, January, March, April, May, 

 June, July and August appear to be the wettest months. IVIy visit was in 

 the latter part of April and early May and we enjoyed fair weather the whole 

 time. Windstorms and thunderstorms are frequent and arise and fall very 

 quickly. 



It is a region of old submarine volcanoes and the islands arc of this origin. 

 They are considered to have been ejected from the ocean's bed in Eocene 



times. Geologically they are all alike, consisting of a kind of andesitic 

 lava, called Boninite, and sedimentary agglomerate tufaceous rocks. Lime- 

 stone from solvent corals is found on the tops of several of the higher peaks 

 — Sekimonzan in particular — where it is weathered into sharf) edges 

 which cut one's boots and hands if touched. The surface soil is mainly the 

 reddish clay (laterite) generally so common in tropical regions. Fossil shells 

 (NummuHtes) are common, especially in Ilaha-jima. The coastline is 

 steep and much indented by sea erosion and caves, some of them extensixe 

 as on Muko-jima, are common. The four tiny harbors are due to sink;tge 



