Possibilities of German Colonisation. 89 



sible repute fur their deadly climate and dreaded forest ma- 

 laria, are now favourite invalid resorts of the wealthy white 

 residents of the islands of Eastern Asia. But German states- 

 men must no longer hesitate, or continue to sacrifice the 

 future to the exigencies, even the most pressing in political 

 eyes, of the present, for England noiselessly but systemati- 

 cally is possessing herself one after the other of all the 

 islands that are as yet untenanted by the white man, as, for 

 instance, quite lately of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of 

 Bengal, or, as in the case of the Feejee Islands,* accept a 

 suspicious protectorate got up by an influential missionary ; 

 while the Emperor of the French, with his irresistible inclina- 

 tion for annexation, is incessantly occupied in seizing on 

 points important either by geographical position or for trade 

 purposes, of which New Caledonia furnishes the latest ex- 

 ample. Too long delay and expectation may have for the 

 contemplative German results similar to those which in 



* This Archipelag-o, remarkable by the size and loftiness of its islands, extends 

 from Batoa or South Island in the S.E. (19° 47' S. by 179° 52' E.), to Thicombeato the 

 N. (15° 47' S.), and Biva to the W. (176° 50' E.), and contains 225 islands and islets, 

 of which about 80 are inhabited. The entire superficial area is about 5700 square 

 miles, and upon a superficial estimate it contains 150,000 souls. The climate seems 

 to be eminently suitable for cotton culture, besides which sugar-cane, coflTee, tobacco, 

 arrow-root, and most probably rice and indigo, may be advantageously cultivated. 

 Berchthold Seemann, the well-known botanist, who made a scientific exploration of 

 some of the Feejee Islands at the expense of the English Government in the 

 Autumn of 1860, discovered in the valleys of Naona forests of the sago palm, whose 

 nutritious flour might become an important article of export. Dr. Petermann pub- 

 lished in the latter half of 1861, at page 67 of his valuable "particulars of certain 

 important recent discoveries in geography," an intei'esting synopsis of all the latest 

 scientific information respecting the Feejee Archipelago. 



