360 



LADRONES, THE, OR MARIANA ISLANDS. 



henceforth considers Korea beyond her sphere of 

 influence. Great improvements in cleansing, en- 

 larging, and paving the streets of Seoul were car- 

 ried out. On May 29 the new Roman Catholic 

 Cathedral, em-ted at a cost of $60,000, was dedi- 

 cated. It is 202 feet long and from 60 to 90 feet 

 wide. The rice crop this year was unusually large. 

 The new national postage stamps are in four de- 

 nominations green, 5 poon or 1 cent ; blue, 10 

 poon or 2 cents ; brown, 25 poon or 5 cents ; pur- 

 ple, 50 poon or 10 cents, with characters at the top 

 in ancient Chinese, meaning "Cho-sen postage 

 stamp." the same meaning being expressed in 

 Korean at the bottom. The denomination is also 

 given in English and Korean. The plum blossom, 

 which is the royal flower of the dynasty, is in each 

 corner, while the national emblem, in the center, is 

 the ancient representation of the male and female 

 elements of nature ; the four characters at the cor- 

 ner of the center piece represent the four spirits 

 that stand at the corners of the earth and support 

 it on their shoulders. There are 200 Americans in 

 Korea, 30 being on the railway or in the gold 

 mines, 7 in Government employ, 3 in trade, and the 

 rest missionaries or children. The year 1898 is a 



notable one for missionary success in all lines of 

 work, in the development of the native and foreign 

 press, and in the advance of education. The budg- 

 et provided for the organization in 1898 of 20 new 

 Government schools, 1 in Seoul (where there are al- 

 ready several private, missionary, and foreign-lan- 

 guage schools), 1 normal and 9 primary schools, 1 

 school in each of the provincial capitals, and 1 in 

 each of the 6 open ports. On Sept. 10 the imperial 

 birthday was celebrated widely throughout the coun- 

 try, with unusual demonstrations of loyalty, and 

 Founders Day and the five hundred and sixth anni- 

 versary of thedynasty was likewise honored with un- 

 usual demonstrations and illumination of the capital. 

 The beginnings of modern parties are seen in the 

 Independent Club and the Imperial Club, which 

 represent respectively the progressive and the con- 

 servative tendencies in Korean politics. On Sept. 

 12 an attempt was made to kill the King and the 

 Crown Prince by poison in coffee. On Aug. 31 

 George W. Lake, an American merchant, was mur- 

 dered. Marquis Ito, of Japan, visited the capital 

 late in August. On Oct. 21 the national holiday in 

 celebration of the imperial coronation completed 

 the first year of the Korean Empire. 



L 



LADRONES, THE, or MARIANA ISLANDS, 



a group of small islands in the north Pacific Ocean, 

 belonging to the United States. They lie north of 

 the Carolines, between latitude 13 and 21 north 

 and longitude 144 and 146 east, 1,200 miles east of 

 the Philippines, which were also captured from 

 Spain by the United States in the summer of 1898. 

 This little group consists of seventeen islands, the 

 largest of which, Guam, is nearly equal to the rest 

 put together, and the combined area of all is esti- 

 mated at a little more than 400 square miles. They 

 are dotted along in line so as to form a nearly per- 

 fect arc, Parrallon dos Parajos, the northernmost, 

 and Guam, the southernmost, being 600 miles apart. 

 The islands are really a partly submerged range of 

 mountains of volcanic origin, the highest of whose 

 peaks rises 2,320 feet above the level of the sea. 

 This is the summit of Alamagan, a living volcano. 

 On Pagan and Asuncion islands there are craters 

 whose fires are not yet extinct, and Farrallon dos 

 Parajos has an active volcano 1,300 feet high. 

 Some of the islands are of coralline limestone that 

 has been built up on members of this range which 

 fell short of reaching the surface of the water. 



Magellan, in his attempt to voyage around the 

 globe, in 1521. discovered these islands, and he 

 gave them the name of Ladrones, or the robbers, 

 referring to the supposed character of the natives. 

 They were later explored by Byron, Wallis, and 

 Freycinet, and by Anson, who, in 1742, found cyclo- 

 pean ruins on the island of Tinian. 



The Spanish queen sent missionaries to settle in 

 the islands in 1667, and this little group, once the 

 Ladrones, afterward called the Lazarus Islands, 

 were named by them the Marianas, in her honor. 

 At the time of the Spanish occupation of the islands 

 the Chamorros, or aborigines, who were, in speech 

 at least, akin to the Tagals, and whose few remain- 

 ing members apj>ear to be a mixture of the Papuan 

 and Indonesian races, numbered about 40,000. 

 They were reduced to slavery by the invaders, and 

 so harshly treated that, by the close of the seven- 

 teenth century, less than half remained, many hav- 

 ing perished, and some escaped to the Caroline 

 Islands. Of the 180 native villagM more than two 

 thirds had been destroyed. Epidemics swept the 



remaining native population from the island of 

 Guam, and the Spanish authorities ordered an im- 

 migration thither from the island of Tinian, but 

 this expedient proved worse than useless, as the 

 immigrants soon died of inanition. The islands 

 had been reduced in 1760 to a population of 1,654, 

 and the Spaniards then repeopled them with colo- 

 nists from the Philippines. Mexican settlers also 

 came, and, more recently, Polynesians from the 

 Carolines were imported to work on the planta- 

 tions. The island of Guam became an important 

 station for Spanish ships plying between Manila 

 in the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico. 



Agana, on Guam, is the chief settlement, con- 

 taining a majority of the whole population of the 

 islands, besides the political prisoners who have 

 been banished to them. It has a good fortified 

 harbor, and here the Spanish Governor resided, 

 and the Spaniards maintained a small garrison, the 

 islands being under military rule. 



The Ladrones are picturesque, mountainous 

 islets, most of them well-wooded. Rota, or Sarpan, 

 containing Mount Tempingan, is rock-bound ; 

 Tinian, the next but one, is of gentler outlines, and 

 is especially beautiful ; Saypan, its neighbor, has a 

 pearl fishery on its coast, and two extinct volcanoes 

 at its northern end ; Agrigan and Pagan also have 

 each an extinct cone. The hills of Guam rise to a 

 height of 1,500 feet ; below them lie wooded and 

 grassy plateaus, sandy plains, and a high and 

 rugged margin next the sea. Just south of Guam 

 lies the Rose Bank, which is the northern boundary 

 of a cavity of 2,475 fathoms, being the deepest in 

 that part of the Pacific: but about the islands 

 there are shoals, and these and the many currents 

 make navigation dangerous. The stretch of ocean 

 between the Philippines and these islands has 

 scarcely any reefs or islets at all, and the .soundings 

 show places of 1,200 to 1.500 fathoms in depth. 



Although situated within the tropics, the La- 

 drones have a very agreeable climate: the north- 

 east trade winds prevail during what is known as 

 the dry season from June to September though 

 there is moisture at all times. There is an abun- 

 dant rainfall, and full streams everywhere, except 

 where the calcareous soil absorbs the water. In 



