MICRONESIA. 93 



(Drummond's Island), the first which we visited, we were astonished 

 at the numbers of the natives. After careful and repeated observa- 

 tions, made in our visits to the shore, and by the officers engaged in 

 the survey, the estimates varied between ten and fifteen thousand. 

 This, however, was probably one of the most thickly inhabited, the 

 island appearing like a continuous village from one end to the other. 

 Kirby had once seen all the warriors of the three islands of Apamama, 

 Nonouti, and Kuria collected together, in anticipation of an attack from 

 the southern cluster. He thought the number was between six and 

 seven thousand. Supposing this amount to be somewhat exagge- 

 rated, we can hardly allow for the entire population of the three, less 

 than twenty thousand. Finally, Grey estimated the people of Tari- 

 tari and Makin at about five thousand. We should thus have for six 

 islands of the group (among which two of the largest, Tarawa and 

 Byron's Island, are not included) a total of thirty-five thousand. But 

 allowing an average of only five thousand to an island, it would still 

 give us, for the whole seventeen, not less than eighty-five thousand.* 



For a detailed description of these islands and their inhabitants, the 

 reader is referred to the general history of the voyage. Here only 

 those traits will be mentioned which seem essential for determining 

 the position which the latter hold among the different races of the 

 Pacific. At the first glance it is evident that they are not of the pure 

 Micronesian blood. A dark complexion and curly hair would, apart 

 from the testimony of language, indicate the intermixture of a diffe- 

 rent race. This infusion, however, for some reason or other, is much 

 less apparent among the natives of the Makin cluster, who are a shade 

 lighter in colour, and in other respects physically superior to the 

 natives of the southern islands. The descriptions which follow are 

 taken from my notes, the first applying to the people of Taputeouea, 

 and the second to those of Makin. 



"They (the natives of Drummond's Island) are generally of the 



* That the other islands of the group are as densely inhabited as the six above-men- 

 tioned, may be inferred from the following evidence. Grey related, that about three 

 years before he landed at Makin, a party of about fifteen hundred natives arrived there 

 in canoes from Apia, from which island they had been driven by the warriors of Tarawa. 

 Lieutenant Paulding found at Byron's Island a large population. He says (Journal, p. 

 95), "the islet abreast of us was all night illuminated with numerous fires, and the air 

 rung with the shouts of hundreds of people. When the day dawned, the whole ocean 

 was whitened with the little sails of canoes that were seen coming from every direction, 

 and some of them as far as the eye could distinguish so small an object. In an hour not 

 less than a hundred of them were alongside, and our deck was covered with people." 



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