THE TROPICAL PACIFIC 371 



wife, an American, who speaks all possible languages. 

 The Doctor of the colony is also an excellent represent- 

 ative, and I could not help contrasting the small num- 

 ber of officials, who run the Marshalls at a profit in true 

 commercial German style, and the pomp of the Fiji with 

 its huge staff eating away all the revenues. . . . But 

 this is terribly isolated — a mail about once in three 

 months and a Man-of-War twice a year — since they 

 have bought the Carolines and Ladrones I fancy they '11 

 have to do more, as their possessions are now quite well 

 concentrated and extend from New Guinea to Marshall, 

 a pretty well unbroken series of islands. But why they 

 want them I can't imagine — the more of that sort of 

 possessions they have the worse off they will be ! 



The Albatross spent nearly a month exploring the 

 huge atolls of the group, which are remarkable for the 

 relatively small area of their land rims, when compared 

 with the vastness of the enclosed lagoons. The chiefs 

 still reigned supreme there, and owned all the land, so 

 that the other natives were little better than their slaves. 

 Of the atolls of Menschikov and Rongelab, Agassiz 

 writes : " Neither of these places has many genuine 

 natives left — civilization has crept in too far and gal- 

 vanized iron has replaced thatched roofs, and clothes, 

 their beautiful mats. At Rongelab we found one of the 

 few native chiefs got up to kill in his grass skirt and 

 bits and necklaces in hair and feather top-knot. Wood- 

 worth took his picture and then we bought his whole 

 dress suit for $1.25 ! ! " 



" The islands are very fertile, but the natives make 

 little of them, and really live very poorly and have 



