GODEFFROY AND CO. 233 



One-third of the estate comprises ancient cultivations aban- 

 doned in consequence of civil wars. 



During the progress of these internecine disturbances, 

 Messrs. Godeffroy possessed exceptional advantages in dealing 

 with the natives, as they had a manufactory of arms at Li6ge, 

 in Belgium (the 'Birmingham of the Netherlands'), by means 

 of which they could supply the instruments of fraternal 

 murder or war, if the term is to be preferred at a cheap rate, 

 with a ' reasonable profit.' 



Messrs. Godeffroy gradually abandoned the Tuamotus, and 

 other islands claimed as dependencies of France, partly for the 

 reason that about 1867, mother-of-pearl commanded an un- 

 usually low price ; but more in consequence of their deter- 

 mination to strike out new channels for themselves. With 

 this view they pushed their agencies southward to the Friendly 

 Archipelago, including Nieue or Savage Island, Fortuna and 

 Wallis Island, northward throughout the whole range of the 

 Kingsmills and the isles in their vicinity, that is to say, the 

 Tokalau, Ellis, and Gilbert Groups. Then they approached 

 the Marshall Group, and so got to the Carolines, and as far as 

 Yap, a great island at the entrance of the Luzon Sea, where 

 they purchased 3000 acres of land, and established a large 

 depot, intended to be an intermediate station between their 

 trading-post at Samoa and their old-established agencies at 

 Cochin and China. A glance at a chart of the Pacific will show 

 the extent of their operations, Samoa being in 169 W., and 

 Yap, one of the Pelew Islands, in 134 21' E. In fact, they 

 had an agent in every productive island inhabited by natives 

 sufficiently well-disposed to permit a white man to reside 

 among them. 



In 1873, the Godeffroys maintained agents in the following 

 islands to the north of the Samoan Group : 



