302 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



squadron sailed southward for the Mokiccas after the 

 death of their leader. As early as the sixteenth century 

 the Portuguese missionaries laboured in Siau and Sangir, 

 building churches whose ruins are still to be seen. The 

 Spaniards also established themselves, but were driven 

 out, as were the Portuguese, by the Dutch, who came 

 formally into possession in 1677. The islands are now 

 administered by Controleurs resident in Great Sangir 

 and Salibabu,^ and there are three or four European 

 missionaries stationed among the people. An attempt 

 has been made at instruction by native teachers, but on 

 the whole the people are in a state of semi-savagery, 

 although peaceable among themselves and not ill-disposed 

 to Europeans. 



It is uncertain whether the Salibabu group are 

 volcanic, although the Nanusas, lying beyond them, are 

 so. The main chain of islands, however, exhibits 

 volcanoes almost throughout its length, and many of 

 these are active. From the paucity of soundings, it is 

 not known as yet whether a very deep channel does or 

 does not exist in the submarine bank which is presumed 

 to connect Northern Celebes with the Philippines, but 

 the sounding of 930 fathoms obtained by H.M.S. Flying 

 Fish in the Banka Passage indicates that the connection, 

 if any, must have been at a comparatively remote period. 

 It is probable that a still deeper channel exists a little 

 to the south of the Phihppines, for the zoology of the 

 Sangir chain appears to be far more Celebesian than 

 Philippine. Taking the islands in order from the south, 

 Talisse is the site of the coco-nut plantations of a Dutch 



^ There is considerable confusion in the nomenclature of the groups to 

 which these islands respectively belong, the names Tulur and Talaut 

 having been applied to both. To avoid misapprehension, they are 

 accordingly spoken of here as the Sangir and Salibabu groups. 



