280 AUSTEALASIA. 



island of Koroer, south of Babelthuap, acquired a sort of suzerainty over his 

 neighbours. His successors, however, have lost much of their ascendancy, and 

 most of the other chiefs hold themselves as fully his equals. These chiefs bear 

 different titles, one of the most significant being mad, or " death," meaning that the 

 potentate's mere glance is fatal to his subjects. But associated with him is a krei, 

 a sort of military " mayor of the palace," often more powerful than the mad him- 

 self. Round him are grouped the rupaks, or vassals, each with his suite of fierce 

 retainers. War, the essential occupation of this feudal system, is carried on with 

 relentless cruelty, the victors sparing neither women nor children. The chief 

 object of the hostile raids is to obtain skulls ; for " the great Kalite," say the natives, 

 " likes to eat men," and the heads are consequently laid at the feet of the 

 magicians, his representatives on earth. But even during warfare the rights of 

 hospitality are still respected, and any fugitive who succeeds in penetrating to 

 the house of the hostile chief has nothing further to fear. 



To this intertribal strife is mainly due the moral and material decadence of the 

 islanders, who are no longer the simple, kindly people described by Wilson at the 

 end of the last century. Even Miklukho-Maklai, with all his sympathy for 

 inferior races, speaks of them as false and rapacious. Since the arrival of the 

 Europeans the social conditions seem in other respects to have undergone a 

 complete change. The natives are more civilised, at least outwardly ; they 

 ornament their dwellings with engravings and photographs ; they possess iron 

 implements, firearms, and even books ; many speak a little English or Spanish, 

 while their mother tongue has been enriched by numerous European words, 

 required to express the new ideas. The age of stone has passed away, or survives 

 only in the local currency, which is of jasper or agate for the chiefs and nobles, of 

 stones of less value, glass or enamelled beads, for the lower classes. 



But with all this the population continues to decrease, having fallen from 

 probably fifty thousand at the end of the last century to little over twelve 

 thousand at present. 



III. — The Caroline Islands. 



The archipelago formerly known as the " New Philippines," and afterwards 

 named the Carolines in honour of Charles II. of Spain, is spread over a consider- 

 able expanse. From the westernmost island of Ngoli to Ualan in the extreme 

 east the distance in a straight line is no less than 1,800 miles, with a mean breadth 

 of about 350 miles. Thus the Caroline Sea comprises an area of about 640,000 

 square miles, where the total extent of some five hundred islets disposed in forty- 

 eight clusters is estimated at no more than 500 square miles. The water, however, 

 is very shallow, and several of the insular groups are enlarged by extensive reefs. 

 The greatest depths occur at the western extremity of the archipelago, the 

 *' Challenger Trough " in the north, the " Nares Trough " in the south, with an 

 intervening submarine bank connecting the Carolines with the Pelew group. 



The Carolines were discovered by the Portuguese in 1527, when Diogo da 



