328 AUSTRALASIA. 



and arrows, and other weapons, which vary considerably in the different islands 

 English is everywhere the language of commercial intercourse. 



Notwithstanding the murder of many whites, afterwards served up at the 

 public banquets, both Catholic and Protestant missionaries have penetrated into 

 many parts of the Melanesian Archipelagoes. A mission founded in San Cristobal 

 having brought about a general massacre had to be removed to AYoodlark Island ; 

 but the priests were driven from this place also, and have now taken refuge in 

 E.ook Island, near DamjDier Strait, at the south-west extremity of New Ireland. 



The influence of the missionaries, more or less neutralised by that of unprin- 

 cipled traders and mariners, has hitherto been little felt. The Melanesians still 

 continue to worship their good and evil spirits, as well as the grand phenomena of 

 nature. They also venerate those animals that they fear, in one place the shark, 

 in another the crocodile. Little care is taken of the sick, who, in most of the islands, 

 are even abandoned to their fate when all hope of recovery is lost — they are taken 

 to the dead-house, a cocoanut is placed on their mat, and they are left to die 

 alone. 



The political systems differ greatly in the various insular groups. In the 

 Admiralty and Bismarck Archipelagoes the tribes have no chiefs, or rather those 

 bearing this title owe it to the foreign traders. Here no one presumes to dictate 

 to his neighbour; all the members of the community are equal, and deliberate 

 without the control of superiors on the common interests. On the other hand the 

 power of the hereditary chiefs has been firmly established in most of the Solomon 

 Islands. Although, as a rule, there are as many states as villages, some of the 

 more powerful chiefs rule over whole clusters of islets and even over extensive 

 tracts on the larger islands. Thus the " King " of Shortland in Bougainville 

 Strait holds sway over all the islanders in that channel, as well as over the neigh- 

 bouring tribes in Bougainville and Choiseul. The more powerful dynasties are 

 generally constituted by the rulers of the smaller islands, whose inhabitants are 

 more restless and daring than the settled agricultural populations of the large 

 islands. The policy of the German Government is at present directed towards 

 consolidating the power of the more influential chiefs, and gradually transforming 

 them to paid oflicials. 



There are no towns in German Melanesia. The " colony " of Port-Breton^ 

 founded in 1879 on the south coast of Tombara, in the most arid part of the island, 

 has been completely abandoned by its French immigrants, to whom such golden 

 promises had been held out, but who found nothing but famine and sickness in 

 "New France." Nothing remains of the settlement except a few sheds sheltering 

 some merchandise from the weather. 



The political and commercial capital of the German Melanesian possessions 

 occupies a perfectly central position between New Guinea and the Bismarck 

 Archipelago. The first station was Mioko, in the still waters stretching south of 

 York Island (New Lauenburg) ; but this port was abandoned in consequence of the 

 fetid odours emitted by the neighbouring shoals which are exposed at low water. 

 Choice was then made of the thickly peopled island of Matupi, which lies farther 



