Mr Gardiner, The Natives of the Maldives. 19 



crews of their vessels, being of the same religion, took temporary 

 wives with the result that many of the present race have a very 

 marked tinge of the Arab in their features and forms. Negro 

 slaves were imported from Zanzibar and Jeddah, being employed 

 in the drawing and manufacture of coconut sugar. They married 

 Maldivan women, and their descendants now form the Ravare 

 caste. Caucasian slaves too were introduced for the nobles of 

 Male. Many trace descent from Malay traders, but the latter 

 exercised a greater influence on the race by introducing Burmese 

 women. Their beauty was greatly esteemed, and even now the 

 Maldivans consider a Mongoloid cast of features very comely. 



Male has been occupied at times by the Portuguese, French 

 and Dutch. The first garrisoned it, and commenced its fortifica- 

 tion, but made no permanent settlement, and during the greater 

 period of their sway contented themselves with receiving tribute 

 at Goa. The Dutch succeeded in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, their chief factor in Ceylon concluding a treaty of friend- 

 ship, alliance and mutual defence with the Sultan. At the 

 commencement of the nineteenth century the Maldives passed 

 under the influence of the British, the same treaty being annually 

 renewed with the governor of Ceylon, accompanied by mutual 

 presents. The Dutch at times had a garrison at Male, and made 

 of it a great fort, similar to those of southern India and Ceylon. 

 Further they built a breakwater at the edge of the reef towards 

 the lagoon of the atoll, as an outer line of defence. It also 

 formed a safe harbour, in which to repair their vessels. The 

 French merely had a party of troops in Male for six years during 

 the Dutch period. They gave rise to the term faranje, which is 

 now applied to all western peoples. From a variety of causes, 

 however, the European races appear to have made no direct nor 

 permanent mark on the race, so that their presence may be 

 practically neglected. 



Suvadiva Atoll is separated by the " One and Half Degree 

 Channel," 60 miles across from the central division, while Addu 

 is cut off from Suvadiva by the " Equatorial Channel " of about 

 the same breadth. South Mulaku is an isolated island — not 

 atoll — lying mid-way between Suvadiva and Addu. Through 

 these channels the equatorial current runs with great force, and 

 even a voyage to Male was considered a momentous enterprise, 

 not to be undertaken except with a favourable monsoon. The 

 people of these atolls rarely intermarry with those of others, and 

 in their appearance present a far greater uniformity. To none 

 can the terms Mongoloid or Negroid be properly applied. In- 

 deed the people very closely resemble village Singhalese. Owing 

 to their isolation these atolls are more self-contained than any of 

 the others. They grow their own grain and food-stuffs, manu- 



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