NAURU, THE RICHEST ISLAND IN THE SOUTH SEAS 





Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond Dodson Rhone 



A PHOSPHATE TRAMWAY 



This electric tram line is used to haul phosphate to the piers, where it is shot into the 

 surf-boats to be carried to the cargo vessel. In Australia, where some 200,000 tons of this 

 fertilizer are used each year, phosphate has doubled the wheat crop. 



non, which stands before the house of the 

 British administrator. 



THE ISLANDERS' REVENGE 



In the fifties, a whaling ship out of 

 New Bedford, Massachusetts, called at 

 the island, and the natives paddled out in 

 their outrigger canoes and swarmed over 

 the decks, examining everything with 

 lively curiosity. They especially admired 

 a small cannon, whose polished brass 

 glittered in the tropic sunshine, and they 

 offered to buy it, paying for it with coco- 

 nuts. A price was agreed upon. They 

 went ashore and returned with the re- 

 quired number, but the captain raised the 

 price, asking double the number. 



The natives again went ashore and 

 brought back the stipulated number; the 

 captain again raised the price. It was 

 now late in the day and the natives said 

 they would bring the remainder in the 

 morning. They beached their canoes and 

 retired to their huts, while the crew, 

 drinking the delicious coconut milk and 

 feasting on the delicate meat, no doubt 



felicitated themselves, as the ship drifted 

 about waiting for the dawn, on their 

 cleverness in outwitting the simple 

 savages. 



In the night the natives went out in 

 force, surprised and overcame the offi- 

 cers and crew, and killed every man save 

 one sailor who secreted himself. They 

 set fire to the ship and took the cannon ; 

 they took nothing else ! 



Other white influences were traders 

 who took native wives, and the tradi- 

 tional "beach-combers" — runaway sail- 

 ors, sometimes escaped convicts, and 

 white men "gone native," who lived in 

 native huts upon native food. 



There were also more benign influ- 

 ences. French Catholic missions and 

 English and American Protestant ones 

 were established. The island became 

 nominally Christian, but without aban- 

 doning the combats between the tribes. 



The Nauruans have never been canni- 

 bals, but they had the reputation of be- 

 ing savage warriors. A traveler from 

 New Zealand — not Macaulay's New Zea- 



