PARTITION OF THE ISLANDS. 29 



Among the powers there was slight friction at times. The Hawaiian Islands 

 were seized by England (Lord George Paulet) but relinquished, threatened by France 

 (La Place) and Japan until the United States put an end to all claims by annexation. 

 In Micronesia Germany's claim to a part of the Carolines was adjudicated by the Pope, 

 and now Spain has sold all of that extensive archipelago as well as the part claimed, and 

 thrown in the remnant of the Marianas to boot to Germany. The tripartite attempt 

 to govern Samoa threatened to make trouble, but this was happily averted by the 

 withdrawal of Great Britain and the amicable division of the group by Germany and 

 the United States. When by the fortune of war the United States acquired Guam and 

 the Philippines, Spain ceased to be an important owner of Pacific territory, and Eng- 

 land, the United States, German}", France and Japan control the entire region. 



When the question of a trans-Pacific telegraphic cable arose there was active 

 annexation by Great Britain of all islands, islets or rocks that happened to be in any 

 of the tracks proposed, and Japan seized Marcus Island in imitation of more important 

 powers. In the hurry some islands were taken that had already been appropriated by 

 another government, but the real value of these bits of sand and rock is not sufficient 

 to make trouble in these days of wiser arbitration. 



The colonization of these islands, some of them without inhabitants, others with 

 a dying population, but many of them most attractive in scenery and climate, has not 

 yet progressed far except on the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand and Australia. 

 Germany has an elaborate official organization in her colonial islands, but officials 

 alone will not bring prosperity to a colony. France has some choice islands, but for 

 some reason immigrants do not increase there. Will the United States be as success- 

 ful as England in her new colonial experience? 



In Conclusion. — A few words of more formal introduction may lead the reader 

 to the geographical material to which this long chapter is the preface. The maps 

 have been constructed from the best government charts, although they are copies of 

 no one chart; neither are they, like the composite photograph, a combination of many. 

 Selection has been made, but no serious attempt has been made to produce a finished 

 chart; it would be useless in the present state of our knowledge of the Pacific islands, 

 and it would not greatly surprise the author should the exact surveys that must be 

 made in the near future, expose great inaccuracies, nay, even render the present maps 

 quite unrecognizable as delineations of the same island or group. But they will have 

 served their modest purpose : the Primer must come before the Reader, and if they will 

 in any way clear the path of the future geographer of the Pacific by giving ground for 

 just criticism, they will not have been offered in vain. 



The needs of the administration of a museum like this that bears the honored 



name of Mrs. Bishop, have compelled much reading of voyages and descriptive accounts 



of the Pacific region, and notes have been made for years and arranged alphabetically 



[113] 



