302 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
squadron sailed southward for the Moluccas after the 
death of their leader. As early as the sixteenth century 
the Portuguese missionaries laboured in Siau and Sangir, 
building churches whose ruins are still to be seen. The 
Spaniards also established themselves, but were driven 
out, as were the Portuguese, by the Dutch, who came 
formally into possession in 1677. The islands are now 
administered by Controleurs resident in Great Sangir 
and Salibabu, 1 and there are three or four European 
missionaries stationed among the people. An attempt 
has been made at instruction by native teachers, but on 
the whole the people are in a state of semi-savagery, 
although peaceable among themselves and not ill-disposed 
to Europeans. 
It is uncertain whether the Salibabu group are 
volcanic, although the Nanusas, lying beyond them, are 
so. The main chain of islands, however, exhibits 
volcanoes almost throughout its length, and many of 
these are active. From the paucity of soundings, it is 
not known as yet whether a very deep channel does or 
does not exist in the submarine bank which is presumed 
to connect Northern Celebes with the Philippines, but 
the sounding of 930 fathoms obtained by H.M.S. Flying 
Fish in the Banka Passage indicates that the connection, 
if any, must have been at a comparatively remote period. 
It is probable that a still deeper channel exists a little 
to the south of the Philippines, for the zoology of the 
Sangir chain appears to be far more Celebesian than 
Philippine. Taking the islands in order from the south, 
Talisse is the site of the coco-nut plantations of a Dutch 
1 There is considerable confusion in the nomenclature of the groups to 
which these islands respectively belong, the names Tulur and Talaut 
having been applied to both. To avoid misapprehension, they are 
accordingly spoken of here as the Sangir and Salibabu groups. 
