502 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
islands is guaranteed by Great Britain, Germany, and 
America, but their future is still uncertain. Owing to 
the intrigues of foreign adventurers, the government has 
been very unsettled; a chronic native war has prevailed 
since 1875, and in 1893 a crisis occurred which added 
still further to the political difficulties which harass the 
little State. Under a settled government there is very 
little doubt that the islands would become prosperous 
enough. Samoa has been described as one of the loveliest, 
most agreeable, and productive of all the South Sea 
groups, and the fertility of the soil is such that the 
cultivation of tropical plants yields abundant returns, 
and the means of subsistence are perhaps more easily 
obtained than in any other part of the world. 
Bor all practical purposes Samoa may be described as 
consisting of four islands: two small—Tutuila and Manua; 
and two of considerably greater area—Savaii and Upolu. 
All are volcanic, and for the most part surrounded with 
fringing reefs, but the intervening seas are quite free from 
dangers; and the presence of good harbours, and the fact 
that the islands lie in the steamer track between Sydney 
and San Francisco, render the group of importance. The 
total land-area is estimated at 1100 square miles. 
Savaii, the largest island, is compact and quadrangular in 
shape, with a length of about 40 miles and an area of 
657 square miles, or more than half that of the entire 
group. It is nevertheless the least fitted to support a 
large population, having been so recently subject to 
volcanic action that much of its surface is absolutely 
sterile. It has many extinct craters, chief among which 
is the peak of Mua, which rises to a height of 4000 feet, 
and another of 5413 feet in the centre of the island. 
Going inland from the district of Aopo, the traveller 
passes over a tract of country thickly strewn with scoriae 
