MIKRONESIA 
CHAPTER XY 
THE GILBERT, MARSHALL, CAROLINE, PELEW, AND LADRONE 
GROUPS 
I. General. 
North of the Equator, between New Guinea and the 
south coast of Japan, the great ocean is studded with 
countless little islands, which, in consequence of their 
remarkably small size, are collectively called Mikronesia. 
The most easterly are the Gilbert and Marshall groups. 
Farther west are the Caroline Islands, and the Pelews, 
which by some writers are called the Western Carolines. 
North of them are the Ladrones or Mariannes, now 
peopled by the descendants of the Tagals and Bisayans 
of the Philippines. The inhabitants of the rest of Mik¬ 
ronesia are of very mixed race, the main elements being 
probably Indonesian (pre-Malay) and Polynesian. But 
in many parts there is strong evidence of Negrito and 
Papuan blood, while the junks of China and Japan, which 
are not infrequently wrecked upon Mikronesian reefs, 
have no doubt brought other elements into the ancestry 
