544 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
the area of dry land is not more than 17 0 square miles, 
giving more than 230 persons per square mile, while in 
some of the islands it is said to reach 400 per square 
mile—a density of population certainly unequalled in 
the world in any area where the people depend for food 
solely on their own exertions. 
The natives here are said to be darker and coarser 
than in the more western islands, so that there has prob¬ 
ably been some intermixture of races, which, combined 
with the need for constant exertion in fishing, has created 
the energetic temperament which has rendered so large a 
population possible. They are tall and stout, 5 feet 8 
inches or 5 feet 9 inches being the average height. 
They almost all go naked, except a conical hat of pan- 
danus leaf. They make a kind of armour of plaited 
coco-nut fibres to protect themselves in war from their 
formidable swords armed with sharks’ teeth. Their 
canoes are constructed entirely of coco-nut wood hoards, 
sewn neatly together and fastened to well-modelled 
frames. The American Mission has stations in some of 
the northernmost islands of the group, and many of the 
children have been taught to read. The southern islands 
are under the London Missionary Society. The natives 
of the large island of Taputeuea are said to differ from 
all the rest in their slender, well-proportioned bodies, 
fine black glossy hair, and projecting cheek-bones, and 
they are thought to have less of Polynesian blood than 
the inhabitants of the other islands. On the whole, this 
group offers one of the most remarkable social phenomena 
on the globe—a people in a state of almost complete bar¬ 
barism, living under the most adverse physical conditions, 
and yet presenting a density of population not surpassed, 
if equalled, among the most civilised peoples in the most 
fertile countries of the world. 
