in the early modern history of the Pacific islands. Moreover
the London Missionary Society, having worked westward from
its headquarters in Tahiti to Tonga as early as 1797, founded a
settlement in Fiji in 1835. Meanwhile the white traders in
Fiji had played an intimate part in the internal political affairs
of the group, and in 1858 King Thakombau, being threatened
with reprisals by the American consul on account of certain
losses of property which he had sustained, asked for British
protection, but did not obtain it. The British, however, were
paramount among the white population, and as by 1870 not only
American, but also German influence was extending through the
islands (the first German government vessel visited Fiji in 1872),
annexation was urged on Great Britain by Australia and New
Zealand. Meanwhile the labour traffic, which had been initiated,
so far as the Pacific islands were concerned, by an unsuccessful
attempt in 1847 to employ New Hebridean labourers on a
settlement near the present township of Eden in New South
Wales, had attained considerable proportions, had been
improperly exploited and, as already indicated, had led the
natives to r eta hat ion, sometimes without discernment, a
notorious example of this (as was generally considered) being
the murder of Bishop Patteson in 1871. In 1872 an act was
passed by the British government to regulate the labour traffic;
Fiji was annexed in 1874, and in 1875 another act established
the post of the British high commissioner.
In 1842 the French had formally annexed the Marquesas Islands; and subsequently extended their sphere, as shown in the table at the outset of this article, both in the east of Polynesia and in the south of Melanesia. In some of the island-groups independent native states were recognized for some time by the powers, as in the case of Hawaii, which, after the deposition of the queen in 1893 and the proclamation of a republic in 1894, was annexed to the United States of America only in 1898, or, again, in the case of Tonga, which provided a curious example of the subordination of a native organization to unauthorized foreign influence. The partition of Polynesia was completed in 1899, when Samoa was divided between Germany and the United States. In Micronesia, since the discoveries of the early Spanish navigators, the Carolines, IMariana and Pelew Islands had been recognized as Spanish territory until 1885, when Germany began to establish herself in the first-named group. Spain had never occupied this group, but protested against the German action, and Pope Leo XIII. as arbitrator awarded the Carolines to her. Thereafter Spain made attempts at occupation, but serious conflicts with the natives ensued, and in 1899 the islands were sold to Germany, which thus became the predominating power in Micronesia. When Germany acquired the Bismarck Archipelago in Melanesia the introduction of German names (New Pomerania, Neu Pommern, for New Britain; Neu Mecklenburg for New Ireland; Neu Langenburg for the Duke of York Group, &c.) met with no little protest as contrary to precedent and international etiquette. The provision for the joint influence of Great Britain and France over the New Hebrides (1906) brought these islands into some prominence owing to the hostile criticism directed against the British government both in Australia and at home. The partition of the Pacific islands never led to any serious friction between the powers, though the acquisition of Hawaii was attempted by Britain, France and Japan before the United States annexed the group, and the negotiations as to Samoa threatened trouble for a while. There were occasional native risings, as in Samoa (where, however, the fighting was rather in the nature of civil warfare), the French possessions in eastern Polynesia, and the New Hebrides, apart from attacks on individual settlers or visitors, which have occurred here and there from the earliest period of exploration.
Administration.—Of the British possessions among the islands of the Pacific, Fiji is a colony, and its governor is also high commissioner for the western Pacific. In this capacity, assisted by deputies and resident commissioners, he exercises jurisdiction over all the islands except Fiji and those islands which are attached to New Zealand and New South Wales. Some of the islands (e.g. Tonga) are native states under British protection. Pitcairn, in accordance with its peculiar conditions of settlement, has a peculiar system of local government. The New Hebrides are under a mixed British and French commission. The Hawaiian Islands form a territory of the United States of America and are administered as such; Guam is a naval station, as is Tutuila of the Samoan Islands, where the commandant exercises the functions of governor. New Caledonia is a French colony under a governor; the more easterly French islands are grouped together under the title of the French Establishments in Oceania, and are administered by a governor, privy council, administrative council, &c., Papeete in Tahiti being the capital. The seat of government of the German protectorate of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land (New Guinea) is Herbertshöhe in the Bismarck Archipelago. The administrative area includes the German Solomon Islands and the Caroline, Pelew and Mariana Islands, which are divided into three administrative groups—the eastern Carolines, western Carolines and Marianas. The Marshall Islands form a “district” (Bezirk) within the same administrative area. The German Samoan Islands are under an imperial governor.
Races.—In the oceanic islands of the Pacific three different peoples occur, who have been called Melanesians, Polynesians and Micronesians.[1] These form themselves naturally into two broad but very distinct divisions—the dark and brown races; the first division being represented by the Melanesians, and the Polynesians and Micronesians together forming the second. The Melanesians, sometimes called Papuans (q.v., the Malay name for the natives of New Guinea, the headquarters of the race), are physically negroid in type, nearly black, with crisp curly hair, flat noses and thick lips. In all essentials they agree with the African type: such variations as there are, for example, the more developed eyebrow ridges, narrower, often prominent nose, and somewhat higher narrower skull, obviously owing their existence to crossing with the Malay or the Polynesian races. The oceanic black peoples must thus be regarded as having a connexion more or less remote with the African negroes. Whether the two families have a common ancestor in the negritos of Malaysia and the Indian archipelago, or whether Papuan and Negrito are alike branches of an aboriginal African race, is a problem yet to be solved. But if their origin is unknown, there is little doubt that the Melanesians were the earliest occupants of the oceanic world, possibly reaching it from Malaysia. They undoubtedly constitute the oldest ethnic stock sometimes modified on the spot by crossings with migratory peoples (Malays, Polynesians); sometimes, as in the eastern Pacific, giving way entirely before the invaders. The traditions of many of the Polynesian islanders refer to a black indigenous race which occupied their islands when their ancestors arrived, and the black woolly-haired Papuan type is not only found to-day in Melanesia proper, but traces of it occur throughout Polynesia and Micronesia. That the oceanic blacks form one family there can be no doubt, and it is evidence of the immensely remote date at which their dispersion began that they have a multitude of languages often unintelligible except locally, and an extraordinary variety of insular customs: differentiations which must have needed centuries to be effected. Furthermore the Rev. R. H. Codrington (Melanesian Languages) has adduced evidence to prove that Melanesia is the most primitive form of the oceanic stock-language, and that both Malays and Polynesians speak later dialects of this archaic form of speech. The Melanesians then, must be regarded as the aborigines of Oceania. How they came to occupy the region it is impossible to say. Evidence exists as to the migrations of the brown races; but there is nothing to explain how the blacks came to inhabit the isolated Pacific islands. In this connexion it is a curious fact, and one which deepens the mystery, that, unlike the Polynesian peoples, who are all born sailors, the blacks are singularly unskilful seamen.
The second ethnic division, the Polynesian-Micronesian races, represents a far later migration and occupation of the Pacific islands. It has been urged that these brown peoples sprang from one stock with the Malays and the Malagasy of Madagascar; and that they represent this parent stock better than the Malays who have been much modified by crossings. But linguistic and physical evidence are against this theory. It is practically certain that the Polynesians at least are an older race than the Malays and their subfamilies. The view which has received most general acceptance is that they represent a branch of the Caucasic division of mankind who migrated at a remote period possibly in Neolithic times from the Asiatic mainland travelling by way of the Malay Archipelago and gradually colonizing the eastern Pacific. The Polynesians, who, as represented by such groups as the Samoans and Marquesas islanders, are the physical equal of Europeans, are of a light brown colour, tall, well-proportioned, with regular and often beautiful features. Such an explanation of the Polynesian’s origin does not preclude a relationship with the Malays. It is most probable that the two stocks have Asiatic ancestors in common, though the Polynesians remain today, what they must have always been in remote times, a distinct race. Of their sub-division, the Micronesians, the same cannot be said. They are undoubtedly a very hybrid race, owing this characteristic to their geographical position in the area where the dominating
races of the Pacific, Malays, Polynesians, Melanesians, Japanese- ↑ From these the three main divisions of the islands are named Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia (q.v.).
