elsewhere. Yet, strange to say, in those most barren and unattractive islands the population is densest in all Micronesia; in some of the islands of the group, one thousand to the square mile. In 1857 Rev. Hiram Bingham, Jr., with his devoted wife, began work in the Gilbert Islands, and continued until 1874, when, utterly broken in health, they were compelled to remove to Honolulu where the translation of the Bible was completed. Other workers took their places, but after years of struggle against the insufficient food and poor water, and low malarial fevers, it was decided by the Board that it was best to station American workers on high islands like Kusaie and Ponape, and to bring to Kusaie for training the young men and women of the Gilbert group. This arrangement, supplemented by the supervising trips of the missionaries in the Morning Star, has enabled the work to progress without interruption. In 1892 the king of the principal island in the Gilbert group, alarmed by the oppression suffered in the Caroline and Marshall groups at the hands of Spain and Germany, took passage to San Francisco, and offered his island to the United States. Sure that so fine a gift would not go begging, he returned home, and in preparation of annexation, began to build a wharf one thousand feet long. While President Harrison and his cabinet were considering the question, England got word of the negotiation, and promptly sent a warship and hoisted the British flag. This on islands which American heroism

had started on the way toward civilization, and on which American martyr lives had been freely given! In English hands, however, missionary interests have been safely guarded, and the welfare of the natives scrupulously considered.

The Marshalls.-The Marshall Islands, called the "Naturalists' Paradise" from their wealth of rare seaweeds and shells, are somewhat similar to the Gilbert Islands, but rather more elevated, and with more luxuriant vegetation. The atolls are very numerous, lying like great strings of green beads upon the surface of the water. The race is finer and more athletic than on the Gilbert Islands, skilled in savage handicrafts, and bold and warlike. The work in the Marshall group came about by the shipwreck of one hundred storm-driven Marshall islanders on Kusaie. Expecting nothing but death, they were rescued by the missionaries and returned home. This kindness gave the opportunity for entrance to the islands which had been considered hopelessly savage and hostile, and in a few years wonderful results began to be evident in changed customs and better lives. In 1885 Dr. C. H. Wetmore of Hawaii visited the island of Pingelap where, in 1871, the missionaries had found people living like "dogs in a kennel," and reported that he found a church filled with a thousand worshippers, and a change wrought that was perfectly marvellous.1

1 See Alexander's "Islands of the Pacific," pp. 330, 333, for interesting anecdotes regarding the introduction of Christianity. See also "Heroes of the South Seas," pp. 185, 191.

The Mortlocks. A beautiful story marks the bringing of the good news to the Mortlock Islands. A royal princess of Ponape, one of the Caroline Islands, Opatinia, daughter of the king, and heir to the throne, renounced her right to the throne and her opportunity to become a queen, and offered herself as a missionary to the dark islands of the West. When one considers how recently her own people possessed the gospel, and remembers in addition the intense love of these island people for their homes, her sacrifice was not less in the eyes of her people than Queen Victoria would have made, had she relinquished her crown to go to some faraway Madagascar as a missionary. Opatinia, with her husband and two other native teachers, was taken on the Morning Star to one of the islands of the Mortlocks, and there left for a year before the next visit of the Morning Star. On the second visit of the Morning Star, more than two years after her first landing, the ship was met by a multitude of natives singing Christian songs of welcome, and the missionary delegation was conducted to a fine house of worship built and dedicated to the worship of the true God.

Ruk. The good work of the brown princess and her devoted helpers spread as good work always does. The people of the great atoll Ruk, hearing of the wonders that were happening in the Mortlocks, sent for teachers. A native teacher, Moses, was followed in 1884 by Robert W. Logan, who with his wife did a wonderful work in Ruk.

But while the light was slowly spreading in all Micronesia, through the heroic work of the men and women of the American Board, while the children in the Congregational Sundayschools were sending out five Morning Stars in succession to cruise among the islands, the hindrances that seem inevitable in the story of human progress were being stirred up by European governments. Germany claimed a protectorate over all Micronesia, sleepy Spain rubbed her eyes and remembered that she discovered the islands in 1686. To be sure she had never done anything for them that benefited them in the least, but she found them, and they were hers. The dispute was referred to the Pope, who neatly solved the difficulty by assigning the Caroline Islands to Spain and the Marshall Islands to Germany.

Spanish and German Claims.-Spain promptly sent warships to get the cession from the chiefs, and landed governor, priests, soldiers, and convicts. The governor confiscated land belonging to the American mission, clapped the expostulating missionary into a ship, and sent him to Manila, then a Spanish possession, two thousand miles away. An American warship compelled the Spanish governor of Manila to release the missionary, Mr. Doane, and return him to Ponape.

Meanwhile, the natives, exasperated by forced labor on stolen land, revolted, killed the Spaniards, and forced them to sail away. Mr. Doane persuaded the new governor to grant an

G

amnesty, and the natives to give up their arms and submit.

Spanish Outrages. But the four war vessels and the twelve hundred soldiers bred constant troubles. The mission premises were shelled, the girls' schoolhouse burned, and also the large church. In three pitched battles one hundred and ten natives in their jungles kept twelve hundred soldiers at bay, killed three hundred and sixty-nine of them, and captured one hundred guns. The Spanish governor sent messages to the banished missionaries, begging them to return, as “their presence was necessary for the maintenance of order."

Germany in Marshall Islands. — Germany's tactics were less oppressive than those of Spain, but were certainly unjust to those whose forty years of service had laid the foundation of civil order in the Marshall Islands. Missionaries were forbidden to open new stations; they were not allowed to buy sites for schools or churches. The Morning Star was obliged to pay a license of $250 yearly to sell Bibles and school books. Heavy taxes were laid upon the natives.

GUAM

American Seizure. —As a war measure, to insure a coaling station, Guam was seized by the American military expedition to the Philippines in 1898 At the close of the Spanish war the other islands of the group (the Marianas) were returned to Spain, but Guam was retained. Spain promptly ceded the other islands to Germany.