Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter viii. A visit to ponape, it3 guins, and its people. The products of Ponape--On the road to China and Japan--Pagans and Christians--Ravages of small-pox--At Kusaio by the way--At Pingelap and Mokal--Pet pigs--Pet frigate hirds--Spanish man-of-war--Mr. Kuharri-s work--Start for the ruins--A trader's hospitality--The islets on the reef--Massive and mysterious ruins--Who were the builders?--Native migrations--A pleasure trip from Atafu--Islanders born rovers--Islets of Ponape apparently coral--A rough passage--Native customs--Heathen and Christian at Kite--Mr. Begg of Ponape--. His career and opinions--Captain Edward Eodd, a Pacific celebrity--His early experiences and present opinions--Good-bye to the veterans--Recent massacre of Spanish governor and forty-five soldiers at Ponape. Poxape stands prominent among the very fevr mountainous islands which vary the monotony of innumerable atolls in the Outer Pacific. The massive ruins of Ponape are its most remarkable feature, speaking in their weird loneliness of some dead and forgotten race. By whom and for what purpose they were built are questions to which no answer has yet been given. A careful inspection of the country, and comparison with similar ruins if such there be in other countries, will give the only prospect of solving the mystery. The present inhabitants of Ponape can tell nothing about the ruins and attribute them to the devil, a solution perfectly satisfactory to their minds. They are incapable of conceiving the construction of such works, and the people who built them must have been of a race much more numerous and greatly in advance of the two or three thousand natives now occupying this large island. Of these natives, the accompanying photog