The people are of moderate stature, but the chiefs and women of the higher class are remarkable for their great size and obesity, which is regarded as a great personal beauty, and is obtained by excessive gluttony. Their complexion is olive. When first discovered by Captain Cook, the people of these islands were in the same state of barbarism with those of the other islands, but the American missionaries have made great efforts among them, and by the introduction of Christianity and the habits of civilization, have done much to raise them from their barbarous degradation, although they are as yet by no means a civilized people. The missionaries have reduced their language to writing, and given them translations of the bible in their own tongue; they have also established a press, and issue a periodical journal called the Hawaiian Monitor, which they fill with religious, historical and other matter, calculated to interest the people. Yet it is doubtful whether the pure race can ever be brought to perfect civilization; indeed, the same effect which a contact with the whites seems to produce on all savage races, viz: the gradual decay of the latter, is visible here. In 1832 the population of the inhabited islands was 129,814-in 1836 it was reduced to 108,302, showing a decrease in four years of 21,421; and a consequent approach to extinction that is rather rapid than gradual. Honolulu, in the island of Oahu, is the seat of government and trade. The commerce is in the hands of the Americans, and is directed chiefly to the west coast of America. 12. THE KERMADEC ISLANDS, Are a group of the small inhabited islands, and a number of desert islets and reefs, situated in latitude 30° S., about midway between the Friendly Islands and New Zealand. 13. THE SCATTERED ISLANDS. These are numerous, and are found in almost every portion of the Pacific Ocean. They partake of the general characteristics of those already described, both in formation and people; and possess no peculiarities worthy of especial note. Pitcairn Island, celebrated as the spot where some of the mutineers of the Bounty took refuge and established a colony in 1789, is only three miles in length by one in breadth; it is volcanic, but has a good soil. Its village, named Adamstown, on the north side, is in latitude 25° 4' S., and longitude 130° 16' W. To the westward of the Sandwich Islands extends a long chain of scattered islets and rocks, in the following order: Bird's Isle; Necker; Basse Française; Gardner; Two Brothers' Rock; Maro Reef; Laysan; Lisianski; Philadelphia; Pearl and Hermes Bank; Cure; Byers; Patrocinio; Morell; Roco de Plata Crespo; Roco de Oro of the Spaniards; Roco de Oro or Lot's Wife; Colunas; Ganges; Week's Reef; Krusenstern Rock, to the south-west of Laysan; and Mellish Bank, north of Byers. Between Gilbert's Islands and the New Hebrides on the west; the Feejee, Friendly, and Navigator's islands, on the south; the Society, Low Islands, and Marquesas, on the south-east; and the Sandwich Islands on the north, the following may be mentioned: Howland, Arthur, Kemin's, Jervis, Birney, Phoenix, Sydney, Duke of York's, Duke of Clarence's, Solitaria, Danger or St. Bernardo, Duke Alexander I., Humphrey, Suvarof, Peregrino, Penrhyn, Woodstock, Caroline, New-York, Starbuck, Volunteer, Maldon, Brook Bunker, Christmas, Palmyra, Washington, Fanning, Walker's, Smith's. To the eastward of the Low Islands :-Oeno, Gambier, Pitcairn, Elizabeth, Ducie's, Easter, Sala-y-Gomez, Waihou. Gambier Islands consist of five large, and several smaller islands, all within one reef, through which there is a navigable ship channel to the lagoon. The largest rises 1,428 feet above the level of the sea. Easter Island, or Vahou, 20° E. of the Low Islands, in the direct route between them and Cape Horn, is only 20 miles in circumference, but is bold and rocky, strewed with lava, and contains numerous volcanic craters, which are now extinct. It formerly contained some traces of ancient civilization, in the shape of colossal statues, representing, though rudely, the upper parts of the human body; but these have now disappeared. ANTARCTIC REGIONS. DURING the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, cosmographers entertained the opinion that there must be a continent towards the south pole, to counterbalance the mass of land which occupies so large a portion of the northern hemisphere; and, accordingly, in the maps of those centuries, this imaginary continent is represented under the name of Terra-AustralisIncognita. This notion continued to prevail till after the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was dispelled by the result of Cook's second voyage; that illustrious navigator having, in the years 1772-3-4-5, traversed the Southern Ocean, in different directions, round the globe, without discovering any other land than the Island of Georgia and Sandwich Land. In 1816, however, Captain William Smith discovered a group of lofty snow-capped islands, to which he gave the name of New South Shetland, to the S. E. of Cape Horn. A few years later, Captain Weddell discovered the New Orkneys, in the same quarter, and in 1823 penetrated to 74° 15′ S., the farthest point yet reached. Trinity Land was discovered by the Russian navigator, Bellinghausen; and in 1829, two small islands, named Peter and Alexander, between 69° and 70° S. latitude, were also discovered by the Russians. In 1831, Captain Biscoe discovered Enderby's Land, under the Antarctic Circle, S. E. of the Cape of Good Hope; and in the following year, Graham's Land, Biscoe Isles, and Adelaide Island, in the same latitude, but lying due south of Cape Horn. In January, 1839, a French expedition, under Captain D'Urville, discovered a tract of land, extending about 150 miles, between 66° and 67° S. latitude, and 136° and 142° E. longitude, with a medium elevation of 1,300 feet above the horizon. The snow and ice, which covered it, gave its surface almost a level appearance; but little else was observable than ravines, inlets, and projections, which presented not a single trace of vegetation. Captain D'Urville named his discovery Terre Adelie (Adelia's Land.) On the very same day, an American scientific expedition discovered land in 64° 50° S. latitude, and 154° 18° E. longitude; and one of the ships, the Vincennes, Captain Wilkes, ran down the coast, from 154° 18′ to 97° 45′ E. longitude, about 1,700 miles, within a short distance of the land, being often so near as to get soundings with a few fathoms of line. In February, 1839, Captain Balleny, of London, discovered the Balleny Islands, the central one of which lies in 66° 44′ S. latitude, and 163° 11' E. long. In 1840, an expedition was fitted out in Britain, under the command of Captain James Ross, R. N., for the purpose of making scientific, and particularly magnetic, observations in the Southern Ocean, and of ascertaining the position of the southern magnetic pole. Captain Ross first sailed to Hobart Town, in Van Dieman's Land, and in November, 1840, left that place for his first summer's research in the Antarctic regions. He first steered eastward to New Zealand, and leaving the Auckland Islands on the 12th of December, he proceeded to the southward, and entered the Antarctic circle on the 1st of January, 1841, where his farther progress was stopped by the pack-edge of the ice. On the 5th of January, he succeeded in entering the ice about 100 miles farther east, in latitude 66° 45′ S., and longitude 174° 16′ E.; after penetrating a few miles, he was enabled to make his way to the southward with comparative ease and safety; and on the morning of the 9th, after sailing more than 200 miles through the pack, he gained a perfectly clear sea, and bore away south-west towards the magnetic pole. On the morning of the 11th, land was discovered in the distance, which, as it was approached, rose in lofty mountain peaks of from 2,000 to 12,000 feet in height, completely covered with snow, with descending glaciers projecting many miles into the ocean, and presenting a perpendicular face of lofty cliffs. On the 12th, Captain Ross landed on a small island, and took possession of the country in the name of Queen Victoria, whose name he has bestowed upon it. The island is composed wholly of igneous rocks, and is situate in 71° 56′ S. latitude, and 1710 7 E. longitude. Pursuing his course along this magnificent land," on the 28th "a mountain, of 12,400 feet above the level of the sea, was seen emitting flame and smoke in splendid profusion. This magnificent volcano received the name of Mount Erebus, and is situated in 77° 32′ S. latitude, and 167° 0′ E. longitude; an extinct crater to the eastward, of somewhat less elevation, was called Mount Terror;" both after the ships which composed the expedition. The mainland preserved its southerly trending, and Captain Ross continued to follow it till his further progress in that direction was stopped by a lofty barrier of ice, extending E. S. E. Pursuing the examination of this barrier, he traced its continuity for 300 miles, and reached his highest latitude, 780 4' S.; but was prevented by the ice from reaching the magnetic pole, or finding shelter for his ships on any part of the coast, which he found at last to terminate abruptly in 70° 40′ S. latitude, and 165° E. longitude. The second year was spent in traversing the Antarctic Ocean, without making any remarkable discoveries. In the third year, the expedition left the Falkland Islands, 17th December, 1842, and sailing to the south and west of Cape Horn, discovered land on the 28th. On the 31st they succeeded in reaching a volcanic island, situated in S. latitude 64° 12', and W. longitude 56° 49′, in the bosom of a great gulf, about 40 miles wide, and about the same extent inland, bordered on its western side by snowy ranges, among which rises a magnificent table-topped mountain to the height of 7,000 feet. This gulf has been named the Gulf of Erebus and Terror. The island, though not more than two miles in diameter, projects a perfectly formed cone to the height of 3,500 feet above the level of the sea. The expedition subsequently ascertained the insularity of the land discovered by Brandfeldt in 1820, and named by D'Urville, in 1839, Louis Philippe's land; and returned to England in August, 1843. Besides these new discoveries, there are within the limits of the Southern Ocean several islands, too far distant from any of the great continents to be considered as belonging to them, and therefore not yet noticed in this work. In 1772, two French Captains discovered a group of high and barren islands to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, which, from them, have been named Marion and Crozet's Islands; the two most westerly were afterwards named by Cook, who passed between them in December, 1776, Prince Edward's Islands, in honor of the late Duke of Kent, father of her Majesty Queen Victoria. Farther east, between 480 and 50° S. latitude, and 650 and 670 E. longitude, is Kerguelen's Land, or the Island of Desolation, discovered by Captain Kerguelen in 1772. It is about 100 miles in length, and about 60 in breadth; but, owing to the coldness and moisture of the climate, it is almost totally destitute of vegetation. It is indeed represented as one of the bleakest and most desolate spots on the globe; but fossil wood and coal have been recently discovered in it by Captain Ross, in the course of his scientific expedition to the South Magnetic Pole. It seems to be chiefly composed of trap and other igneous and volcanic rocks, which rise into hills from 500 to 2,500 feet high. The coast is deeply indented with bays and inlets, and the whole surface is intersected by lakes and watercourses. North-east of Kerguelen's land are two small solitary islands, named St. Paul's and Amsterdam, which were discovered by the Dutch navigator Vlaming, in 1696. Vlaming, it appears, applied the name of Amsterdam to the northern island, and St. Paul's to the southern; but the islands have been confounded by English navigators, and the names transposed, so that the southern island is generally called Amsterdam, and the northern St. Paul's. But, be this as it may, the northern island is situated in 37° 52′ S. latitude, and 77° 36° E. longitude, and has an elevation of 2,760 feet. It is twelve miles in circuit, and in fine weather may be seen from the anchorage of the southern island, a distance of 60 miles, on the same meridian. The latter, the original St. Paul's, is nine miles in length by five in breadth, of volcanic formation, without a tree or shrub, and destitute of vegetation, except coarse grass, and a kind of rushes or reeds. It abounds with hot springs, the water of which is wholesome, though somewhat offensive to the smell and taste. It contains a magnificent oval-shaped basin, large enough to contain the whole British navy, which is evidently the crater of an extinct volcano, with deep water, and an entrance 25 yards wide. (Journal R. Geog. Soc. IX. 517. Staunton's Account of Macartney's Embassy, I. 256. Sandwich Land, discovered by Cook in 1775, between 57° and 61° S. latitude, and 270 and 300 W. longitude, has since been found to consist of a number of islands, which are constantly covered with snow. The Isle of Georgia, between 53° 57′ and 54° 57′ S. latitude, and 38° 13′ and 35° 34' W. longitude, about 31 leagues in length by 10 in breadth, is also a bleak and barren region, traversed by very lofty mountains, constantly covered with snow; the heat of summer being sufficient only to melt the snow on the low ground of the N. E. side. |