Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/145

Rh "That is hard to say. Certainly there are no evidences in sight to prove there are inhabitants, yet there may be some natives on the northern shore. There are many thousands of islands situated in this portion of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and the population is constantly shifting. You may visit an island one year and find there a considerable settlement; go there the next year and you will find not a soul. An earthquake has come, or a dreadful storm, or an enemy, or, mayhap, the inhabitants have heard of a better place and become emigrants."

"And what are the natives—Kanakas, like those at Honolulu?"

"Hardly, although you will find Maoris here, similar to the people of New Zealand, from whom the Kanakas are supposed to be descendants. The majority of the natives are Malays, but there are also millions of black, woolly-headed people, known as Papuan negroes, and, of course, there are on the larger islands many whites, from Europe principally, as well as Chinese and Japanese."

"It's a strange land."

"Taken as a whole it is fairly well known, but there are many islands that have never been