ntal isolation of Madagascar, combined with its large area,
enabled it to go its own slow historical gait, with a minimum of
interference from outside, till France in 1895 began to assume control
of the island.

[Sidenote: Mixed population of small thalassic isles.]

Small thalassic islands, at an early date in their history, lose their
ethnic unity and present a highly mixed population. The reasons for this
are two. The early maritime development characterizing enclosed seas
covers them with a network of marine routes, on which such islands serve
as way stations and mid-sea markets for the surrounding shores. Sailors
and traders, colonists and conquerors flock to them from every side.
Such a nodal location on commercial routes insures to islands a
cosmopolitanism of race, as opposed to the ethnic differentiation and
unity which follows an outlying or oceanic situation. Here the factor of
many-sided accessibility predominates over isolation.

The prevailing small area of such thalassic islands, moreover, involves
a population so small that it is highly susceptible to the effects of
intercrossing. Too restricted to absorb the constant influx of foreign
elements, the inhabitants tend to become a highly mixed, polyglot breed.
This they continue to be by the constant addition of foreign strains, so
long as the islands remain foci of trade or strategic points for the
control of the marine highways. Diomede Island in Bering Strait is the
great market place of the polar tribes. Here Siberian Chukches and
Alaskan Eskimos make their exchanges. The Eskimo of St. Lawrence Island
in Bering Sea, from long intercourse, have adopted certain articles of
dress, the boats and part of the vocabulary of the Chukches.[859]
Kilwauru, located on a sand-bank at the eastern end of Ceram, on the
border between Malayan and Papuan island districts, is the metropolis of
native traders in the Far East. Here gather the _praus_ of the
sea-faring Bugis bringing manufactured goods from Singapore, and boats
laden with the natural products of New Guinea.[860] The smaller these
island marts and the wider their circle of trade, the more mixed is
their population. Thursday Isle, an English coaling-station in Torres
Strait, is a port of call for all steamers bound from Europe or China
for east Australian ports, besides being a center of a big local trade
in pearl shell and tripang. Hence its population of 526 souls comprises
270 Europeans of various nationa