he islands in the "Blossom," assigned names to some of them,
and published a description of their features. Next a small party
consisting of two British subjects, two American citizens, and a Dane,
sailed from the Sandwich Islands for Port Lloyd in 1830, taking with
them some Hawaiian natives. These colonists hoisted the British flag on
Peel Island (Chichi-jima), and settled there. When Commodore Perry
arrived in 1853, there were on Peel Island thirty-one inhabitants, four
being English, four American, one Portuguese and the rest natives of the
Sandwich Islands, the Ladrones, &c.; and when Mr Russell Robertson
visited the place in 1875, the colony had grown to sixty-nine, of whom
only five were pure whites. Mr Robertson found them without education,
without religion, without laws and without any system of government, but
living comfortably on clearings of cultivated land. English was the
language of the settlers, and they regarded themselves as a British
colony. But in 1861 the British government renounced all claim to the
islands in recognition of Japan's right of possession. There is now
regular steam communication; the affairs of the islands are duly
administered, and the population has grown to about 4500. There are no
mountains of any considerable height in the Ogasawara Islands, but the
scenery is hilly with occasional bold crags. The vegetation is almost
tropically luxuriant--palms, wild pineapples, and ferns growing
profusely, and the valleys being filled with wild beans and patches of
taro. Mr Robertson catalogues a number of valuable timbers that are
obtained there, among them being Tremana, cedar, rose-wood, iron-wood
(red and white), box-wood, sandal and white oak. The kekop tree, the
orange, the laurel, the juniper, the wild cactus, the curry plant, wild
sage and celery flourish. No minerals have been discovered. The shores
are covered with coral; earthquakes and tidal waves are frequent, the
latter not taking the form of bores, but of a sudden steady rise and
equally sudden fall in the level of the sea; the climate is rather
tropical than temperate, but sickness is almost unknown among the
residents. (F. By.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Referring to the Japanese custom of employing a go-between to
arrange a marriage.

[2] These details are taken from _The Bonin Islands_ by Russell
Robertson, formerly H.B.M. consul in Yokohama, who visited the
islands in 1875.

BONITZ, HERMANN (1814-18