THE MALDIVES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1568, 22 March 1887, Page 4

THE MALDIVES.

The recent peaceful revolution ra the Maldives will attract some attention to this group of islands, which, although situated in the Indian ocean, are not dependent upon the Indian Government, but upon Oeyloa and the Colonial Office, The group consists of nineteen clusters of islets, and each cluster forms an administrative division or atoll. Mali, or King's Island, is the principal, and the residence of the Sultan who rules the archipelago, but its population is only 1508 persons. The connection with the English Government is preserved by an annual embassy bearing the tribute of cowries, fish, and cake to Colombo, and the chief obligation imposed in return is a guarantee of help for any shipwrecked European sailors. The people are Mahomedans, and are described as inoffensive. Murder and other violent crimes are almost unknown, so that the late Sultan's assassination is made to appear more incomprehensible. The Maldive Islanders are keen traders, and they ex* port chiefly bonito fish, tortoise-shell, cowries, &c. Their boats of 100 or 200 tons sail as far as Calcutta, but the latest official reports allege that their trade is declining, and as the climate is exceedingly unhealthy there is little inducement to foreigners to frequent these islands. Our chief information concerning this group is derived from Ibn Batuta, who married one of the islanders; a Frenchman named Pyrard, who was shipwrecked there iu 1603, and resided five years on one of the atolls; and more recently Lieutenant Christopher iu 183'J, and M. A. Gray in 1878,