A.—3a

16

Philippine Islands. Area, 3,100 geographical square miles, or 05,100 English square miles. Population, 4,319,269. Total Exports to Great Britain in 1871 were of the value of £1,391,254. Imports of Briish Produce, value £463,359. The chief article of Exports in 1871 was unrefined sugar, of the value of £604,114. Of the imports in 1871 the value of £290,203, or considerably more than one-half, was represented by cotton manufactures'. The commercial intercourse between the Philippine Islands, as well as the rest of the colonial possessions of Spain and the United Kingdom, has been steadily declining for a number of years. Caroline Islands and Pelew Islands. Area, 431 geographical square miles, or 905 English square miles. Population, 28,000. Pelew Islands. A group of islands in tho North Pacific Ocean 450 miles east of the Philippines, in lat. 7°-8° 30' N. long. 134°-136° E., at the western extremity of the Caroline Archipelago. The group includes about twenty islands, which form a chain running about 120 miles from S.S.W. to N.N.E, The principal island is Babelthouap, twenty-eight miles by fourteen, containing a mountain from whose summit a view of the whole group is obtained. As seen from the sea, the islands appear mountainous and rugged; but the soil is rich and fertile, and water is abundant. Bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas, sugar-cane, lemons, oranges, and other tropical trees and fruits, are grown. Cattle, fowls, and goats thrive, and fish abound on the coasts. The inhabitants, who arc estimated at about 10,000 in number, are of the Malay race. They show considerable ingenuity in building their canoes, are active agriculturists, and entertain exceedingly primitive notions regarding dress, as the men go entirely naked and the women nearly so. In 1783, the " Antelope " was wrecked upon the Pelew Islands, and the crew were treated by the natives with tho greatest kindness. Further1 acquaintance with white men, however, seems to have altered their disposition, and several vessels, while visiting these islands, within comparatively recent years, have narrowly escaped being cut off. The islands are said to have been discovered by the Spaniards in 1545. Ladeones Islands. A group of about twenty islands, the northernmost Australasian group in lat. 13|°-20|° N"., and long. 145^°~147° E. ,They are disposed in a row, almost due north and south. Their united area is about 1,254 square miles. They are mountainous, well watered and wooded; among the trees are the bread-fruit, banana, the cocoa-nut; fruitful in rice, maize, cotton, and indigo. European domestic animals are now very common. At the time when they were discovered the population was reckoned at 100,000, but the present population is only about 5,500. The inhabitants, who arc docile, religious, kind, and hospitable, resemble in physiognomy those of the Philippine Islands. The islands are very important to the Spaniards in a commercial point of view. The largest island in Guajan, ninety miles in circumference; on it is the capital, San Ignacio do Agamca, the seat of the Spanish Governor. Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Islands arc a group lying on the equator, extending I\° on each side of it, and about 600 miles from tho west coast of the Republic of Ecuador, to which they belong. There are six principal islands, nine smaller, and many islets, scarcely deserving to be distinguished from mere rocks. Tho largest island, Albemarle, is sixty miles in length and about fifteen miles broad, the highest point being 4,700 feet above the level of the sea. The constitution of the whole is volcanic. "With the exception of some ejected fragments of granite, which have been most curiously glazed and altered by the heat, every part consists of lava, or of sandstone resulting from the attrition of such materials. The higher islands generally have one or more principal craters towards their centre, and in their flanks smaller orifices. Mr. Darwin affirms that there must be, in all the islands of the archipelago, at least 2,000 craters. Considering that these islands are placed directly under the equator, the climate is far from being excessively hot: a circumstance which, perhaps, is chiefly owing to the singularly low temperature of the surrounding sea.

WEST INDIES (1871).

Area. Square Miles. Population. Total Imports. Total Exports. Bahamas Turk's Islands ... Jamaica Leeward Islands St. Lucia St. Vincent Barbados Grenada Tobago Trinidad British Guiana ... 3,021 420 0,400 731 250 131 166 133 97 1,754 70,000 39,162 4,723 441,264 117,732 31,811 35,688 162,042 37,795 17,054 109,638 193,491 £ 283,970 35,345 1,300,212 506,149 196,286 137,474 1,069,S61 104,475 61,448 1,042,678 1,572,275 £ 190.253 . 18,855 1,283,036 670,457 147,172 221,140 973,020 127,184 82,616 1,277,574 2,383,422 Total West Indies 89,103 1,190,400 6,310,173 7,374,729