The Marquesas

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 5, 1904

The most easterly group of islands of any extent in the Pacific is the Marquesas. Seventeen islands are comprised in the group, the total area of which does not exceed five hundred square miles. The climate is very hot on the coasts, but as the traveler proceeds inland to higher altitudes, the tropical heat gives place to a much cooler atmosphere. Notwithstanding the heat, the climate is healthful, giving rise to little sickness either among natives or strangers.

When Captain Cook visited the group, he declared the natives to be the finest in outward appearance of all the South Sea islanders, the expression of their countenance being pleasant and open. Prior to the labors of the missionaries, they practised a form of worship similar to that of the Tahitians. Being controlled by the French government, Roman Catholic teachers have had the pre-eminence; but, although the natives have nominally adopted the tenets of Rome, many of them are said to be little better than heathen savages. From contact with the customs and vices of white men, the population has been reduced to a mere fragment of what it formerly was. It is regrettable that men of such fine physique should learn, from their contact with civilized men, vices, the practise of which drives them to greater degradation than they knew even in heathenism.—Australasian Signs of the Times.