y writing. Certainly there
is no such animal in these islands at the present day.

[67] This building was destroyed by Colonel Arolas, April 15, 1887
(_vide_ p. 144).

[68] A few outposts had recently been established by Royal Decree. They
were all under the command of a captain, _vide_ Chap. xiii.

[69] There is another tribe in Palauan Island called _Batacs_,
with Papuan noses, curly hair, and very dark skin. Their origin is
a mystery.

[70] Alfred Marche calls this the _Tragulus ranchil_, and says it is
also to be found in Malacca, Cochin China, and Pulo Condor (_vide_
"Lucon et Palaouan," par A. Marche. Paris, 1887).

[71] By Royal Order of August 20, 1888, a concession of 12,000
to 14,000 hectares of land in Palauan was granted to Felipe
Canga-Argueelles y Villalba, ex-Governor of Puerta Princesa, for the
term of 20 years.

He could work mines, cut timber, and till the land so conceded under
the law called "Ley de Colonias Agricolas," of September 4, 1884,
which was little more than an extension to the Philippines of the
Peninsula forest and agricultural law of June 3, 1868 (_vide Gaceta de
Madrid_ of September 29, 1888). It appears, however, from the Colonial
Minister's despatch No. 515, to the Gov.-General of the Colony, dated
May 24, 1890, that the concessionaire had endeavoured to associate
himself with foreigners for the working of the concession. I myself had
received from him several letters on the subject. The wording of the
despatch shows that suspicion was entertained of an eventual intention
to declare territorial independence in Palauan. The Government,
wishing to avoid the possibility of embroilment with a foreign nation,
unfortunately felt constrained to impose such restrictions upon the
concessionaire as to render his enterprise valueless.

[72] We have several modern instances of similar volcanic disturbances
creating and demolishing land surface, on an infinitely lesser
scale--e.g., the disappearance of Krakatoa and the entire town and
busy port of Anger in 1883; the eruption which swallowed up the whole
inhabited Japanese island Torii Shima; the appearance of an entirely
new island, Nii Shima (about lat. 25 deg. N.), within the past twelve
months; and, within the historical period, the apparition of the
Kurile Islands.

[73] _Vide_ Chap. v. By way of retaliation for the expulsion of Spanish
missionaries from Japan in the l7th century, all the male Japanese
above ten years of age were or