Identifier: glimpseofislesof00whee (find matches)
Title: A glimpse of the isles of the Pacific
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Wheeler, William Webb, 1845- (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: (St. Joseph, Mo., Hardman press)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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r, we made Pago Pago, on the Samoan Islands, twodays late. The engineer said later that he never worked sohard in his life as he did to get the break repaired, as heknew the passengers would be in a panic if a blow shouldcome up before the engines could handle the ship. SAMOAN ISLANDS. The best harbor in the Samoan Islands is Pago Pago,where we arrived on Washingtons birthday and weregreeted by the gunboat Adams with a salute of twenty-oneguns in honor of the day, and it does look good to see OldGlory, the emblem of the land we love, floating in thisfar-away seaport. This Island and harbor is the propertyof the United States, and we maintain here a gunboat with150 ofificers and men. The commanding officer is alsoGovernor of the Island, which is twenty miles long, andabout six miles wide. Fourteen degrees south of theEquator, it is always warm. The temperature ranges from65 to 90 degrees and is very humid. The population, asidefrom our Navy, is thirty whites, and six thousand native 17
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Samoans, who are copper-colored and a fine, shapely lot ofhumanity. They are, indeed, larger and in better flesh thanthe average people of our own land, not war-like, but of akindly disposition. They wear less clothing than anypeople we ever saw; in fact, the men only wear a breechclout and the women not much more. How Cjuickly onegets accustomed to such garb; it looks all right here forthese people to dress in that way. The Island is covered with cocoa-nut, banana, bread-fruit and orange trees, all growing wild, without anycultivation. Their homes are usually thatched straw,simply to keep the rain out, and it rains there for sure.In the two days before we were there, it rained twentyinches, and 230 inches per year is their usual rain-fall.While we were there the sun was bright and hot. Their food is altogether the fruits of the trees, whichthey gather with almost no labor, and the fish, which arevery plentiful and easily caught. This is all their living-expenses, except their clothin

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