Pelew Islands

Pelew Islands, also PALAU, a group in the Pacific belonging to Spain, lie south-east of the Philippines, at the western extremity of the Caroline Archipelago, with which they are sometimes classed. There are about twenty-five islands, mountainous, wooded, and surrounded with coral-reefs. Total area, 170 sq. m. The principal is Babelthouap or Babeltop. The soil is rich and fertile, and the climate healthy. Bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, sugarcane, palms, areca-nuts, yams, &c. are grown. Turtles, trepang, and fish abound on the coasts. The inhabitants, about 10,000 in number, are of the Malay race. The men go entirely naked and the women nearly so. They are described as being good-natured, and have peculiar social institutions—the women too. The islands were discovered by the Spaniards in 1543, and visited again in 1696. See Semper, Die Palauinseln (1873); Kubary, Die sozialen Einrichtungen der Palauer (1885); and Marche, Luçon et Palouan (Paris, 1887).