Word Finder - islanders

definition

A person who lives on an island.

The farmers are chiefly Italians, Canary Islanders and Frenchmen.

The islanders were converted to Christianity in the 6th and 7th centuries by Irish missionaries, in commemoration of whose zeal several isles bear the name of Papa or "priest."

South Sea Islanders and other coloured races, numbering probably about 15,000, were in 1906 to be found principally in Queensland, but further immigration of Pacific Islanders to Australia is now restricted, and the majority of those in the country in 1906 were deported by the middle of 1907.

He finds near kinsmen for them in the Ainus of Japan, the Khmers and Chams of Cambodia and among some of the Micronesian islanders who, in spite of much crossing, still exhibit marked Caucasic types.

The traditional charge of cannibalism has been very persistent; but it is entirely denied by the islanders themselves, and is now and probably always has been untrue.

The fossil shells, pottery and rude stone implements, found alike at the base and at the surface of these middens, prove that the habits of the islanders have not varied since a remote past, and lead to the belief that the Andamans were settled by their present inhabitants some time during the Pleistocene period, and certainly no later than the Neolithic age.

They are the home of myriads of sea-birds and one of the nesting-places of the bonxie, or great skua (Lestris cataractes), which used to be fostered by the islanders to keep down the eagles, and the eggs of which are still strictly preserved.

In 1856, 194 Pitcairn islanders took the place of the convicts.

All these might pass for religious wars, and they might really be so; it needed greater ingenuity to set forth the invasion of England as a missionary enterprise designed for the spiritual good of the benighted islanders.

The town-hall, built in 1881, contains several stainedglass windows, two of which were the gift of citizens of Amsterdam and Hamburg, in gratitude for services rendered by the islanders to fishermen and seamen of those ports.

Then in 1548, when a large number of the islanders had accepted the reformed doctrines, Arason and Ogmund joined their forces and attacked the Lutherans.

Their Venetian masters at least secured to the islanders external tranquillity, and it is singular that the Turks were content to leave them in undisturbed possession of this opulent and important island for nearly two centuries after the fall of Constantinople.

In the campaigns of 1768-69 the French gradually overcame the fierce resistance of the islanders; and Paoli, after sustaining a defeat at Ponte-Novo (9th of May 1769), fled to the mainland, and ultimately to England.

By the mighty blow of Friedland and the astonishing diplomatic triumph of Tilsit, the conqueror hoped speedily to overwhelm the islanders beneath the mass of the world's opposition.

Fishing and agriculture constitute the chief resources of the islanders, whose ancient silk industry is still maintained.

The Kei Islanders are skilful in carving and celebrated boat-builders.

These shameful deeds made the islanders regard it as a duty to avenge their wrongs on any white men they could entice upon their shores.

The islanders had enjoyed some measure of exemption from the worst excesses of the Turkish officials, but suffered severely from the conscription raised to man the Turkish ships; and though they seemed to be peculiarly open to attack by the Sultan's forces from the sea, they took an early and active part in the rising.

The islanders revolted against their new masters and a state of anarchy ensued, leading, it is averred, to an arrangement by which the island was administered by a body of five natives, each of whom held the office of governor during the period that elapsed till ten ships touched at the island.

These " privileges " were guaranteed, together with the rights and religion of the islanders, when they became British subjects, but no government has ever recognized papal titles in Malta.

The description of the islanders in Acts as " barbaroi " confirms the testimony of Diodorus Siculus that they were Phoenicians, neither hellenized nor romanized.

Williams then led a successful expedition against the Sese islanders and went on to the south of the lake to obtain one of the young princes - heirs to the throne - who were at the French mission there.

But the Torres Straits islanders are employed by Europeans in the pearl shell fishery, and are good labourers; and in some of the Kei and Aru Islands the Papuan inhabitants form orderly Christian communities.

The reports of travellers and of various missionary societies have thrown a great deal of light on the natural history of the island, on its resources, and the islanders.

Hitherto the Spaniards had met only the weak islanders, or the more robust cannibal Caribs, both alike pure savages.

The Malay Archipelago was thus first invaded by the Caucasians, who eventually passed eastward and are to-day represented in the Malay Archipelago only by the Mentawi islanders.

There is a white population of about forty; the natives are Papuans of a less fine type than the natives of New Pomerania, and rather resemble the Solomon islanders.

The islanders are a Spanish race, very closely akin to the Catalans; but the long period of Moorish rule has left its mark on their physical type and customs. In character they are industrious and hospitable, and pique themselves on their loyalty and orthodoxy.

The traditions of many of the Polynesian islanders refer to a black indigenous race which occupied their islands when their ancestors arrived, and the black woolly-haired Papuan type is not only found to-day in Melanesia proper, but traces of it occur throughout Polynesia and Micronesia.

The view which has received most general acceptance is that they represent a branch of the Caucasic division of mankind who migrated at a remote period possibly in Neolithic times from the Asiatic mainland travelling by way of the Malay Archipelago and gradually colonizing the eastern Pacific. The Polynesians, who, as represented by such groups as the Samoans and Marquesas islanders, are the physical equal of Europeans, are of a light brown colour, tall, well-proportioned, with regular and often beautiful features.

Through fear of drought the islanders removed to Tahiti in 1830, but disapproved of both the climate and the morals of this island, and returned to Pitcairn in 1831.

Shortly after this an adventurer named Joshua Hill appeared, and, claiming government authority, tyrannized over the islanders till his removal by a British man-of-war in 1838.

Visited in 1873 and 1878 the colony was found in excellent order, but by the end of the century it was stated that intermarriage was bringing a deterioration of intellect, morals and energy, and that the islanders would probably drift into imbecility.

There is a governing body chosen from among the islanders, the constitution of which has been altered more than once owing to internal jealousies, &c. The island produces sweet potatoes, yams, melons, bananas and other fruits, arrowroot and coffee.

Some trade is carried on with Mangareva in a vessel owned by the islanders.

In 1644 the Commissioners of the United Colonies, apparently at the request of the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard, annexed the island to Massachusetts, but ten years later the islanders declared their independence of that colony, and apparently for the next decade managed their own affairs.

In the 6th century Scandinavian hordes poured in with their northern idolatry and lust of plunder, but in time they adopted the language and faith of the islanders.

These, after the oil is extracted from them, serve the islanders with food for the winter.

For fishing the islanders use double-decked raft boats, similar to those of southern Formosa.

The Solomon islanders are of Melanesian (Papuan) stock, though in different parts of the group they vary considerably in their physical characteristics, in some islands approaching the pure Papuan, in some showing Polynesian crossings and in others resembling the Malays.

The islanders of the Bougainville Straits have lank, almost straight, black hair and very dark skins.

Traders now endeavoured to settle in the islands, and missionaries began to think of this fresh field for labour, but neither met with much success, and little was heard of the islanders save accounts of murder and plunder.

The tattooing of their bodies is less artistic than that of the New Zealanders, and much more limited than among some of the other islanders.

Their moral character, when first visited by Europeans, was not superior to that of other islanders; and excepting when improved and preserved by the influence of Christianity, it has suffered much from the vices of intemperance and licentiousness introduced by foreigners.

Though less superstitious than the Tahitians, the idolatry of the Sandwich Islanders was equally barbarous and sanguinary, as, in addition to the chief objects of worship included in the mythology of the other islands, the supernatural beings supposed to reside in the volcanoes and direct the action of subterranean fires rendered the gods objects of peculiar terror.

Like other South Sea Islanders they made an intoxicating drink, awa or kava, from the roots of the Macro piper latifolium or Piper methysticum; in early times this could be drunk only by nobles and priests.

Persistent efforts have also been made to introduce Polynesian islanders, as being of a cognate race with the Hawaiians, but the results have been wholly unsatisfactory.

The Japanese and Koreans, and in less measure the Chinese, act as domestic servants, work under white contractors on irrigating ditches and reservoirs, do most of the plantation labour and compete successfully with whites and native islanders in all save skilled urban occupations, such as printing and the manufacture of machinery.

In their uma-luli, or sacred (tabooed) enclosures, rites are performed resembling those of the Polynesian islanders.

Foremost in this work were William Ellis and John Williams (q.v.), who formed a native agency to carry the gospel to their fellow islanders, and so inaugurated what has since been a characteristic feature of South Sea Missions.