Marshall County Republican

The Feejee Islands,

Some months ago it was announced that the Government of the United States had demanded from the King of the Feejee Islands an indemnification of about $45,000 for losses sustained by American residents of the islands from depredations by the King's subjects. The King promised to pay the amount in three equal installments, and as a guarantee for the prompt payment of the amount, mortgaged three of the Islands. It was expected that the King would be unable to raise the money, and that the three mortgaged islands would on that account be seized by the Government of the United States.

But the latest mail from Australia, received on Saturday, informs us that a joint stock company has been formed in Melbourne which has furnished the King with the sum claimed by the American Government, and thereby obtained possession of the Islands.

The Fejee Islands are a group of Islands in the South Pacific. Altogether they number about 225, of which 80 are inhabited. Their aggregate area is 8,000 square miles; and the total population 300,000.

Of late, English Wesleyan missionaries have met with great success in these islands, and the number of attendants upon the religious services is reported by them as exceeding 50,000. Seven years ago the King offered to cede the islands to Great Britain, and the English Government replied that it had taken the proposition into favorable consideration.

No action was subsequently taken in the matter, but it is naturally supposed that this new contract with the Melbourne Company must soon lead to the establishment of a British Protectorate.

The Fejee Islands are, beside the Sandwich Islands, the only considerable portion of Australasia and Polynesia which has thus far maintained a native government. Ere long both are likely to lose their independence. The King of Feejee, as has already been mentioned, is himself anxious to transfer his possessions to some great foreign power; and in the Sandwich Islands the race of native rulers will become extinct with the death of the present childless king. In that eventuality, one political party desires submission to England, and another party annexation to the United States. Nearly all the remainder of Australasia and Polynesia is in the hands of the English, French and Spanish, all of whom are eager to annex as much as possible of what little territory still remains nominally independent.

Within a few years the last native government of Australasia and Polynesia is likely to disappear.—N. Y. Tribune, 17th.