The following, according to Doederlein, are the recognized subdivisions and areas of the whole archipelago:—(1) The Northern Islands (attached to Satsuma or Kiushiu Osumi, 398 square miles): Tanega(189 square miles), Make, Yakuno (172 square miles), Take, Yuo or Iwoga, Kuro, Kose or Kowose, and Kuchino-Erabu or Nagarobe; (2) Shichi-to (43 square miles): Kuchino, Gaza or Yebi, Naka-no (the largest, 13 square miles), Hira or Fira, Suwase, Akuseki, Takara, and Yoko; (3) Hokubn-Shoto (515 square miles): Oshima (302 square miles), Kagerurna or Katona (40 square miles), Yoro, Uke or Uni, Kitai, Tokono or Kakirouma (92 square miles), Naka Erabu, and Yoron or Yori; (4) Chubu-Shoto (592 square miles): Tori or I wo, Eheya or Tebeya, Isona, lye, Awakuni or Agunyeh, Tonashi, Kuιne, Kerama or Amakirima, and Okinawa (520 square miles); (5) Nambu-Shoto or the Meiakoshima Group (315 square miles): Miyako orTy-pin-san (57 square miles), Misuna and Tarama, Ishigaki or Pat-chung-san (104 square miles), Take⅛oma or Robertson Island, 0hama or Kubah, Kuro or Baugh, Iriomoto Nishiomoto or Koo-Kien-San, Aragusuku or Chung-chi, Hateruma or Hasyokan, Yonakuni or Kumi.

The area of the Lew-chews proper is thus 1423 square miles, that of the whole chain 1864 square miles. The largest islands are Okinawa (often called Great Lew-chew) and Oshima, the former being also the political centre of the whole archipelago. The Lew-chews consist in the main of crystalline rocks—gneiss, hornblende, and granite —upheaved at a very remote date, and only partially covered by severely weathered sedimentary strata seldom left in their original horizontal position. Coralline limestone is found in great abundance even on the tops of the hills, and the coasts are often fringed by coral reefs. In Okinawa a soft argillaceous rock occupies a large part of the surface. Though the existence of Sulphur Island with its smoking crater towards the north-west shows that volcanic activity is still going on at no great distance, the main islands at least seem to bear no trace of recent subterranean disturbance. Their surface is very irregular: Okinawa consists for the most part of a succession of rounded swelling hills, 300 to 500 feet in height, broken towards the centre by more precipitous crags, and Oshima may be best described as a cluster of steep mountains reaching in Yowangatake a height of about 2100 feet. Of the many streams a few attain considerable dimensions, and serve to carry the timber from the highlands; and all round the coasts are excellent harbours. The mildness and humidity of climate, which is the natural consequence of the geographical position of the archipelago, is further enhanced by the neighbourhood of the Kuro-Siwo or Pacific gulf-stream. Snow never falls on the tops even of the highest hills; but at the same time even in summer the heat is seldom extreme. Three days seldom pass without rain; sudden downpours are not unfrequent, and wet weather often lasts for several days on end. The boundary between the Palaeoarctic and Oriental regions passes to the north of Oshima, which is the northern limit of many southern forms at once of vegetable and animal life both on land and sea. Sago trees and other Cycadaceae, banyans, and pine trees (resembling the cedar of Lebanon) are abundant, and the natives, who succeed well both as farmers and as gardeners, grow wheat, rice, bananas, tarro (Colocasia), sweet potatoes, maize, millet, sugar-cane, eggplants, <fcc. There is a small but excellent breed of cattle (usually black); and ponies, pigs, goats,and poultry are kept.

Part of the population of the northern Lew-chews is evidently Japanese, but the aboriginal and preponderating element is of quite another type, in some points similar to the Ainos. The striking features, according to Doederlein, are a comparatively narrow face ending in a pointed chin, large European-looking eyes, thin lips, thin and rather convex nose, strongly developed beard, and a luxuriant growth of hair over breast, arms, and legs. The women are (or were, for the practice is forbidden by the Japanese) accustomed to tattoo the back of the hands with a special pattern in a dark blue colour. Though closely allied to Japanese, the native language is a genuinely independent form, containing obsolete words only found in the ancient monuments of Japanese literature, and showing the greatest resemblance to the Satsuma dialect. The use of Japanese and Chinese by the learned has prevented it being used for literary purposes; and the version of the Bible prepared by the missionary Dr Bettelheim (sent out in 1845) is really in Japanese. There was neither printing press nor bookshop in the islands as late as 1876 (see G. W. Aston in Church Miss. TntcU., 1879). The lowest class of the population have neither civil rights nor personal freedom; next in order come the peasants, who rent the land from the Government; and above all are the literati or governing class. Rank is indicated by various symbols, particularly by the kind of metal of which the hair-pins are made, and by the colour of the robes and head-dress. Confucianism and Buddhism seem to have had considerable influence on the upper classes at least in Okinawa; in Oshima there is neither temple nor priest, and the people say they pray to no god. The sole objects of worship (if worship it be) are the manes of one’s immediate ancestors. To the dead great respect is shown in both islands,—the wealthier people building on the hillsides large and handsome tombs, which from a distance look like dwelling-houses. The body is buried in a coffin in a sitting posture, and after seven years the bones are collected and placed in an urn.

The population of Okinawa was estimated by the American expedition at from 150,000 to 200,000. Doederlein was informed by the officials that Amami Oshima contained 50,000 souls, but thinks 30,000 a more probable conjecture. Besides Napa or Napa-Kiang the capital, and Shui the royal residence, there are some thirty-six towns in Okinawa, with about 6000 inhabitants each; in the other island Nase the chief town (comprising Itsubemura and Kanekumura) has not more than 2000, and only five or six of the other villages exceed 500.

Though Captain Broughton visited Napa in 1797, it was not till the Alceste and Lyra expedition in 1816-17 that detailed information about the Lew-ehews was obtained. The people at that time showed a curious mixture of courtesy and shyness. Her British Majesty’s ship “Sphinx” visited Okinawa in 1852; and the American expedition under Commodore Perry (1852-54) added very largely to our knowledge of the island, and concluded a treaty of friendship with its Government, securing for the United States the right of using Tamui near Napa as a coaling depot.

Theen-sun, “Grandson of Heaven,” is the mythical founder of the Lew-chew monarchy. Towards the close of the 12th century, his descendants were driven from the throne by a usurper Le-yung; but the old national party soon found a victorious leader in Sun-thien-ong son of Tametomo, a member of the famous Yoritomo family, who, having been expelled from Japan, had come to Lew-chew and married the youngest sister of Ansoo, governor of Oho-prto. The introduction of the arts of reading and writing are assigned to Sun-thien-ong’s reign. Chinese invasions of Lew-chew may be traced back to the 6th century, but they did not result in annexation; and it was Hung-woo, the founder of the Ming dynasty, who first in 1395 obtained from the Lew-chew ruler recognition of Chinese supremacy. The earliest notice of intercourse with Japan belongs to the year 1441, when a voluntary gift of copper money (at that time extremely scarce in Japan) was made by the Lew-chewans to the tenno Go-Hanazono; but for a long time afterwards the relations of the two powers continued to be of the friendliest description. In the beginning of the 17th century the Lew-chew minister Yana, anxious to gain favour with the Chinese Government, persuaded his king to break off all connexion with Japan, and when the prince of Satsuma sent to remonstrate against this course of conduct his envoys were maltreated. For this insult the prince exacted signal vengeance. With the permission of his liege lord he invaded the islands with 8000 men, took the capital by storm, and captured the king and carried him off to Kagoshima. A few years later the unfortunate Seang-leng was restored to his throne, but only on condition that he and his successors should receive reinvestiture on the accession of each new shogun, and that each new king of Lew-chew should send an embassy to Yedo. The Lew-chewans nevertheless continued to pay tribute to China, and Chinese commissioners were despatched to attend the installation of their kings. Particular interest in the islands was displayed by the emperor Kang-hi, whose memory is still cherished by the natives as that of a great benefactor; he built them a temple in honour of Confucius, founded a Chinese school, and, when they were in great distress through hurricanes, plague, and famine, contributed liberally for their relief. Su-pao-Koang, from whose report was derived the first information about the islands which found its way to Europe, was Kang-hi’s commissioner in the year 1719. When in 1859 the house of Seang became extinct in the direct line, Sho-tai, a descendant of Satto, governor of Urasoyé, was called to the throne. On the establishment of the imperial authority of the mikado he received the title of sovereign prince of Lew-chew; but at the same time his territory was declared first a hαn or feudal dependency and afterwards a ken or province of the Japanese monarchy. In 1873, according to a custom with which the lords of Satsuma had not interfered, the people of Lew-chew sent to pay their biennial tribute to China. This was forbidden by the mikado; and it was in vain that they urged—“For five hundred years China has protected us: we regard China as our father, and Japan as our mother.” The Japanese Government insisted on its exclusive rights, and undertook to settle the difficulty with China. Its claims were formally recognized by the treaty of Peking in 1874, and the islands are treated as an integral part of the empire.

See GaubiΓs extracts from Su-pao-Koang in Lettres édifiantes, vol. xxiii.; Klaproth in Mémoires rel. à l’Asie, vol. ii.; Hervey de Saint Denys’s translation of Ma-twan-lin’s Encyclopaedia·, Basil Hall, Toy. of Dis. to the ∏'<∙st Coast of Corea and the Great Loochoo Island, London, 1818; John M l Leod, Voy. of II.M.S. “ Alceste, " London, 1819; George Smith (bishop of Victoria), Lev-chew and the Lew- chewans, London, 1853; Halloran, JΓ<re Yang Jin—Eight Months' Journal, <fcc., London. 1856; Commodore Perry’s Narrative, New York, 1856 (a most important work); E. W. Satow, “Notes on Loo-choo,” in The Phoenix (a monthly magazine for India, <tc.), vol. iii., London, 1872-73; J. J. Hoffmann in Bijdragen tot de T. L. en V. Kunde ran Ned. Ind. ; L. Serrurier, “De Lioe-Kioe Archipel," in Tijdschr. v. het Aardrijksk. Gen. te Amsterdam, 1880 (containing extracts from the Japanese sketch of the geography of Japan, published in 1873 by the minister of war); wells williams's epitome of “Shi Liu-Kiu-Ki,—Journal of -an Envoy to Lew-chew by Li Ting Yuen, 1803,” in Proc, of Roy. As. Soc., North China Branch, 1871; Henry Brunton, “Visit to Okinawa,” in Japan Mail, January 22, 1876; Tournafond, “Les isles Loutschou,” in L^Exploration, 1880; A. v. Klüden in Peteπnann ’ s Mittheil., 1880; Doederlein, “Die Liu-Kiu-Insel Amami Oshima,” in Mittheil. d. deut. Ges. f. Natur-und Völkerk. Ostasiens, Yokohama, 1881.