SAMOA, or NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS

SAMOA, or NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS, a group of 14 volcanic islands in the W. Pacific, of which three alone are of any size - Savaii, Upolu, and Tutuila; all are mountainous and richly wooded; climate is moist and warm; copra is the chief export, and cotton, coffee, tobacco, &c., are grown; the natives, a vigorous Polynesian race, have been Christianised. The chief town of the group is Apia, at the head of a pretty bay in Upolu; near here R. Louis Stevenson spent the last five years of his life.

The island is presently divided in two parts - the independent country of Samoa in the western half, and the territory of American Samoa comprising the islands to the east.

However, the islands were formerly under the joint suzerainty of Britain, Germany, and the United States.