Pelew Islands
or PALAU, a group in the Pacific formerly belonging to Spain, lying S. E. of the Philippines, at the W. extremity of the Caroline Archipelago, with which they are sometimes classed. There are about 200 islands, mountainous, wooded, and surrounded with coral reefs. Total area, 170 square miles. The principal is Babelthouap or Babeltop. The soil is rich and fertile, and the climate healthy.
Bread fruit, cocoanuts, sugar cane, palms, areca nuts, yams, etc., are grown.
Turtles, trepang, and fish abound on the coasts. The men go entirely naked and the women nearly so. The islands were discovered by the Spaniards in 1543, and visited again in 1696. In 1899 Spain sold this group, with the Carolines and all of the Ladrones excepting Guam, to Germany.