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Ishigaki

(Encyclopedia)Ishigaki ēshēˈgäkē [key], city, Okinawa prefecture, Ryukyu Islands, Japan. It is an agri...

Prince of Wales Island, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Prince of Wales Island, c.12,800 sq mi (33,150 sq km), Nunavut Territory, Canada, between Victoria and Somerset islands. The low tundra-covered island has an irregular coastline and is deeply indented...

Margarita

(Encyclopedia)Margarita märgärēˈtä [key], island, 444 sq mi (1,150 sq km), in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela. With many smaller islands it constitutes the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta (1990 ...

Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de

(Encyclopedia)Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de də frāsēnāˈ [key], 1779–1842, French marine officer. He was assigned (1800) to a French exploring expedition in Australian waters; after his return to Pari...

Jarvis Island

(Encyclopedia)Jarvis Island, island, 1.7 sq mi (4.4 sq km), central Pacific, one of the Line Islands, just south of the equator and c.1,300 mi (2,090 km) S of Honolulu. Known to British and American mariners, it wa...

Chuuk

(Encyclopedia)Chuuk tro͝ok, trŭk [key], state (1990 est. pop. 48,853), c.39 sq mi (100 sq km), Federated States of Micronesia, W Pacific, in the E Caroline Islands. One of four states comprising the Federated Sta...

Pohnpei

(Encyclopedia)Pohnpei pōnˈpā [key], state and island (1991 est. pop. 52,000), 129 sq mi (334 sq km), W Pacific, in the E Caroline Islands. It is one of four states comprising the Federated States of Micronesia. ...

Tarawa

(Encyclopedia)Tarawa təräˈwə, tărˈəwä [key], atoll (1990 pop. 28,802), capital of Kiribati, central Pacific, previously capital of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The administra...

Tasman, Abel Janszoon

(Encyclopedia)Tasman, Abel Janszoon äˈbəl yänˈsōn täˈsmän [key], 1603?–1659, Dutch navigator. In the service of the Dutch East India Company from c.1632 to 1653, he made several trading and exploring voy...

Malayo-Polynesian languages

(Encyclopedia)Malayo-Polynesian languages ôˌstrōnēˈzhən [key], family of languages estimated at from 300 to 500 tongues and understood by approximately 300 million people in Madagascar; the Malay Peninsula; I...