These islands are of considerable elevation (the highest point of Ponape approaches 3000 ft.), but the rest are generally low coral islets.
The Germans divide the whole archipelago into two administrative districts, eastern and western, having the seats of government at Ponape and Yap respectively.
In Ponape and Kusaie, massive stone structures, similar to those which occur in several other parts of the Pacific Ocean, have long been known to exist.
In Ponape the remains are of a somewhat similar character, but on a much larger scale, and with this difference, that while those of Lele all stand on the land, those of Ponape are built in the water.
Thereafter his pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, set out with the remainder of the company to make for the Philippines, and on the way discovered Ponape of the Caroline Islands, some of which group, however, had been known to the Portuguese as early as 1527.