Ulithi

Ulithi ( , , or ; pronounced roughly as YOU-li-thee ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap, within Yap State.

Ulithi ( , , or ; pronounced roughly as YOU-li-thee ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap, within Yap State. ==Name== The name of the island goes back to Proto-Chuukic *úlú-diwo. ==History== The Portuguese navigator Diogo da Rocha is credited as the first European to find Ulithi in 1525. The Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra arrived on the ship Florida on 1 January 1528, claiming the islands for King Philip II under the name Islands of the Kings ( ; ) after his patron and the Three Wise Men honored in the approaching Catholic feast of Epiphany. It was later charted by other Spaniards as the Chickpea Islands ( ). It was also visited by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos on 26 January 1543. It remained isolated until visited and explored in detail by Captain Don Bernardo de Egoy in 1712, and later visited by Spanish Jesuit missionaries led by Juan Antonio Cantova together with a group of 12 Spanish soldiers in 1731. In 1885, Jesuit missionaries encouraged Germany to extend "protection" over the Carolina Islands to protect their profitable trade. The Spanish made similar claims and later that year Pope Leo XIII decreed Spain as the ruling power over the islands, granting Germany and the United Kingdom trading rights. In 1889, a significant earthquake hit Yap and Ulithi, leading the residents to believe that their engagement with outsiders had angered their traditional spirits. In 1899, Germany purchased the islands from Spain for $4,500,000, conscripting residents as laborers and soldiers. By the early 1900s, Germany had established a police force, post offices, and hospitals on Yap. During this time, German Capuchin friars began to replace the Jesuits. The friars struggled to convert the citizens to Catholicism. According to a history of the Catholic Church in Micronesia: Yap had been known as "the child of sorrow" of the Caroline mission right from the start. The people were very slow to accept the new faith and slower still to practice it, the missionaries remarked again and again. There were none of the mass conversions there that had occurred in Pohnpei and other parts of the mission. Converts were made laboriously one by one, with baptisms rarely exceeding 20 or 30 a year throughout the German period. Even those who did receive baptism were all too susceptible to the pagan influences of the social environment, the missionaries thought. The number receiving the sacraments was quite small, even for the modest-sized congregations that the priests had. A pastor would report for a typical year perhaps a single Christian marriage, one or two Christian burials and a few anointing. ==Language== In an annual report released in early 2010¹, the Habele charity announced plans to develop and distribute native-language materials for educators and students in the outer islands of Yap State, Micronesia. The first project was a Ulithian-to-English dictionary. This was the first rigorous documentation of the Ulithian language, and copies were provided to educators and students throughout Ulithi and Fais. The authors' stated aim was to create a consistent and intuitive Latin alphabet useful for both native Ulithian and native English speakers. ==Education== Public school: Yap Outer Islands High School

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