Angaur

The large quantities of shell recovered from archaeological sites gives evidence for an intensive exploitation of the limited lagoon surrounding the island and for collecting and fishing outside of the reef as well.[2] The first sighting of Angaur, Babeldaob, Koror, and Peleliu recorded by Westerners was by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos at the end of January 1543.[3] In November and December 1710, these three islands were again visited and explored by the Spanish missionary expedition commanded by Sargento Mayor Francisco Padilla on board of the patache Santísima Trinidad.The 7th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion under Lieutenant colonel Henry R. Paige served as garrison forces for the remainder of the War.On the ground, however, the terrain is very rugged with steep, jagged outcrops of ancient reef rising unpredictably in a tangled maze.[2] Modern settlement on Angaur is concentrated on the west coast south of the harbor to a point of land called Bkul a Usas.Surrounding the modern villages and many houses are garden plots and interspersed with these are small pockets of agroforest (a variety of trees providing useful domestic products and foodstuffs).Long before people came to this part of the Pacific Ocean, Angaur was a nesting ground for large numbers of birds whose droppings would eventually become phosphate deposits.At the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese, as was the practice once Japan gained control of the South Seas Mandate in 1914.[13] However, the results of the 2005 census show that in April 2005 there were no usual or legal residents of Angaur aged 5 or older who spoke Japanese at home at all.[14] The 2012 mini census showed 7 people aged 10 or older literate in any language other than Palauan and English for Angaur, out of a total population of 130.