Micronesia forms a nearly continuous chain of island groups north of Melanesia and extending east to Polynesia. Of these three conventional regions of Oceania, Micronesia's early prehistory is largely unknown, and its role in Pacific colonisation most problematical. This chapter reviews the prevailing view of Micronesian settlement, considers some practicalities of navigation, and revises some of the issues.

Craib (1983:922) describes Micronesia as comprising nearly 3000 islands with a total land area of 2700 square kilometres spread over 7.4 million square kilometres of ocean. Although there are some high islands, it is coral atolls that typify the area. ‘Most of these small islands … are uninhabited or uninhabitable’ (Terrell 1986:180), yet many have supported human settlement for 2000 years. Standing little more than a few metres in elevation above sea-level within the cyclone belt of the North Pacific Ocean, these atolls are one of the most tenuous successfully occupied habitats on Earth.

The westernmost high island group of Micronesia is Belau, which lies a little less than 500 sea miles east of Mindanao in the Philippines and the same distance north of the Vogel Kop Peninsula of western New Guinea (Fig. 15). From there, north towards Belau, lie half a dozen little islands, which may have formed a dispersed string of stepping-stones at times in the past. Some 230 sea miles northeast of Belau lies the high island of Yap, and another 450 sea miles beyond is Guam, the southernmost of the high islands of the Marianas, which sweep in a 400–mile curve to the north.