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Mapia Atoll ( Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Mapia''), historically known as the Freewill Islands or San David, is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is located in Papua province of Indonesia, approximately 290 kilometers north of the city of Manokwari and 630 kilometers from the islands of Palau. It consists of two main islands, Bras (Berasi) and Pegun (Mapia), the smaller Fanildo, and two minor islands, Bras Kecil (Little Bras) and Fanildo Kecil (Little Fanildo). The islands constitute a part of West Supiori District within Supiori Regency, Papua. The population at the 2020 Census was 199. The atoll was once part of the Spanish Empire under the name of ''Güedes''. According to Spanish researcher Emilio Pastor in a paper submitted to his government in 1948, a number of small islands in Micronesia ( Kapingamarangi or ''Coroa'', Mapia or ''Güedes'', Ocea (now Kiritimati) or ''Matador'', and
Rongerik Rongerik Atoll or Rongdrik Atoll ( Marshallese: , ) is a coral atoll of 17 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and is located in the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, approximately east of Bikini Atoll. Its total land area is only , but it encloses ...
or ''Pescadores'') continue legally under Spanish sovereignty. This is because the text of the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899 which transferred sovereignty of certain Spanish possessions in the Pacific to Germany, namely the Northern Mariana Islands (except Guam) and the Caroline Islands (including Palau), failed to include these smaller islands. Although the Spanish government studied the case in 1949 and accepted this interpretation, it has never formally reclaimed the islands. The extinct
Mapia language Mapia is an extinct Micronesian language of Indonesia. It was spoken on Mapia Atoll, 180 km north of the coast of West Papua. The population emigrated early in the 20th century the only speaker as of 2000 was an elderly man who had remained behi ...
was spoken on the islands until the end of the 20th century. As of 2000, according to
Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
, there was one elderly speaker of the language remaining on the islands.


References

{{reflist Atolls of the Pacific Ocean Islands of Western New Guinea Landforms of Papua (province)