Kosrae

Kosrae (koʊˈʃaɪ ), formerly known as Kusaie or Strong's Island, is an island in the Federated States of Micronesia. The State of Kosrae is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, and includes the main island of Kosrae and a few nearby islands and islets, the most significant of which (Lelu Island) is inhabited by 1,500 people. Kosrae's land area is , sustaining 6,600 people. Tofol is the state capital, and Mt. Finkol is the highest point at . Archaeological evidence shows that the island was settled at least by the early years of the first millennium AD. This includes the city of Leluh that existed from about 1250 to 1850 AD, and in its heyday had a population of about 1,500 and covered some . It featured burial pyramids for the nobility. The French corvette S. M. La Coquille, arrived at Okat Harbor on 3 June 1824 and visited until 15 June 1824. Commanded by Louis-Isidore Duperrey, La Coquille, on its circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825) with Jules Dumont d'Urville as second. René-Primevère Lesson also traveled on Coquille as a naval doctor and naturalist. La Coquille anchored in Kosrae for ten days. During this visit, several crew walked across the island and visited the island of Lelu. The first recorded sighting by Westerners was by the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on 14 September 1529 when trying to return from Tidore to New Spain. The island was under nominal Spanish sovereignty since 1668, but it was not effectively occupied until 1885. By the time of the island's first contact with European travelers in 1824, Kosrae had a highly stratified society, typical of the surrounding islands of the time. Its cultural features included matrilineal lineage and clans, with a feudal structure of "nobles" controlling land worked by "commoners" and settlements consisting of small groups of close relatives sharing a single cook house. The first missionary post was established by Congregationalists in 1852, and virtually the whole island had converted to Christianity by the 1870s.