THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. 363 



grows there (I have forgotten the name) whose leaves are 

 edible and much resemble those of the domestic cabbage, 

 which in most of the coral islands will not grow. A great 

 future lies before the Solomons. I believe that a few years 

 more will find this dreaded group well on the high road of 

 civilisation ; but it wants the helping hands of British justice 

 and British gold. The success of the Crown Colony of Fiji is 

 in a small way demonstrating what may be done by means of 

 the former ; the latter would in time assuredly acquire rich 

 interest. 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 



FRANCE and England are the only two European powers that 

 possess Polynesian Colonies, Fiji being under the Union Jack, 

 while the islands of Tahiti and New Caledonia and the Tua- 

 motus, are recognised possessions of the French Republic ; and 

 a sort of protectorate is claimed by it over the Marquesas and 

 the Austral Islands. 



The Society Islands are eleven in number, and form a chain 

 running from north-west to south-east, and are divided by a 

 wide channel into the Leeward and Windward Groups. The 

 names of the principal islands in the Leeward division are : 

 Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, and Borabora, which it should be 

 noted have maintained their independence, the two splendid 

 islands first named having had it secured to them by virtue of 

 a treaty, of which the terms were guaranteed by England in or 

 about the year 1847. In view of the very recent formal 

 annexation of Tahiti to France, this fact of the guaranteed 



