THE NEW HEBRIDES 449 



characteristic of the Malay and the Papuan are seldom 

 seen. The people are keen traders, and apparently good- 

 natured and well-disposed, but they are still not to be 

 trusted, in spite of the establishment of mission stations, 

 and anthropophagy still continues. The inhabitants of 

 the Duff Islands, as well as those of Tucopia and 

 Cherry Island, differ entirely in appearance, speech, and 

 customs from those of the rest of the archipelago, and are 

 undoubtedly Polynesians. 



3. The New Hebrides. 



These islands extend for a distance of over 500 miles 

 in a direction roughly north and south, midway between 

 the Santa Cruz and Loyalty groups. Quiros discovered 

 them in 1606, and, believing them to be a part of the 

 supposed antarctic continent, gave them the name of 

 Australia del Espiritu Santo. It is to Captain Cook, how- 

 ever, who visited them in 1774, that they owe their 

 present name. Many of them are still little known, the 

 character of the natives preventing exploration of the 

 interior. The climate is also inimical to Europeans, 

 malaria and dysentery being common. The entire popu- 

 lation is conjectured to be about 70,000, and there are 

 about 120 white residents, of whom about half are 

 French. 



The New Hebrides may conveniently be divided into 

 two sections, a northern and a southern. The southern 

 comprises five islands, of which the chief are Aneitium, 

 Tanna, and Erromanga. The first named has had white 

 residents for over fifty years. Although of small size, 

 being hardly more than ten miles long, the island is said 

 to have had at one period a population of 12,000, but this 

 number is now reduced to 1500. Mission stations of 



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