NEW CALEDONIA 455 



from his natural surroundin^^s and placing liim under 

 totally new conditions and in the midst of a civilisa- 

 tion utterly beyond his comprehension. 



The ownership of the archipelago was for a long time 

 a vexata qucestio. Owing to various disturbances, for the 

 most part the outcome of the raids of " black-birding " 

 schooners, detachments of French marines were sent 

 from New Caledonia to Mallicolo and Sandwich in 188G. 

 This brought about the Anglo-French treaty of the 24th 

 October, 1887, by which the two powers agree conjointly 

 to safeguard the interests of colonists. Many of the 

 latter are French, the " Sociote Cal^donienne des 

 Nouvelles Hebrides " now being landowners to the 

 extent of 1,750,000 acres. It is this connection with 

 New Caledonia which has given the islands the advantage 

 of steam communication with the outside world, French 

 vessels running from Noumea and calling at the chief 

 ports at regular intervals. An inter-insular steam 

 service was also established in 1890. 



4. New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. 



New Caledonia is the most southerly of the Mela- 

 nesian islands. It lies in a north-west and south-east 

 direction just within the Tropic, and is distant about 

 700 miles from the nearest point of Australia. It is 

 250 miles long, and lies in an almost perfect straight 

 line, having a very uniform average breadth of 35 miles. 

 Its area is estimated to be about 6500 square miles, and 

 it is almost entirely surrounded with coral reefs, which, 

 being situated at a distance of from 5 to 18 miles from 

 the shore, afford ample protection except in very heavy 

 weather. The north-eastern coast is almost straight, 

 but on the opposite side of the island the shore is pene- 



