

INSULA R A US 7 'A' . / /. . / SI. I . 



'245 



which can be worked up and worn as an ornament. The men generally appropriate 

 everything of this kind for themselves. 



The money of the Group consists of the large and small shell armlets, and strings 

 made of pieces of shell ground down into very small rings, which are drilled and 

 threaded. Ten yards of this will purchase a wife in Florida. The small money made 

 in New Ireland is not much larger than small beads. It is much valued in the eastern 

 islands of the Solomons. The weapons consist of bows and arrows, spears, clubs and 

 tomahawks. The arrows are made of reeds, with a fore-shaft of hard heavy palm-wood 

 inserted into the reed. During the attack upon the steam-ship Ripple, at Bougainville, 

 one of these arrows, which was shot from a canoe some distance from the ship, pierced 

 the steam-pipe, making a clean hole right through on both sides. The bows are from 

 six to seven feet in length. A small shield is also used for defensive purposes. Food 

 is plentiful, and consists of yams, taro, cocoa-nuts, bananas and other tropical fruit. A 

 fine nut, known for trading purposes by the name of the almond-nut, is much used, and 

 will doubtless be largely exported, as it produces a very fine clear oil. It is probably 

 a species of the Malay Canarium. 



The principal articles of export are copra, tortoise-shell, bgchc-de-mer and ivory-nuts. 

 Pearl-shell has been found, but not in sufficient quantities to employ professional divers 

 for any considerable period. The principal trade is carried on by vessels trading from 

 Sydney and Fiji. The Melanesian Mission occupies stations in some of the eastern 

 islands, principally Florida. The Group has not been annexed by any of the Great 

 Powers, but there is an agreement between Germany and Great Britain that in the 

 western part German influence shall predominate, whilst the eastern islands of the 

 Solomon Archipelago shall be subject to the supervision of English official authority, and 

 thus practically constitute the British Possessions in this Group. 



THE NEW HEBRIDES. 



" I "HIS group of islands, thirty in number, is situated between fourteen degrees twenty 

 minutes to twenty degrees sixteen minutes south latitude, and one hundred and 

 sixty-five degrees forty minutes to one hundred and seventy degrees thirty minutes east 

 longitude, almost directly between Fiji and Northern Queensland. The Islands extend 

 over four hundred miles from south-south-east to north-north-west. In 1606 they were 

 discovered by the Spanish navigator, De Ouiros, who thought that he had found the 

 Southern Continent. He sighted the most northerly island, and anchored in a large 

 bay in the north-west. Circumstances prevented him from making further exploration, 

 but he landed, fixed the site of a city to be called " New Jerusalem," and named the 

 land " Ticrra .lustrialia del l^spiritn Santo" Bougainville, in 1768, proved the Continent 

 of De Ouiros to be an island, and discovered several others. But it was reserved to 

 the great English navigator, Captain Cook, to discover the remaining islands of the 

 Group in 1774, when on his second voyage to Polynesia. He spent forty-six days in 

 sailing through the Islands, to most of which he gave the names, chiefly from native 

 sources, which they bear on the maps, and he called the whole Group the New 

 Hebrides. He gave a very accurate description of the Islands and of the natives in his 



