i 248 A USTRAI.. I SI A ILL USTRA TED. 



less frequent. The climate is not healthy, and induces fever and ague, though this is not 

 so much felt by natives as by foreigners, European and Polynesian. Care has therefore 

 to be taken to select heights for residences. The natives suffer from elephantiasis and skin 

 diseases, from phthisis and from rheumatism. Foreign diseases, introduced by sailors, have 

 occasionally made great havoc among them as well as leading to the massacre of foreigners, 

 and retaliation for the outrages thus caused inflicted on themselves by ships of war. 



The most southerly island is Aneityum, which is mountainous and wooded, with 

 ravines of verdure and beauty. Kauri pine and other good timbers grow in the interior, 

 and at one time sandal-wood was plentiful. Fifty years ago the people were fierce 

 cannibals, always engaged in fighting, and every woman was strangled on the death of 

 her husband. " The climate," says Mr. Brenchly in his " Cruise of the Citrafoa," " is 

 humid, in general agreeable, and to those that are careful, not unhealthy. The ther- 

 mometer has never fallen below fifty-eight degrees, seldom below sixty-two degrees, while 

 it has never risen above ninety-two degrees, and seldom exceeds eighty-nine in the 

 shade." The same careful observer says, that there are no venomous reptiles on the 

 Island, but there are some large snakes. Many whales visit the coast in the winter 

 season, and whalers had for a time establishments on the Island. The population is 

 now scarcely one thousand. Tanna, fifty miles north-west, is a fine island, diversified 

 with hill and dale, and with a table-land toward the north. It is thirty miles long by 

 nine to twelve broad. The most conspicuous object is Yasur, the volcano, six hundred 

 feet high, with a crater about two hundred feet deep, and very wide, so that its stones 

 thrown up generally fall back into the fire. TJiere is a large deposit of sulphur, which 

 may be valuable to commerce. The natives of Tanna are of a dark coffee colour, 

 slender, but firm and active. They have been found excellent workers in Queensland 

 and Fiji, for which places many have left their homes. The population is thus 

 diminished, and scarcely reaches five thousand. In this Island earthquakes are frequently 

 felt, and have within the last twenty years nearly blocked up the formerly good harbour 

 of Port Resolution, by the elevation of the rock. 



The island of Eromanga is seventy-five miles in circumference, and shaped like 

 a triangle. It has mountains and elevated table-lands. It was formerly noted for its 

 sandal-wood, which 'was almost entirely destroyed by traders for export to China. This 

 formed a matter of constant irritation to the natives, and many lives, both of white 

 men and .black, perished in the trade. The population is now not more .than two 

 thousand five hundred. The island of Efate, or Sandwich, is also about seventy-five 

 miles in circumference, and diversified in scenery. Its terraced lawns, as they rose before 

 the eye of Captain Cook, on approaching them from the north, seemed full of beauty. 

 This Island is also fertile, and has been the chief centre of European settlement. Malli- 

 collo, to the north, is sixty miles long and one hundred and sixty in circumference. It 

 has hilly ranges running north and south, thickly covered with timber. In the centre of 

 the Group i,s a cluster of smaller islands, which Captain Cook called " The Shepherd 

 Isles," after his distinguished friend, Dr. Thomas Shepherd, the Professor of Astronomy 

 at Cambridge. The Island of Api, to the north-west of these, is triangular, with its 

 base towards the north-east. It is rich and fertile, and one of the finest in the: Group. 

 Ambrym is sixty miles in circumference and nearly square. Its central elevation is three 



