INSULAR AUSTRAL. \SIA. 



1249 



thousand five hundred feet, and the mountains are grand and picturesque. The volcano 

 is active, and clouds of dust fall many miles at sea around. Aoba to the north is 

 mountainous, \vith fine water- falls and beautiful scenery. The same may be said of 

 Maiwo. Bougainville discovered it at day-break in 1768, and gave it the name of Aurora. 

 The largest island of the Group is Espiritu Santo, which is seventy miles long by forty 

 in breadth. Its mountain ranges are magnificent, some of them being, it is said, live 

 thousand feet high. It is well-watered, and rich in vegetation. The natives are, perhaps, 

 the finest both in physique and in art, but they are inveterate cannibals. 



Missionary operations began among the New Hebrides in 1839, when the apos- 

 tolic John Williams perished in his attempt to introduce teachers on Eromanga. In 

 1842, Messrs. Turner and Nisbet settled on, Tanna, but, after many hardships, had 

 to flee for their lives in an open boat. In 1848, the Rev. John Geddie settled on 



A LABOUR VESSEL SHIPPING KANAKAS. 



Aheityum, and in 1852 was joined by the Rev. John Inglis. In the course of twelve 

 years, the whole Island became Christian, with fifty schools, under as many teachers, 

 a large staff of elders and deacons, and the New Testament in print. In ten 

 years more the Old Testament was printed, and the Shorter Catechism, an abridged 

 " Pilgrim's Progress," Hymns, and a vocabulary were published. The natives paid for the 

 printing of the Scriptures by contributions of arrowroot. In 1887, from this Island alone 

 five thousand pounds of arrowroot, refined as that of Bermuda, were sent to the market. 

 On Eromanga three missionaries perished by the violence of the people, but at length 

 the Rev. H. A. Robertson has the whole Island covered by a net-work of teachers, 

 natives of the Island and Christian converts, and he ministers in a church at Dillon's 

 Bay, erected to the memory of the martyrs, where nearly two hundred are communicants. 

 Aniwa, a low coral island, with a small population, was evangelized by the labours of 

 the Rev. J. G. Paton. Efate is nearly Christianized, and many of the people have 

 been taught to read and write/ On Nguna there is a large band of Christian people 

 who assemble in a neat church. On -several of the other islands there are resident 



