HEB 
HEBREWS. See Jews. 
‘HEBRIDES. See Arcyresnire, Arran, Bure, 
Srarra, and Scornanp. 
~» HEBRIDES, New, a cluster of above twenty islands 
in the south Pacific Ocean, extending about 375 miles 
in a direction from N. W. to S. E. and situated from 
14° 29' to 20° 4’ S, Lat, and 166° 41” to 170° 21’ E, 
Longitude. 
Sogn lation which is now bestowed on this groupe, 
results from its complete recognition by Captain Cooke 
in 1774, So long ago as the year 1606, the Spanish 
navigator Quiros landed on the most northern island, 
which he seems to have considered as a continent, and 
called it Tierra Austral det Espiritu Santo, or the south- 
ern land of the Holy Ghost. Bougainville, in his voy- 
age of discovery in 1768, found it an island ; and after 
a partial examination of the group, named it the Ar- 
chipelago of the Great Cyclades; but almost all geo- 
hers inclined to admit the nomenclature of 
tain Cook, who was occupied 46 days in the survey ; 
and considering these i s the most western of the 
Pacific, he named them Hebrides. Nevertheless, Fleu- 
rieu questions Captain Cook’s right to change the a 
pellation of Great Cyclades, bestowed by Bou inville, 
and a hope that the name given by both will 
be su ed by restoring that of Quiros. 
These islands are of unequal dimensions, and - 
rated from each other by channels of different breadth. 
But the following list, obtained from collating the nar- 
ratives of successive navigators, will more briefly ex- 
plain these peculiarities, making some allowances for 
the whole not being seen exactly under the same as- 
pect. 
Pic d' Etoile, 14° 29! S. Lat. 168° 9’ E. Long.—Tierra 
~ Austral, 66 miles long, 36 broad. St Bartholomew.— 
Isle of Lepers, 54 to 60 miles in circuit, 15° 20’ S. Lat. 
168° 31’ E. Long. Aurora Island, 36 miles long, 5 
broad, 15° 6’ S. 168° 24’ E. Long. Whitsuntide 
Isle, 33 miles long, 8 broad, 15° 45’ S. Lat. 168° 28’ 
E. Long. Mallicolo, 54 miles long, 24 broad, 15° 50’ 
S. Lat. 169° 38’ E. Long. Ambrym, 60 miles in cir- 
cuit, 16° 15’ S. Lat. 168°20’ E.Long. Apee, 60 miles 
in. circuit, 16° 42’ S, Lat. 168° 36’ E. Long. Paoom, 
15 miles in circuit. Three Hills Island, 12 or 15 miles 
in circuit, 17° 4’ S. Lat. 168°32’ E. Long. Shepherds 
Isles. Monument. Two Hills——Montague Isle, 9 miles 
in circuit. Hinchinbrook Isle, 14 miles in circuit. 
Sandwich Island, 75 miles in circuit, 17° 40’ S. Lat. 
168° 30’ E. . Erromango, 90 miles in circuit, 
18° 48’ S. Lat. 169° 20’ E. Long. Tanna, 72 miles 
in circuit, 19° 30’ S, Lat. 169° 38’ E. Long. Irronan.— 
Immer, 15 miles in circuit. Annatom, 30 to 36 miles 
in circuit, 20° 3’ S. Lat. 170° 5’ E. Long. 
Some of these islands contain volcanoes, such as Am- 
brym and Tanna ; that on the latter throws up prodi- 
gious columns of fire and smoke, attended with loud 
explosions at frequent intervals, and huge stones are 
sometimes seen in the air. Native sulphur is found on 
the island, and nephitic vapours arise the ground. 
Quiros affirms that he and another tain saw silver 
and gold on the Tierra Austral ; pet i a ah 
confirmed ; nor are we particularly acquainted with t 
min of the New Tide uriess in their exhi- 
biting volcanic products, red ochre, and chalk. Hot 
springs issue from the rocks of Tanna, raising the ther- 
Piccubir on th these islands 
grow t these i in great 
profusion and variety. iros, who wrote a recom~ 
693 
HEB 
mendatory memoir to his own court regarding the 
island upon which he landed, describes it as of greater 
fertility than Spain; and later navigators have remark« 
ed that the hills of other islands were covered with 
woods to the very top. Trees occur 150 feet high. 
Figs, nutmegs, and oranges, which Captain Cook found 
nowhere besides, w here, as well as cocoa-nuts, 
bananas, the bread fruit, and the sugar-cane. 
Fish are numerous on the shores, but many are_poi- 
sonous ; and the crew of different ships have suffered 
severely, though not fatally, from having fed upon them. 
Large and utiful parroquets, of black, red, and 
yellow plumage, are seen on the islands; and, among 
other birds, that species of pigeon which feeds ori the 
nutmeg, and is described by Rumphius as disseminat- 
ing the real plant in the Spice Islands. Quiros speaks 
of goats ; but the only quadrupeds observed by later 
visitors are hogs and rats. No dogs have been obser- 
ved by strangers on any of the islands visited by them; 
nor have the natives any name for the animal, which 
shews that it is unknown. 
The New Hebrides are evidently inhabited by diffe- 
rent races of people, whose origin some navigators are 
inclined to derive from Papua or New Guinea. None 
possess that symmetry and stature seen in other parts 
of the Southern Pacike Ocean. Those of the Tierra 
del Espiritu Santo seem more robust and better formed 
than most of the rest. Bougainville describes the na- 
tives of Lepers Isle as small, ugly, and ill made, and 
the few women observed were altogether as disgusting 
as the men. The inhabitants of 'T'anna are of middle 
size, their limbs well made and rather slender ; and 
some are tall, stout, and strong. Their features are 
large, the nose broad, eyes full, and in eral with 
an ble expression. The hair is black ; but, in se- 
veral instances, with brown or yellow tips. Brown and 
reddish hair has appeared here and elsewhere ; but it is 
frizzled and woolly for the most The women of 
the Mallicolese present the most disagreeable features of 
any seen in the South Seas; and the daubing of their 
whole bodies, or covering their heads with the orange 
powder of turmeric root, has a dirty appearance. All 
the inhabitants of the group are of a deep chesnut 
brown colour, and their skin is uncommonly soft and 
smooth to the touch. M. de Bougainville says, those of 
Lepers Isle are of a black or Mulatto colour, the hair of 
some being a yellow wool, which, it is not unlikely, 
might have been the uence of disease ; as he gave 
the island its name from the inhabitants being much 
afflicted with leprosy. 
The of. the New Hebridians is different 
from that of all the other tribes of the South Sea ; it 
abounds in consonants, and even in the united dupli- 
cation or triplication of Som): Bek: shee have a re» 
markable facility in understanding and imitating stran~ 
, and a peo quick and ready apprehension 
heir admiration is expressed by hissing like a goose. 
They are singularly honest, unlike all savages ; and 
most of them have a manly, good natured, open as- 
= general these e go nearly naked; boys and 
irls absolutely so. The greater part of the women 
ie a short petticoat ; many only a cord about the bo- 
dy with a bunch of straw. A decided characteristic of 
the Hebridians consists in a rope tied round the mid- 
dle, which, being put on at a very early age, makes a 
deep groove, divi the belly as it were into two 
parts, so that the one almost overhangs the other. Cap- 
Hebrides, 
New. 
—\— 
