GEOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 277 



habitants were said to have skins as fair as Europeans ami red or black hair. They 

 punctured their bellies in a pattern of a circle around the navel ; and painted their 

 bodies red down to the waist. The women were very handsome and were clothed with 

 some light material from head to foot. The natives of Guaytopo, Taumaco, and 

 Chicayana, were on very friendly terms and spoke the same language. 



The islands of Pilen and Xupan are evidently the Pileni and Xupani of the adjacent 

 INIatema or Swallow Islands, which lie to the northward of the large island of Santa Cruz. 

 Fonofouo or Fonfono, which is stated to lie near Pilen and Xupan, may perhaps be th& 

 Lomlom of the same small group. It was described to Quiros as being " many islaads, small 

 and flat," with a good port. The inhabitants were said to be dun-coloured, and very tall. 



Tucopia was subsequently visited by the Spanish navigator. In later times it has obtained 

 a melancholy interest in connection with the fate of La Perouse. Mecaraylay is apparently 

 in the vicinity of Guaytoi^o, but possessing a different language, its inhabitants being noted 

 for the use of tortoise-shell ornaments. Its name suggests that of Makira, on the south coast 

 of St. Christoval, in the neighbouring Solomon Group. Taucalo may perhaps be the volcanic 

 island of Tinakula lying off the north coast of Santa Cruz Island. It is stated to be near 

 Taumaco. 



The " large country" called iSIanicolo is to be identified with the adjacent large island, 

 named Yanikoro in the present Admiralty charts, which lies about 100 miles to the south- 

 ward of Taumaco. It is referred by Captain Cook^ to the Mallicolo of the New Hebrides, 

 lying 4^ further south, which he visited in 1774 ; but this view cannot be sustained. In tlie 

 first place, it is stated to lie two days' sail from Tucopia. The following evidence, however, 

 is sufficient of itself to settle the point. "When Captain Dillon- was on his way to Vanikoro 

 ill 1827, to ascertain the fate of La Perouse, he learned from the natives of the neighbouring 

 island of Tucopia that the island he was going to was called Malicoln : but he subsequently 

 ascertained on visiting the island in question, that it should be more correctly called Manui- 

 colo or Vannicolo. In his chart of the island, Captain Dillon calls it Mannicolo. The resem- 

 blance in name between these two islands in the Xew Hebrides, and Santa Cruz Groups has 

 been a frequent cause of misconcej^tion in references to the narratives of the early navigators. 



NOTE XV. (Pages 100, 251.) 



The Pouro of Quiros. — A native of Chicayana, whom Quiros had captured at Taumaco, 

 told the Spanish navigator that tliere dwelt in Taumaco "an Indian, a great pilot," who 

 had brought from " a large country, named Pouro," certain arrows, with points, in the form 

 of a kuife, which, from the native's description, Quiros concluded were of silver. Pouro, he 

 learned, was very populous, and its inhabitants were dun-complexioned. 



^\'hen I first came upon this reference to Pouro, I at once recognised it as an allusion to 

 tlie Bauro (St. Christoval) of the Solomon Group, lying rather less than 300 miles to the 

 westward of Taumaco. Mr. Hale,^ the philologist of the L^nited States Exploring Expedi- 

 tion, under Commodore "Wilkes, endeavours to identify the Pouro of the Taumaco natives 

 with the Bouro in the ilalay Archipelago, an island lying more than 2,000 miles further 

 westward : and he refers to the circumstance of the silver arrows that were brought to Tau- 

 maco as supporting his view. Regarding Bouro as the island referred to in the traditions of 

 the Fijians, Tongans, and Samoans, relating to the origin of their race, Sir. Hale finds in 

 the Pouro of the Taumaco natives an allusion to this sacred island, and in the circumstance 

 of the silver arrows he finds evidence of communication between these two regions. There 

 can. however, be little doubt that by this Pouro the Bauro of the Solomon Group was meant. 

 The presence of the silver arrows maj be easily explained, when we remember that about 

 forty years before, the Spaniards were exfjloring this island of Bauro, or Paubro as Gallego 

 gives it (page 229). 



1 " Voyage towards the South Pole and round the World," vol. II., p. 146. 



i " Discovery of the fate of \.a. i'erouse, ' London, IS-jy : vol. 1., p. '66. 



3 " Ethnography ami ir'hilology of the U. S. Kxploring Expedition," p. 195. 



