CHAPTER YII. 



MELANESIA. 



iLL the islands lying north-east of New Guinea as far as the equator 

 have been declared German possessions by the treaty of partition 

 with Great Britain. Towards the west the German waters are 

 limited by the meridian of l4l° east longitude, but eastwards the 

 Pacific Ocean is left open for future annexations. Till 1885 the 

 limit was indicated by 154° east longitude, but that limit was effaced the next year 

 when the north-western members of the Solomon group, Bougainville, Choiseul, 

 Yzabel, and all the neighbouring lands to the north of 8° south latitude, were pro- 

 claimed German territory. The islands thus officially annexed to the empire have 

 an estimated superficial area of over 30,000 square miles, with a population of pro- 

 bably about three hundred and fifty thousand. Like the New Guinea possessions, 

 these insular groups are assigned to a trading company, which at the same time 

 exercises political functions. 



According to the terms of the treaty the southern section of the Solomon Archi- 

 pelago falls within the sphere of British influence. 



I. — North Melanesia: Admiralty, Bismarck and Solomon Islands. 



These oceanic lands are amongst those that have longest remained unnoticed. 

 In 1567 Mendana, guided by the pilot Hernando Gallego, landed on Yzabel, one 

 of the large islands to which he gave the collective name of the Solomon 

 Archipelago, doubtless with the hope or pretension of having here discovered that 

 auriferous " land of Ophir " whence the King of Judaea imported the gold for the 

 Temple of Jerusalem. 



Mendana spent six months in exploring the islands, which he was at last obliged 

 to leave through lack of provisions and water, after quarrelling with the natives 

 whom he had come "to convert to the true faith." Later he returned to colonise 

 the archipelago which he had discovered, but died before reaching it. The route 

 to the Solomon Islands was thus lost, and remained unknown for two hundred 

 years afterwards. Its position had been too vaguely indicated to be followed with 

 any certainty, while Gallego's report had been kept secret, lest he should direct 

 the mariners of other nations to these islands henceforth claimed by Spain. The 

 record of this route has only recently been discovered in the Spanish archives, and 

 translated into English by H. B. Guppy. 



