The Discovery of the New Hebrides. 75 
only an island, one of a large and extensive group, to which he 
applied the name of The Grand Cyclades. 
Lastly came Cook, in the year 1774, who sailed twice 
along the entire length of the group, determining the posi- 
tions and sizes of the various islands and assigning names 
to each, while the whole he re-christened by the name which it 
now bears—The New Hebrides. So observing and accurate 
was Cook in this work, that itis doubtful if even the smallest 
islet escaped his notice, and all were laid down on paper in po- 
sition and form so exactly, that but little alteration has since 
been made upon his original plan. He landed upon the islands 
of Malicolo, Eramanga, Tana, and Santo, and has left us a 
good deal of information about the natives as he found them— 
the main-facts of which, in many cases, are true of them still. 
He found that the group consisted of about thirty islands, 
lying between 15° and 20° S. latitude, and 166° and 171° W. 
longitude ; that they extended for about 400 miles N.N.W. and 
S.S.E.; and that all of the islands, except the very smallest, 
were thickly populated with tribes of savage men, with whom 
on several occasions he had quarrels and skirmishes. 
The names which he gave to the various islands were in 
some cases English, but for the most part derived from 
the natives themselves. The northern island he allowed still 
to bear the title applied to it by its discoverer; and the southern, 
—the island that I wish now to speak of more particularly,—he 
called Annatom, a name which he got from the Tanese when 
he was on their island. 
Annatom—or, as it is now more generally and more correctly 
called, Aneityum—although one of the smallest, is by no 
means one of the least important islands of the group. It was 
the first to be settled by European missionaries, and its in- 
habitants are now ahead of all the other islanders in point of 
civilization ; its harbour has been the resort for many years 
