THE NEW HEBRIDES 
449 
characteristic of the Malay and the Papuan are seldom 
seen. The people are keen traders, and apparently good- 
natured and well-disposed, but they are still not to be 
trusted, in spite of the establishment of mission stations, 
and anthropophagy still continues. The inhabitants of 
the Duff 1 Islands, as well as those of Tucopia and 
Cherry Island, differ entirely in appearance, speech, and 
customs from those of the rest of the archipelago, and are 
undoubtedly Polynesians. 
3. The New Hebrides. 
These islands extend for a distance of over 500 miles 
in a direction roughly north and south, midway between 
the Santa Cruz and Loyalty groups. Quiros discovered 
them in 1606, and, believing them to be a part of the 
supposed antarctic continent, gave them the name of 
Australia del Espiritu Santo. It is to Captain Cook, how¬ 
ever, who visited them in 1774, that they owe their 
present name. Many of them are still little known, the 
character of the natives preventing exploration of the 
interior. The climate is also inimical to Europeans, 
malaria and dysentery being common. The entire popu¬ 
lation is conjectured to be about 70,000, and there are 
about 120 white residents, of whom about half are 
French. 
The New Hebrides may conveniently be divided into 
two sections, a northern and a southern. The southern 
comprises five islands, of which the chief are Aneitium, 
Tanna, and Erromanga. The first named has had white 
residents for over fifty years. Although of small size, 
being hardly more than ten miles long, the island is said 
to have had at one period a population of 12,000, but this 
number is now reduced to 1500. Mission stations of 
2 G 
