THE NEW HEBRIDES 
451 
extinction. Copra is the chief product of all the islands, 
but coffee, sugar-cane, nutmegs, and sago have been 
grown with more or less success. 
The northern group of the New Hebrides is more 
compact, and is composed of about thirty-five islands, 
some of which are of considerable size. At the north 
are the Banks Islands, forming a separate group, and 
memorable as having been discovered by Bligh during 
his passage to Timor in the open boat in which he was 
set adrift by the mutineers of the Bounty. Of this group 
the two chief islands are Yanua Lava and Santa Maria 
or Gaua Island. The natives are for the most part of a 
friendly disposition, and differ in many ways from those 
of the rest of the New Hebrides. The New Caledonian 
Company has stations on some of the islands, and coffee, 
maize, nutmegs, and pepper are grown; but the most 
valuable product is rosewood, which appears to be very 
plentiful. The population is supposed to be about 5000. 
These and the islands to the south as far as Ambrym 
form the field of the labours of the Anglican Melanesian 
Mission. 
The islands constituting the main mass of the 
archipelago lie directly south of the Banks Islands, and 
are of considerably larger size. Espiritu Santo, the 
largest, is nearly 8 0 miles long; Mallicolo comes next, 
with a length of 55 miles; and Aurora, Pentecost, 
Ambrym, Api, and Yate or Sandwich Island are, roughly 
speaking, about equal to each other in size, having 
perhaps an average area of about 250 square miles. 
Espiritu Santo is heavily wooded, and has mountains of 
5000 feet, and broad and fertile valleys watered by 
numberless streams. Its beauty and fertility are indeed 
most striking, and were greatly extolled by Quiros in 
his report to Philip III. It was on this island, at the 
