452 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
head of St. Philip Bay, that he established his settlement 
“ New Jerusalem,” on the banks of a stream to which 
he gave the name of the “ Jordan/’ It was fore¬ 
doomed to failure, and his settlers had soon to fly 
to save their lives from the malaria and the spears of 
the natives. Near Cape Cumberland, the northern 
extremity of the island, are some very curious ruins, the 
origin of which is still involved in mystery. The 
buildings are apparently of great size, monolithic pillars, 
ruined walls, and masses of cemented masonry being 
scattered over a plain of about three miles in extent. A 
second and apparently similar site occurs at a place 
about five miles distant. These ruins have been by 
some attributed to the Spaniards, but probably on quite 
insufficient grounds, and it seems more reasonable to 
suppose that, in common with the remains on the 
Ladrones, Carolines, and other islands, they were con¬ 
structed by some pre-existing race, who have left no 
other trace behind them, but who may have been, 
conjecturally, an early immigrating Caucasian people 
from Indo-China. Of the remaining islands, Vate is 
perhaps best known to Europeans. It has large planta¬ 
tions, some of which are the property of French com¬ 
panies formed in New Caledonia. 
All the New Hebrides are volcanic, but there are a 
few small outlying coral-reef islands. Numerous extinct 
craters exist in all the islands, but the peaks of Ambrym 
and Lopevi, and Mount Yasowa in Tanna, are active, and 
Yanua Lava sub-active, with thermal springs. Captain 
Cyprian Bridge describes the southern islands as being 
the most varied in scenery, Erromanga and Sandwich 
having step-like terraces faced with precipitous bluffs of 
coralline limestone, and stretches of open grass land. 
Good harbours are scarce in the archipelago, which is a 
