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COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
established in 1888. The islands produce coco-nuts, 
bread-fruit, bananas, coffee, cotton, arrowroot, and tobacco. 
Many of the natives go as plantation coolies to Tahiti. 
8. The Society Islands. 
We now come to a group of islands of some import¬ 
ance, which form the chief possession of France in the 
South Seas. This nation has acquired not only the 
Society group, but also the Paumotu or Low Archipelago, 
the Marquesas, the Tubuai or Austral Isles, and the 
Wallis and Gambier groups. She also claims Manahiki, 
and taking into consideration Xew Caledonia and the 
Loyalty Islands, the land area of her possessions in the 
South Pacific is probably as great as, if not greater than, 
that of any other European power. 
The Society Islands, eleven in number, and forming a 
chain in the direction from north-west to south-east, are 
amongst the best known in the South Sea, and are divided 
by a wide channel into the Leeward and Windward 
groups. Amongst the former are the so-called four king¬ 
doms of Hualiine, Eaiatea, Tahaa, and Borabora, where 
the natives, aided by the white settlers, for long main¬ 
tained a spirit of independence, keeping aloof from the 
rest of the confederacy that earlier accepted the French 
protectorate. The eastern group includes Eimeo or 
Moorea in the west, Maitea in the east, and Tahiti in the 
centre, this last famous for its enchanting scenery. All 
together have an area of 650 square miles, with a popu¬ 
lation of 18,000 souls. They were discovered by Quiros 
in 1606, but for a long time lost sight of, to be redis¬ 
covered by Wallis in 1767. Cook gave them the name 
by which they are now known, and it was on Tahiti 
that the transit of Venus was observed by him in 
