this island from that of Bouka. The people of these islands
are thfts^dJefe^^d ^hyiMMllardi^Fi. snHefsa^s cvfotfe© colour
of their skins is blackish; they are of middles stature, and
being naklsfl/sthfeir^fetineflyitisdrked musdet indicated?great
strengths Their-5 -though not very agreeable^ is exrtremely
^expresSiVei ' Their 'heads are very large; their foreheads
broad like the rest'of their’ faces/ which.*!are very flat,
especially-tinder ^theihoSe ;s3tbei>r )ehmk large a n d 1 prominent;
their bheeks ;fflll pJtheir iftSHB^yflat; their njonths very tergd,
and their tipsrbefy thin. The betel,; which gives- a bloody
tMgfei to itl^ir larger Months; adds»:? to 4he ngliaesse of ctheif
appearance. Their baio wasveurledp thiefe;«and Ibi^ayp like
that (jf many Pa paws whom we afterwards met with.” j s
IslaitaM ®
??oTbe g^eat tangb-Of Bblbmon’e Islands is'consideredyte) e©m>-
induce ^at BbngainviHe^dStraitpTand ter ^terminate* ateCape
Oriental, the south-eastern point of fthedslaBdsof Ban Ghris-
toVab! ThW chain off island# »was: discovered dn'J§6Tby;Aldaro
dCj Mendaha; Mendhna Madfe? a ^ t ^ n d woyagiei4wentyTeight
years afterwards wiih*theyv<iewof founding a^Spahiehimoifotty
©n thedsland oPiJSah Christoval/ ffout he- could hot find^His
way to theSeldmon’s Islands. He was said to have found
these islands on his first voyage ahd to have lost them in his
second. However, he found his way to-an island hot more
than forty leagues distant from San Christoval, which he
named Santa Cruz, and after staying there some time abandoned
his further search; From the tithe of Mefidana the
Solomon’s Islands were not visited till the voyage of M.
Siurvilk in^the1 middle^ o f'th e last eentury. Carteret, who
touched a t Santa Crnz, Called it Egmont’s Island, and the
adjoining groupe Queen Charlotte’s Islands. Santa Cruz is
said to be called by the natives of the island Indendi, Indenni,
or Nitehdi, and by this last name it has been designated by
some late French writers.
The natives of all these islands are described as very
similar in physical characters and general condition to the
natives tjefrlfetw Ireland and Bougainville’s Island,? and they
are * probably; allcnfo bhe ease/ -.but * appear to differ (somewhat
in eomplexiionv 1
|p The. people of* Solomon’s Islands, rare: said to have yams,
bread-feuite^trees, rand coeorhutsdin abnmiunfiej and - some
hogs. ’-Some of »these islands;safe; mbuntainoni J others i low
and flats a Thaypeoplu^of! Santa f^sabeJ; ,/perhaps* the; largest
of > them,1 i^rC) isaidp »in the /(accounts of| Mendana s «voyage», to
be*asf the/coMfdexion of Mdlattoesj and »to have^cndy hair. »
- Labilfor^ea® says/: th a t^ ed slan d e is of »thisjchain,: which
he terms the; Arsacidea/f bore-a great »resemblance? to ih e - inhabitants
Of iSainte OicDiyjyor Santa G*s*fc.*M3«
/ The pdospdeiaof SantaTCte ares.minutfflyii’dsorihed by the
Spanish voyagers. “ They were of dark complexion, some
more black than others, and all with woolly hair, which many
among them had stained-,.or.; dyed with -white,iJ?'ed, and other
colours, and some had half the head shorn; other distinctions
we.re';ofeei?ve(|/ anditheirvteetb* were» stained* fed. Most
of-them were painted or ? stained --black, > so* as to make them
blacker: than tle it natural «eeloun” | 1
| Carteret informs,- us-,.- -that- tbe-nativefe. of Queen Charlotte s
Isles, m ?«SantarrCrn^ t.we^ e b l ^ vt0;ollyRrbCads|- and
staik,naked« ^ nativet ,of tdfenames^tlfll^ Orta the same
cluster/ had Ms a wooUyrbead rlikecthab e&lhe.»Negroes^ and a
small beard, but he waawnl featured Mdinot»soHblgek^asthe
natives- of Guinea;» was ?©f common jstature; and,» like all the
rest of these islander#, quite naked’’ |
• ; n S a s c T * > N o f tMe> New Hebrides.
The chain;of islands tended thfeNdfviHebrides!, seeras to
be a continuation of theK chain ofv Salomon’s Islands/«,a wide
* The Sfanta W fla%wAers and
tlitenm l i t b y th« natiyes./ M. p'umont
d’Urville has described this'inland and its hMiMnls? I ‘riiulrVefer ihy
readers to his work. "I-It would occupy a folib Volume to describe» the natives
of every particular island1; *!