Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

—CHAPTER VII.MELANESIA.LL the islands lying north-east of New Guinea as far as the equatorhave been declared German possessions by the treaty of partitionwith Great Britain. Towards the west the German waters arelimited by the meridian of 141° east longitude, but eastwards thePacific Ocean is left open for future annexations. Till 1885 thelimit was indicated by 154° east longitude, but that limit was effaced the next yearwhen the north-western members of the Solomon group, Bougainville, Choiseul,Yzabel, and all the neighbouring lands to the north of 8° south latitude, were proclaimedGerman territory. The islands thus officially annexed to the empire havean estimated superficial area of over 30,000 square miles, with a population of probablyabout three hundred and fifty thousand. Like the New Guinea possessions,these insular groups are assigned to a trading company, which at the same timeexercises political functions.According to the terms of the treaty the southern section of the Solomon Archipelagofalls within the sphere of British influence.I.North Melanesia : Admiralty, Bismarck and Solomon Islands.These oceanic lands are amongst those that have longest remained unnoticed.In 1567 Mendana, guided bj' the pilot Hernando Gallego, landed on Yzabel, oneof the large islands to which he gave the collective ' name of the SolomonArchipelago, doubtless with the hope or pretension of having here discovered thataurifei'ous " land of Ophir " whence the King of Judasa imported the gold for theTemple of Jerusalem.Mendana spent six months in exploring the islands, which he was at last obligedto leave through lack of provisions and water, after quarrelling with the nativeswhom he had come " to convert to the true faitb." Later he returned to colonisethe archipelago which he had discovered, but died before reaching it.The routeto the Solomon Islands was thus lost, and remained unknown for two himdredyears afterwards.Its position had been too vaguely indicated to be followed withany certainty, while Gallego's report had been kept secret, lest he should directthe mariners of other nations to these islands henceforth claimed by Spain. Therecord of this route has only recently been discovered in the Spanish archives, andtranslated into English by H. B. Guppy.