Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

XOETH MELANESIA. 819Two hundred years after Mendaiia's voj-age, Carteret, in 17G7, followed thenext year hy Bougainville, and in 1769 by Surville, again sailed through thestraits and channels discovered by the Spanish navigator, but without identifyingthem ; in fact, they fancied they had discovered new lands and accordinglygave them new names. It was reserved for Buache and Fleurieu, by patientinvestigation and comparative studies of the early itineraries, to restore to theSpanish mariners the glory of having first explored these Melanesian regions.But while navigators were in vain seeking the lost route to the Solomon group,they visited other lands lying nearer to New Guinea.In 1616 the Dutch sailors,Le Maire and Schouten, surveyed the " Twenty-five Islands," since Carteret's timeknown as the Admiralty Archipelago they also discovered Birara or NewBritain, which, however, they mistook for the northern seaboard of New Guineafiinged with numerous islets.Tasman, who also visited these lands in 1643, fell intothe same error, which was not corrected till the year 1700, when Dampier, passingsouthwards, penetrated into the strait that bears his name, and thus determinedthe insular character of the Admiralty group ; but much still remained to bedone, and the systematic survey of these waters, begun in the last century byCarteret, Bougainville, and d'Entrecasteaux, and continued in 1827 by Dumontd'Urville, is only now being gradually completed.For the inland exploration of the islands little has hitherto been done.Missionaries, traders, adventurers, naturalists, such asMildukho-Maklay, Finsch,Guppy, have visited various parts of the Melanesian groups and published theresults of their studies ; but no methodical survey of the whole region was beguntill the year 1884, when New Britain and New Ireland were occupied by theGerman Government. Unfortunately', one of the first official acts of that jiowerwas to change the geographical nomenclature, in which names of English andFrench origin prevailed. Doubtless, some of these arbitrary terms might withadvantage have been suppressed, and replaced by those current amongst thenatives themselves.But the maps have been modified in the spirit of a mistaken,or aggressive patriotism, without considering whether the new terminology couldbe justified by the physical aspect of the islands, the nature of the soil,population, or comparative geography.The chief insular group has thus become the Bismarck Ai'chijielago;Tombara,or New Ireland, is henceforth to be known as New Mecldenburg ; York Islandhas taken the name of New Lauenburg, and Birara, or New Britain, that of NewPomerania.Most of the mountains and ports have been similarly "re-baptised,"with a cynical defiance of international etiquette and indifference to the fitness ofthings.Physical Features of North Melanesia.The North Melanesian lands are disposed in the form of two transverse curves.The northern, beginning with Tiger Island, about 100 miles north of the New Guineaseaboard, stretches eastwards through the groups of Ninigo or Exchequer, the