Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

—SAXTA-C'RUZ.—NEW HEBRIDES. 331discovered thu-ty-uiae 3ears afterwards by Dillon. The fatal rock lies to thewest of the island in one of the channels piercing the circuit of fringing reefs.Although now well known to mariners in the South Seas, and frequentlyvisited by labour vessels and missionaries, neither the Santa- Cruz group nor theNew Hebrides" have yet been annexed by any Eui-opeau power. The formercome, no doubt, within the sphere assigned to British influence by the treatyconcluded with Germany ; but the New Hebrides, which also seemed destined tobecome an English possession, have been disputed by France, and some of theislands have even been temporarily occupied by small French garrisons.Protes-Fig.Ul.Vaxikoeo.Scale 1 : 375,000.S&'boEast oF Gne60 Fathomsand upwards.tant and Catholic missionaries, inspired by religious rivalries. New Caledonian andFijian speculators in search of labourers for their plantations, clamoured for theintervention of their respective governments in favour of their particular interests,and for some years the political fate of the archipelago remained in suspense.This uncertain situation has even been indefinitely prolonged by a recent treatywhich place's the group under joint British and French protection, a state of thingswhich may probably, sooner or later, result in the partition of the archipelagobetween the two rival powers.Like the other insular chains in the "V\'estern Pacific, both archipelagoes arc of