[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

INTRODUCTION 3

New Hebrides, leaving his name to the treacherous
channel between Malekula and Santo.

But all these travellers were thrown into the shade
by the immortal discoverer, James Cook, who, in the
New Hebrides, as everywhere else, combined into
solid scientific material all that his predecessors had
left in a state of patchwork. Cook’s first voyage
made possible the observation of the transit of Venus
from one of the islands of the Pacific. His second
cruise, in search of the Australian continent, led him,
coming from Tongoa, to the New Hebrides, of which
he first sighted Maevo.

Assisted by two brilliant scientists, Reinhold and
George Forster, Cook investigated the archipelago
with admirable exactitude, determined the position of
the larger islands, made scientific collections of all
sorts, and gave us the first reliable descriptions of
the country and its people, so that the material he
gathered is of the greatest value even at the present
day. The group had formerly been known as the
“Great Cyclades"; Cook gave it its present name
of “ New Hebrides.” '

Incited by Cook’s surprising results the French
Government sent La Pérouse to the islands, but he
was shipwrecked in 1788 on Vanikoro, the southern-
most of the Santa Cruz group; remains of this wreck
were found on Vanikoro a few years ago. In 1789
Bligh sighted the Banks Islands, and in 1793
d’Entrecastaux, sent by Louis XVI. to the rescue of
La Pérouse, saw the islands of Santa Cruz. Since
' that time traffic with the islands became more fre-