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INTRODUCTION I I

NATIVE POPULATION

The natives belong to the Melanesian race, which
is a collective name for the dark-skinned, Curly-
haired, bearded inhabitants of the Pacific. The
Melanesians are quite distinct from the Australians,
and still more so from the lank-haired, light-skinned
Polynesians of the eastern islands. Probably a
mixture of Polynesians and Melanesians are the
Microne'sians, who are light-skinned but curly-
haired, and of whom we find representatives in the
New Hebrides. The island-nature of the archipelago
is very favourable to race-mixture; and as we know
that on some islands there were several settlements
of Polynesians, it is not surprising to find a very
complex mingling of races, which it is not an easy
task to disentangle. It would seem, however, that
we have before us remnants of four races: a short,
dark, curly-haired and perhaps original race, a few
varieties of the tall Melanesian race, arrived in the
islands in several migrations, an old Polynesian
element as a relic of its former migrations eastward,
and a present Polynesian element from the east.

Every traveller will notice that the lightest
population is in the south and north-east of the New
Hebrides, while the darkest is in the north-west, and
the ethnological difference corresponds to this division.

In the Banks Islands we find, probably owing to
recent immigration, more Polynesian blood than in
the northern New'Hebrides ; in the Santa Cruz group
the process of mixing seems to be just going on.