NEW ZEALAND consists of two large and several smaller islands in the Southern Pacific Ocean, between lat. 35° and 46° S., and long. 166° and 179° E. They were discovered by Tasman in 1642. The area is about 86,000 square miles. There is an active volcano in the Bay of Plenty, and many conical hillocks, seemingly extinct volcanoes. The native population is estimated at 100,000. The men are tall, well-formed, strong, athletic, and active. Many of the chiefs are upwards of six feet high. The women are like wise well formed. The eyes are black, strong, and piercing ; hair black and commonly straight, but sometimes thick, bushy, and curly ; that of the women fine, soft, and silky. The men who can afford it tattoo the skin. The principal chiefs and their wives wear green talc stones, called Heitiki, suspended from their necks, on which is carved a human figure sitting cross-legged. Cannibalism and infanticide were formerly very common.
groups of islands are so designated. The group near the S. coastof China, 18 miles S.E. of Macao, in lat. 21° 57' N., and long. 113° 52' E., at the entrance of the Bay of Canton, consists of two islands. The Grand Ladrone, called 1, he Chinese Tyman Shan, is in lat. 20° 56' N., and long. 113° 44' E., 12 miles east of Macao, and 29 miles east of Canton factories. --It is steep and bold, and 2 miles in circumference. On its west side is the Little Ladrone.
The pirates who infested the Archipelago con sisted of the inhabitants of the free Muhammadan states in Sumatra, Lingiu, Borneo, Magindanao, and Sulu ; those natives who have remained un contaminated by the doctrines of the Arabs never being known to engage in the like pursuits. The
Europeans who were unfortunate enough to fall into their hands were generally murdered, while the natives who composed the crews of the captured vessels were sold for slaves. The term Ladrono is of Portuguese origin, and is applied by the Portuguese to the Chinese pirates, who commenced to gain power by the close of the 18th century.
Ladrones, also called the Marianne Islands, were the first islands seen by Magellan iu 1521. From these he sailed to the Philippines, where, in the island of Mactan, near Zebu, he was killed, as also was Barbosa. Magellan's companions then visited Timor in 1522, and returned to Lisbon, making the first circumnavigation of the globe. They are a large archipelago, stretching from N. to S., from the southern extremity of China into the N. Pacific for 450 miles, between lat. 13° and 21° 35' N., and nearly under long. 145° E. The islands are 20 in number. When the Spaniards arrived, the inhabitants, in manners, government, colour, and speech resembled the Tagala of the Philippines, — a tall, robust, well - proportioned race, olive-complexioned, with well-grown beards and long black hair ; both sexes stained their teeth black, and some painted their bodies red. But that race has disappeared, and only about 2000 people of foreign origin now inhabit the islands.