HEBRIDES, NEW, a cluster of above twenty islands in the south Pacific Ocean, extending about 375 miles in a direction from N. W. to S. E. and situated from 14° 29' to 4' S. Lat. and 166° 41" to 170° 21' E. Longitude.
The appellation which is now bestowed on this group, results from its complete recognition by Captain Cooke in 1774. So long ago as the year 1606, the Spanish naviga tor Quiros landed on the most northern island, which he seems to have considered as a continent, and called it Tier ra Austral del Espiritu Santo, or the southern land of the Holy Ghost. Bougainville, in his voyage of discovery in 1768, found it an island ; and after a partial examination of the group, named it the Archipelago of the Great Cy clades ; but almost all geographers seem inclined to admit the nomenclature of Captain Cook, who was occupied 46 days in the survey ; and considering these islands the most Western of the Pacific, he named them Hebrides. Never theless, Fieurieu-questions Captain Cook's right to change the app.- Nation ? f Great Cyclades, bestowed by B.nigain viile, and ex prLsses a hope that the name given by both will be superseded, by restoring that of Quiros.
These islands are of unequal dimensions, and separated from each other by channels of different breadth. But the following list, obtained from collating the narratives of suc cessive navigators, will more briefly explain these peculi arities, making some allowances for the whole not being seen exactly under the same aspect.
Pic d'Etoile, 14° 29' S. Lat. 168° 9' E. Long.—Tierra Austral, 66 miles long, 36 broad. St Bartholomew.—Isle of Lepers, 54 to 60 miles in circuit, 15° 20' S. Lat. 31' E. Long. Aurora Island, 36 miles long, 5 broad, 15° 6' S. Lat. 168° 24' E. Long. Whitsuntide Isle, 33 miles long, 8 ()load, 15° 45' S. Lat. 168° 28' E. Long. Mallicolo, 54 miles long, 24 broad, 15° 50' S. Lat. 169° 38' E. Long. Ambrym, 60 miles in circuit, 16° 15' S. Lat. 168° 20' E. Long. Apee, 60 miles in circuit, 16° 42' S. Lat. 163° 36' E. Long. Paoom, 15 miles in circuit. Three Hills Island, 12 or 15 miles in circuit, 4' S. Lat. 168° 32' E. Long. Shepherds Isles. Monument. Two Hills —Montague Isle, 9 miles in circuit. Hinchinbrook Isle, 14 miles in cir
cuit. Sandwich island, 75 miles in circuit, 17° 41/ S Lat. 168° 30' E. Long. Erromango, 90 miles in circuit, 18° 48' Lat. 169° 20' E Long. Tanna, 72 iiiiies in circuit, 19° 30' S. Lat. 38' E. Long. Irronan.—Immer, 15 miles in circuit. Annatom, 30 to 36 miles in circuit, 20° 3' S. Lat. 170° 5' E. Long.
Some of these islands contain volcanoes, such as Am brym and Tanna ; that on the latter throws up prodigious columns of fire and smoke, attended with loud explosions at frequent intervals, and huge stones are sometimes seen in the air. Native sulphur is found on the island, and nephi tic vapours arise from the ground. Quiros affirms that he and another Captain saw silver and gold on the Tierra Austral ; but this has not been confirmed ; nor are we par ticularly acquainted with the mineralogy of the New tic brides, unless in their exhibiting volcanic products, red ochre, and chalk. Hot springs issue from the rocks of Tanna, raising the thermometer to 202°.
Vegetables grow throughout these islands in great pro fusion and variety. Quiros, who wrote a recommendatory memoir to his own court, regarding the island upon which he landed, describes it as of greater fertility than Spain ; and later navigators have remarked, that the hills of other islands were covered with woods to the very top. Trees occur 150 feet high. Figs, nutmegs, and oranges, which Capt.un Cook found no where besides, grow here, as well as cocoa-nuts, bananas, the bread-fruit, and the sugar cane.
Fish are numerous on the shores, hut many are poison ous ; and the crews of different ships have suffered severe ly, though not fatally, from having fed upon them.
Large and beautiful parroquets, of black, red, and yellow plumage, are seen on the islands ; and, among other birds, that species of pigeon which feeds on the nutmeg, and is described by Rumphius as disseminating the real plant in the Spice Islands. Quiros speaks of goats; but the only quadrupeds observed by later visitors are hogs and rats. No dogs have been observed by strangers on any of the islands visited by them ; nor have the natives any name for the animal, which shews that it is unknown.