NEW HEBRIDES

NEW HEBRIDES, a group of some 30 volcanic Islands (20 inhabited) in the Western Pacific, lying W. of the Fiji Islands and NE. of New Caledonia; was once nominally a possession of Britain and New Hebrides was a colonial name. Since 1980, it is an independent country named Vanuatu.

The island was inhabited by cannibals of the Melanesian race. Missionary enterprise has had some effect in the southern islands; Espiritu Santo (70 m. by 40) is the largest.