The islands of Pilen and Nupan are evidently the Pileni and Nupani of the adjacent Matema or Swallow Islands, which lie to the northward of the large island of Santa Cruz. Fonofono or Fonfono, which is stated to lie near Pilen and Nupan, may perhaps be the Lomlom of the same small group. It was described to Quiros as being “many islands, small and flat,” with a good port. The inhabitants were said to be dun-coloured, and very tall.
Tucopia was subsequently visited by the Spanish navigator. In later times it has obtained a melancholy interest in connection with the fate of La Pérouse. Mécaraylay is apparently in the vicinity of Guaytopo, but possessing a different language, its inhabitants being noted for the use of tortoise-shell ornaments. Its name suggests that of Makira, on the south coast of St. Christoval, in the neighbouring Solomon Group. Taucalo may perhaps be the volcanic island of Tinakula lying off the north coast of Santa Cruz Island. It is stated to be near Taumaco.
The “large country” called Manicolo is to be identified with the adjacent large island, named Vanikoro in the present Admiralty charts, which lies about 100 miles to the southward of Taumaco. It is referred by Captain Cook[417] to the Mallicolo of the New Hebrides, lying 4° further south, which he visited in 1774; but this view cannot be sustained. In the first place, it is stated to lie two days’ sail from Tucopia. The following evidence, however, is sufficient of itself to settle the point. When Captain Dillon[418] was on his way to Vanikoro in 1827, to ascertain the fate of La Pérouse, he learned from the natives of the neighbouring island of Tucopia that the island he was going to was called Malicolo: but he subsequently ascertained on visiting the island in question, that it should be more correctly called Mannicolo or Vannicolo. In his chart of the island, Captain Dillon calls it Mannicolo. The resemblance in name between these two islands in the New Hebrides, and Santa Cruz Groups has been a frequent cause of misconception in references to the narratives of the early navigators.
[417] “Voyage towards the South Pole and round the World,” vol. II., p. 146.
[418] “Discovery of the fate of La Pérouse,” London, 1829: vol. I., p. 33.
NOTE XV. ([Pages 100], [251].)
The Pouro of Quiros.—A native of Chicayana, whom Quiros had captured at Taumaco, told the Spanish navigator that there dwelt in Taumaco “an Indian, a great pilot,” who had brought from “a large country, named Pouro,” certain arrows, with points, in the form of a knife, which, from the native’s description, Quiros concluded were of silver. Pouro, he learned, was very populous, and its inhabitants were dun-complexioned.
When I first came upon this reference to Pouro, I at once recognised it as an allusion to the Bauro (St. Christoval) of the Solomon Group, lying rather less than 300 miles to the westward of Taumaco. Mr. Hale,[419] the philologist of the United States Exploring Expedition, under Commodore Wilkes, endeavours to identify the Pouro of the Taumaco natives with the Bouro in the Malay Archipelago, an island lying more than 2,000 miles further westward: and he refers to the circumstance of the silver arrows that were brought to Taumaco as supporting his view. Regarding Bouro as the island referred to in the traditions of the Fijians, Tongans, and Samoans, relating to the origin of their race, Mr. Hale finds in the Pouro of the Taumaco natives an allusion to this sacred island, and in the circumstance of the silver arrows he finds evidence of communication between these two regions. There can, however, be little doubt that by this Pouro the Bauro of the Solomon Group was meant. The presence of the silver arrows may be easily explained, when we remember that about forty years before, the Spaniards were exploring this island of Bauro, or Paubro as Gallego gives it ([page 229]).
[419] “Ethnography and Philology of the U. S. Exploring Expedition,” p. 195.