On our voyage to the Solomons we pass another curious island, or rather group of islands. This is Ongtong Java, where the people differ from those of the islands which we have visited up to this point. We are approaching a region where we know little of the character and origin of the natives, a region more backward and savage than any other part of our dominions in the Pacific. The Solomons consist of a double row of long and narrow islands, with high mountain ridges and many volcanoes, some extinct, others still active. The largest island, Bougainville, at the north end, is German; the rest are British. They have long been known to explorers, but until recently their history tells chiefly of resistance by the natives against Europeans who have attempted to open up intercourse with them. Lately, thanks to the good influence of the missionaries, and perhaps still more to the better regulations made by the agents of the British Government for intercourse between the wild men and the Europeans, considerable advance has been made, and plantations of coconut and other valuable products have been established in many of the larger islands. Many of the tribes, however, are still head-hunters and cannibals. The islands are covered with great forests, and the plants and animals, as well as the natives, resemble to some degree those found in New Guinea. The people go naked for the most part, except for necklaces and bracelets of shells and teeth. Their houses are often built on piles, like 53 those of the Papuans. Here we see a group engaged in a war-dance, and here is one of their curiously ornamented canoes. 54 South-east of the Solomons we pass the Santa Cruz Group; the name, as do many other names in this part of the world, reminds us again of the early voyages of de Quiros the Spaniard, who at the end of the sixteenth century first discovered these distant islands. Spain has disappeared from this part of the Pacific, and the region of islands is divided between Germany to the north, Britain in the Solomons, and Britain and France in the New Hebrides.