New Hebrides

The New Hebrides, an island group in the South Pacific, appears as a fleeting but significant landmark during the Nautilus's voyage, a place where the narrative pauses to reflect on the intertwined histories of exploration, discovery, and colonial violence. The archipelago, discovered by the Portuguese seafarer Queirós in 1606, explored by Commander Bougainville in 1768, and given its current name by Captain Cook in 1773, is presented as a site layered with the footprints of European navigators. The Nautilus passes through this group on December 25, 1868, a date that underscores the crew's isolation from the Christian world and its traditions, a fact that weighs heavily on the homesick Ned Land.

A Christmas Passage and a Glimpse of the Shore

On Christmas Day, the Nautilus navigated amid the New Hebrides, which form a 120-league strip from the north-northwest to the south-southeast, lying between latitude 2° and 15° south, and between longitude 164° and 168°. At the moment of their noon sights, the vessel passed fairly close to the island of Aurou, which appeared to Professor Aronnax as a mass of green woods crowned by a peak of great height. This brief visual encounter with the lush, tropical landscape was the extent of their interaction with the archipelago. The date itself struck Aronnax, who noted that Ned Land badly missed celebrating "Christmas," that genuine family holiday where Protestants are such zealots. The passage through these waters, therefore, served not only as a geographical marker but also as an emotional one, highlighting the Canadian harpooner's growing despair and longing for a life of freedom and familiar customs.

A History of Exploration and Violence

The New Hebrides are not merely a scenic backdrop; they are a place steeped in the history of Pacific exploration and its darker consequences. The narrative explicitly links the islands to the fate of the Count de La Pérouse, the French navigator whose ships, the Compass and the Astrolabe, were lost in 1788. The New Hebrides are mentioned in the context of the search for La Pérouse, as the island of Tikopia, one of the group, was where Captain Peter Dillon first obtained clues about the shipwreck in 1824. Furthermore, the islands are associated with the slaying of Captain de Langle, a friend of La Pérouse, who was killed in the nearby Samoa Islands. This historical context transforms the New Hebrides from a simple geographical point into a memorial landscape, a place where the perils of early exploration and the tragic ends of famous navigators are brought to the forefront of the narrative.

A Transitional Space in the Voyage

The Nautilus's passage through the New Hebrides occurs during a period of steady, uneventful travel, a lull between the dramatic events at Vanikoro and the dangerous navigation of the Torres Strait. The archipelago serves as a transitional space, a geographical marker that signals the ship's progress through the vast Pacific. The brief sighting of Aurou Island, with its green woods and high peak, offers a momentary visual anchor in the otherwise featureless expanse of the ocean. This fleeting encounter underscores the Nautilus's nature as a vessel that skims the surface of the world, observing but never truly engaging with the lands it passes. The New Hebrides, like many other islands in the voyage, are seen and then left behind, their histories and peoples remaining largely unknown to the imprisoned passengers of the submarine.