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TUBUAI, or AUSTRAL ISLANDS

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 361 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TUBUAI, or AUSTRAL ISLANDS , an See also:archipelago in the See also:south Pacific Ocean, between 21° 49' and 27° 41' S., 144° 22' and 154° 51' W., to the south of the Society Islands, with a See also:total See also:land See also:area of See also:Ito sq. m., belonging to See also:France. They See also:form a curved broken See also:chain from See also:north-See also:west to south-See also:east which includes four See also:principal islands: Tubuai (area 40 sq. m.), Vavitao or Ravaivai, Rurutu or Oheteroa, Rapa or Oparo, and Rimitara, with Maretiri or the See also:Bass Islands, and other islets. Tubuai, Vavitao and Rapa are volcanic and reach considerable elevations (2100 ft. in Rapa). The islands are well watered and fertile, producing coco-See also:nut palms, See also:arrowroot and bananas; but they See also:lie too far south for the See also:bread See also:fruit to flourish. The natives belong to the Polynesian See also:race; they were once much more numerous than now, the See also:present See also:population not exceeding 2000. A Tahitian See also:dialect is spoken in the western islands; in Rapa, however, which with the Bass Islands lies detached from the See also:rest, to the south, the See also:language is akin to that of the Rarotongans in the See also:Cook Islands. There are remarkable See also:ancient See also:stone platforms and walls, massively built, on the summits of some of the peaks in Rapa; they resemble the terraces in See also:Easter See also:Island (Rapanui), which is believed to have been peopled from Rapa. The scattered islands of the Tubuai archipelago were discovered at different times. See also:Captain Cook visited Rurutu in 1769 and Tubuai in 1777; Rapa was discovered by See also:George See also:Vancouver in 1791, Vavitao perhaps in 1772 by the Spaniards who attempted to colonize See also:Tahiti, and certainly by Captain See also:Broughton in 1791. The islands never attracted much See also:attention from Europeans, and the See also:French See also:protection and subsequent See also:annexation were carried out spasmodically between the See also:middle of the 19th See also:century and 1889.

End of Article: TUBUAI, or AUSTRAL ISLANDS

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