New Hebrides

New Hebrides was the colonial name for an island group in the South Pacific that now forms the nation of Vanuatu, named after the Scottish archipelago. Native people had inhabited the islands for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived in 1606 from a Spanish expedition led by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were colonized by both the British and French in the 18th century, shortly after Captain James Cook visited the islands.