LOYALTY ISLANDS (Fr. Iles Loyalty or Loyaute)  , a group in the South Pacific Ocean belonging to France, about loo m . E. of New Caledonia, with a total land area of about 1050 sq. m. and 20,000 inhabitants . It consists of Uea or Uvea (the northern-most), Lifu (the largest island, with an area of 65o sq. m.), Tiga and several small islands and Mare or Nengone . They are coral islands of comparatively recent elevation, and in no place rise more than 250 ft. above the level of the sea . Enough of the rocky surface is covered with a thin coating of soil to enable the natives to grow yams, taro, bananas, &c., for their support; cotton thrives well, and has even been exported in small quantities, but there is no space available for its cultivation on any considerable scale . Fresh water, rising and falling with the tide, is found in certain large caverns in Lifu, and by sinking to the sea-level a supply may be obtained in any part of the island . The chief product of the islands are bananas ; the chief export sandal-wood . The Loyalty islanders are Melanesians; the several islands have each its separate language, and in Uea one tribe uses a Samoan and another a New Hebridean form of speech . The Loyalty group was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century, and Dumont d'Urville laid down the several islands in his chart . For many years the natives had a reputation as dangerous cannibals, but they are now among the most civilized Melanesians . Christianity was introduced into Mare by native teachers from Rarotonga and Samoa; missionaries were settled by the London Missionary Society at Mare in 18J4, at Lifu in 1859 and at Uea in 1865: Roman Catholic missionaries also arrived from New Caledonia; and in 1864 the French, considering the islands a LOYOLA dependency of that colony, formally instituted a commandant . An attempt was made by this official to put a stop to the English missions by violence; but the report of his conduct led to so much indignation in Australia and in England that the emperor Napoleon, on receipt of a protest from Lord Shaftesbury and others, caused a commission of inquiry to be appointed and free liberty of worship to be secured to the Protestant missions .

A further persecution of Christians in Uea, during 1875, called forth a protest from the

British government .