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