386 N E W N E TV French, and the sovereignty was secured to England, the prac tical effect was to exclude the inhabitants from the fairest half of the island. Interminable disputes have arisen regarding those treaties, which are not yet settled, and, as a consequence, the fine lands of western Newfoundland are still unteuanted, and the mineral treasxires untouched. In spite of the restrictive regulations, the number of the resident population continued to increase. The sturdy settlers clung to the soil, combated the "adventurers," as the merchants were called, and after a lengthened conflict obtained freedom of settlement and relief from oppression. But the contest was severe and so prolonged that only seventy years have elapsed since the repeal of the last of those laws which prohibited settlement and the cultivation of the soil. The progress of the colony since has been most satisfactory. The merchant-adventurers strenuously opposed the appointment of a governor ; but at length, in 1728, the British; Government appointed Captain Henry Osborne first governor of Newfoundland, with a commission to establish a form of civil government. This constituted a new era in the history of the colony. In 1763 the fixed inhabitants had increased to 8000, while 5000 more were summer residents who returned home each winter. In 1765 the coast of Labrador, from the entrance of Hudson s Strait to the river St John, opposite the west end of the island of Anticosti, was attached to the governorship of Newfoundland. The popu lation in 1785 had increased to 10,000. During the wars between England and France which followed the French Revolution, Newfoundland attained great prosperity, as all competitors in the fisheries were swept from the seas, and the markets of Europe were exclusively in the hands of the merchants of the country. The value offish trebled ; wages rose to a high figure ; and in 1814 no less than 7000 emigrants arrived. The population now num bered 80.000. In 1832 representative government was granted to the colony, and provision was made for education. In 1846 a terrible fire destroyed three-fourths of St John s, and with it an enormous amount of property ; but the city rose from its ashes im proved and beautified. In 1855 the system of responsible govern ment was inaugurated. In 1858 the first Atlantic cable was landed at Bay of Bull s Arm, Trinity Bay. Unproductive fisheries, causing a widespread destitution among the working classes, marked the first eight years of the decade between 1860 and 1870. A system of able-bodied pauper relief was initiated to meet the necessities of the case, but was attended with the usual demoralizing results. The necessity of extending the cul tivation of the soil in order to meet the wants of the growing population was felt more and more as the pressure arising from the failure of the fisheries showed their precarious nature more sensibly. In 1864 copper ore was discovered in the north, and mining opera tions, furnishing employment for the people, were successfully initiated. In 1869 a series of successful fisheries began, which enabled the Government to terminate the injurious system of able- bodied pauper relief. In 1871 the revenue rose to 831,160. In 1873 direct steam communication with England and America was established. Authorities. Hakluyt s Chronicles; Captain Richard Whitbourne, A Discourse and Discovery of Newfoundland, 1622; Nicholls, Life of Cabot; Anspach, History of Newfoundland; (Chief -Justice) Reeve, History of the Government of the Island of Newfoundland, 1793 ; Jukes, Newfoundland, 1841 ; Sir Richard Bonnycastle, Newfoundland, 1842; Pedley, History of Newfoundland, 1863; Murray and Howley, Geological Survey oj Newfoundland, 1881 ; and Harvey and Hatton, Newfoundland, the Oldest British Colony. London, 1883. (M. H.) NEW GRANADA. The vast regions of the north-west of South America conquered by Spanish adventurers in the first half of the 16th century received from Quesada, one of the great leaders of the movement, the title of the New Kingdom of Granada. It was not till 1718, however, that the Spanish Government granted the president of the colony, Pedroza y Guerrero, the rank of viceroy ; and at the desire of his successor, Jorge Villalonga, the honour was again withdrawn. In 1739 the New Kingdom of Granada was re-established under a viceroy, whose authority extended over the provinces of Tierra-firma (state of Panama), Cartagena (state of Bolivar), Santa Marta and Riohacha (state of Magdalena), Maracaibo, Caracas, Cumana, and Guiana (republic of Venezuela), Antioquia (state of Antioquia), Pamplona and Socorro (state of Santander). Tunja (state of Boyaca), Santa F6 (state of Cundinamarca), Neyva and Mariquita (state of Tolima), Popayan and Pasto (state of Cauca), and Quito, Cuenca, and Guayaquil (republic of Ecuador). In 1777 the provinces of Maracaibo, Caracas, Cumana, and Guiana were separated from the viceroyalty to form the captaincy- general of Venezuela. For the republic of Colombia (1820-30), the republic of New Granada (1831-61), and the United States of Colombia (1861 to the present time), which have successively taken the place of the viceroyalty, see COLOMBIA (vol. vi. p. 156); and compare Pereira, Les JZtats-Unis de Colombie (Paris, 1883). NEW GUINEA, the largest island in the world (ex- piate VI eluding Australia), lies immediately north of Australia, between 25 and 10 40 S. lat. and between 130 50 and 150 35 E. long. It is 1490 miles long, with a maximum breadth of 430 miles, its area being about 306,000 square miles. 1 Physical Features. It was probably in Miocene times, if not later, united to Australia ; the average depth of Torres Straits, which are 80 miles wide, is only 8 or 9 fathoms, and the maximum 20, three-fourths of the distance being occupied by coral reefs, a prolongation of the great eastern barrier reef of Australia. At either end of New Guinea a few large islands, with a number of smaller islets, are only separated from the mainland by narrow channels. From difficulties connected with the navigation, the climate, and the people, the coasts are still imperfectly surveyed, while of the interior, relatively to its vast extent, very little is known. At the north-west end the deep M Cluer Inlet almost cuts off a great peninsula of some 200 by 115 miles, while this inlet and another farther south almost if not entirely insulate the great tract known as Onin. The south coast, from Cape Bourou westwards, is mostly precipitous, limestone cliffs rising several hundred feet, with dense forest and a moun tainous country behind. There are occasional tracts of flat swampy ground, and the steep coast-line is be sides broken by some large rivers, whose banks for some distance inland are usually swampy. Off M Cluer Gulf are numbers of curious mushroom-shaped islands with sea-worn bases. The north coasts are sometimes level, as at parts of Geelvink Bay and the extensive delta of the great Amberno river, at Walckenaar and Humboldt Bays, and farther east towards Cape della Torre, near which, and near Huon Gulf, there are large rivers ; otherwise the shores are steep-to, and apparently rising, with promon tories jutting 20 to 40 miles out, and some good harbours. There is no barrier reef off this coast. High distant mountains are observed at every opening, those towards the east rising in successive and highly fertile terraces to some 13,000 feet. No active volcanoes have as yet been observed on the mainland, but Mr W. Powell reports masses of pumice on the slopes of the Finisterre mountains. Severe earthquakes, too, occur on the north side, and there is a line of volcanic activity parallel to this coast some 20 to 50 miles distant. Near its east end are the D Entre- casteaux Islands (7000 feet), richly wooded, with rocks of raised coral and boiling alkaline springs. Cape Bourou appears to be the extremity of the lofty Charles Louis range, over 16,000 feet, the tops of which seem from the distance to be snow-covered. East from Cape Bourou the mountains recede out of sight, the sea is shallow, and the flat mangrove-covered coast is intersected by creeks and rivers laden with mud, as far as the Gulf of Papua, where Signer D Albertis reports that he steamed 500 miles up the Fly river, probably one of several channels draining a vast swamp country between the mountains and the sea. He found the tropical forest scenery varied by treeless plains, with isolated hills rising from them, like the islands in the neighbouring Torres Straits from the sea. These tracts are Australian in character. The hills probably escaped the submersion which, besides forming Torres Straits, covered the surrounding country, and thus re mained as nuclei of an Australian flora, the plains, on 1 That of Borneo is about 286,000.
