Nggela Islands

The Nggela Islands or Ngella Islands, previously known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a sovereign state, in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The name Florida Islands fell into disuse following Solomon Islands' independence in 1978.

The group is composed of four larger islands and about 50 smaller ones, many with white coral beaches. The four main islands are, Nggela Sule with Nggela Pile to its southeast, separated by the narrow Mboli Passage, Olevugha (also known as Mobokonimbeti, and previously Sandfly Is.) and Vatilau (also known as Buenavista) to the northwest. Smaller islands include: Anuha, (70 ha (170 acres)), south of Nggela Sule, Tulagi just off the southwest coast of Nggela Sule, now the capital of Central Province and previously the British administrative centre for the Solomons, Gavutu and Tanambogo.

History

The first recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña on 16 April 1568. More precisely the sighting was due to a local voyage done by a small boat, in the accounts the brigantine Santiago, commanded by Maestre de campo Pedro Ortega Valencia and having Hernán Gallego as pilot. They were who charted it as "Pascua Florida" (from the festival of that name) from where its present-day name "Florida" derives. Tulagi in Nggela Sule was the seat of the administration of the British Solomon Islands prior to the 1942 Japanese invasion in World War II.

The Nggela Islands group lies immediately north of the more famous island of Guadalcanal, the scene of the Guadalcanal Campaign during World War II; however, Nggela Sule itself was garrisoned by the Japanese in April 1942 in connection with their efforts to establish a seaplane base on neighbouring Gavutu. On 7 August of the same year, the United States 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment landed on the island to provide cover for the assault on the neighbouring Tulagi islet.