The Kaniet Islands are the easternmost groupThe Wuvulu Web Site - Geographical Names of the Western Islands
/ref> islands within the Western Islands of the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It consists four islands and one

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

. Their coordinates are , located north-east of the

Hermit Islands The Hermit Islands are a group of 17 islands within the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Their coordinates are . History The first sighting by Europeans of Hermit islands was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz ...

Sae Island Sae Island is the northernmost island within the Western Islands, Papua New Guinea, Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. It is located just north-west of the Kaniet Islands, under which it is often subsumed, although the ...

is a nearby island often subsumed under the Kaniet(-Sae) Islands, albeit the two are distinct. Another name for the Kaniet(-Sae) Islands is "Anchorite Islands". The first sighting by Europeans of Kaniet islands was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz de Retes on 19 August 1545 when on board of the

carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade fr ...

''San Juan'' tried to return from

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

. He charted them as ''Hombres Blancos'' (White Men in Spanish) because of the color of the skin of its inhabitants that contrasted with that of the population of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. In 1780 and 1800 they received visits of new Spanish expeditions commanded respectively by Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa and

Juan Antonio de Ibargoitia ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...

.Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" ''Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid'', t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, p.239-240,247,318.

References

Bismarck Archipelago Archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea Manus Province {{ManusProvince-geo-stub