Malaupaina is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

; it is the southern one of the Olu Malau (Three Sisters) Islands located in

Makira-Ulawa Province Makira-Ulawa Province is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands. Geography The main part of the province is Makira Island. It has a population of 40,419 (2009). The capital is Kirakira. Makira-Ulawa Province includes Makira (San Cristobal ...

. It has an area of 6.37 km². The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Malaupaina was by the Spanish expedition of

Álvaro de Mendaña Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

in May 1568. More precisely the sighting of Malaupaina was due to a local voyage that set out from

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

in a small boat, in the accounts the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

''Santiago'', commanded by

Alférez In medieval Iberia, an ''alférez'' (, ) or ''alferes'' (, ) was a high-ranking official in the household of a king or magnate. The term is derived from the Arabic ('' al-fāris''), meaning "horseman" or "cavalier", and it was commonly Latinised ...

Hernando Énriquez and having Hernán Gallego as pilot. They charted the three Olu Malau islands as ''Las Tres Marias'' (

The Three Marys The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, several of whom were, or have been considered by Christian tradition, to have been named Mary (the most co ...

in Spanish).Brand, Donald D. ''The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations'' The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.133.

References

Islands of the Solomon Islands {{SolomonIslands-geo-stub