Espiritu Santo

Espiritu Santo is the largest island of Vanuatu, in the south-west Pacific; its main town is Luganville. It was named by the navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, who landed there in 1606 believing he had found the great southern continent. During the Second World War it became a major American naval and air base, and in 1980 the Nagriamel movement of Jimmy Stevens tried to make it secede on the eve of Vanuatu's independence.