Volcano Islands uninhabited. The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in October 1543 by Spanish navigator Bernardo de la Torre on board of carrack "San Juan de Letrán" when trying to return from Sarangani to New Spain. Iwo Jima was charted as Sufre, the old Spanish term for sulphur. The islands were uninhabited until 1889, when the two northern islands were settled by Japanese settlers from the Izu Islands. They were annexed by Japan in 1891. The population was about 1,100 in 1939, distributed among five settlements: Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Kita and Motoyama (meaning "East", "South", "West", "North" and "Mountain of Origin",
Banks Islands Ureparapara, is Vet Tagde (Vot Tande or Vot Ganai), an extinct volcano that last erupted 3.5 million years ago. The Rowa Islands (or Reef Islands) are a few very small, low islands on a coral atoll. Mota Lava is the largest and highest (411 m) of this eastern chain of islands; off its southern coast, attached by high corals that one can wade through at low tide, is the tiny islet of Ra. Mota, Merig and Merelava complete the southeastern part of the archipelago. The population of the Banks Islands speak fifteen different languages. Several are endangered, being spoken by