History of the Pacific Islands was the first European to sail through the islands and sighted Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. European explorers did not return until two centuries later. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay (1812–1876). The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British protectorate by Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS "Curacoa", between 9 and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered
.co (second-level domain) .co (second-level domain) In a number of countries, .co is used as a second-level domain to mean "commercial" and domain registrants register second-level domains of the form .co.xx, where xx is the country code top level domain (e.g., .co.uk in the U.K. and .co.jp in Japan). Some of the countries using .co as a second-level domain include: Barbados (.bb), Cook Islands (.ck), Costa Rica (.cr), India (.in), Indonesia (.id), Israel (.il), Japan (.jp), New Zealand (.nz), South Africa (.za), South Korea (.kr), Thailand (.th) and the United Kingdom (.uk). .co is also a country top-level domain corresponding to Colombia. Its