LOUISIADE ARCHIPELAGO

island group of Papua New Guinea, 125 miles (200 km) southeast of the island of New Guinea. Stretching for more than 100 miles (160 km), it occupies 10,000 square miles (26,000 square km) of the southwestern Pacific. Of the nearly 100 islands, the largestSudest (Tagula), Misima, and Rosselare volcanic, mountainous, and fringed with reefs, but most are small coral formations. The archipelago was visited by the Spanish navigator Luis Vaez de Torres in 1606. It was named (1768) by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville after Louis XV of France. Later visitors included Admiral Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (1793) and Captain Owen Stanley (1849). Occupied by Japanese forces in 1942, the islands are near the site of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Pop. (1987 est.) 16,478.