New Hebrides, named for the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that now is the nation of Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three thousand years before the first Europeans arrived in 1606 from a Spanish expedition led by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were colonized by both the British and French in the 18th century, shortly after Captain James Cook visited the islands.