Choiseul Province – Lauru, the island of many names
The people who first settled the big island called it Lauru. In 1568 the Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña sighted it from Santa Isabel on Saint Mark's Day and charted it as San Marcos, and two centuries later, in 1768, the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville named it Choiseul after the French minister. Both Choiseul and Lauru are in common use today. The province belonged to the German Solomon Islands from 1884 until 1899, and on 23 August 1900 the British flag was raised here. Its main islands are Choiseul, Wagina and Rob Roy, and its capital is the small Taro Island. Share your stories with the community.