Cheke Holo

The Cheke Holo are an Oceanic-speaking people of Santa Isabel, longest of the Solomon Islands. Their language, also called Maringe, is spoken chiefly in the island's east in two main dialects, Maringe and Hograno; with Bughotu it ranks among the island's principal languages and serves as a local trade tongue.

Santa Isabel was the scene of the first European landing in the Solomon archipelago. On 7 February 1568 the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña went ashore here and charted the island as Santa Isabel de la Estrella. They built a settlement and a surveying brigantine, but hunger, sickness and conflict with islanders drove them to abandon the post for Guadalcanal.