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Melanesia (UK: /ˌmɛləˈniːziə/; US: /ˌmɛləˈniːʒə/) is a subregion of Oceania extending from New Guinea island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region includes the four countries of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. Besides these independent countries, Melanesia also includes: New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France Western New Guinea Region of Indonesia, within Papua Province and West Papua Province on western New Guinea island and adjacent small islands. The name Melanesia (in French "Mélanésie" from the Greek μέλας, black, and νῆσος, islands) was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands whose inhabitants he thought were distinct from those of Micronesia and Polynesia.