34 



W. J. SOLLAS 



[jASUAKY 



gradually becoming known to us ; and have been indicated on a chart 

 by Professor Haddon. Considering the remarkable similarity of 

 language which characterises all Polynesia, from New Zealand on the 

 south to the Sandwich Isles on the north, there can be little doubt 

 that the migrations of these peoples must have taken place com- 

 paratively recently, and judging from tradition one might conjecture 

 within the last seven or eight hundred years. 



Thus long before the illustrious townsman of this city, John Cabot, 

 had anticipated Columbus in his famous voyage to America, these navi- 

 gators, whom we libel with the name of savages, were venturing on 

 equally arduous explorations, with still more imperfect means at their 



Fig. 12. — A Group of Natives, Funafuti. 



command. It was not often, however, that long voyages of over a 

 thousand miles were made of set purpose ; too frequently they were the 

 result of accident, as when frail canoes were overtaken by a sudden 

 storm and driven at the mercy of the winds, sometimes to perish 

 miserably, sometimes by good hap to land on undiscovered shores. 



The Funafuti people seem some of them to have entered the 

 island with intent, others are mere waifs and strays cast away by 

 shipwreck on the reef. The prevailing stock is Samoan, with an 

 admixture of Tongan. In bygone times the Tongans used to make 

 periodical descents upon the island, after the fashion of the Vikings in 

 early English history. The Tongans, however, came not only to kill 

 but to eat their foes, a proceeding not wholly unintelligible among a 

 people who knew absolutely of no other kind of meat. In justice to 

 the copper-coloured races of Polynesia I hasten to add that cannibalism 



