304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cannon on the Kirgheez and the Bashkeers. The Calinucks recovered 

 their coolness, defended themselves, and all that remained of these 

 people were saved. The emperor immediately gave them some food 

 and clothing ; then he gave them the country which is occupied by 

 their descendants at the present time. 



I will add that Kien-Long caused a column to be erected on the 

 spot where the encounter had taken place. On this column we read 

 an inscription, in very simple words, recording how Kien-Long saved 

 an entire nation. The inscription ends with these words : " Let this 

 place ever be regarded as holy." Gentlemen, I cannot be deceived in 

 saying that you will join in this prayer of one of the greatest sover- 

 eigns of China. The place where a nation has been saved merits con- 

 secration much more than that where the most brilliant victory has 

 been gained at the price of thousands of human lives. 



The hour passes, and I cannot enlarge upon this interesting ques- 

 tion of migration as much as I intended. I will content myself with 

 citing one example of migration by sea. It is still more striking, as it 

 bears upon a race constantly referred to when it is wished to prove 

 that men were born where we find them. At the present time, 

 the part of the globe of which I am about to speak is one of those 

 where the peopling by migration is most completely demonstrated. 

 I mean Polynesia. 



Here is Polynesia. You see that it occupies a good part of the 

 great Pacific Ocean, and that it is included in a triangle whose sides, 

 from the Sandwich Islands to New Zealand and to the isle of Paques, 

 measure, in round numbers, 1,800 leagues. The islands dispersed in 

 this immense space are scarcely as much as a grain of sand in the 

 Place de la Concorde. Several among them are smaller than Paris. 

 The isle of Paques in particular, which forms one of the extremities 

 of the triangle, has precisely the extent of the city-wall of ancient 

 Paris before the annexation of the suburbs that is to say, 25 kilo- 

 metres (1 5-J miles) in circumference. 



You understand Avhat in this vast sea an isle of these dimensions 

 amounts to ; and there are others much smaller, which are likewise 

 peopled. The argument drawn from this situation would seem, then, 

 to have great force. How do you suppose, says one, that savages, 

 having no improved means of navigation, have been able to cross such 

 spaces ? Why were they not lost in this vast ocean before finding 

 these small isles ? 



Unfortunately, I cannot go into the detail of facts to show you 

 how inexact is this a priori reasoning. I will only say that at the 

 present time we know not only that the people of Polynesia came 

 from some other place, but that they came from the Indian Archipel- 

 ago. We know, besides, what has been the general course of their 

 migrations, and can trace them on the map. Further, we have been 

 able to determine the epoch when they took place, relying on precise 



