2 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



Considered geographically, Melanesia is a unit easy of definition, 

 save at its northern projection where it impinges upon areas in one 

 direction known to be Papuan and in another upon yet other areas 

 known to be Indonesian. The islands (to which the skin pigmen- 

 tation of the inhabitants, in marked contrast with that of their 

 neighbors eastward, has made it a simple metaphor to apply the 

 designation of the Black Islands) lie in a loose linking of chains a 

 thousand miles offshore from the northeastern coast of Australia, 

 and in their extent in a roughly northwest direction they closely 

 parallel that coast. The southern verge of this area falls little short 

 of the Tropic of Capricorn ; its northern limit lies almost exactly on 

 the Equator. These limits are, respectively, the considerable land 

 mass of New Caledonia and the tiny islets of the Admiralty Group. 

 Reckoning northward from New Caledonia, we include in the larger 

 subdivision of the area the Loyalty Group, the New Hebrides, the 

 Banks Group, the Solomon Islands, and the Bismarck Archipelago. 

 The designation of this last component we owe to a colonizing zeal 

 which has proved sufficiently potent to act upon the Germans, 

 geographers as well as statesmen, in blunting a sense of common 

 geographical propriety. The islands had borne the names of New 

 Britain, New Ireland, the Duke of York, and New Hanover, collec- 

 tively the New Britannia Archipelago, so long and so familiarly that 

 it was force rather than any necessity which new-named them Neu- 

 Pommern, Neu- Mecklenburg, Neu-Lauenburg, and dedicated them 

 in totality to the then Iron Chancellor. A geographical sin, unfortu- 

 nately a sin accomplished. 



The Fijian Archipelago may or may not be included in Melanesia; 

 all depends upon the interpretation of certain well-defined problems 

 of its own. Geographically it is not necessary so to include it, for 

 it lies remote, out of the northwest chain, set by itself in its own 

 sea midway between the scarcely contaminated Melanesia of New 

 Caledonia and the equally uncorrupted Polynesia of Samoa and 

 Tonga, the region to which I have assigned the convenient designa- 

 tion of Nuclear Polynesia. Ethnically and philologically Viti must 

 be acknowledged to lie in a position of mixture of the two neighbor 

 stocks. I know that I go beyond many, if not all, of my fellow 

 workers in weighing the Polynesian element in Viti. 



While with this exception we find Melanesia a well-defined unit 

 upon the charts we are by no means qualified to decide if this unity 

 extends to the ethnography and philology of the region, and that 

 because of our lack of consistent information. We are sadly deficient 

 in the necessary data, for Melanesia has received scant attention. 



While Polynesia has attracted, Melanesia has repelled its dis- 

 coverers. About the islands of the central tract of ocean romance 

 has cast its charm; its power remains even in these later days. 



