SAWAIORI MIGRATIONS. 21 



lacking to the rewritten edition; it was the intimate record of the 

 periplus which the distinguished author and myself made in Samoan 

 storm and sun in a tiny boat upon the sea, and of our wanderings 

 over the northern ocean and on the hot slopes of Hawaii. 



Of the objection that early Polynesians could not sail against 

 the wind he says : 



In the present state of our knowledge of the Polynesians as navigators — 

 about which we shall learn something further on — it is useless for some 

 writers to insist that the prevalence of the southeast trade winds would 

 form a bar to voyages made from central Polynesia to the American coast. 

 The number of easterly voyages on record from various parts and under all 

 sorts of weather conditions is so large that we must conclude these able 

 navigators paid little attention to the trade wind if a sufficient object 

 required them to face it. (Page 40.) 



Whatever powers of navigation the people may have possessed prior to 

 their arrival at Java (Hawaiki), the vast number of islands in the archi- 

 pelago would induce a great extension of their voyages, and generate a 

 seafaring life, through which alone were they able at later periods to 

 traverse the great Pacific from end to end in the remarkable manner that 

 will be indicated. In the archipelago, where most of the islands are forest- 

 clad to the water's edge to this day, the water was the principal highway 

 and this necessitated constant use of canoes; whilst the location of the 

 various branches of the people on different islands with considerable spaces 

 of sea between would induce the building of a larger class of vessels. It 

 certainly seems from the very nature of the surroundings that Indonesia 

 was the school in which the Polynesians learned to become great navigators. 

 (Page 99.) 



Having now presented the two opinions on this vital point, this 

 seems a fitting spot in which to record a flaw in the reasoning of 

 Dr. Thilenius which will have suggested itself already to the reader. 

 He is ready enough to admit the possibility of early Polynesians 

 navigating against a head wind from Samoa eastward, while denying 

 their ability to perform the same sort of navigation toward Samoa 

 from Indonesia. Samoa was no Annapolis for this race of seamen; 

 the skill of seacraft which carried them for thousands of miles over 

 eastward ocean was the skill which had brought them over balanced 

 thousands of miles of westward waters. 



Where Tregear has outlined the disputed section of the route in 

 general, yet wholly unmistakable, terms, Percy Smith is particular, 

 as we shall see. 



Starting from Avaiki-te-varinga, which is probably Java, the route 

 followed by the migrations would be via the Celebes, Ceram, and Gilolo, 

 where, no doubt, were colonies of their own people, to the north shores of 

 New Guinea. Finding this country already occupied by the Papuans 

 they would coast along to the southeast end, where, it would seem, a very 

 early migration settled, which is now represented by the Motu and cognate 

 tribes. This same route was probably followed by the ancestors of the 

 Rarotongans until they branched off past New Britain and the Solomon 



