140 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



should look, then, to find the Polynesian element most strongly- 

 marked in these smaller islands rather than on the adjacent main 

 where Dr. Thilenius is so insistent in pointing out their absence. 



Remember the Proto-Samoans are voyaging under sail. 



What must a Nelson have before Trafalgar can be his day ? The 

 weather gage. Dreading the perils of a lee shore, does not every 

 sailor hug the wind ? There is in this no deep ethnic principle which 

 we are called upon to establish as in the possession of our Polynesian 

 swarm. It is sufficient to know that they were under sail upon the 

 sea; the rest follows as an elemental principle of the mechanics of 

 seamanship. Thence we shall do well to look for them to windward 

 in the lands along which they pass, less to leeward. 



Coming from Indonesia into the Pacific, the coasting voyage along 

 the rugged heights of the Solomon Islands, which rise in the sea from 

 Buka to San Cristoval, set for these voyagers a course approximately 

 southeast as we now should lay it by compass, full and bye when 

 reduced to the rhumb of the wind prevailing during the months 

 which would be found most favorable for navigation. After 600 

 miles of navigation by landmark in this great chain which with 

 consistent uniformity has coincided with a full and bye, what more 

 natural than that, when the last landmark has sunk astern and the 

 open sea is to be adventured, the pilots still should follow the 

 course set for them by the wind? Next upon the track thus hugging 

 the wind lies the Santa Cruz Group. Beyond this small archipelago 

 lies yet another void of the sea, always the sea they must have loved, 

 always the constant draft of the trade wind which hitherto not only 

 had carried them on their course but had laid for them that success- 

 ful course. We must never lose sight of the fact that it was only 

 those who followed this course full and bye who found the chance 

 to survive — a few points off and the voyage was protracted in pain 

 and ended mutely in starvation and thirst upon an empty sea which 

 marks no memorial of the manhood it takes. 



From Santa Cruz the intervals of the sea which we know are 

 uneven. Working on the wind there lie a thousand miles of all but 

 unbroken ocean before the next landfall. To the south — near, yet 

 out of eyeshot — lie the New Hebrides. With chart and compass we 

 can find the nearest land, to seek or to avoid as may best suit the 

 purpose of our voyaging. But these navigators of the Polynesian 

 swarm had no knowledge of what land might be in the unknown sea. 

 For many leagues the course set for them by the unchanging wind 

 had led them coastwise where land was, and when the sea grew 

 empty the same sailing track had led them on to yet new land. 

 Thus may we reasonably expect that taking their departure from the 

 last sight of Santa Cruz the fleets would set bravely forth upon the 

 course that so long had served them and so well. 



