180 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



race and almost word for word of the same speech, as to provoke 

 reprisals. For these later migrants we have adopted the name by 

 which they are known in Samoan history, the Tongafiti, it being 

 understood that the present names of the archipelagoes of Tonga 

 and Fiji (Viti or Fiti) did not supply the name, but are derived there- 

 from. From skirmish to pitched engagement these reprisals grew 

 as the Proto-Samoans, driven from the shore to inner recesses of 

 their islands, recovered strength in resistance. At last came the 

 critical battle of Matamatame, somewhere about 1 200 of our era or 

 a little earlier. The Tongafiti were expelled from Samoa and began 

 their eastward wanderings as far as Hawaii and New Zealand, the 

 era of the great voyages. 



3. Nowhere in the present data are we able to pick up the track 

 of the Tongafiti prior to their descent upon Nuclear Polynesia. We 

 have made it clear that they did not follow the Melanesian route 

 between Indonesia and Polynesia. It must remain for the students 

 of the Tongafiti collaterals to discover their route; our concern in this 

 study has been to identify the migration that did sweep along the 

 Melanesian chain. 



At this point it is profitable to add the comment of S. Percy Smith 

 upon a syllabus of my reasons for rejecting the Tongafiti migration 

 from the Melanesian area : 



The Solomon-New Hebrides is not the only route open to them; they 

 may have stretched across from the north shore of New Guinea, or even 

 from the northern Solomons, to the Gilbert, Ellice or Phoenix Group and 

 so down to Viti. But for all that, until I see your argument, I must at 

 present think they came by way of the Solomon and Santa Cruz groups 

 to Futuna. The specimens I have seen of the dialect of Sikayana show 

 a close connection with Maori and Rarotongan. Just consider this case: 

 the Tongafiti came by the north of New Guinea following the first Samoan 

 route, and as they came across their own people in various places along 

 this route, such as in the Solomons, Santa Cruz and elsewhere, they would 

 learn of former migrations having gone farther south and followed without 

 delay, leaving none of their dialect behind among their fellow-countrymen 

 they fell in with en route. 



The general argument has already been advanced at length. Spe- 

 cifically I note in comment on the foregoing interesting note, as 

 follows. Our data in Melanesia show a marked absence of traces of 

 the vocables and mutation forms which characterize the Tongafiti 

 in distinction from the Proto-Samoan. Furthermore the Tongafiti 

 have left abundant traces of their passage through Nuclear Poly- 

 nesia and all the more on that account is it inconceivable that they 

 should have quite failed to affect their congeners in Melanesia if 

 they had passed that way. I feel confident that a similarly careful 

 examination of the islands along the Line will disclose the Tongafiti 

 track. 



