EuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 29 



than four thousand years. Where, then, was the centre of 

 this ancient civihzation of which the felted bark cloth is a 

 trace, and which made itself felt from the Sandwich Islands 

 to the shores of the Victoria Nyanza, it is not possible at pre- 

 sent to determine ; but from the presence of the paper mul- 

 berry, and its very careful cultivation in Polynesia, it seems 

 extremely probable that the ancient Polynesian people were 

 in direct, or almost direct, communication with that centre. 



Excepting the breadfruit, which is not found wild or culti- 

 vated on any of the continents, it is not possible to determine 

 positively where the Malayan esculents anciently introduced 

 into Polynesia were first brought into cultivation ; but from 

 the fact of the banana, taro, alocasia, and yam being all grown 

 on the mainland of Asia for more than four thousand years, I 

 think it is safe to conclude that even before that very early 

 period there was an interchange of pi'oducts between the 

 archipelago and the continent, and that the Malay Islands 

 constituted an important portion of the then civilized world. 

 Through the Malay Islands the paper mulberry and the art of 

 manufacturing its bark into cloth may have reached Poly- 

 nesia, although the great social and political changes the 

 western islands have undergone have there obliterated all 

 traces of that portion of their history. The two stations 

 wherein Ellis observed the manufacture of the tapa cloth — 

 eastern Polynesia and Madagascar — prove beyond doubt that 

 the art was diffused by a maritime people. From the associa- 

 tion of the art with Polynesian agriculture it is extremely 

 probable that, while in a very primitive condition, agriculture 

 was similarly and as widely dispersed. 



V. — The Domestic Animals of Polynesia. 

 When Cook discovered the Hawaiian Archipelago, in 1778, 

 and Mendana discovered the Solomon Islands, in 1568, they 

 found the natives in possession of dogs, pigs, and fowls. As it 

 seems certain no European vessel had touched at the Hawaiian 

 Islands previous to Cook's visit, and there is still less reason 

 to suppose that the Solomons were visited by Europeans 

 before the date of Mendana' s discovery, we may safely con- 

 clude that the three above-mentioned animals were in do- 

 mestication throughout Polynesia prior to the European 

 discovery of the New World. To these foreign species 

 another domestic animal, not so generally distributed, must, 

 I think, be added, the Megapodiits brenclilcyi, of which Wood- 

 ford, in his work on the Solomon Islands, gives the following 

 description : " The birds lay in open, sandy clearings, gene- 

 rally near the sea, which are kept clear of shrubs and under- 

 growth by the natives, and by the sand being constantly 

 turned over by the birds. The eggs are buried sometimes as 



