42 Transac tions . — Miscellaneous . 



not above lift, wide at the upper part, and very sharp, hke a 

 wedge, at each end. And there are two bamboos of about 8ft. 

 or 10ft. long and as big as one's leg placed over the great boat's 

 side, one near each end of it, and reaching about 6ft. or 7ft. 

 from the side of the boat, by the help of which the little boat 

 is made firm and contiguous to the other. ... I have 

 been the more particular in describing these boats because I 

 believe they sail the best of any boats in the world. I did 

 here, for my own satisfaction, try the swiftness of one of them 

 sailing by our log. We had twelve knots on our reel, and she 

 ran it all out before the half-minute glass was half out, which, 

 if it had been no more, is after the rate of twelve miles an 

 hour ; but I do believe she would have run twenty-four miles 

 an hour."''' 



Lord Anson, sixty-three years later, after ascertaining 

 accurately the sailing-capacity of the proa, thus sums up : 

 " And by the flatness of their lee-side and their small breadth 

 they are capable of lying much nearer the wind than any other 

 vessel hitherto known, and thereby have an advantage which 

 no vessels that go large can ever pretend to. The advantage 

 I mean is that of running with a velocity nearly as great as, 

 and perhaps sometimes greater than, that with which the 

 wind blows."! 



While Cook was sailing amongst the Tonga Islands the 

 natives frequently quitted his ship, taking to their canoes in 

 order to reach their destination in time to prepare for his 

 reception.! There is, indeed, abundant evidence that before 

 the advent of Europeans the natives of Polynesia thoroughly 

 understood the arts of sailing and of constructing vessels well 

 adapted for the navigation of their seas. 



From most reliable sources we learn that during the 

 last century voyages between the Fijis, Samoa, Tonga, and 

 other islands, 310 to 400 miles apart, were frequently made 

 by the natives in their canoes. Evidence of much longer 

 voyages in the remote past has already been furnished by the 

 cultivated plants of New Zealand and Polynesia. 



How did these ancient mariners navigate their vessels? 

 This difficulty caused early writers on Polynesia to attribute 

 the peopling of the region to accident, some arguing that, 

 owing to the prevailing winds being from east to west, the 

 inhabitants must have been derived from the New World, 

 others, recognising their Asiatic affinity, endeavouring to prove 

 that their dispersal took place during the westerly storms that 



* " A New Voyage round the World." William Dampier. 

 t " Crozet's Voyage to Tasmania and New Zealand." Trans., 

 H. Ling Roth. 



\ "Captain Cook's Second Voyage." 



