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206 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. {VoL VI. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
THE AFFILIATION OF THE MAYA-QUICHE LANGUAGES AND TRIBES. 
The writer has already indicated points of connection between the 
Maya-Quiches and the Malay-Polynesian peoples. The erection of 
massive stone buildings within the Central American area inhabited by 
the Maya-Quiches causes that area to differ from all others in America, 
for the stone structures of the Pueblo Indians, of the Mexicans, or even 
of the Peruvians, are not worthy to be compared with those of Yucatan 
and the neighbouring countries. There is, therefore, no evidence that 
the Maya-Quiche architects and masons came to the scene of their 
labours overland from any other part of the American continent. The 
nearest point affording ancient works in stone, combined with groups 
of hieroglyphics resembling those of Palenque, Copan, and Chichen- 
Itza, is Easter island in the Pacific. It does not follow that colonists of 
this island passed on to Central America. Its latitude suits better a 
former habitat of the Mbaya-Abipone tribes of the Gran Chaco in the 
southern half of the continent, which linguistically are allied, on the 
one hand, to the peoples of Polynesia, on the other, to the Maya-Quiches 
of Central, and the Algonquins, etc., of North America. Other 
Polynesian islands, exhibiting similar stone remains, are the Sandwich 
Islands in the north, and Tongatabu in the south, with Rota and Tinian 
of the Ladrones, and the Marshall, Gilbert, and Kingsmill Islands, 
between. The Ladrones connect, on the one hand, with Formosa, on 
the east side of which there are similar remains, and on the other, with 
the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago. In Java and in others of 
the islands of the archipelago are the ruins of ancient temples and 
other works, showing more analogy to the architectural remains of 
Central America than to those in any other part of the world. 
It is generally allowed that the Malay Archipelago was the secondary 
starting point from which the populations called Polynesian and 
Melanesian were distributed over the islands of the sea. ‘There is 
historical evidence for the existence of great ocean scouring fleets of 
large vessels in the Archipelago, at the time when it was first explored 
by Europeans, and of wholesale expatriations of tribes upon the ocean, 
consequent upon their defeat by more powerful neighbours or invaders. 
Those who could successfully reach the Sandwich and Easter Islands, 
could as successfully discover the western shores of America.’ The © aq 
