46 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



cicatrices, generally produced by burning the parts with a pointed 

 stick. Sometimes these appear as long unsightly scars, distributed 

 without regularity ; in others, there are rows of small circular spots, 

 in which the design of ornament is more apparent. A similar mode 

 of marking prevails to a much greater extent, among the tribes of 

 central and southern Africa. 



One circumstance, connected with the distribution of this race 

 among the islands of the Pacific, deserves notice. The Polynesians 

 are a stronger and bolder people than the blacks (not including the 

 Feejeeans), and greatly their superiors in warfare. We find them in 

 possession of three islands, Fotuna (or Erronan), Niua (or Immer), and 

 Tikopia, which seem, from their situation, properly to belong to the 

 Melanesians ; and we are naturally induced to inquire, how it is that 

 the yellow race, after getting possession of these islands, has advanced 

 no farther, though other conquests, not more difficult, so far as regards 

 the number and force of the inhabitants, would seem to invite it. 



The reason is probably to be found in the fact, that in all (or at 

 least all the easternmost) of the islands inhabited by blacks, the cli- 

 mate is fatal to the races whose different organization is marked by a 

 lighter skin. D'Urville endeavoured in vain to induce some of the 

 natives of Tikopia to accompany him to Vauikoro, an island only 

 thirty leagues distant, with which they were well acquainted. They 

 were afraid that the air would kill them. The experience of that 

 navigator proved that their fears were but too well founded. Within 

 three weeks after his arrival at Vanikoro, forty of his men were 

 attacked by the fever, and several died. In 1830, a vessel from the 

 Sandwich Islands, with nearly two hundred natives on board, visited 

 Erromango for the purpose of cutting sandal-wood. They remained 

 there five weeks; and, so rapid and powerful were the effects of the 

 poisonous miasmata, that only twenty returned to Oahu.* 



It is, no doubt, to this peculiarity of their climate that the Melane- 

 sians are indebted for the unmolested possession of many of their 

 islands. Fotuna, Niua, and Tikopia are not affected by the noxious 

 influences, whatever these may be. They are small, high islands, 

 mere mountains rising out of the water, and thus exposed, in every 

 part, to the constant and salubrious winds of the tropical seas, a fact 

 which may account for this exemption. 



* Jarvis's History of the Sandwich Islands, p. 290. 



