OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. 



195 



very limited. Nevertheless we may venture to offer a conjecture, 

 based upon such an amount of evidence as seems to bring it at least 

 within the bounds of probability. 



1. The natives of Tonga and Samoa, as has been before stated, 

 refer the origin of their race to a large island, situated to the north- 

 west, called by the former Buldtu, by the latter Puldtu and Purdtu. 

 As the / and r are used indifferently in these dialects, it would be 

 doubtful which was the proper spelling ; but the Feejeeans, who dis- 

 tinguish between these two elements, have borrowed this and many 

 other traditions from their eastern neighbors, and call the island in 

 question Mburdtu. Hence we may conclude that Burotu or Purotu 

 is the correct form. Now the easternmost island inhabited by the 

 yellow Malaisian race, in the East Indian Archipelago, is that called 

 on our maps Bouro or Booro. It lies west of Ceram, which is occu- 

 pied in the interior by Papuans, and on the coast by Malays. Apart, 

 therefore, from any resemblance of name, if we derive the Polynesians 

 from that one of the Malaisian Islands which lies nearest to them, we 

 should refer them to the above-mentioned Bouro. 



2. M. de Rienzi informs us (Oceanie, vol. iii. p. 384,) that he met, 

 in the East Indies, a Boughis captain, who had visited the Solomon 

 Islands. The Bugis are a tribe of Celebes, of the same race and the 

 same degree of civilization with the natives of Bouro. The Solomon 

 Islands are at nearly two-thirds of the distance from Celebes and 

 Bouro to Samoa. 



3. We have had occasion before to cite the description given by 

 Quiros, of Taumaco, whose inhabitants are "of different kinds, yellow, 

 black, and mulattoes." One item of information which he has re- 

 corded respecting the island is very important. He says the prisoner 

 whom he took from thence informed him that there was on Taumaco 

 a man " who had brought from a large country named Pouro, some 

 arrows pointed with a metal as white as silver."* This man was a 

 native of Taumaco and a great pilot. Pouro was described as a large 

 country, very populous, the inhabitants of a dark color, and warlike. 

 Taumaco, according to the position assigned to it by Quiros, as well 

 as the information obtained by Dillon, lies five or six degrees east of 

 the Solomon Isles, and of course, so much nearer to Samoa. It seems 

 most likely, that the native pilot here mentioned had not been himself 

 to the East Indies, but that he had visited the Solomon Isles, and 

 there obtained the arrows tipped with metal which had been brought 



* Burney's History of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 308. 



