xii INTRODUCTION. 



they are strict in their religious observances, and they arc 

 easily influenced by Christianity. 



In the western portion of Polynesia, north of the equator, 

 there is a wide belt of atolls or lagoon islands, inhabited by a 

 brown race of men, in colour resembling the Sawaioris, but of 

 smaller stature and less robust. These Mr. Whitmee, in a 

 paper read before the Philological Society, classes as the 

 Tarapon race, from Tara-wa and Ptm-ape, names of two repre- 

 sentative islands in the Gilbert aud Caroline Groups respec- 

 tively. They differ more from one another than the Sawaioris 

 do. The natives of the Carolines are larger and finer men 

 than those of the Gilbert Group, and are yellower in colour. 

 The Tarapon people are decidedly a mixed race, and in many 

 respects resemble the brown people of the Malay peninsula 

 more nearly than they do the Sawaiori race. The Tarapons 

 are all navigators, and many of them build large boats or 

 proahs, not unlike those found in Indian seas. 



It is more than probable that, at an early period, the ances- 

 tors of the Sawaioris, the Tarapons, the Malays, and also the 

 Malagasy of Madagascar, dwelt together in the islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago. 



From some cause or other, probably from war, a portion of 

 that people migrated eastward to Polynesia. Finding the 

 islands in the west occupied by the black Papuan race, they 

 went on until they reached some of the islands in the centre 

 of Polynesia, perhaps Samoa, and there they settled. From this 

 point they spread abroad to the distant eastAvard islands : 

 some went north-east to the Hawaiian Archipelago; some 

 .south-west to New Zealand ; and a few others, at various times, 

 migrated westward into the Papuan area, and either formed 

 colonies there or mixed with and intermarried among the 

 Papuan people ; some have also, in comparatively recent times, 

 gone north-west, and mixed with the Tarapon people, who 

 entered Polynesia much later than the Sawaioris. These 

 .Sawaioris being isolated from contact with other people, have 

 retained their primitive manners nearly unaltered. 



