POLYNESIA 

 CHAPTEE XIY 



THE FEIENDLY AND OTHER ISLANDS 



1. Extent and Component Grroups. 



Polynesia comprises a number of distinct archipelagoes, 

 together with a few smaller groups and scattered islands, 

 distributed over a vast area of the Pacific which may 

 be roughly described as included between the Tropic 

 of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and bounded 

 on the Australian side by the 180th degree of longi- 

 tude. Of the larger groups, the westernmost is the Tonga 

 or Friendly Archipelago, with Samoa a little to the 

 north-east. Between these are a few scattered islands, 

 and north of Samoa the small Tokelau group, with the 

 Phcenix group still farther to the north, at no great dis- 

 tance from the Equator. East of Tonga, and in the order 

 named, lie the Hervey or Cook group, the Society 

 Islands (Tahiti), with the Austral or Tubuai Islands to 

 the south of them, and finally the enormous and wide- 

 spread cluster of islands which are known collectively as 

 the Paumotu or Low Archipelago. The Marquesas are 

 situated almost due north of these, and betAveen them 



