THE FRIENDLY AND OTHER ISLANDS 493 



navigator, Cook, to have been " liberal, brave, open, and 

 candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or 

 revenge " ; while the naturalist, Forster, who accom- 

 panied him, declared that he " never saw any of a morose 

 or discontented disposition in the whole nation " ; and 

 that " they all join to their cheerful temper a politeness 

 and elegance which is happily blended with the most inno- 

 cent simplicity of manners." It must ever be a subject 

 for regret that a people with so many admirable qualities 

 should be exterminated before our eyes by the relentless 

 march of our too imperfect civilisation. 



The traditions of the Polynesians point to Savaii, the 

 largest of the Samoan Islands, as the home of their an- 

 cestors, and many peculiarities in language and local 

 nomenclature indicate that the various branches of the 

 race, from the Sandwich Islands to Tahiti, and even to 

 New Zealand, have migrated from this centre. Eaiatea, 

 120 miles west of Tahiti, is another mythological centre 

 to which many traditions refer ; as well as Earotonga, 

 almost midway between Tahiti and Samoa. These may 

 be real indications as to the process of dispersion of the 

 race, but are of little value in determining their origin or 

 first entrance into the Pacific, which must be far too 

 remote an event for legend to afford any trustworthy 

 indications. The antiquity of the people is proved by 

 language and by customs. The languages of all the 

 brown Polynesians are dialects of one common tongue ; 

 and because many Malay and Javanese words occur in 

 all these dialects, it has been hastily assumed by many 

 writers that the Polynesians are really Malays, and came 

 direct from the Malay Archipelago, passing by the 

 islands inhabited by the fierce Melanesians till they found 

 unoccupied lands farther to the east. But a more care- 

 ful study of their language shows, as Mr. Eanken and 



