I \SULAR A USTRAL. ISI. I. 



1267 



French navigators, Bougainville and La Perouse, also visited the Group in 1768 and 1787. 

 The name " Isles of the Navigators," was given to them by Bougainville from seeing 

 the natives sailing far out at sea in the smart dolphin fishing-canoes, which carried a 

 large sail and were most cleverly managed. Some specimens of these fine canoes were 

 still in use a few years ago on the north coast of Savaii, hut it is doubtful whether 

 there is one left at the present time. M. de Latigle, another officer, and ten of the 

 crew of La Perouse's expedition were killed by the natives of Tutuila at Massacre Bay. 

 There is, however, no doubt that this was the direct result of an outrage committed on 

 hoard the ship. One of the natives was shot and mortally wounded for some real or 



APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, SAMOAX GROUP. 



supposed act of pilfering, and when he was taken on shore, his friends there, actuated 

 by revenge, attacked the men of the boat's party who were on the beach at the time, 

 and killed them. This unfortunate affair, the real facts of which were not known for 

 some years, caused the natives to bear a very ill name, especially as La Perouse's 

 opinion that they were a set of barbarous assassins was in some measure confirmed by 

 a report of the visit of //. J/..V. Pandora, in 1790. It is very certain, however, that both 

 these reports were incorrect, and that the natives were very far indeed from being the 

 ferocious savages they were long represented to be in the early navigators' stories. 



The Samoans belong to the pure eastern Polynesian race, and are kindred with the 

 Sandwich Islanders, Tahitans, Rarotongans, Maoris, and others. These people have 

 often been called the Malayo-Polynesian races, but the theory involved in this name 

 does not appear tenable. The probability is that the Polynesians proper are a separate 

 and distinct race from the Malayans, and the opinion held by Judge F'ornamler anil 

 others that they were the original inhabitants of Malaysia, prior to the irruption of the 

 Malays from the main-land, is accepted by many as being more in accordance with the 

 facts than the theory originally held. The question of their affinity, or otherwise, with 

 the sub-Papuan or Melanesian races is one which is attracting the attention of anthro- 

 pologists at the present time, and on which, it is needless to state, very varying 

 opinions are held. However, the extended knowledge of the languages, manners, and 

 customs of the Melanesian races, which has been gained of late years, has, in the opinion 



