PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



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appears to be the best supported opinion, as it is the most general ; and from thence 

 there is no difficulty in conceiving the diffusion of the race to the remotest habitable 

 districts, in the course of ages. In the infancy of society, an increasing population would 

 speedily outstrip the means of subsistence to be found in a limited district, inducing the 

 necessity of emigration to an unoccupied territory a proceeding which the natural 

 love of adventure, with the spirit of curiosity and acquisition, so influential in later ages, 

 could not fail to facilitate. Considering the connection of Asia, Africa, and Europe, 

 the approximation of the northern parts of the two great continents, with the contiguity 

 of the islands of Asia to it, we cannot marvel, that the races spreading out to these points 

 should devise means to cross rivers, scale mountains, penetrate into deserts, and navigate 

 the sea. The spur of necessity, the excitement of enterprise, the stimulus of ambition, 

 the occurrence of accident, and sometimes the influence of fear, created by the commission 

 of crime, have all contributed to this result; but perhaps man has more frequently 

 than otherwise become the involuntary occupant of isolated and distant islets. Three 

 inhabitants of Tahiti had their 'canoe drifted to the island Wateoo, a distance of five 

 hundred and fifty miles ; and Malte Brun relates, that, in 1696, two canoes containing 

 thirty persons were thrown by storms and contrary winds upon one of the Philippines, 

 eight hundred miles from their own islands. Kotzebue also states, that in one of the 

 Caroline isles he became acquainted with Kadu, a native of Ulea. Kadu, with three of his 

 countrymen, left Ulea in a sailing-boat for a day's excursion, when a violent storm arose, 

 and drove them out of their course. For eight months they drifted about in the open sea, 

 according to their reckoning by the moon, making a knot on a cord at every new moon. 

 Being expert fishermen, they were able to maintain themselves by the produce of the sea, 

 and caught the falling rain in some vessels that were on board. Kadu, being a diver, 

 frequently went down to the bottom, where it is well known that the water is not so salt, 

 taking a cocoa-nut shell with only a small opening to receive a supply. When these cast- 

 aways at last drew near to land, every hope and almost every feeling had died within 

 them ; but by the care of the islanders of Aur, they were soon restored to perfect health. 

 Their distance from home, in a direct line, was jme thousand five hundred miles. 



