ii8 SAILORS OF THE COAST TRIBES. 



and the islands where their ancestors dwelt ? How did they 

 contrive to cross the 3000 miles of ocean which separate 

 them from the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago ? This is 

 certainly a difficult problem to solve. Still there are facts 

 which may suggest a solution of the question. In the first 

 place, it is well known that the lighter races of the Malayo- 

 Polynesian region are adventurous sailors, and often make 

 voyages of several hundred miles in their canoes. There 

 seems little doubt that to this fact is owing the wide distri- 

 bution of these peoples, north and south, from the Sandwich 

 Islands to New Zealand (a distance of above 4500 miles), to 

 say nothing of the 10,000 miles east and west from Easter 

 Island to Sumatra. It is well known, both from tradition, 

 language, and reliable native accounts, that some groups of 

 islands in the Pacific have been peopled from others at great 

 distances in somewhat modern times, and that considerable 

 distances have been traversed by canoes, the occupants of 

 which have sometimes made long voyages through being over- 

 taken by hurricanes, and occasionally, although less frequently, 

 through a spirit of adventure. 



It is evident also that the coast tribes of Madagascar still 

 possess much skdl as sailors. Until the early part oTT^he 

 present century the people of the north-west coast used to 

 make an annual piratical expedition to the Comoro Islands, 

 and one of the articles in the first English treaty with 

 Piadama I. provided that these raids should be discontinued. 

 Such expeditions, of course, required a considerable number 

 of canoes of large size to take a sufficient force of fighting 

 men ; indeed, we know that these expeditious, which were 

 carried on for forty years, became at length so formidable 

 that the Portuguese authorities at Mozambique sent, in 1805, 

 a corvette of fourteen guns to attack the piratical fleet. 

 But the ship was becalmed and overpowered, and carried into 

 a Malagasy port; and in the next year but one, another 

 expedition of from 7000 to 8000 men seized a French 

 slaver, which was also taken and destroyed. The last of 

 these daring attacks was made in 1 8 1 6, but it was repulsed 

 with much loss, and afterwards met with storms, so that out 

 of 6250 men in 250 canoes, not one is believed to have 



