CH. XXI AUSTRALIAN AND POLYNESIAN RACES 489 



to be the equals of the Ainos and Todas in perfection of 

 form and features, and to be unmistakably of the same 

 fundamental type as ourselves. 



Prohable Origin of the Brown Polynesians. 



We are now in a position to explain, with some 

 probability, the presence of so high a t}' pe (of undoubted 

 Caucasian affinities) in the Pacific, from the Carolines to 

 Easter Island and from Hawaii to New Zealand. At a 

 time when the whole eastern coast of tropical and sub- 

 tropical Asia was occupied by varieties of this race, which 

 extended also to Japan and to its outlying islands, canoes 

 would be occasionally carried out to sea by tempests, and 

 in this way population would spread farther and farther 

 from the continent. Taking Japan as a probable starting 

 point, owing to the enormous extent of its coast line and 

 its inland seas and straits leading to the development 

 of bold navigators, first the Benin Islands, then the 

 Ladrones and the Carolines would be thus peopled, since 

 for at least half the year north-westerly winds and gales 

 are prevalent between Japan and the northern tropic. 

 Having once reached thus far. slowly but surely, perhaps 

 after hundreds of years, when these small and unvaried 

 islands became overpopulated, further eastward migration 

 would occur, either by accident or design, to the Marshall 

 group, whence an almost; continuous series of groups and 

 islets extends south-eastward through the Gilbert and 

 EUice Islands to Tonga and Samoa, the first large 

 mountainous and fertile islands in this direction adapted 

 to supply all the conditions for an enjoyable existence. 

 These last formed the centre from which, at a later period 

 when they had become fully peopled, the race spread to 

 the Sandwich Islands and to New Zealand. 



This migi-ation from temperate Asia will avoid all the 

 difficulties of the ordinary view of an origin from the 

 Malay Islands, since in them there is no indication of an 

 early occupation by a Caucasian race, while the distances 

 to be traversed are far greater, and there are on the route 

 abundance of islands, thinly inhabited either by people 



