IHK NATIVE TRIBES OF POLYNESIA. d;59 



by those nations which claim to bo civilized. If England should colo- 

 nize these islands, extermination, with perhaps some interfusion, would 

 certainly follow sooner or later ; and a similar result would be as sure 

 and more rapid if America were to succeed in her schemes of annexa- 

 tion. But left to themselves there is character, intelligence, capability, 

 in the natives of Figi or Samoa which fully qualify them for an inde- 

 pendent position in the world and an honorable status among the 

 nations. 



But I have already exceeded my legitimate limits, and extended my 

 remarks beyond the time which I had a right to claim from this 

 society. To convey a general insight into the character of the people 

 I have been considering, I fear I have laid myself open to the charge 

 of discursiveness, and perhaps failed to s:itisfy those who looked for 

 the technical details of racial distiuctionB. These however I preferred 

 to omit, rather than to treat them imporfoctly; and hence I must ask 

 the society to regard the observation;? I have made, not as an attempt 

 at a complete review of the Polyucsiau tribes, so much as the preface 

 to a more elaborate notice of the character of these people, which may 

 be worthily considered by some more competent anthropologist than 

 myself. 



2 



