482 



AUSTRALASIA. 



East of this mysterious land the dispersion took place from island to island, 

 and essays have been made to trace the very order of the migrations by the aid of 

 the map of Tahiti and surrounding islands prepared by the Tahitian Tupaïa, who 

 accompanied Cook on one of his voyages. But this map itself, correct enough for 

 Tahiti and neighbouring lands, has probably little more than a mj'thical value for 

 the more western regions. 



Meanwhile, the race itself seems to be almost everj^where hastening to its 

 extinction, as shown by the accurate returns made at different times during the 

 present century. In 1774 Cook estimated the population of Tahiti at about two 



Fig. 214. — Movements of the Oceanic Populations. 

 Scale 1 : 150,000,000. 



^^//sKa^/ 



, fl6M'i- 





Mi 



Ttiftl: 



40° 



"'C" Méridiâo or breenwicn 



180" 



jO° 



||[|niï|l Lands in which the population is increasing'. 

 The population increases also in the islands inserted on the map. In all the others it diminishea. 

 -^__^^^^^_ 1,800 Miles. 



hundred and forty thousand, reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand by Forster, 

 who assigned six hundred and fift}^ thousand to the whole of Pol^mesia. At present 

 the Polynesians number scarcely more than one hundred and ten thousand, but 

 while they are thus disappearing at a rapid rate they still remain physically one of 

 the finest races on the face of the globe. In this respect there appears to be no 

 deterioration, and the decrease in numbers must be attributed in great part to 

 numerous external causes, such as former massacres, the contract labour system, 

 especially before it was regulated by government control, the sale of strong drinks, 

 and above all the epidemics introduced b}' the white traders and seafarers. In 

 1778, immediately after Cook's visit, Hawaii was decimated by this scourge, and 

 what the Hawaiians assert all their Polynesian kindred repeat, that disease and 

 extermination were introduced by the Europeans. 



Even the adoption of European clothes, rendering them more susceptible to 



