406 ^ Essays. . 
the Malayan, being in its whole formation and construction of a far more 
primitive and ancient east. The structure of the Malayan language is 
wholly different. 
(10.) That if the origin of the people on some few of the islands (in the 
lapse of ages) might have arisen from a drift canoe (which seems next to 
impossible), exotie edible roots were not at all likely to have been by such 
means imported ; nor the peculiar and ancient Asiatic drink of palm wine 
(toddy) to be to them, where the cocoa-nut is everywhere indigenous, wholly 
own. 
(1L) That the kumara, or sweet potato, so generally cultivated in the 
islands by the Polynesian race, is believed on good grounds to be only 
indigenous to South America. 
(12.) That a large migration has ever been traditionally spoken of as 
having anciently taken place from Mexico and Central America (on the 
breaking up of the Toltee Empire); and that it is an easy and short voyage, 
and one not impossible to large canoes, from Central America to several of 
the nearest Polynesian islands. 
(13.) That of all the various dialects to be found among the largely 
scattered Polynesian race, the New Zealand dialect agrees most with that 
of the little isolated islet called Easter Island, and next with that of the 
Sandwich group; which islands are also the nearest of all the inhabited 
isles to the shores of America. 
(14.) That the carving of the Polynesian race, and particularly of the 
New Zealanders, agrees most, as far as is at present known, with that of the 
ancient inhabitants of Central America, as shown by the late discoveries at 
Uxmel and Palenque. 
(15.) That, like the ancient inhabitants of Central America, the New 
Zealanders obtained fire by friction ; and steeped poisonous kernels of the 
karaka, &c., to obtain a food, much as those also did the poisonous roots of 
the mandioc or cassava plant. 
(16.) That there is incontestable geognostic evidence of a chain or series 
of active volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean. 
(17.) That there are good reasons for believing that very great changes 
have taken place in the Pacific through volcanic agency. 
(18.) That there are also good reasons for believing, geologically and 
analogically, from what we see in Europe, and also here in New Zealand, 
‘that anciently the volcanic focus (or foci) in the Pacific was nearer its centre 
continental island or islands, have been wholly or 
