56 Transactions. —Miscellaneous. 
by the Tongan myth (prevalent also in New Zealand) I have already 
noticed—that their Chief God fished them up from the bottom of the sea.* 
The general inference from the universal occurrence of this word so little 
changed in form, and with nearly the same meaning, affords a strong 
argument in favour of the unity of the Polynesian race, though I am not 
sure that we can accept Mr. Logan’s arguments for the order in which the 
different islands were peopled, because we find the name of Hawaii in both 
Society and Sandwich Islands, as well as in the most Western Samoan 
group. It seems almost hopeless, with such data as we have, to attempt any 
conclusion as to which island first used the word or the name; but if, as I 
think is certain, the migration was from West to East, it is reasonable to 
believe that the Navigator Islands might have had it centuries before it 
reached Tahiti or the Sandwich Islands, provided the migration took the 
course which I have called the Southern-eastern line. With regard to the 
great distances of water that the migrating canoes would, in any case, have 
had to pass over, there is certainly not the difficulty at first apparent, for 
Williams, in his “‘ Missionary Enterprize,’”’ having also clearly shown that 
there is not much more difficulty on the score of adverse winds. No doubt, 
over a considerable belt of the Pacific, East winds may be considered as the 
most prevailing; but not so as altogether to exclude the North and North- 
west, which often blow for days together. Kotzebue, in his voyage (Vol. IL., 
p. 122) met with a native who had been driven 1,500 miles, with three 
companions from Ulea in the Caroline Islands, and who, as he had started 
from the East, still maintained that he had continued in that course; and, 
quite recently, a canoe was found 1,800 miles from its home; but the 
people in it were not starving, having caught fish enough for their support; 
moreover we know that, to this day, the Illanau people make annual 
voyages of more than 2,000 miles in quest of slaves and other plunder. 
I have before noticed that Tasman speaks of large double canoes 
as existing in his day on the coasts of New Zealand. Vessels of this 
* I think I have seen it mentioned that, on some of the islands the tradition has 
died out or been forgotten ; but that the word havaiki or avaiki has been retained wit 
the simple meaning of “ below,” “underneath.” It appears, further, that most of the 
islands place the residence of their Chief God in an island in the far West, called 
variously, Balotu, Salotou, and Purota. There is no island now to be found in that 
direction with any similar name, unless it be that of Bouro, a little to the East of Ceram. 
T have no means of telling whether Bouro contains any vestiges of Polynesian occupa- 
tion; but, from its position, one would fancy it more likely that it would prove to be 
chiefly occupied by Negritoes. On the other hand, if it should turn out to be Polynesian, 
on the hypothesis of a descent from Central Asia, it would be well placed as a stepping- 
stone for further advance into the Pacific. 
