ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 281 



The Polynesian, on the other hand, " is eminently a navigator, 

 venturing far to sea and making considerable voyages out of sight of 

 land in his large out-rigged or double canoe, with its enormous 

 triangular sail. Of course, as to all seafaring people, accidents some- 

 times happen, a sudden squall or succession of contrary windsprevent 

 the navigators making their port, and the canoe is driven by the 

 winds and currents, until in the majority of cases, no doubt, it is 

 broken up, or its unfortunate occupants are dead of hunger and 

 thirst but in some instances, after drifting for days, and perhaps 

 weeks, ignorant of their position, they have sighted one of those 

 tiny coral atolls that dot this part of the Pacific, and landing upon 

 it, have formed the nucleus of a future population."* 



Gill has described and figured a Polynesian compass-card of 

 thirty-two points, employed by the navigators of the Hervey 

 Islands.! The visits of the Tongan marauders to Funafuti have 

 already been described (ante p. 44). The Ellice Group was not 

 the only direction these pirates took, for, besides visiting most 

 of the nearer islands, they had planted a colony in far Mangaiia. J 

 In the opposite direction the natives of Tucopia, an islet five 

 hundred miles west of Rotuma, relate that they were once visited 

 " by five large double canoes from Tonga, the crews of which com- 

 mitted dreadful outrages, destroyed plantations, robbed houses, 

 violated the females, and murdered the males." Figures of these 

 large Tongan vessels are given by Dumont D'Urville.|| The ex- 

 ploits of Karika who, in his great double canoe with two masts 

 and a crew of one hundred and seventy, made eight wonderful 

 voyages between Rotuma, Savaii, Tonga, and the Hervey Islands, 

 have been chronicled by Gill.H P. Smith gives from Fornander 

 " the well authenticated voyages between the Sandwich Islands 

 and, Tahiti, a distance of two thousand three hundred and eighty 

 miles," but I have been unable to verify the reference. As late 

 as 1855 a great single Maori canoe lay at Hauraki, N.Z., which 

 measured a hundred and ten feet in length.** 



The Micronesian also excels in navigation, the Marshall Islanders 

 disputing with the Tongans the claim to be the boldest and most 

 skilful sailors in the Pacific. Their canoes were provisioned for 

 voyages of the duration of several months. On the sloping 



* Woodford A Naturalist among the Head-hunters, 1890, p. 238. 



t Gill Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, 1876, p. 320. 



J Gill Savage Life in Polynesia, 1880, p. 105. 



Dillon Narrative of a Voyage to ascertain the fate of La Perouse, ii., 

 1829. p. 112. 



|l Voy. au Pole sud, Atlas pittoresque, pis. Ixxviii., Ixxix. 



f Report Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1890 (1891), p. 634. 



** For descriptions of Maori canoes see Hamilton Maori Art, pt. i., 

 1897, 



