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OEIGIN AND DISTEIBUTION OF MAN. 



[Cii. XLIII. 



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water is not so salt^ with a cocoa-niit sliell^ with only a small 

 opening/"^ When these unfortunate men reached the isles 

 of Radack^ every hope and almost every feeling had died 

 within them ; their sail had long been destroyed^ their canoe 

 had long been the sport of winds and waves^ and they were 

 picked up by the inhabitants of Anr in a state of insensibility ; 

 bnt by the hospitable care of those islanders they soon re- 

 covered, and were restored to perfect health, f 



Captain Beechey;, in his voyage to the Pacific, fell in with 

 some natives of the Coral Islands^ who had in a similar 

 manner been carried to a great distance from their native 

 country. They had embarked, to the number of 150 souls^ in 

 three double canoes, from Anaa, or Chain Island, situated 

 about 300 miles to the eastward of Otaheite. They were 

 overtaken by the monsoon, which dispersed the canoes ; and 

 after driving them about the ocean, left them becalmed, so 

 that a great number of persons perished. Two of the canoes 

 were never heard of; but the other was drifted from one 

 uninhabited island to another^ at each of which the voyagers 

 obtained a few provisions ; and at length, after having wan- 

 dered for a distance of 600 miles, they were found and carried 

 to their home in the Blossom. | 



Mr. Crawfurd informs me that there are several well- 

 authenticated accounts of canoes having been drifted from 

 Sumatra to Madagascar, and by such causes a portion of the 

 Malayan language, with some useful plants, have been trans- 

 ferred to that island, which is principally peopled by negroes. 



The space traversed in some of these instances was so great, 

 that similar accidents might suffice to transport canoes from 



various parts of Africa to the shores of South America, or 

 from Spain to the Azores, and thence to North America ; so 

 that man, even in a rude state of society, is liable to be scat- 

 tered involuntarily by the winds and waves over the globe, in 

 a manner singularly analogous to that in which many plants 



^ Chamisso states that the water 

 which they brought np was cooler, and 

 i7i their oj)iwo7i, less salt. It is difficult 

 to conceive its being fresher near the 

 bottom, except where submarine springs 

 may happen to rise. 



t Kotzebue's Voyage, 1815-1818. 

 Quarterly Eeview, vol. xxvi. p. 361. 



\ Narrative of a Voyage to the 

 Pacific, &c., in the years 1825, 182G, 

 1827; 1828, p. 170. 



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