406 Essays. 



the Malayan, being in its whole formation and construction of a far more 

 primitive and ancient cast. 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), exotic 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 

 unknown. 



(11.) That the Jcumara, 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 Toltec 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 

 Usmel and Palenque. 



(15.) That, like the ancient inhabitants of Central America, the New 

 Zealanders obtained fire by friction ; and steeped poisonous kernels of the 

 Tcaraka, &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 /bcz^s {ovfoci) in the Pacific was nearer its centre 

 than it is now. 



(19.) That there are also reasons for believing that through such agency 

 a continent, or large continental island or islands, have been wholly or 

 partially rent, and submerged in the Pacific Ocean. 



