Linton — Tlic Marquesas Islands 465 



of the Indonesian race in the more distant Pol}-nesian localities may have been 

 due to their greater skill as navigators. The use of many piece canoes and 

 lateen sails, which was apparently a feature of the Indonesian culture, gave them 

 a freedom of movement which the negroid and Caucasic races probablv lacked. 

 Polynesian traditions mention long voyages of exploration and the sailing canoes 

 of the Tongans carried complements of over a hundred men and were hardly 

 more dependant upon winds and currents than European sailing vessels. It 

 would not be difficult for a race which used such canoes to pass bv islands which 

 were held by hostile populations and establish itself in more distant islands 

 which it found unoccupied or sparsely settled. The Indonesian race mav have 

 colonized both western and marginal Polynesia before it succeeded in conquering 

 the large mountainous islands of southeastern Polvnesia. The establishment of 

 cultures of western Polynesian type in southeastern Polvnesia must be quite 

 recent for cultures of Maori-Marquesan type were still in existence there at the 

 time of the twelfth centurv migration to New Zealand. 



The routes by which the negroid. Caucasic and Indonesian races reached 

 Poh-nesia can not be fullv established until we ha^'e fuller information on Micro- 

 nesia and Melanesia. The historic distribution of races and cultures in Poly- 

 nesia seems to be best explained by the following hypothesis : The first settlers 

 of central and southeastern Polvnesia were negroid in race and ]\Ielanesian rather 

 than Polynesian in culture. They entered the region largely as a result of ac- 

 cidental drifts and settled in Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook, Society, Austral and 

 Tuamotu groups, but did not reach any of the more distant Polynesian 

 localities. They came originally from ^Melanesia, probably from Fiji. The next 

 immigrants to reach Polynesia were of the Caucasic race and had come from 

 Indonesia by way of ]Micronesia. They arrived first in Samoa and spread over 

 the territory held by the negroid people, mixing with them to produce a hybrid 

 race and the southeastern Polynesian type of culture. A fairly pure group of 

 the Caucasic race reached and colonized the Marquesas, which they found un- 

 occupied or only partially settled by the negroids. A mixed group, in which 

 the negroid element predominated, reached Easter Island. The Caucasic immi- 

 grants did not, at this time, reach either Hawaii or New Zealand. While the 

 main body of the Caucasic immigrants were passing through Micronesia an- 

 other group of the same race were coasting southward through INIelanesia. This 

 wing of the Caucasic migration was probably absorbed or dissipated before it 

 reached Polynesia but it modified the culture of the eastern ^lelanesian islands 

 to a considerable degree. The last immigrants to enter Polynesia in large 

 numbers were of the Indonesian race. They came from Indonesia, like the 

 Caucasic immigrants, and passed by way of Micronesia. In Micronesia their 



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