ON" THE OEiaiN AND MIGfEATIONS OF THE POLYNESIAN NATION, 49 



{hastante conformes), and alleges the fact as a reason for his strange 

 hypothesis, that the South Sea Islands were peopled from 

 America ; it struck me all at once and with prodigious force, when 

 glancing, as I could not help doing at the moment, at the possible 

 results to which the suggestion might lead, that the converse of 

 the Spaniard's hypothesis might perhaps be the true idea in the 

 case, and that instead of Easter Island having been colonized and 

 settled from America, some unfortunate canoe suddenly blown off 

 from that island by some such violent westerly gale as the one 

 before which we were then careering over the great waters of the 

 Pacific, might have landed the first cargo of human beings on the 

 continent of America. 



It would seem indeed as if Easter Island had been placed in 

 its actual position by the all wise and beneficent Creator for the 

 express purpose which in all likelihood no other island in the 

 Pacific could have served — of ensuring the discovery and settle- 

 ment of that great continent by the Polynesian race — of proving, 

 so to speak, a stepping stone between Polynesia and America. 

 Situated, as that island is, in 27 degrees south latitude, that is, 

 well up in the south temperate zone, and very nearly in the 

 latitude of the city of Brisbane, on this coast, it is equally 

 beyond the influence of the south-easterly trade winds of the 

 intertropical regions, and within the full sweep of the strong 

 westerly gales of the southern Pacific. Such gales as the one I 

 experienced in the year 1830 — -and I have experienced various 

 others of the same kind in subsequent voyages across the Pacific — 

 such a gale as I have referred to would certainly extend as far 

 north as Easter Island ; and, once caught within its resistless 

 sweep, the hapless Polynesian craft would be driven before it, in 

 all likelihood in less than ten days, to the American land. And 

 where is it supposable that a Polynesian vessel would in such 

 circumstances reach the American continent ? Why, the westerly 

 gale I have supposed ^vould admit of no deviation from a due 

 easterly course, either northward or southward, in the case of any 

 hapless vessel accidentally brought within its power. Such a 

 vessel would therefore reach the unknown land to the eastward, 

 as nearly as possible in the latitude of Easter Island — that is, 

 somewhere near the present seaport town of Copiapo, in the 

 Republic of Chili. That, I am confident, was the place where the 

 American continent was first trodden by the foot of man. 



I am happy to be able to state in this stage of our inquiry that 

 an able and scientific member of this Society, Mr. Edward Hill — 

 who is eminently qualified for oifering a reliable opinion on the 

 subject of our present investigations, from having himself spent 

 not less than four years in traversing the Pacific Ocean in all 

 directions, and especially from having made the origin and 

 migrations of the Polynesian nation his particular study for 



