ON THE OEiarsr and migrations op the POLYNESIAN NATION. 55 



propose to supply, by giving the best possible grounds for believ- 

 ing that the Indo-Ainericans are not autochthones or indigenous, 

 but are intimately related, in the way of natural descent, to one 

 of the most ancient sections of the family of man. I shall 

 reserve the proof of this, however, for another paper. 



Paet II. 



The points I have established in the previous part of my paper 

 are : — 



1. That the Polynesian nation, scattered as it is over the num- 

 berless islands of the vast Pacific Ocean, is of Asiatic origin and 

 of Malayan race, and was separated from the rest of mankind at 

 a period of the earliest antiquity in the history of man. 



2. That under the operation of causes that are still in active 

 operation in the Pacific Ocean, the forefathers of the Polynesian 

 nation proceeded to the eastward from their original point of 

 departure in the Indian Archipelago, and that their descendants 

 in many successive ages and generations crossed the Pacific 

 Ocean — discovering and occupying the numerous islands and 

 groups of islands in their course, as well as others at great dis- 

 tances both north and south, till they reached their farthest east 

 in Pasquas or Easter Island, within 2,000 miles of the American 

 land. 



3. That the same causes that had operated in carrying them to 

 the eastward as far as Easter Island — a distance of not less than 

 7,000 or 8,000 miles — must have operated in carrying them 

 still farther east, across the remaining tract of ocean from that 

 island to somewhere near Copiapo, in the same latitude, in 

 the Republic of Chili, in South America, where our own great 

 navigator. Captain Cook, found them a hundred years since. 

 And my theory is — 



4. That from that landing-place they gradua,lly proceeded 

 northwards and eastwards during the numberless ages that have 

 since elapsed ; occupying and forming settlements in all eligible 

 localities in their course, first in the southern and afterwards 

 in the northern continent of America, as far as the Lakes of 

 Canada and the coast of Labrador. 



With this view I shall show you in the first place that the 

 civilization of the more civilized Indo-American nations was 

 exclusively Polynesian, and cast entirely in a Polynesian mould 



