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The National Geographic Magazine 



a hardy and aggressive civilization has 

 in some cases been of a much higher 

 order than the intolerance of the early 

 white man could appreciate. With re- 

 gard to the Polynesian race, this is espe- 

 cially true. 



The elaborate religious system of this 

 people had attained a perfection and 

 elaboration of ritual such as has been 

 equaled by few other people. The ori- 

 gin of the dreaded taboo and its develop- 

 ment into a wonderful religious and po- 

 litical engine indicates an intelligence of 

 no mean order. The ceremonial by 

 which the hereditary castes and offices 

 was maintained and in which social sys- 

 tem was upheld bears witness to a suc- 

 cession of remarkably endowed political 

 rulers. 



The tremendous irrigation tunnels by 

 which mountain ranges were pierced re- 

 quired alike great mechanical skill and 

 some knowledge of the principles of sur- 

 veying. Their elaborate code of water 

 rights, their knowledge of the movement 

 of the heavenly bodies, their familiarity 

 with the currents of the great ocean and 

 their protracted voyages thereon, their 

 evolution of a system of writing, are all 

 matters which excite our admiration and 

 bear testimony to the fact that the Poly- 

 nesians, so far as permitted by the ma- 

 terial accessories around them, had de- 

 veloped a culture which compares favor- 

 ably with that possessed by other races 

 at the dawn of authentic history. 



The ethnological result of the mission- 

 aries' presence among the natives is also 

 to be recorded. The motive which actu- 

 ated these workers is irreproachable, but 

 as a class the ministers of the gospel 

 have been singularly deficient in real- 

 izing the importance of preserving an 

 account of native customs and habits. 

 Many noteworthy exceptions, however, 

 occur to this statement, and such names 

 as Ellis and Chalmers will always be 

 associated among those who have con- 

 tributed to Pacific knowledge. By the 

 not unnatural antagonism of the Chris- 

 tian missionaries to the heathen cult, all 

 that pertained to the native religion was 

 sternly suppressed. The native converts 



to Christianity, in the zeal and bigotry 

 of their new faith, in turn did everything 

 in their power to suffocate the early re- 

 ligion, and thus effected the extinction 

 of much which cannot be determined. 



Together with the ban placed upon the 

 native religion, the whole realm of myth, 

 genealogy, legend, and history fell into 

 disrepute, until, instead of preserving a 

 more or less accurate record of their 

 race in their elaborate oral traditions, 

 the native tribes in many instances now 

 present the condition of isolated units, 

 lacking the record of their past and sev- 

 ered from their affinity to other peoples. 

 One beneficial work of the missionaries 

 was the translation of the Bible into 

 many native tongues, which has thus 

 helped to preserve a record of the lan- 

 guages of the region much in their 'early 

 purity. 



AN IMMEDIATE EXPLORATION NECESSARY 



It is probably not too much to say that 

 in the Pacific as great changes are now 

 wrought ethnologically in five years as 

 without the influence of the Caucasian 

 would be brought about in many gener- 

 ations. Another ten years will probably 

 be too late in which, with any prospect 

 of satisfactory result, a complete ethno- 

 logical exploration of this region can be 

 conducted. Unless the work is actively 

 undertaken long before this period has 

 elapsed, the value to be derived there- 

 from will be very greatly diminished. - 



The exploration, therefore, must be 

 vigorously prosecuted now, or on the 

 present generation will lie the reproach 

 of having refused to preserve informa- 

 tion of vast importance to the scientific 

 workers of future generations. We of 

 our time cannot content ourselves with 

 the plea upon which we can acquit our 

 ancestors of having neglected this work. 

 They at least erred ignorantly, and even 

 had they been cognizant of its impor- 

 tance were not so well equipped for un- 

 dertaking it as are we of the present day. 



Many of the causes which have con- 

 tributed to the destruction of the inhab- 

 itants themselves have also been at work 

 in undermining the majority of the Pa- 



