FUNAFUTI: THE STORY OF A CORAL ATOLL. 403 



On the other side the wavelets of the lagoon have washed np smaller 

 fragments of coral and foraminiferal shells, and thns the strip of land 

 which borders the lagoon and on which the village of Funafuti stands 

 has been produced. 



The middle of the island — the great central depression including the 

 taro ground and the mangrove swamp — is the remains of the original 

 solid platform left exposed between the storm beach on the one hand 

 and the lagoon land on the other. Thus all that portion of Funafuti 

 which stands above high tide has been cast up from the ocean and the 

 lagoon, and this beautiful island, like another Aphrodite, has been 

 born with the foam from the waves of the sea. 



If this be the true history of the island, how then did it acquire its 

 inhabitants? Did they climb upward like the corals as the island 

 was submerged or did they arrive as flotsam and jetsam of tbe sea"? 

 As regards the natives there can be but one answer — they came by 

 boat. In former days the Polynesians possessed excellent seagoing 

 craft, in which they were accustomed to make long voyages, steering 

 by the stars and other signs in the sky. They well knew how to pre- 

 serve food by drying, and thus had no difficulty in provisioning for a 

 cruise. The routes they followed in passing from island to island are 

 gradually becoming known to us and have been indicated on a chart 

 by Professor Haddon. Considering the remarkable similarity of lan- 

 guage which characterizes all Polynesia, from New Zealand on the 

 south to the Sandwich Isles on the north, there can be little doubt that 

 the migrations of these peoples must have taken place comparatively 

 recently, and judging from tradition one might conjecture within the 

 last seven or eight hundred years. 



Thus, long before the illustrious townsman of this city, John Cabot, 

 had anticipated Columbus in his famous voyage to America, these 

 navigators, whom we libel with the name of savages, were venturing 

 on equally arduous explorations with still more imperfect means at 

 their command. It was not often, however, that long voyages of over 

 a thousand miles were made of set purpose; too frequently they were 

 the result of accident, as when frail canoes were overtaken by a sudden 

 storm and driven at the mercy of the winds, sometimes to perish 

 miserably, sometimes by good hap to land on undiscovered shores. 



The Funafuti people seem some of them to have entered the island 

 with intent; others are mere waifs and strays cast away by shipwreck 

 on the reef. The prevailing stock is Samoan, with an admixture of 

 Tongan. In bygone times the Tongans used to make periodical 

 descents upon the island, after the fashion of the Vikings in early 

 English history. The Tongans, however, came not only to kill, but to 

 eat their foes, a proceeding not wholly unintelligible among a people 

 who knew absolutely of no other kind of meat. In justice to the 

 copper-colored races of Polynesia 1 hasten to add that cannibalism was 

 seldom the custom of this folk; wherever it is met with it may be 



