COMPULSORY MIC4RATIONS IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 533 



arid of the sea are much stronger and more steady in the Southern Hem- 

 isphere than in the Northern. Besides the aggregation of the islands in 

 the Malay Archipelago, this is of special importance with regard to the 

 western migration of the Malays, in the Indian Ocean. In our first 

 district compulsory voyages are especially frequent; therefore the im- 

 portant inference follows that it is the modifications and complications 

 of the mechanical conditions of the air and sea which carry people far 

 out of their course into the ocean. It is also evident where we are to 

 seek the point of departure of the Polynesians, namely, where the 

 Oceanic islands are intertwined with those of the Malay Archipelago. 

 The question would find but a doubtful answer, even if America on the 

 west was closely wreathed with islands. But this is not the case and, 

 besides, Bevilla Gigedo, Galapagos, Juan Fernandez, and Salas y Gomez 

 were, indeed, uninhabited. This fact speaks effectually against a migra- 

 tion from America across the ocean to our island groups. 



If, in the examination of the first three districts, where boats are 

 driven out of their course, the conviction has forced itself upon us that 

 even the most remote Paumotu isles have received their inhabitants 

 from the Malay Archipelago, in the presence of the Sandwich Islands 

 still more comprehensive speculations open before our eyes. We see 

 that the Hawaiians must naturally be mingled with Chinese and 

 Japanese elements, and even in the Carolines this is not excluded. 

 Perhaps herein lies the basis of the mental superiority of the inhab- 

 itants of these two groups over those of many others, and anthropo- 

 geography teaches that in reality it finds eastern Asiatic resemblances 

 in the Carolines. If we look still farther eastward, we shall see that 

 Bering Strait does not form the sole bridge between the Old and the 

 New World. Migrations from Asia to America have undoubtedly 

 taken place in more southern latitudes. 1 Nay, it even appears that 

 the possibility of a migration backward from northwestern America to 

 Hawaii is not excluded. With regard to South America, no material 

 exists which could justify us in making deductions. 



It seems to us, however, that the proof is furnished that the natural 

 conditions, according to which we can judge the migration of the 

 Malays across the sea, entitle us to group the original inhabitants of 

 America with the Polynesians, Australians, and Malays in a single 

 great family of peoples, the Mongoloid, who inhabited the coasts of two 

 oceans, the Pacific and the Indian. The great capacity for journeying 

 possessed by the Malays is an established fact. The power of separa- 

 tion which the Pacific Ocean has by reason of its width is diminished 

 on the other hand, by the numerous islands; and as a continent favors 

 commerce more when it is divided, so do islands when they are so 

 numerous and so situated as the Oceanic ones. Here land and water 



1 We notice that, for instance, in the northwestern part of America, myths have 

 existed which point to a migration across the sea; the Americans also have tradi- 

 tions of a western origin besides the one that they came from the north. (Chamisso : 

 Beinerkungen.) 



