84 Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation. 



been derived, and how they have travelled to the eastward in 

 ages past. 



Captain Hovell, late of the Young Australian, and now a 

 prisoner at Berrinia, has told me that he had observed the prac- 

 tice of chewing the betel root in Banks's Islands, situated in 

 170' ~W. longitude, and in 13' S. latitude, that is considerably 

 farther east than the island mentioned by Admiral Hunter. 



The general tradition of the South Sea Islanders, I mean of 

 those inhabiting the groups of the Southern Pacific, is that the 

 first inhabitants of the islands came from the northward ; Bolotoo, 

 the Paradise of the Priendly Islands, being supposed to be in 

 that direction. In confirmation of this remark, it may be observed 

 Shat the word Tonga, the name of the principal island of that 

 group — signifies east both in the Polynesian and Chinese 

 languages ; for that designation will doubtless appear peculiarly 

 appropriate as the name of an island which its first discoverers 

 and inhabitants had reached from the westward. 



IV. But the evidence afforded by the Polynesian language, in 

 regard to the origin of the South Sea Islanders, is still stronger 

 and less open to objection. " Language," says the celebrated 

 Home Tooke, " cannot lie ; and from the language of every 

 nation, we may with certainty collect its origin." " The simili- 

 tude and derivation of languages," observes Dr. Johnson, 

 " afford the most indubitable proof of the traduction of nations 

 and the genealogy of mankind ; they add physical certainty to 

 historical evidence, and often supply the only evidences of ancient 

 emigrations and of the revolutions of ages, which have left no 

 written monuments behind them." 



The identity of the languages spoken in the different groups 

 of the South Sea Islands was observed by Captain Cook and his 

 fellow voyagers ; and the remarkable resemblance between these 

 languages and those of the Indian Archipelago was also re- 

 marked. " In the general character, particular form, and genius 

 of the innumerable languages spoken within the limits of the 

 Indian Islands," observes Mr. Marsden, "there is a remarkable 

 resemblance, while all of them differ widely from those of every 

 other portion of the world. This observation extends to every 

 country, from the north-west extremity of Sumatra to the 

 western shores of New Guinea, and may be even carried to 

 Madagascar on the west, the Philippines to the east, and the 

 remotest of Cook's discoveries in the south, "f 



" One original language," observes Sir Stamford Baffles, " seems 

 in a very remote period, to have pervaded the whole (Indian) 

 Archipelago, and to have spread (perhaps with the population) 

 towards Madagascar on one side and the islands of the South Sea 



f " Arckseologia," vol. vi., page 154. 



