Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation. 91 



2. That from the evidence of language, " which cannot lie," 

 as well as from a great variety of independent proofs of an 

 Asiatic origin, the South Sea Islanders must have originally been 

 derived from the MaTayan family of the Indian Archipelago. 



3. That from the remains of a long extinct civilisation in 

 many of the groups of islands in both hemispheres, it is evident 

 that the fathers of the Polynesian race must have been origin- 

 ally in a much higher state of civilisation than the present inhab- 

 itants of these various groups, and much better acquainted with 

 the arts of life. 



4. That from the Cyclopean and early post-diluvian character 

 of that civilisation, as well as from the entire absence in the 

 Polynesian dialects of those later infusions from the Sanscrit and 

 Arabic tongues, that characterise the Malayan language of the 

 present day, the easterly migration of the Polynesian race must 

 have commenced in a period of the remotest antiquity, reaching 

 almost to the times of the deluge. 



To revert to the untenable hypothesis of De Zuniga, the 

 Spanish historian of the Philippine Islands, who maintained that 

 the South Sea Islanders must have come from the continent of 

 America, as they could never have beatem to the eastward against 

 the alleged uniform prevalence of easterly winds in the Pacific 

 Ocean, I have shewn, from the testimony of the eminent French 

 navigator, La Perouse, and that of Admiral Hunter, the second 

 Governor of New South Wales, that in certain zones of the 

 Pacific, and at certain seasons of the year, westerly winds are 

 quite as prevalent as easterly. It is not improbable, however, 

 that this hypothesis of De Zuniga may have been suggested by 

 an incident in the earlier history of the Philippine Islands with 

 which the Spanish historian must have been acquainted. It is 

 thus related by Mr. Ellis, in his Polynesian Eesearches, vol. X, 

 page 126. " In 1696, two canoes were driven from Ancarso to 

 one of the Philippine Islands, a distance of eight hundred miles. 

 They had run before the wind for seventy days together, sailing 

 from east to west. Thirty-five had embarked, but five had died 

 from the effects of privation and fatigue during the voyage, and 

 one shortly after their arrival." Ancarso, I believe, is one of the 

 Solomon Islands. If so, the distance sailed over by these unfor- 

 tunates must have been much greater than that stated by Mr. 

 Ellis ; and some of the other details may have been incorrectly 

 reported; but the main fact in the case is unquestionable, viz., 

 that two canoes with their crews in a dying state, had reached 

 one of the Philippine Islands from some unknown island in the 

 remote Pacific, many hundred miles to the eastward. This his- 

 torical fact, therefore, if it did not form the basis of the Spaniard's 

 theory, shews us at least in a very remarkable manner how every 

 wind that blows has been concerned in peopling the multitude of 

 the isles of the vast Pacific Ocean. 



