Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation. 101 



tatingly, "None whatever." I then asked him, what portion of 

 the human family did the Indo-Americans most resemble in their 

 craniological development, and he answered, " Decidedly the 

 Polynesian." 



I shall be reminded, however, that the Indo-American nations 

 of Peru and Mexico were in a comparatively high state of civilisa- 

 tion at the period of the Spanish conquest, and that such a state 

 of things could not be supposed to have originated with the 

 natives of Polynesia. When America was first discovered and 

 colonised by Europeans, the western equatorial regions of that 

 continent were the seat of extensive, flourishing, and powerful 

 empires, the inhabitants of which were well acquainted with the 

 science of government, and had made no inconsiderable progress 

 in the arts of civilisation. At the time when the institution of 

 posts was unknown in Europe, it was in full operation in the 

 empire of Mexico ; at a time when a public highway was either 

 a relic of Roman greatness, or a sort of nonentity in England, 

 there were roads of 1500 miles in length in the empire of Peru. 

 The feudal system was as firmly established in these Transat- 

 lantic kingdoms as in France, and the system of etiquette that 

 regulated the intercourse of the different ranks of society was as 

 complete and as much respected as in the Court of Philip the 

 Second. The Peruvians were ignorant of the art of forming an 

 arch, but they had constructed suspension bridges across frightful 

 ravines ; they had no implements of iron, but their forefathers 

 could move blocks of stone as huge as the Sphinxes and the 

 Memnons of Egypt. The Mexicans were unacquainted with the 

 art of forming cast metal pipes, but they had constructed dykes 

 or causeways as compact as those of Holland ; and their capital 

 which was situated in the centre of a salt-water lake, was supplied 

 with a copious stream of fresh water, brought from beyond the 

 lake in an aqueduct of baked clay. They had had no Cadmus to 

 give them an alphabet, but their picture-writing enabled them 

 to preserve the memory of past events and to transmit it to 

 posterity. 



But it must be remembered that the South Sea Islanders were 

 not savages when they discovered and took possession of America. 

 They had carried with them from the cradle of their race, the 

 islands in the Indian Archipelago, a peculiar type of civilisation, 

 of which they have left us numberless monuments all over the 

 Pacific, and of which the comparatively high civilisation of Peru 

 and Mexico at the period of the Spanish conquest, was merely 

 the natural development. Easter Island, itself, presents us with 

 a remarkable example of the skill they had attained in the man- 

 agement of the mechanical powers. " The most remarkable 

 objects in Easter Island," says Mr. Ellis, " are its monuments of 

 stonework and sculpture, which, though rude and imperfect, are 



