104 Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation. 



tribes, and to the inhabitants of the solitary isles of the Pacific. 

 And I should also have shown that the whole phenomena of 

 language in both continents in America tend to confirm and 

 strengthen the theory in question. But as the illustration of 

 these points would occupy a much larger portion of time than 

 could reasonably be asked for at present, I shall defer the con- 

 sideration of them, with a single exception, for a third and last 

 lecture. 



That exception is, the question of time, or when is it to be 

 supposed that the continent of America was first discovered and 

 taken possession of by a handful of famished Polynesians ? It 

 will, therefore, be borne in mind that we were led, in our former 

 lecture, from the numerous remains of a long extinct civilisation, 

 in many of the groups of the Pacific Ocean to conclude that the 

 forefathers of the Polynesian race must have been originally in a 

 much higher state of civilisation than the present inhabitants of 

 these various groups, and that from the Cyclopean and early 

 postdiluvian character of that civilisation, the easterly migration 

 of the Polynesian race, from their first settlements in the Indian 

 Archipelago, must have commenced in a period of the remotest 

 antiquity, reaching almost to the time of the Deluge. 



In his History of China, the learned Jesuit, Du Halde, informs 

 us that " Chinese authors consider Po Hi as the founder of their 

 monarchy, who, about two hundred years after the Deluge, 

 reigned at first in the confines of the province of Chen si, and 

 aftewards in the province of Ho nan, which is situated almost in 

 the heart of the empire, where he employed himself in clearing 

 all that tract of land that extends to the eastern ocean. How- 

 ever, this is certain, that China was inhabited above 2155 years 

 before the birth of Christ, which is demonstrable by an eclipse 

 that happened that year, as may be seen in the astronomical 

 observations extracted from the Chinese history, and other books 

 in that language, and published in 1729."* 



It is, therefore, an historical fact, that that portion of the 

 human race which, after the Deluge, migrated to the eastward, 

 had reached the eastern shores of Asia about two hundred years 

 after the Deluge, that is during the lifetime of the patriarch 

 Abraham ; for in common with the learned Jesuit, Du Halde, I 

 adhere to the Scripture chronology, which I find perfectly 

 sufficient to answer all the demands both of Polynesian and of 

 Indo-American history. But allowing even five hundred years 

 to have elapsed from the Deluge, ere the south-eastern coast of 

 Asia, and the great islands of Sumotra and Java, which imme- 

 diately adjoin the Asiatic continent, Avere occupied and settled, 

 it is evident that the type of civilisation that would then prevail 



* Du Halde Hist, of Cliina, vol. ii. p. 2 



