Vol. XXXVI, No. 4 WASHINGTON 



October, 1919 



THE 



ATD0NAL 

 ^AIPMflG 



COPYRIGHT. 1919. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON. D. C. 



A VANISHING PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH SEAS 



The Tragic Fate of the Marquesan Cannibals, Noted for 

 Their Warlike Courage and Physical Beauty 



By John W. Church 



THREE thousand years or more 

 ago a horde of savages drove their 

 war canoes ashore on a group of 

 volcanic islands lying in the South Pacific 

 between 8° and n° south latitude and 

 138 and 141 ° west longitude. 



Who they were or why they came; 

 w r hat of religion, custom, and tradition 

 they brought with them on their remark- 

 able journey across the ocean, remains 

 almost entirely hidden, probably forever, 

 in the misty realm of conjecture. 



That they formed part of that hegira 

 from the Asiatic Archipelago which peo- 

 pled so many islands of the South Seas 

 with cannibal savages is established be- 

 yond doubt ; and it has been asserted that 

 the Marquesans were the first of the wan- 

 derers to leave their native land. 



Philology has demonstrated the link 

 existing between all the Polynesians in- 

 habiting the South Pacific from Hawaii 

 to the Malay Peninsula, and offers the 

 interesting suggestion that Hiva, the na- 

 tive title for the Marquesas and incor- 

 porated in the names of three of the 

 group (Nukuhiva, Fatuhiva, and Hi- 

 vaoa), is but a corruption of Siva, the 

 ancient worship of Java. 



Of records or traditions of their life in 

 their adopted home prior to their discov- 



ery by Mendana, the present-day Mar- 

 quesan is lamentably ignorant. I was in- 

 formed that one of the few investigators 

 who have visited this remote group se- 

 cured, some fifty years ago, a matu tatua, 

 or family genealogy, running back 135 

 generations, or about 4,000 years ! 



GALLANT DISCOVERER NAMES ISLANDS FOR 

 HIS patron's WIFE 



My efforts to verify this remarkable 

 feat of Marquesan memory proved en- 

 tirely fruitless. Possessing no written 

 language, having allowed their males, or 

 sacred groves, to fall into decay, and, un- 

 like the Tahitians, neglected to keep a 

 record of their families and traditions by 

 a system of orero, or bards charged with 

 rehearsing and teaching them to each suc- 

 ceeding generation, the various tribes 

 have lost practically all knowledge of 

 their early history. 



In the year 1595 a Spanish fleet under 

 the command of Alvara Mendana, sailing 

 from South America in search of gold, 

 discovered Fatuhiva, the southernmost of 

 the eleven islands comprising the group. 



With commendable gallantry, the Span- 

 ish captain named the group Illas Mar- 

 quesas de Mendoza, in honor of the wife 

 of his patron, Don Garcia Hurtad de 



