290 OKIOHST AND DISTEIBUTION OF THE COCOA PALM. 



was at one time powerful enough to impress its language, social 

 organization, and domestic arts upon the black Melanesians, who sub- 

 sequently absorbed their conquerors and formed with them the 

 remarkable composite peoples found by Europeans in the -Pacific. 

 The differentiation of the cocoanut varieties, together with the eth- 

 nologic differentiation of the Pacific peoples themselves, give us time 

 factors ample for the subsequent Asiatic amalgamation and develop- 

 ment of the Malayoid races, which doubtless received great stimulus 

 from the experiences of such a migration and may have had a wide influ- 

 ence in the organization of the primitive civilizations of Asia, even far 

 bej^ond the boundaries of direct power or physical contact. Traces of 

 such influences far within the mainland of Asia have been interpreted 

 by anthropolgists as meaning the Asiatic, and even the Caucasic, ori- 

 gin of the primitive Polynesians; but all such arguments from phi- 

 lology and racial characteristics, after all, only prove the relations, 

 and do not declare the nature of the contact or the direction of the 

 primitive migrations. Cultivated plants, on the other hand, are defi- 

 nitely recognizable, permanent, and unmistakable entities on which 

 human civilizations depend, and from which civilized man can not 

 detach himself. Even the substitution of food plants is an extremely 

 slow and difficult process, often necessitating profound social and 

 economic changes, and leaving traces for centuries in language and 

 daily life. 



SUMMARY OP DE CANDOLLE'S ARGUMENTS. 



In attempting to displace De Candolle's time-honored opinion it is 

 perhaps desirable to go over in brief detail his formulated arguments. 

 These are twelve in number, two in favor of and ten against an Amer- 

 ican origin. The first of the favorable considerations has been noticed 

 already — the existence of the eleven other American species of Cocos. 

 The second is that the trade winds of the equatorial region of the 

 Pacific would tend to cany floating objects to the westward. This is 

 offset in theory, as it might be in practice, also, b} r the first of the nega- 

 tive arguments, that the currents of the equatorial Pacific would carry 

 objects in the opposite direction, or from west to east. The second 

 objection to an American origin is the fact that "the inhabitants of 

 the islands of Asia were far bolder navigators than the American 

 Indians," rendering it more likely that they would be carried by "tem- 

 pests or false maneuvers " to the American coast. The eastern part of 

 the equatorial Pacific is, however, notoriously free from storms, and 

 the seafaring skill of the islanders, together with the above mentioned 

 westerly trade winds, would have tended to protect them from the dis- 

 asters suggested. Instead of being dependent upon accident and con- 

 jecture we have historical evidence that the Peruvians knew the loca- 



